Max Elton

Max Elton is a director, dramaturg and writer. He is currently a Literary Associate (Verity Bargate Award) at Soho Theatre.

His production of Not Now by David Ireland (Finborough Theatre, Lyric Belfast) was listed as #6 in The Observer’s Plays of 2022 and he was nominated for Broadway World’s Director of the Year for the same production. Other previous full productions include Yes So I Said Yes and The Melting Pot (Finborough Theatre), The End of Hope (Orange Tree/Soho Theatre) which was nominated for Best New Play at the Off West End Awards and Big Brother Blitzkrieg (King’s Head Theatre), which he also wrote. Associate work includes Sheppey (Orange Tree) and Madame Rubinstein (Park Theatre). In 2023, Max was invited to take part in the National Theatre’s Directors’ Course.

He is the Artistic Director of Bitter Pill – a new writing company that celebrates audacious playwrights who place humor at the heart of their work. Between 2020-23 their initiative, The Painkiller Project, developed and produced 33 audio plays starring actors including Toby Jones, Tamsin Grieg, Noman Dumezweni and Jason Watkins. In 2023, Bitter Pill launched The Painkiller Prize.