Serie B - Writings

100 boxes

Writings are listed in order of first production, or date of writing if not produced, with all associated correspondence, writings, and printed material gathered under the title. Many of the playscripts feature multiple revisions Shaffer made over the years as the plays were restaged.

There are playscripts for one play performed on television: 'The Salt Land', two plays for the radio: 'The Prodigal Father' and 'Whom Do I Have the Honour of Addressing?', and 14 plays for the theatre; four of these plays were adapted to screenplays by Shaffer: 'The Public Eye,' 'Equus,' 'Amadeus,' and 'Lettice and Lovage'.

Shaffer also kept full playscripts for two unproduced plays: ‘Our Lady of the Volcano’ and ‘The Syllabub Saloon’ and an unproduced screenplay, ‘Sir Lucas and the Two Sams.’ At least six more plays are represented by unfinished playscripts: ‘The Comedy of the Gourd’, ‘The Italian Play’, ‘Peter Shaffer, a Monologue with Interruptions’, ‘Cowl’, ‘The Danger Doll of the Dum Dum Desert’, his last unfinished play about Tchaikovsky’s last days, ‘Bezique’, an unfinished screenplay, ‘Richard IV,’ as well as a number of fragments of unfinished plays or screenplays.

Writings also include complete drafts of the published novel How Doth the Little Crocodile? and the unpublished ‘The King of Gongi.’ Unfinished stories include ‘The Bus Drove On’ and another about a Bevin Boy, as well as several others represented only by fragments.

Some items of a more personal nature relating to living persons are presently closed, which may account for gaps in the numbering of materials.