Peter Morris (born 9 November 1973) is an American playwright, television writer and critic, best known for his work in British theatre.
Morris' plays are noteworthy for their willingness to address difficult political topics, including the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse in Guardians and the murder of James Bulger in "The Age of Consent".
[1] Morris' play The Age of Consent, starring Ben Silverstone and Katherine Parkinson, "generated enormous controversy" on its premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2001, due to its examination of the aftermath of the murder of James Bulger,[2] and led to calls for a public boycott[3] after the play's sympathetic stance towards the ten-year-old children convicted of Bulger's murder was publicly condemned by the mother of James Bulger as "sick and pathetic",[4] but the play was publicly defended by the director of the Edinburgh Fringe, who stated that "controversy is always a part of the festival and it would not be the fringe festival if some difficult issues were not being tackled".
[7] The production transferred to London's Bush Theatre, where New York Times critic Ben Brantley claimed that Morris was part of a new generation of "angry young men" in British theatre, "as explosive, nihilistic and exasperated as ever"[8]—failing to note that, while the play was set in contemporary England, the writer was, in fact, not English but American.
The 2008 Australian production generated similar controversy to the premiere, with condemnation from the tabloid newspapers that "the murderers of British toddler Jamie Bulger are being given a sympathetic treatment"[10] Morris' play Guardians, which premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2005, won the Fringe First Award and the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award, and transferred to London later that year.
The play received its American premiere with The Culture Project in New York City in 2006, starring Lee Pace and Katherine Moennig, directed by Jason Moore.
The play was praised by Karen J. Greenberg—Executive Director of the Center on Law and Security at the NYU School of Law and the author of The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib, The Torture Debate in America, and Al Qaeda Now—in an article where she claims that the play represents a "truly profound" analysis of America's role in, and response to, the Abu Ghraib scandal.
The answer is complex, but would come to light with some clarity in an independent investigation or Congressional inquiry ... Until this occurs, however, the American public will have to glean what it can from the words of a playwright."
(Greenberg, "Split Screens") His play Gaudeamus, a contemporary adaptation of the Assemblywomen by Aristophanes, was staged at the Arcola in London in 2006, starring Kika Markham and Chipo Chung.
[13] Morris' adaptation of La Mort de Tintagiles by Maurice Maeterlinck, entitled "The Death of Tintagel", was published in The Paris Review in 2003, and will be staged for the first time in London in autumn 2010, at People Show Studios, produced by Saltpeter Productions and directed by Vik Sivalingam.