Stephen John Sewell (born 13 March 1953 in Liverpool, New South Wales) is an Australian playwright and screenwriter.
Born in Liverpool, New South Wales, Sewell's first theatre experience was in the 1970s in the fringe theatre while he was studying Science at the University of Sydney, where his first play was staged in 1975.
In an interview in 2006 Sewell describes himself as an "angry writer" and a workaholic. Fascinated by the social world, his work ranges across many fields of study, from economics and politics to philosophy and psychology, and while he is considered a writer obsessed with dark themes, he is not himself a pessimist, saying, "No artist, no creator, ever sets forth without hope, even if the thing they create appears to be carved out of pitch black despair."
On 15 October 2012, Sewell was appointed Head of Writing at the National Institute of Dramatic Art.
1985 Play Award in the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards for The Blind Giant is Dancing
1989 Play Award in the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards for Hate
1998 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Screenplay Best Screenplay (Adapted) for The Boys
2004 Australian National Playwrights' Centre (ANPC) Award for 2004
2004 Play Award in the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards for Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America
2004 AWGIE Awards
2004 Louis Esson Prize for Drama in the Victorian Premier's Literary Award
The Father We Loved on a Beach by the Sea (Currency Press ; Melbourne: Playbox Theatre Company, 1983, c1980) – first performed at Brisbane's La Boite Theatre company in 1978
Traitors (Alternative Publishing Co-operative : Nimrod Theatre Press, 1983) – first performed by the Australian Performing Group at the Pram Factory in Melbourne in 1979
Anger's Love
The Blind Giant is Dancing (Currency Press, 1985, c1983) – first performed Adelaide 1982
Welcome the Bright World (Nimrod Theatre Press, 1983)
Burn Victim – first performed Sydney 1983
Dreams in an Empty City (Currency Press in association with the State Theatre Company of South Australia, 1986) – first produced Adelaide 1986
Hate (Currency Press in association with Playbox Theatre Company and Belvior St. Theatre, 1988) – first performed Adelaide 1986
Miranda – first performed Adelaide 1989
Sisters (Currency Press in association with Playbox Theatre Company Melbourne, 1991) – first performed Melbourne 1991
King Golgrutha – first performed Adelaide 1991
The Garden of Granddaughters (Currency Press; Melbourne: Playbox Theatre Centre of Monash University, 1993) – first performed Melbourne 1993
Dust (Currency Press, 1997) – first performed Adelaide 1993
Identity By Helen Demidenko – first performed Adelaide 1996
The Sick Room (Currency Press in association with Playbox Theatre Centre, Monash University, 1999)
Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America (2003) – One of Australia's most awarded plays, dealing with the War on Terror
It Just Stopped – premiered at the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne, and the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney in 2006 and revived at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, London in 2014
The Secret Death of Salvador Dalí – first performed Edinburgh Fringe 2002
The Gates of Egypt – performed at the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney 2007 Review
Three Furies: Scenes From the Life of Francis Bacon (2004) – first performed Sydney Opera House as part of the Sydney Festival in January 2005
The United States of Nothing – first performed at the Stables Theatre, Sydney 2006
Kandahar Gate - first performed at NIDA's Parade Theatre, Sydney 2014
The Long Way Home (1985)
Wrong World (1985) (additional dialogue)
Isabelle Eberhardt (1991)
True Love and Chaos (1997) (script editor)
Let's Wait (1998) (writer and director)
The Boys (Currency Press, 1998)
Sydney: A Story of a City (1999)
Foolish (1999) (additional editor)
Chopper (2000) (script editor)
Lost Things (2003)
Sisters (2008) (writer and director)
Andy X (2012)
Embedded (2016) (writer and director)
"The Gillies Republic" (1986) – episodes include:
"The Bjelke-Petersen Republic"
"The Keating Republic"
"The Howard Republic"
"The Hawke Republic"
"The Singleton Republic"
"The Carleton Republic"
Animal Kingdom, a crime story (Victory Books, 2010) a novel based on the film.
Babylon (Victory Books, 2011)
