Doug Lucie is a key figure in contemporary writing for the British stage. Lucie had an especially influential run of works in the 1980s and early 1990s. His plays have been produced at the
National Theatre, the
Royal Shakespeare Company’s Other Place and the
Royal Court. Lucie's work has been hailed by critics for his singular voice and his acid pen. His most influential plays often bristle with sudden and unexpected violence, making him a key transitional figure between the overtly political British drama of the 1970s and the
“in-yer-face” school of the 1990s. His early work as a playwright emerged from the
Edinburgh Festival and smaller theatres in the south of England. He was a playwright-in-residence at the
Oxford Playhouse in 1979 and 1980, and a visiting writer at the
Iowa Writer's Workshop in 1981. Lucie broke through to a larger audience with
Hard Feelings (1982) -- a play set in a gentrifying
Brixton before and during its
1981 riots. The success of
Hard Feelings began a run of work that included
Progress (1984),
Key to the World (1984),
Fashion (1987),
Grace (1992),
Gaucho (1994), and
The Shallow End (1996). Lucie's later plays explore themes ranging from work and friendship (
The Green Man, 2003) to the intersection of art and politics as it played out in the fertile relationship between acclaimed singers
Nick Drake and
John Martyn (
Solid Air, 2014). Lucie also writes extensively for radio and television in the United Kingdom. == Critical reception ==