The latest collection of plays from "the female counterpart to Quentin Crisp" (Evening Standard)

The Year of the Monkey, originally written for BBC Radio 3, comprises Bonfire Night, in which a daughter takes her sweet revenge; Arsehammers, where a grandson is sure that his grandfather's strange disappearances reveal supernatural powers; The Allotment, in which a quiet community of pensioners create a radical, anarchic commune by mistake; and The Year of the Monkey, where a mother yearns for some bad behaviour to puncture the boredom of her middle-class life.Designs for Living is a modern love story, challenging conventions of identity and sexuality.
Sodom reveals Old Testament morality alive and well in middle England.
"Claire Dowie is the supreme advocate of rebellion. She debunks conformity, non-conformity - or almost anything which can be defined" - The Stage
"She makes you laugh as she kicks you in the teeth" - Guardian

Claire Dowie is a writer/performer/poet/comedian, and pioneer of 'stand-up theatre'. After starting out on the 'alternative' comedy circuit, she switched to stand-up comedy and to writing plays 'when the punchlines ran out'. Her first, Cat and Mouse, was performed in 1987, followed by Adult Child/De ad Child, which won a Time Out Award. Other works include Came Out, It Rained, Went Back In Again fo r BBC2's City Shorts season, and Kevin for Central Children's Television.