Welcome

Welcome to my website.  I hope you’ll find all sorts of things to amuse you with links to some of my poems (“Poem of the Week”) and projects as well as my history and publications (“About”)and, if you are a booker, information under the heading “Press” that you can use directly for publicity.  Any events that I’m taking part in with dates and so on in the “News” section but if there’s anything you like to know then just go to “Contact”. I’ve just completed writing a directing Part 2 of “The Fisherman’s Daughter” called “Jess’s Odyssey” for AsOne Theatre Co.  That’s now touring libraries, schools and arts centres in the South West of the UK.  I’ll put details of public performances elsewhere. Meanwhile I’m working on my Blog “Belief, Bias and Common Humanity” on spyway.blogspot.com on being a playwright in this crazy new world we find ourselves in.

From the West Cliff

Escaping the Storm – New play for AsOne Theatre

When Jane McKell first suggested the idea of writing a play about Marie Stopes to coincide with the centenary of the publication of her book “Married Love”, I was thrilled. Here was an opportunity to write about one of the most important women of the twentieth century who spent time on our own Isle of Portland. I started off knowing only that she was the writer of That Book (one I hadn’t actually read and which was still regarded as shocking by people of my parents’ generation) and that she had gifted the people of Portland the cottages that were to become the Portland Museum. However, it only took me a brief time reading wikipaedia to realise that I was dealing with someone who, sixty years after her death, still generates sharply divided emotions amounting to veneration in some and hatred in others; whose personal life was full of complexities and contradictions and whose ideas present extreme challenges to us in the twenty-first century. Marie Stopes was a brilliant scientist whose work is still recognised today. She was a feminist but jibbed against the strictures of the Suffrage movement. but she also openly courted controversy and laid herself bare in the courts and newspapers of the time. (more…)

Mary Anning’s Fossil Depot

“Anning’s Fossil Depot” has just finished touring South West libraries.  This is the third version of the Mary Anning story that I have written for AsOne Theatre Company.  The first was “The Cabinet maker’s Daughter” (a reference to the description that Dickens wrote) and was an adult play centred round her last days dying of breast cancer.  This one was an altogether jollier affair for children and centred around her relationship with her brother Joseph.  I couldn’t have wished for a better   cast than Jane McKell as the somewhat straight laced Mary and Eltjo deVries as her wayward brother.  We had a lot of fun in rehearsal and it was one of those plays where the actors contributed hugely to the finished product.  The reviews and feedback forms were extremely pleasing.  Thank you AsOne.

 

Rattling Bones

The rattling bones of the old year
Will not lie down
Will not lie down
One last dance under a hard moon
Out on the town
Out on the town
One last mocking sarabande
In a moth eaten gown
Moth eaten gown.
Yet Calando dolente she must lie down
In leaf frosted snow
In leaf frosted snow
Her rattling bones in music unborn
Echoing down
Echoing down

Publications

Recent work available to purchase online

Blood and Bones Theatre

Can theatre provide a plausible, authentic narrative for this Age of Fakery?  My meditation on being a playwright in the 21st Century. Follow this post and then Click on this link    

She Opened the Door She Opened the Door

“More than a play” A controversial attempt to understand Thomas Hardy by looking at the women who surrounded him. An actual play script and essays on the extensive research that produced it. Amazon link http://www.amazon.co.uk/Peter-John-Cooper/e/B00ABZSPLU

The Death of the Hurdy Gurdy Boy The Death of the Hurdy Gurdy Boy

“It is dark as history is dark” Tommy is the ghost of a Victorian street urchin. He cannot rest until he finds who murdered him and why. He enlists the help of lonely teenage violinist Tamara and together they embark on an extraordinary journey through an alien 21st century. Funny, touching and, at times, disturbing. […]

Feer of The Future Feer of The Future

“to make you shudder and smile” Science Fiction as you remember it. Robots, alien space invasion, travel to distant galaxies. Peter John Cooper the master story-teller draws his inspiration from the classics of the genre, Isaac Asimov, H.G. Wells, Kurt Vonnegut and Phillip K. Dick. 23 bite sized pieces of fiction and poetry to make […]

New York Kidnap New York Kidnap

“a fascinating story” Tamara the young violinist is held captive in a New York hotel room and, deeply scared, she pleads for help from the only person in the world who can help her, Tommy the ghost of a Victorian street urchin. A startling chase across the United States ending up in a small mining […]

Peter John Cooper – Plays Online Peter John Cooper – Plays Online

A selection from Peter John Cooper’s extensive back catalogue.  Thrillers, adaptations and comedies.   Available to buy online from Lazy Bee Press – http://www.lazybeescripts.co.uk/Authors/Author.aspx?iIA=416

Peter John Cooper

  • Peter John Cooper

    Peter John Cooper is a UK Theatre professional and poet with over 40 years experience in directing and writing.  He has over thirty plays recorded on the Doollee Database of UK produced playwrights.

    A number of his works are published online and in paperback and he can be seen performing in clubs and small theatres in London and his home town of Bournemouth. He is best known for his experimental work both as a playwright and poet.

    He has worked extensively with Adults with Learning Disabilities and has been part of ACDC European initiative on Arts for Excluded Groups.