Penelope Skinner

Penelope Skinner is a British playwright.[1] Born in 1978,[2] She came to prominence after her play Fucked was first produced in 2008 at the Old Red Lion Theatre and the Edinburgh Festival to critical acclaim[3] and has had successive plays staged in London including at the Bush Theatre, National Theatre and Royal Court Theatre[4].

Penelope Skinner
Born	United Kingdom
Occupation	Playwright, screenwriter
Nationality	British
Literature portal

Skinner's play Eigengrau, staged at the Bush Theatre in 2010, was a critical and box office hit and Skinner was nominated for the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright in 2010. Her play The Village Bike was her first play to be staged at the Royal Court Theatre where it had a sell out, twice-extended run starring Romola Garai and directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins, winning her the George Devine Award and the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright in 2011. In 2011, she wrote episodes for the Channel 4 series Fresh Meat. In the same year, her play The Sound of Heavy Rain was produced by Paines Plough and Sheffield Theatres touring in Roundabout. In 2012. her play Fred's Diner was staged at the Chichester Festival Theatre's pop-up stage, following which The Independent newspaper described Skinner as "Our leading young feminist writer."[5] In 2013, Skinner co-wrote the screenplay for the film How I Live Now.[6]

In 2023, Skinner's play "Lyonesse" received mainly negative reviews: The Times' critic Clive Davis summarised them with; "Lyonesse is, I’m afraid, an example of theatreland trying to pass off shoddy work — in this case, by a writer who hadn’t even had a play in the West End — with the help of VIP casting".[7]