Bill Morrison

Bill Morrison was a Northern Irish playwright, director, producer, actor, and screenwriter. Born in Ballymoney, County Antrim, he was educated at Queen’s University Belfast, earning an Honours Degree in Law. During the 1960s, Morrison worked as a professional actor in Belfast, Dublin, and London, including a notable role as Nick in the Irish première of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? alongside T.P. McKenna. Transitioning to writing, his first professional production was an adaptation of George Farquhar’s Love and a Bottle for the Dublin Theatre Festival in 1966. He served as Resident Playwright at the Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent, from 1969 to 1971, where his adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles premiered. Morrison was part of Liverpool’s “Gang of Four” playwrights in the 1980s, alongside Alan Bleasdale, Willy Russell, and Chris Bond, sharing the role of artistic director at the Liverpool Playhouse from 1981 to 1985. His notable works include the farce Flying Blind, which transferred from Liverpool to London and New York. Morrison also directed the premiere of Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy’s first play, Take My Husband, in 1982.