Playwright Rory Mullarkey has been awarded the 2014 Pinter Commission. The prize supports a new commission at the Royal Court Theatre where Mullarkey held the post of writer on attachment in 2010.
Vicky Featherstone, artistic director of the Royal Court, when speaking of the award described Mullarkey as "a remarkable writer—an original fresh voice, with a sharp political edge and a thread of his Eastern European travels running through".
Rory Mullarkey's writing credits include Cannibals and translations of Aleksey Scherbak’s Remembrance Day, And I Don’t Care How You’re Doing Anymore by Oksana Savchenko, Twatted by Evgeniy Markovskiy, Uncle Sasha The Butcher by Mariam Agamian and Pagans by Anna Yablonkskaya.
He said of the commission, “Harold Pinter and the Royal Court Theatre have always been gigantic inspirations to me, so I feel really honoured and grateful for the opportunity."
Harold Pinter had a long association with the Royal Court Theatre, initially as an actor and then as a writer and director and supporting writers from all over the world at the Royal Court’s international residency each year.