PLAYWRIGHT

"His characters address worlds beyond this one so naturally they exert a force unusual in modern drama." Alastair Macaulay, Financial Times

Hannan's work has been produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican (1991) and by Sir Peter Hall at the Old Vic in London (1997) as well as by the National Theatre of Scotland in its inaugural season (2006). Four of his plays have had their world premiere at the prestigious Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, including his 1985 breakthrough play Elizabeth Gordon Quinn and the award-winning Shining Souls. His 1990 play The Evil Doers was produced by the Bush Theatre in London and won numerous prizes including a Time Out Award, and in 2001/2 he was the Judith E. Wilson Visiting Fellow in Drama at the University of Cambridge.

"Murky and miserable lives are expressed with such grace and vigour that the most ordinary statements become events of great beauty." Dan Bye, Sunday Times

"Hannan's achievement is to combine hilarity with heartache, to detect glimpses of spiritual grace in lives of desperate deprivation." Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph