Stephen Sharkey
Stephen has updated and adapted a wide variety of classic and contemporary stories for the stage, including works by Zadie Smith, Bertolt Brecht, Charles Dickens, Euripides, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Oscar Wilde, Leo Tolstoy, Georges Feydeau, Fyodor Dostoevsky, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Aristophanes.
His version of Brecht’s THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI starring Mark Gatiss and directed by Seán Linnen was produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company in spring 2026, in a production that The Guardian described as “magnificent, ludicrous and menacing”.
The world premiere of his adaptation of WHITE TEETH, Zadie Smith’s modern classic novel, was produced by Kiln Theatre and directed by Indhu Rubasingham, and more recently Stephen has collaborated with Serdar Biliş on a new version of Euripides’ IPHIGENIA at Arcola Theatre.
Stephen is currently working on a commission for Salisbury Playhouse.
Other favourite projects include: his original play THE MAY QUEEN, produced by Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse; a version of Tolstoy’s THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYICH for one actor; INKHEART, adapted with Walter Meierjohann from the children’s novel by Cornelia Funke for Home, Manchester; ION by Euripides for Gate Theatre, London; THE BIRDS by Aristophanes, reworked as a musical comedy called CLOUDCUCKOOLAND; and a free adaptation of OBLOMOV by Ivan Goncharov at Pleasance, Edinburgh and London, directed by Erica Whyman (in which Stewart Lee played a successful stand-up comic called Stewart).
He wrote four Christmas plays for Erica Whyman at Northern Stage, Newcastle: A CHRISTMAS CAROL (adapted from Dickens), HANSEL AND GRETEL, PETER PAN (adapted from J.M. Barrie), and THE GLASS SLIPPER.
Stephen has also written several plays for BBC Radio 4: the first of these, ALL OF YOU ON THE GOOD EARTH, won the Society of Authors’ Richard Imison prize for best radio debut.