John King is a theatre artist based in Dublin, working between the US, UK and Ireland.
As director of Murmuration, he has made the headphone shows One Moment Now (Dublin, Washington D.C., Philadelphia), You’re Still Here (a Dublin Fringe commission, co-presented by the Abbey Theatre at Dublin Castle), Will I See You There (Dublin Fringe), and Summertime (Dublin Fringe, Drogheda Arts Festival, Abbey Young Curators' Festival).
Murmuration makes narrative headphone shows for non-theatrical performance spaces in the city, like foyers, shopfronts, cafés, galleries, behind windows, in public squares. The work invites audiences to look and listen closely, to notice things differently; we’re always striving for big-hearted close listening. Murmuration has presented works-in-progress at Corcadorca’s SHOW Festival, 2021, and at Bewley’s Café, where they were 2022 Artists-in-Residence. Murmuration is now a resident company at the Project Arts Centre, 2024-2027.
John’s other directing work includes Emergency, The Cyclone Kid (Bewley’s) and The Overcoat (Omnibus Theatre, London). Work as playwright includes side-walks, somewhere in the Future Dark (Solas Nua) and ERIS (Bunker Theatre, London, 2018; staged reading at the Irish Rep, New York, 2023; published by Methuen).
He has worked as assistant director on Audrey or Sorrow, The Quare Fellow (Abbey Theatre), Faust, Maria Stuarda (Irish National Opera) Conversations After Sex (thisispopbaby - New York and Irish tour), The Children, Queen of Basel, Kings and If I Forget (Studio Theatre, Washington D.C.).
John is currently a Resident Director at the Abbey Theatre, a company member of Solas Nua, and an Associate Artist of thisispopbaby. He holds a MA in 'Text and Performance' from RADA and Birkbeck, and a BA in English from the University of Cambridge.