Author Biography

Nicholas Pierpan's most recent play, The Maddening Rain, had a successful London run before going on a UK tour and to New York City's 2011 Brits Off-Broadway festival. Nicholas has twice won the Cameron Mackintosh Award for New Writing for Too Much the Sun and The Problem with the Seventh Year. He holds a PhD in English Literature from Oxford University. He lectures on film and reviews fiction for The Times.

Review

A one-hander nailing the mania for money that led to financial collapse * Sunday Times on Maddening Rain *
You Can Still Make A Killing throws the mirror up to our present natures with a cool but furious kind of satire -- Carole Woddis * theartsdesk.com *
A gripping exploration of the murky - and ruthless - world of corporate high finance, which skilfully pulls our sympathies in a number of contradictory directions . . . A sure-fire bet for our troubled times. * Evening Standard *
Nicholas Pierpan's finely wrought new play You Can Still Make a Killing sifts through the rubble of the 2008 crash and finds rich satirical pickings in the spectacle of men in city suits forced into scavenger-mode. -- Dominic Cavendish * Telegraph *
As sharp as the suits of its City traders, Nicholas Pierpan's new play trains its satiric, devilishly clued-up, yet ungloating gaze on the fall-out – emotional, familial, institutional – of the financial collapse of 2008 … this is a piece likely to cause a steep rise in the author's stock. -- Paul Taylor * Independent *
Nicholas Pierpan has descended into contemporary darkness in his epic and fluent dissection of the financial crisis, and its impact on the very people who created it … Pierpan's script skitters with energy -- Stewart Pringle * Time Out *
Pierpan's new play is a cool study of capitalist morality, exposing the Darwinian realities of survival in the recession-hit City ... the dialogue is sharp ... Pierpan makes some acute observations about the social impact of a system under which everything is commodified ... it's a quietly savage, salient reminder of what greed can cost. -- Sam Marlowe * The Times *

Promotional

Four years on from the collapse of the Lehman Brothers and still we find ourselves in crisis. It's time to work out what's wrong. It's time to look at the heart of the system...

Long Description

He wants me to f*** about with paper clips in some office with a smile on my face, f*** him.but there's just one thing I've got to take care of first. I've got to do something to make this right...Four years on from the collapse of the Lehman Brothers and still we find ourselves in crisis. It's time to work out what's wrong. It's time to look at the heart of the system...You Can Still Make A Killing is the story of the normal men and women who fill the City's institutions, of a world radically altered when right became wrong, and of the private worlds that fall apart when there are no alternatives in sight...This production reunites director Matthew Dunster with playwright Nicholas Pierpan, following their collaboration in 2010 on Pierpan's play The Maddening Rain (Old Red Lion and Soho Theatre). The cast includes Alecky Blythe (writer of London Road), which marks her much-anticipated return to acting, and Kellie Bright (Love and Money, Royal Exchange and Young Vic). It will run at the Southwark Playhouse in its main house (which holds 150 seats) from 10 October until 3 November 2012. A German production will open at Theatre Ulm in April, 2013...

Review Quote

You Can Still Make A Killing throws the mirror up to our present natures with a cool but furious kind of satire

Promotional "Headline"

Four years on from the collapse of the Lehman Brothers and still we find ourselves in crisis. It's time to work out what's wrong. It's time to look at the heart of the system...

Feature

Nicholas Pierpan is an exciting, intelligent young writer whose first play, Maddening Rain , was met with great critical acclaim. He writes with an insight and wisdom beyond his years.

Details