Simon Reade

Simon’s current commissions include an adaptation of Eric Ambler’s A KIND OF ANGER (Qwerty Films, co-adapted with director Saul Dibb) and a stage version of Patrick Hamilton’s TWENTY THOUSAND STREETS UNDER THE SKY (Troupe Productions.) Autumn/Christmas 2024 sees the première of his version of Michael Morpurgo’s PINOCCHIO (Watermill, Newbury – songs by Chris Larner), and the UK tour of new play REBUS: A GAME OF MALICE co-written with Ian Rankin – “an entertaining thriller” The Stage.

Simon produced and wrote the screenplays of JOURNEY’S END (Lionsgate/BFI) – “a powerful, vivid adaptation” Sight & Sound – and Morpurgo’s PRIVATE PEACEFUL (Goldcrest) as well as the multiple stage versions – “as moving as the poetry of Wilfred Owen and as painfully memorable as white-hot shrapnel” Sunday Herald. His extensive theatre adaptations include PRIDE & PREJUDICE (Regent’s Park/Guthrie Minneapolis/Sheffield Crucible/Theatre Royal Bath) – “delightfully alert to the comic and ironic nuances of Austen’s sparkling prose” Mail on Sunday – ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND (TMA Award winner) – “winningly witty” The Times – Salman Rushdie’s MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN – “handsome and fluent” Mail on Sunday – and Ted Hughes’s TALES FROM OVID – “an evening of rare dramatic power and verbal beauty” Daily Telegraph – both for the RSC where he was Dramaturg. He has also been Literary Manager for London’s Gate Theatre, Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic, and has worked as a development producer for Stolen Picture, Tiger Aspect Productions and BBC TV Drama.