Phil Tong CV

‘

Sheep Love To Die’ receives its professional debut at the Printers Playhouse in Eastbourne (Jan 2024)

Runner up in the Mercury Playwriting Prize 2017 for ‘The Furrow’

Profile: 

Phil Tong is a graduate of the Dramatic Writing MA at Sussex University

who has had nine plays premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe since 2000 in

addition to work produced in London, Paris, Milan and Eastbourne. 

Now writing full-time he was, until 2014, Director of Drama at the City of

London Freemen’s School and  has taught a great many students who

have gone on to successful careers in theatre, tv and film including

Andrew Garfield and Kelly Reilly.  

In addition he has taught on graduate and under-graduate courses at

institutions such as Goldsmiths London University.

Since 2022 he has been a founding member of the Play2Stage group at the

Printers Playhouse in Eastbourne and is also a member of Sussex

Playwrights where his work is regularly aired and shared.

His work written for Young People’s Theatre has been published by

TreePress and ScriptStore.

Reviews:

The complex plot is gripping - The Scotsman

A remarkable achievement. Relationships are scrutinised fearlessly -

TES

 The play poetically captures the excitement and sadness of growing up

during the fifties, through the eyes of children and their parents - The

Scotsman

The narrative is superb as it mutates and distorts as the plot thickens

and progresses; with each haunting revelation hitting harder than the

last. - 3 Weeks

New Work:

Sheep Love To Die (2022) - 

"I feel like we’ve been shifted sideways. Here but not. Slid invisibly out

from somewhere to somewhere else. Slipped out of the loop. The gears no

longer engaged. Like we’re freewheeling.” 

Evelyn and Constance are two elderly sisters quietly going about their

own lives when suddenly, on one fateful afternoon, two worlds collide. Yet, if the truth were known they have always been slightly out of sync both with each other and the world. ‘Sheep Love To Die’ is a play that explores what we know, what we don’t know and what we don’t even know we don’t know.

In Development:​

A Circus of Sorrows and The Curl of the Night are being considered by Papatango

Just Out of Reach has been entered for the Verity Bargate Award

Work since 2014:

The Furrow 

The Horses  (Revised 2024)

The Lonely Sea and the Sky (Film Script)

Nails and Me (Play and Film Script)

Sally (Film Script)

When the Bough Breaks

The Bone Yard (Revised 2024)

Ridiculous (Radio Play)

The Beach Road (Radio Play)

Sheep Love To Die

A Circus of Sorrows

The Curl of the Night

The End of the Game

Felicity

Just Out of Reach

Past Work:

The Furrow - Mercury Theatre Colchester 2017

The Horses - Edinburgh 2014

For The Love of Willie (Adapted from the novel by Agnes Owens) - Edinburgh

2012    

Food For Thought - Milan 2011(Barilla)

The Now Generation - London - Queen Elizabeth Hall (Consumer Goods

Forum) 2010

The Typhoid Marys - Edinburgh 2010

The Withering (Based on The Withered Arm by Thomas Hardy) - Edinburgh

2008

The Lonely Sea and the Sky - Edinburgh 2006

Paula’s Children - Edinburgh 2005

Like Water For Chocolate (Adapted from the novel by Laura Esquivel) -

Edinburgh 2003

Making Echoes (Adapted from the short stories of Janet Frame) - Edinburgh

2001

A Mother’s Song - Edinburgh 2000

Education:

University of Sussex -  M.A. in Dramatic Writing (Distinction) 2006. 

University of Sussex - M.A. in Language, the Arts and Education 1989. 

Southbank University/Royal Society of Arts - Advanced Diploma Drama (in Education) 1985

London University/Royal Society of Arts - Associateship of the Drama Board 1980

London University/Kingston University - Certificate of Education and QTS 1977

Other:

Finalist in London Evening News Student Drama Festival - Bloomsbury Theatre             

Freelance writer for the National Theatre Education Department producing work packs for schools and students (1989 - 91)

Runner up in the Mercury New Playwrighting Award 2017

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