Scotsman Obituaries: Oliver Emanuel, award-winning writer of stage and radio plays

Oliver Emanuel pictured at an awards ceremony in London in 2022 (Picture: David Fisher/Shutterstock)

Oliver Emanuel, who has died aged 43 after being diagnosed with brain cancer last spring, was a true 21st-century leader on the Scottish theatre scene; an award-winning writer for both stage and radio who was also a brilliant teacher and mentor, and a much-loved, energetic and inspirational friend to dozens of fellow writers and play-makers across Scotland, and beyond.

In a 20-year career as a professional writer – 17 of them in Scotland – Emanuel wrote 28 plays for the stage and 28 for radio, as well as short stories and film scripts. His acclaimed radio work included the Tinniswood Award-winning play When The Pips Stop, first broadcast in 2018.

He was also one of four lead writers on BBC Radio 4’s epic Blood, Sex And Money series, a 28-part dramatisation of Emile Zola’s Rougon-Macquart novels broadcast in 2015-16, starring the late Glenda Jackson. The BBC drama producer Kirsty Williams, who worked with him on many projects, rates Emanuel as one of the finest radio writers of his generation.

In theatre, he rapidly became recognised as one of Scotland’s leading writers for children and young people. His 2013 play Dragon is an astonishing, spectacular and almost wordless 80-minute drama about a boy devastated by grief after the death of his mother, and in 2015 it became the first piece of young people’s theatre ever to appear at the Edinburgh International Festival.

His stage work also included his 2022 award winner I Am Tiger, a fierce monologue about a teenage girl struggling with her brother’s suicide, and the remarkable 2017 installation-theatre piece Flight, about a tragic refugee journey; and between 2016 and 2018, he created his immensely moving First World War trilogy The 306: Dawn, Day, Dusk, about the men shot at dawn for desertion during the war.

Yet despite the themes of mortality and loss he so often explored, Emanuel’s plays were never bleak, or ultimately depressing. As his friend and collaborator on the Zola project, the playwright and academic Dan Rebellato, points out, “For Olly, death was a vital part of life, and had to be fully acknowledged, so that we could appreciate the beauty and joy of life more intensely. I’ll always remember his courage, his cheerful insistence on taking risks and doing something interesting with whatever form he was working in, even on a big prestige project like Blood, Sex And Money. He was a wonderful friend and colleague, full of energy and love; and that was true even in his final illness.”

Oliver Emanuel was born in Pembury, Kent, in 1980, to Peter and Mary, a solicitor and a teacher who were deeply involved in the local amateur drama scene, and interested in all things creative. After a miserable time at primary school, Emanuel flourished at St Gregory’s Catholic secondary school in Tunbridge Wells, and moved on in 1998 to Leeds University, where he studied English and Theatre. His friend since student days, the theatre-maker Daniel Bye, remembers him as a whirlwind of energy, already impressively well informed about theatre, and often cheerfully enraged by the productions he saw around him, which he tended to rate as “not good enough”. Bye recalls him as a brilliant director of student shows, full of inventive ideas and strong theatrical vision.

It was writing, though, that was Emanuel’s first love; and after he and Bye graduated in 2001, the pair brought their early show Iz to the 2003 Edinburgh Fringe, with Emanuel writing, and Bye directing. Around that time, Emanuel’s much-loved mother became ill with cancer, and he returned to Kent to nurse her, alongside his sister; his experience of the intense joy, laughter and sadness of those months became a formative one for him, as a writer.

After his mother’s death, Emanuel came to Scotland to be with his then girlfriend; and although the relationship did not last, he immediately made Glasgow his home, and found friends in the Scottish theatre scene. “Writing wasn’t always easy for Olly,” says his colleague and fellow playwright Zinnie Harris, “but he had this wonderful openness about his writing process, and about his creative problems and vulnerabilities, that helped make him a brilliant teacher and mentor, as well as a great supportive colleague. He absolutely loved the collaborative nature of theatre, and always did just what the project needed, even if it was only a few words, rather than trying to attract attention to himself as the writer.”

While working at the Tron Theatre, Emanuel met the theatre-maker Victoria Beesley, and the pair became a couple in 2012. Their daughter Matilda was born in 2016, and their son Isaac in 2019, and they moved to Kilmacolm in Renfrewshire, and later to Kinross.

In 2013, Emanuel joined Zinnie Harris as a Reader in theatre at the University of St Andrews, where they created the university’s M Litt course in playwriting; Emanuel rapidly became recognised as an outstanding teacher, as well as continuing his own creative work.

And during the pandemic, when theatre shut down, it was Emanuel who set up a regular online coffee get-together for Scotland’s isolated playwrights, which continued even after the end of lockdown.

“Olly was always on the front foot,” says his widow Vickie Beesley, “and he absolutely loved what he did. He also loved being a partner and a Dad, and messing around being silly with the kids. He was always playful, in the best sense of the word; and he knew that was the essence of good drama, even when he was dealing with very serious themes.”

Oliver died in Cornhill Hospice, Perth, after an illness which he faced with an extraordinary positivity, humour and courage. He is survived by Victoria and their children, by his sister Alice and her family, and by hundreds of friends, colleagues, students, listeners and theatregoers whose lives have been changed and enriched by his work, and by his shared passion for the creative process.

“What is the point of paper?” he wrote in his radio play A History Of Paper, broadcast in 2019. “To speak. To imagine. To remember.” In his too-brief life, Oliver Emanuel did all of that, and much more; and perhaps his greatest gift, and legacy, was that he also taught, encouraged, inspired, cajoled and loved so many others, into doing the same.

Obituaries

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