Bryony Lavery (born 1947) is a British dramatist, known for her successful and award-winning 1998 play '' Frozen''. In addition to her work in theatre, she has also written for television and radio. She has written books including the biography ''

Tallulah Bankhead Tallulah Brockman Bankhead (January 31, 1902 – December 12, 1968) was an American actress. Primarily an actress of the stage, Bankhead also appeared in several prominent films including an award-winning performance in Alfred Hitchcock's '' L ...

'' and ''The Woman Writer's Handbook'', and taught playwriting at

Birmingham University , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

Biography

Lavery grew up in

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Hudd ...

. Having begun her career as an actress, she decided that she was fed up with playing poor parts in plays, such as the left arm of a sofa, and decided to write plays with better parts for women. Early in her career she founded a theatre company called Les Oeufs Malades with actors Gerard Bell and Jessica Higgs, she also founded Female Trouble, More Female Trouble and served as

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since th ...

of Gay Sweatshop. Her plays have a feminist undertone in them
''Guardian Interview'' UK and she has written plays (like ''More Light'' which has only one male speaking role) with almost entirely female casts. She has written more than twenty plays since 1976.Interview: "Comedy of terrors"
''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'' UK She has authored translations of foreign works such as her 2007 version of

Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

's ''

Uncle Vanya ''Uncle Vanya'' ( rus, Дя́дя Ва́ня, r=Dyádya Ványa, p=ˈdʲædʲə ˈvanʲə) is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1898, and was first produced in 1899 by the Moscow Art Theatre under the di ...

''. She has written five plays for the

National Theatre Connections Connections (also referred to as New Connections and formerly Shell Connections and BT Connections) is the Royal National Theatre in London's annual youth theatre festival. It was founded in 1995 and sponsored by Royal Dutch Shell until 2007 when th ...

series. '' Frozen'' triggered a controversy and discussion about artistic sources and plagiarism and was the subject of a piece by

Malcolm Gladwell Malcolm Timothy Gladwell (born 3 September 1963) is an English-born Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. He has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1996. He has published seven books: '' The Tipping Point: How Little ...

published in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' and also collected in his book '' What the Dog Saw''. In addition she also adapted ''

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure no ...

'', the novel by

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as '' Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

, into a play which was first performed on the Olivier Stage of the National Theatre, London, on 3 December 2014. She was married to a man until her early thirties, but now identifies as gay.

Selected works

* ''The Two Marias'' (1988) – Theatre Centre * ''Her Aching Heart'' (1992) ** The '' Pink Papers Play of the Year * ''Peter Pan'' (1991) – a

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and (to a lesser extent) in other English-speakin ...

* ''Goliath'' (1997) * ''More Light'' (1997) – National Theatre Connections * '' Frozen'' (1998) **Nomination/

Tony Award for Best Play The Tony Award for Best Play (formally, the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre) is an annual award given to the best new (non-musical) play on Broadway, as determined by Tony Award voters. There was no award in the Tonys' first yea ...

**Eileen Anderson Central Television Award ** TMA Best New Play Award * ''The Magic Toyshop'' (2001) * ''A Wedding Story'' (2000) * '' Illyria (play)'' (2002) – NT Connections * ''Last Easter'' (2004) * ''Stockholm'' (2007) – Frantic Assembly * ''Red Sky'' (2007, play) – NT Connections * ''It Snows'' (2008, play) – NT Connections * ''Breathing Underwater'' (1998 radio play) – BBC Radio 7 * ''

Kursk Kursk ( rus, Курск, p=ˈkursk) is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym rivers. The area around Kursk was the site of a turning point in the Soviet–German stru ...

'' (2009, play) – Young Vic * ''Beautiful Burnout'' (2010) – Frantic Assembly /

National Theatre of Scotland The National Theatre of Scotland, established in 2006, is the national theatre company of Scotland. The company has no theatre building of its own; instead it tours work to theatres, village halls, schools and site-specific locations, both at h ...

* ''Dirt'' (2012, play) – Studio Theatre * ''The Believers'' (2014, play) – Tricycle Theatre

Stage adaptations

* ''

A Christmas Carol ''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. ''A Christmas ...

'' (by

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

, music and lyrics by Jason Carr) -

Chichester Festival Theatre Chichester Festival Theatre is a theatre and Grade II* listed building situated in Oaklands Park in the city of Chichester, West Sussex, England. Designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, it was opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Mart ...

(2008, 2015) /

Birmingham Repertory Theatre Birmingham Repertory Theatre, commonly called Birmingham Rep or just The Rep, is a producing theatre based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England. Founded by Barry Jackson, it is the longest-established of Britain's building-based theatre ...

(2009, 2013) /

West Yorkshire Playhouse Leeds Playhouse is a theatre in the city centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire. Having originally opened in 1970 in a different location in Leeds, it reopened as West Yorkshire Playhouse, on Quarry Hill, in March 1990. After a refurbishment in 2018-20 ...

(2010) * ''

'' (by

) - National Theatre (2014) /

(2016) * '' Brighton Rock'' (by

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

) -

Pilot Theatre Pilot Theatre is an Arts Council England funded Theatre Company based in York, England. It was founded in by students from Bretton Hall College in Wakefield. The company was based in Wakefield and Castleford before moving to York in 2001. Histo ...

/ York Theatre Royal / UK tour (2018) * ''

The Lovely Bones ''The Lovely Bones'' is a 2002 novel by American writer Alice Sebold. It is the story of a teenage girl who, after being raped and murdered, watches from her personal Heaven as her family and friends struggle to move on with their lives while she ...

'' (by

Alice Sebold Alice Sebold (born September 6, 1963) is an American author. She is known for her novels ''The Lovely Bones'' and '' The Almost Moon'', and a memoir, '' Lucky''. ''The Lovely Bones'' was on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list and was adapte ...

) - Royal & Derngate, Northampton / Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse /

Northern Stage Northern Stage is a regional non-profit LORT (League of Resident Theatres)-D professional theater company located in White River Junction, VT White River Junction is an unincorporated village and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of H ...

/ New Wolsey Theatre (2018) * ''The Midnight Gang'' (by David Walliams, music and lyrics by Joe Stilgoe) -

(2018) *'' Swallows and Amazons'' (by

Arthur Ransome Arthur Michell Ransome (18 January 1884 – 3 June 1967) was an English author and journalist. He is best known for writing and illustrating the ''Swallows and Amazons'' series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of childre ...

) - Storyhouse (2018) *''The Book of Dust -

La Belle Sauvage ''La Belle Sauvage'' is a fantasy novel by Philip Pullman published in 2017. It is the first volume of a planned trilogy titled '' The Book of Dust'' and is set twelve years before Pullman's ''His Dark Materials''. It presents events prior to th ...

'' (by

Philip Pullman Sir Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman (born 19 October 1946) is an English writer. His books include the fantasy trilogy '' His Dark Materials'' and '' The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ'', a fictionalised biography of Jesus. In 2008, ''T ...

) - Bridge Theatre (2020).

References

External links

*
Bryony Lavery resume ~ United Agents Agency

* ttp://www.suttonelms.org.uk/blavery.html Bryony Lavery's radio plays br>Personal papers of Bryony Lavery held at DMU Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lavery, Bryony 1947 births Living people English women dramatists and playwrights English lesbian writers Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Place of birth missing (living people) LGBT dramatists and playwrights 20th-century English dramatists and playwrights 20th-century English women writers 21st-century British dramatists and playwrights 21st-century English women writers English biographers Women biographers Academics of the University of Birmingham 20th-century biographers English women non-fiction writers 21st-century LGBT people