Emily Duncan first came to notice as an awarded young playwright in Playmarket's New Zealand Young Playwrights Competition with the terrific one-act play Lips in 1999, which marked her early as a playwright to watch. Sweet Meats followed, inspired by the slave poetry of the Romantic period, and was produced at the Dunedin fringe in 2004. Duncan's full-length drama Palliative Care premiered in 2008 during the Otago Festival of the Arts to excellent reviews and audiences. The play had previously seen Duncan provided by Playmarket with dramaturgy with British playwright Simon Stephens in 2006. Duncan's next play Water Baby received a reading as part of Write Out Loud Dunedin at the Fortune in 2007 and a public reading at the Court Theatre in 2008.
Outside theatre Duncan has written, produced and directed a mockumentary which screened on TV2 as a finalist in the TV2’s 2000 competition. Her talent have also extended to writing a series of short audio plays for Cadbury World in Dunedin.
In 2010 Duncan was selected to be one of the ten playwrights to attend the Playmarket Playwrights’ Retreat over eight days in July at Otaki. The script she developed there, Southern Comfort, won the 2010 Dunedin Write Out Loud competition.
Dunedin-based, Duncan is a teacher of English and Drama, and also acts and directs for theatre.
Emily Duncan
Erin is seventeen and has responded to the abuse and self-disgust that has built up in her life by attempting to amputate her own lips. This action has resulted in her being admitted to a hospital psychiatric ward where she and the three women in closest proximity have to choose between asking and trying to answer the history and implications of the situation or letting it lie.
Cast: 4
Emily Duncan
Palliative Care is set in Central Otago in the mid 1990s. Ron Pederson is a World War II veteran and widower who is estranged from his adult daughter, Theresa. He has an unconventional relationship with his nurse, Doris, who, despite his quarrelsome temperament, strives to fulfil his needs and wants.
Cast: 6
Emily Duncan
The play is set in Mike’s run-down and filthy flat. He arrives home ready to settle down for a night in with a few beers, fish ‘n’ chips and some telly. His night is interrupted by urgent text messages and then a visit from his ex-partner Andi. Matters are further complicated by the fact that Andi had recently taken out a restraining order on Mike.
Cast: 3
Emily Duncan
It's the 1880s and a slave boat from Guinea is going to dock in Bristol the next day. The slave trade has been abolished yet there is one piece of human cargo on board. The three men on the ship: a captain, a sailor and the slave have different fortunes awaiting them when they arrive.
Cast: 4