Timberlake Wertenbaker is a British-based playwright, screenplay writer, and translator who has written plays for the

Royal Court A royal court, often called simply a court when the royal context is clear, is an extended royal household in a monarchy, including all those who regularly attend on a monarch, or another central figure. Hence, the word "court" may also be appl ...

, the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...

and others. She has been described in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' as "the doyenne of political theatre of the 1980s and 1990s".''Washington Post'', "Grappling with Jefferson’s legacy: ‘A playwright doesn’t like nice people’", January 24, 2018
/ref> Wertenbaker's best-known work is ''

Our Country's Good ''Our Country's Good'' is a 1988 play written by British playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker, adapted from the Thomas Keneally novel ''The Playmaker''. The story concerns a group of Royal Marines and convicts in a penal colony in New South Wales ...

'', which received six Tony nominations for its 1991 production. She has a propensity to write about political thinking and conflict, especially where there is a settled orthodoxy: "Then the rebel in me goes berserk, and I start pawing at it. I like the area where the questions are, and the ambiguities of political life, rather than the certainties."

Background

Wertenbaker was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Charles Wertenbaker Charles Christian Wertenbaker. (11 February 1901 – 8 January 1955) was an American journalist for ''Time,'' and author. Career Wertenbaker was born in 1901, the son of American football coach Bill Wertenbaker. Wertenbaker worked for Time pub ...

, a journalist, and Lael Wertenbaker, a writer. Much of her childhood was spent in the Basque Country in the small French fishing village of

Ciboure Ciboure (; ,ZIBURU

Career

Wertenbaker was the resident writer for Shared Experience in 1983 and the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England ...

from 1984 to 1985. She was on the Executive Council of the English Stage Company from 1992 to 1997 and on the Executive Committee of PEN from 1998 to 2001. She served as the Royden B. Davis professor of Theatre at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private research university in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll in 1789 as Georgetown College, the university has grown to comprise eleven undergraduate and graduate ...

, Washington D.C., for 2005–06. She was the Leverhulme Artist in Residence at the Freud Museum in 2011. She was also the artistic director of New Perspective Theatre Company. Currently, Wertenbaker is the Chair in Playwriting at the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

. In addition, she is artistic adviser to the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Senat ...

and on the council of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, ele ...

Themes

Central topics in her work are the efforts of individuals, particularly women: pursuing quests, seeking change, breaking boundaries, and constructing or challenging gender roles. A central technique is the revisioning of actual or imaginary lives from the past, sometimes remote in place as well as in time. There is a further recurring theme in her work: displacement. In her plays, characters are often removed from the familiarity of home and are forced to live in new cultures, sometimes defined by national boundaries, other times by cultural and class divisions. From this central theme emerge related themes, including isolation, dispossession, and the problem of forging an identity within a new cultural milieu. In her work, individuals often seem to assume roles, as if identity were a matter of persons performing themselves. Wertenbaker's work also demonstrates a keen awareness that communication occurs through language that often inadequately expresses experience.

Personal life

Wertenbaker has a home in

north London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nor ...

, where she lives with her husband, the writer

John Man John Man (1512–1569) was an English churchman, college head, and a diplomat. Life He was born at Lacock or Winterbourne Stoke, in Wiltshire. He was educated at Winchester College from 1523, and New College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1 ...

. The couple have one non-binary child, Dushka.

Legacy

In 1997, the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...

acquired Wertenbaker's archive consisting of manuscripts, correspondence and papers relating to her writings.

Honours and awards

* 1985 ''Plays and Players'' Most Promising Playwright Award for ''The Grace of Mary Traverse'' * 1988 ''Evening Standard'' Award for Most Promising Playwright, ''Our Country's Good'' * 1988 Laurence Olivier/BBC Award for Best New Play, ''Our Country's Good'' * 1989 Eileen Anderson Central Television Drama Award for ''The Love of the Nightingale'' * 1989

Whiting Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and ...

for Drama * 1990 Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best New Foreign Play (New York), ''Our Country's Good'' * 1991

Critics' Circle Theatre Awards The Critics' Circle Theatre Awards, originally called ''Drama'' Theatre Awards up to 1990, are British theatrical awards presented annually for the closing year's theatrical achievements. The winners, from theatre throughout the United Kingdom, ar ...

for Best West End Play (London), ''Three Birds Alighting on a Field'' * 1992 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for ''Three Birds Alighting on a Field'' * 1992 Writers' Guild Award (Best West End Play) for ''Three Birds Alighting on a Field'' * 2016 Writers' Guild Award (Best New Play) for "Jefferson's Garden" Wertenbaker was made a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, elec ...

in 2006.''British Council: Literature'', "Timberlake Wertenbaker"
/ref>

Works

Plays

Wertenbaker has written plays for the

, the RSC and other theatre companies: * ''This Is No Place for Tallulah Bankhead'' (1978) * ''The Third'' (1980) * ''Second Sentence'' (1980) * ''Case to Answer'' (1980) * ''Breaking Through'' (1980) * ''New Anatomies'' (1981) * ''Inside Out'' (1982) * ''Home Leave'' (1982) * ''Abel’s Sister'' (1984) * ''The Grace of Mary Traverse'' (1985) * ''

'' (1988) * ''

The Love of the Nightingale ''The Love of the Nightingale'' is a play by Timberlake Wertenbaker, commissioned for the Royal Shakespeare Company and first performed in 1988 at The Other Place, Stratford. It is an adaptation of the Ancient Greek legend of the rape of Philomel ...

'' (1989) * '' Three Birds Alighting on a Field'' (1991) * ''The Break of Day'' (1995) * ''After Darwin'' (1998) * ''Dianeira'' (radio, 1999) * ''The Ash Girl'' (adaptation of "Cinderella", 2000) * ''Credible Witness'' (2001) * ''Galileo's Daughter'' (2004) * '' Scenes of Seduction'' (radio, 2005) * ''Divine Intervention'' (2006) * '' Arden City'' (for the National Theatre Connections program, 2008) * ''

The Line Line most often refers to: * Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity * Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to: Arts ...

'' (2009) * ''Our Ajax'' (Southwark Playhouse, produced by Karl Sydow and

Supporting Wall Supporting Wall was an award-winning London-based theatre and general arts production, promotion and management company, founded in 2008 by producers Ben Monks and Will Young and operated for nine years until 2017. The company's own production ...

, 2013) * '' The Ant and the Cicada'' (2014) * '' Jefferson's Garden'' (2015) * ''Winter Hill' ( Octagon Theatre Bolton, 2017) * ''Who Are You?'' (2021)

Translations and adaptations

Her translations and adaptations include several plays by

Marivaux Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (4 February 1688 – 12 February 1763), commonly referred to as Marivaux, was a French playwright and novelist. He is considered one of the most important French playwrights of the 18th century, writing nume ...

(Shared Experience, Radio 3), Sophocles’ Theban Plays (RSC), Euripides’ ''Hecuba'' (ACT, San Francisco), Eduardo de Filippo,

Gabriela Preissová Gabriela Preissová, née Gabriela Sekerová, sometimes used pen name Matylda Dumontová (23 March 1862 in Kutná Hora – 27 March 1946 in Prague), was a Czechoslovakia, Czech writer and playwright. Her play ''Její pastorkyňa'' was the basis f ...

’s ''Jenůfa'' (Arcola), and Racine (''Phèdre'', ''Britannicus''). * ''Mephisto'' by Ariane Mnouchkine (1986) * '' Léocadia'' by

Jean Anouilh Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh (; 23 June 1910 – 3 October 1987) was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1944 play ''Antigone'', an a ...

(1987) * ''False Admissions; Successful Strategies; La Dispute: Three Plays by

'' (1989) * ''The Thebans'' by

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or c ...

(1992) * ''Filumena'' by

Eduardo De Filippo Eduardo De Filippo (; 24 May 1900 – 31 October 1984), also known simply as ''Eduardo'', was an Italian actor, director, screenwriter and playwright, best known for his Neapolitan works ''Filumena Marturano'' and '' Napoli Milionaria''. Consid ...

(1998) * ''

Hecuba Hecuba (; also Hecabe; grc, Ἑκάβη, Hekábē, ) was a queen in Greek mythology, the wife of King Priam of Troy during the Trojan War. Description Hecuba was described by the chronicler Malalas in his account of the ''Chronography'' as "da ...

''''The Hecuba'', 2001 radio play
/ref> by

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars ...

(2001) (radio) * '' Jenůfa'' by Gabriela Preissová (2007) * ''Hippolytus'' by Euripides (2009) * ''Phèdre'' by

Jean Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditi ...

(2009) * ''Elektra'' by Sophocles (2010 & 2012) * ''Antigone'' by Sophocles (2011) * ''Britannicus'' by Jean Racine (2011) * ''Little brother. An odyssey to Europe'' by Ibrahima Balde and Amets Arzallus Antia (2019)

Radio

* ''What Is the Custom of Your Grief?'' (BBC Radio 4) * ''The Memory of Gold'' (October 2012 for BBC Radio 3) * ''Possession'' Fifteen part adaptation of A.S. Byatt's novel (''Woman's Hour'', BBC Radio 4) * ''War and Peace'' a 10-hour adaptation of Tolstoy's novel (January 2015, BBC Radio 4) * Adaptation of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels (2017, BBC Radio 4) * ''In Search of Lost Time'' 10-hour adaptation of

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel '' In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous ...

In Search of Lost Time ''In Search of Lost Time'' (french: À la recherche du temps perdu), first translated into English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'', and sometimes referred to in French as ''La Recherche'' (''The Search''), is a novel in seven volumes by French ...

(August 2019, BBC Radio 4)

Opera

* ''The Love of the Nightingale'', music by Richard Mills (Perth International Arts Festival 2006, Sydney Opera House 2011)

Screenplays

* ''The Children'' (directed by

Tony Palmer Tony Palmer (born 29 August 1941)IMDb: Tony Palmer
Retrieved 24 September 2011 is a British film direc ...

, adapted from

Edith Wharton Edith Wharton (; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray ...

) * ''Do Not Disturb''

Compilations

* ''Plays, Vol. 1: New Anatomies; The Grace of Mary Traverse; Our Country's Good; The Love of the Nightingale; Three Birds Alighting on a Field'' (

Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel ...

) * ''Plays, Vol. 2: The Break of Day; After Darwin; Credible Witness; The Ash Girl; Diianeira'' (Faber and Faber)

References

External links

Mark Lawson Mark Gerard Lawson is an English journalist, broadcaster and author. Specialising in culture and the arts, he is best known for presenting the flagship BBC Radio 4 arts programme '' Front Row'' between 1998 and 2014.Padraic Flanaga"Mark Lawson ...

"Timberlake Wertenbaker: ‘You can’t get a straightforward history of America’"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'', 7 February 2015.
Profile and Production History at The Whiting Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wertenbaker, Timberlake 1951 births Living people British dramatists and playwrights Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature British translators French–English translators Greek–English translators Academics of the University of East Anglia British women dramatists and playwrights St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe) alumni British women writers