Mark Doyle, better known by his stage name Louis Nowra, (born 12 December 1950) is an Australian writer, playwright, screenwriter and librettist. He is best known as one of Australia's leading playwrights. His works have been performed by all of Australia's major theatre companies, including

Sydney Theatre Company Sydney Theatre Company (STC) is an Australian theatre company based in Sydney, New South Wales. The company performs in The Wharf Theatre at Dawes Point in The Rocks area of Sydney, as well as the Roslyn Packer Theatre (formerly Sydney Thea ...

Melbourne Theatre Company The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1953 as the Union Theatre Repertory Company at the Union Theatre at the University of Melbourne, it is the oldest professional theatre com ...

State Theatre Company of South Australia The State Theatre Company of South Australia (STCSA), branded State Theatre Company South Australia, formerly the South Australian Theatre Company (SATC), is South Australia's leading professional theatre company, and a statutory corporation. I ...

, Belvoir, and many others, and have also had many international productions. His most significant plays are '' Così'', ''

Radiance In radiometry, radiance is the radiant flux emitted, reflected, transmitted or received by a given surface, per unit solid angle per unit projected area. Radiance is used to characterize diffuse emission and reflection of electromagnetic radiati ...

'' (both of which he turned into films), '' Byzantine Flowers'', '' Summer of the Aliens'' and '' The Golden Age''. In 2006 he completed ''The Boyce Trilogy'' for

Griffin Theatre Company Griffin Theatre Company is an Australian theatre specialising in new works, based in Sydney. Founded in 1979, it is the resident theatre company at the SBW Stables Theatre in Kings Cross. the artistic director is Declan Green. Artistic direc ...

, consisting of ''

The Woman with Dog's Eyes ''The Woman with Dog's Eyes'' is a play by the Australian writer Louis Nowra. It is the first part of the ''Boyce trilogy'' written for the Griffin Theatre Company at the behest of its Artistic Director David Berthold. The other two plays are ''Th ...

'', ''

The Marvellous Boy ''The Marvellous Boy'' is a play by Australian playwright Louis Nowra, the second part of the Boyce trilogy. It is set in Sydney, particularly in Kings Cross, New South Wales, Kings Cross. It was first performed at the SWB Stables on 13 October ...

'' and ''

The Emperor of Sydney ''The Emperor of Sydney'' is a play by Australian playwright Louis Nowra, the third part of the Boyce trilogy following '' The Woman with Dog's Eyes'' and '' The Marvellous Boy''. The play is a single continuous scene set at night in the living r ...

''. His 2009 novel ''Ice'' was shortlisted for the

Miles Franklin Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin (1879–1 ...

. His script for 1996 movie ''Cosi'', which revolves around a group of mentally ill patients who put on a play, won the Australian Film Institute Award that year for Best Adapted Screenplay. Nowra's work as a scriptwriter also includes a credit on the comedy ''

The Matchmaker ''The Matchmaker'' is a 1954 play by Thornton Wilder, a rewritten version of his 1938 play ''The Merchant of Yonkers''. History The play has a long and colorful history. John Oxenford's 1835 one-act farce ''A Day Well Spent'' had been extend ...

'' and the Vincent Ward romance '' Map of the Human Heart'', which was invited to the Cannes Film Festival. His radio plays include ''

Albert Names Edward Albert may refer to: Companies * Albert (supermarket), a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic * Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands * Albert Market, a street market in The Gambia * Albert Productions, a record label * Albert C ...

'', ''The Song Room'', ''The Widows'' and the five part ''The Divine Hammer'', which aired on the ABC in 2003. He has written two memoirs, ''The Twelfth of Never'' (1999) and ''Shooting the Moon'' (2004). In March 2007, Nowra published a controversial book on violence in Aboriginal communities, ''

Bad Dreaming Bad or BAD may refer to: Common meanings *Evil, the opposite of moral good * Erroneous, inaccurate or incorrect *Unhealthy, or counter to well-being * Antagonist, the threat or obstacle of moral good Acronyms * BAD-2, a Soviet armored trolley ...

''. He was also one of the principal writers for the multi award-winning 2008 SBS TV series, '' First Australians''. Nowra is also a cultural commentator, with essays and commentary appearing regularly in ''

The Monthly ''The Monthly'' is an Australian national magazine of politics, society and the arts, which is published eleven times per year on a monthly basis except the December/January issue. Founded in 2005, it is published by Melbourne property developer ...

'' and the '' Australian Literary Review'' as well as major newspapers. He has been married three times, and is bisexual, having had relationships with men as well.

Biography

Nowra was born Mark DoyleNational Library of Australia
Guide to the Papers of Louis Nowra, MS 10042
Retrieved 26 April 2014 in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

, to the second of his mother's three husbands. His birthdays were never celebrated with parties when he was growing up, and he could never quite understand why. His mother told him as a boy that he would hear stories about her having killed a man, but he was not to believe any version but her own, which she would not reveal until his 21st birthday. His sister later told him that their mother had killed her own father, their grandfather. On his 21st birthday, 12 December 1971, his mother confirmed this, and revealed that it had occurred on 12 December 1945, exactly five years before he was born, which was why there were no celebrations of his own birthday. His mother was charged with murder but acquitted on the ground of extreme provocation after years of alcohol-fuelled violence. She in turn was abusive towards her own son, often telling him he was stupid and worthless, making him walk down the street in his sister's dresses as a punishment, and telling him he was "behind the door when looks were given out". His father was also abusive when he was around, but he was an interstate truck driver who was not often home. His mother has not seen, heard or read any of his work, and he has had almost no contact with her since he left Melbourne. He has had no contact with his father at all. He developed an early love of theatre through his uncle Bob Herbert (or Bob Herbert-Hay), a stage manager for J. C. Williamson's productions. In his early teens he realised he was bisexual. In early adulthood he had a series of same-sex encounters. In the early 1970s he walked out of his Australian literature studies at Melbourne's

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria a ...

. The subject of a tutorial was

Patrick White Patrick Victor Martindale White (28 May 1912 – 30 September 1990) was a British-born Australian writer who published 12 novels, three short-story collections, and eight plays, from 1935 to 1987. White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, ...

's novel ''

The Tree of Man ''The Tree of Man'' is the fourth published novel by the Australian novelist and 1973 Nobel Prize-winner, Patrick White. It is a domestic drama chronicling the lives of the Parker family and their changing fortunes over many decades. It is ste ...

''. Nowra stood up, said he thought it was dreadful, walked out and never returned to finish his degree. He later had a difficult personal relationship with Patrick White. White championed Nowra's early work (''Visions'', ''Inside the Island''), even taking out a paid advertisement in ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' when they refused to publish his letter admonishing the theatre critic

H. G. Kippax Harold ("Harry") Gemmell Kippax AO, better known as H. G. Kippax (6 October 192012 August 1999)

, who had been negative about the plays. But Nowra never liked White's work. White could also be very negative about Nowra. He attended the premiere of Nowra's translation of Rostand's ''

Cyrano de Bergerac Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac ( , ; 6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duelist. A bold and innovative author, his work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the 17th cen ...

'', but left the auditorium before the start because he thought, sight unseen, it would be uninteresting. His partner Manoly Lascaris refused to leave, so White sat out the performance in the foyer. Nowra had a similarly challenging relationship with the actress

Judy Davis Judith Davis (born 23 April 1955) is an Australian actress in film, television, and on stage. With a career spanning over 40 years, she has been commended for her versatility and regarded as one of the finest actresses of her generation. Frequen ...

, who appeared in some of his plays. Nowra considered both White and Davis had personalities that combined self-loathing, narcissism, ruthlessness and haughty egos."Louis Nowra: Patrick, Judy and me", edited extract from '' Shooting the Moon'', Weekend Australian magazine, 24–25 July 2004, pp.18–21 His first plays were written at La Mama Theatre in Melbourne in 1973. Soon after abandoning his university degree, he got into his car one day and decided to drive north, as far away from his parents as possible, but without any clear destination. He reached the NSW coastal town of

Nowra Nowra is a city in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It is located south-southwest of the state capital of Sydney (about as the crow flies). As of the 2021 census, Nowra has an estimated population of 22,584. Situated in t ...

, when his car broke down. He had already decided to abandon his birth name, and chose Nowra because of this enforced stop. He worked in several jobs and lived an itinerant lifestyle until the mid-1970s, when his plays began to attract attention. Since this time he has lived in Sydney, mainly in Kings Cross. In late 1974 he married the composer Sarah de Jong;Kelly, Victoria, ed
''Louis Nowra'', p. 41
Retrieved 26 April 2014 they co-wrote some of the music for his stage works. In 1976 they lived in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

, Germany for six months. They divorced ten years later, after he had an affair with her best female friend. During his marriage to de Jong, he was resident playwright of the

in 1979–1980, and Associate Director at

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

's Lighthouse Theatre in 1982–1983. He also appeared in the 1988 Australian film ''

The Everlasting Secret Family ''The Everlasting Secret Family'' is a 1988 Australian film directed by Michael Thornhill about a secret society of gay men. It was based on Frank Moorhouse's so-named collection of four short stories published in 1980. The movie was financed ...

'' as a shop assistant, his only film acting role. He engaged in a number of gay relationships for some time, before marrying his second wife, television presenter Gerri Williams, at the Soho Bar in Kings Cross, in early 1997. It was attended by the

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (SPI), also called Order of Perpetual Indulgence (OPI) is a charity, protest, and street performance organization that uses drag and religious imagery to call attention to sexual intolerance and satirizes issue ...

.Burke, Kelly, "That was then, this is Nowra", ''Sydney Morning Herald'', 13 November 1999, Spectrum, p. 3s He married his third and current wife, the author

Mandy Sayer Mandy Sayer (born 1963) is an Australian novelist and narrative non-fiction writer. She was born in 1963 in the Sydney suburb of Marrickville, the third of three children. She began writing poetry and stories at the age of six. Her parents separ ...

, in 2003. They had worked together when they co-edited the anthology ''In the Gutter ... Looking at the Stars'' in 2000. They have separate homes not far from each other, in which their daytime writing activities are conducted, and they come together in the evening. In February 2014 they were named joint holders of the 2014 Copyright Agency Non-Fiction Writer-in-Residence at the

University of Technology, Sydney The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is a public university, public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Although its origins are said to trace back to the 1830s, the university was founded in its current form ...

.UTS Newsroom, 21 February 2014
"Leading literary duo appointed to UTS residency"
Retrieved 26 April 2014 Nowra's plays are studied in Veronica Kelly's work ''The Theatre of Louis Nowra''.

Awards

* 1990 – Prix Italia award, for the radio play ''Summer of the Aliens'' * 1992 – Winner of the NSW Premier's Literary Prize for the play ''Cosi'' * 1994 – Winner of Victoria Premier's, Louis Esson Prize for Drama for ''The Temple'' * 1994 – Australian Literary Society Gold Medal for ''Radiance'' and ''The Temple'' * 1994 – The Australia/Canada Award * 1995 –

Green Room Award The Green Room Awards are peer awards which recognise excellence in cabaret, dance, drama, fringe theatre, musical theatre and opera in Melbourne. The awards were started in 1982 when Blair Edgar and Steven Tandy formed the Green Room Awards A ...

for Best New Play * 1996 – Honorary Doctorate – Griffith University, 1996 * 1996 –

Australian Film Institute The Australian Film Institute (AFI) was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry. It is responsi ...

Award – Best Adapted Screenplay for ''Cosi'' * 1999 – Nominated for

Best New Australian Play for ''Language of the Gods'' * 2000 – Nominated for

New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, t ...

for ''The Twelfth of Never'' * 2000 – Courier-Mail Book of The Year for ''The Twelfth of Never'' * 2009 – Shortlisted for the

for ''Ice''. * 2009 – '' First Australians'': Logie Award: Outstanding Documentary or Documentary Series * 2009 – ''First Australians'':

Script Writing Award for Louis Nowra, Rachel Perkins and Beck Cole * 2009 – ''First Australians'':

Australian Writers' Guild The Australian Writers' Guild (AWG) is the professional association for Australian performance writers for film, television, radio, theatre, video and new media. The AWG was established in 1962. The AWG is a member of the Australian Council o ...

Award: Outstanding Writing in a Documentary (Episode 1) for Louis Nowra and Rachel Perkins * 2013 – Patrick White Literary Award

Works

Plays

*''Kiss The One-Eyed Priest'' (1973) *''Death of Joe Orton'' (1974) *''Inner Voices'' (Currency Press, 1977) *''The Lady of the Camellias'' (1979) *''Visions'' (Currency Press, 1979) *''Beauty and the Beast'' (1980) *''Cyrano De Bergerac'' (1980; translation of

Edmond Rostand Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand (, , ; 1 April 1868 – 2 December 1918) was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism and is known best for his 1897 play '' Cyrano de Bergerac''. Rostand's romantic plays contrasted with ...

's French play) *''Inside The Island'' (Currency Press, 1981) *''The Precious Woman'' (Currency Press, 1981) *''Lulu'' (1981; adapted from

Frank Wedekind Benjamin Franklin Wedekind (July 24, 1864 – March 9, 1918) was a German playwright. His work, which often criticizes bourgeois attitudes (particularly towards sex), is considered to anticipate expressionism and was influential in the deve ...

's Earth Spirit and

Pandora's Box Pandora's box is an artifact in Greek mythology connected with the myth of Pandora in Hesiod's c. 700 B.C. poem ''Works and Days''. Hesiod reported that curiosity led her to open a container left in the care of her husband, thus releasing physi ...

) *''The Prince of Homburg'' (1982) *''Royal Show'' (1982) *''Spellbound'' (1982) *''Sunrise'' (Currency Press, 1983) *''Albert Names Edward'' (Currency Press, 1983) *'' The Golden Age'' (Currency Press, 1985) *''The Song Room'' (Editions Rodopi, 1987) *''Capricornia'' (Currency Press, 1988; adapted from

Xavier Herbert Xavier Herbert (born Alfred Jackson; 15 May 190110 November 1984) was an Australian writer best known for his Miles Franklin Award-winning novel '' Poor Fellow My Country'' (1975). He was considered one of the elder statesmen of Australian lite ...

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...

) *''Byzantine Flowers'' (1989) *''Watchtower'' (1990) *'' Summer of the Aliens'' (Currency Press, 1992) *'' Così'' (Currency Press, 1992) *''

'' (1993) *''The Temple'' (1993) *''Crow'' (1994) *''Incorruptible'' (Currency Press, 1995) *''Jungle'' (1995) *''Miss Bosnia'' (1995) *''Language of the Gods'' (Currency Press, 1999) *''Beatrice'' (2003) *''Devil Is A Woman'' (2004) * Boyce Trilogy: ** ''

'' (2004) ** ''

'' (2005) ** ''

'' (2006) * ''Page 8'' (2006) * ''This Much Is True'' (2017)

Non-fiction writing

*''The Cheated'' (Angus & Robertson, Australia, 1979) *''Warne's World'' (Duffy & Snellgrove, Australia, 2002) *''Bad Dreaming'' (Pluto Press, Australia, 2007) *''Kings Cross: A Biography'' (NewSouth Publishing, Australia, 2013) *''Woolloomooloo: A Biography'' (NewSouth Publishing, Australia, 2017)

Novels

*''The Misery of Beauty'' (Angus & Robertson, Australia, 1976) *''Palu'' (Picador, Australia, 1987) *''Red Nights'' (Picador, Australia, 1997) *''Abaza'' (Picador, Australia, 2001) *'' Ice'' (Allen & Unwin, 2008) *''Into That Forest'' (Allen & Unwin, 2012)

Memoirs

*''The Twelfth of Never'' (Picador, Australia, 1999) *''Shooting the Moon'' (Picador, Australia, 2004)

Screenwriting

*''

Displaced Persons Forced displacement (also forced migration) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The UNHCR defines 'forced displacement' as follows: displaced "as a result of persecution, conflict, g ...

'' (1985) (TV film) *''

Hunger In politics, humanitarian aid, and the social sciences, hunger is defined as a condition in which a person does not have the physical or financial capability to eat sufficient food to meet basic Human nutrition, nutritional needs for a sustaine ...

'' (1986) *'' The Lizard King'' (1986) *'' The Last Resort'' (TV series, 1988) *'' Map of the Human Heart'' (1992) *'' Heaven's Burning'' (1997) *''

'' (associate producer/writer, 1998) *

Twisted Tales ''Twisted Tales'' was a horror comics anthology published by Pacific Comics and, later, Eclipse Comics, in the early 1980s. The title was edited by Bruce Jones and April Campbell. Publication history ''Twisted Tales'' was published on a bi-mon ...

''Directly From My Heart to You'' (1996) *''

'' (screenplay, 1997) *'' Così'' (screenplay, 1997) *'' K-19: The Widowmaker'' (2002) *''

Black and White Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

'' (2002) *'' Rain of the Children'' (additional dialogue, 2008)

Libretti

*''Inner Voices''

Victorian State Opera Victorian Opera is an opera company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The company was founded in 2005 by the Victorian Government as a replacement for the Victoria State Opera. It commenced operations in January 2006 with Richard Gill ...

, 1978 * ''Whitsunday''

Opera Australia Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House accompanied by the Opera Australia Orchestra runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder ...

, 1988 * ''Love Burns'' Seymour Group, 1992

Adelaide Festival of Arts The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

* ''On the Beach'' Victorian Arts Centre Rio Tinto Grant 2000 * '' Midnight Son'', Victorian Opera 2012

Anthologies

* ''In the Gutter ... Looking at the Stars: A Literary Adventure Through Kings Cross'' (2000; ed. Louis Nowra, Mandy Sayer)

Essays

Nowra has also published a number of essays: *, ''

'', December 2009 – January 2010, pp. 44–52. *,''

'', February 2010, pp. 22–29 *, ''

'', March 2010, pp. 40–46.

References

External links

ABC
Transcript of interview with

Ramona Koval Ramona Koval (born 1954, Melbourne) is an Australian broadcaster, writer and journalist. Her parents were Yiddish-speaking survivors of The Holocaust who arrived in Melbourne from Poland in 1950. Koval is known for her extended and in-depth in ...

, ''

The Book Show Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors a ...

'',

Radio National Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors a ...

, on his novel ''Ice'', 27/11/08
Louis Nowra Australian theatre credits
at

AusStage AusStage: The Australian Live Performance Database is an online database which records information about live performances in Australia, providing records of productions from the first recorded performance in Australia (1789, by convicts) up unt ...

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.html" ;"title="ideorecording">"Louis Nowra interviewed by Veronica Kelly & producer Gary McFeat, 1985 [videorecording
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''State Library of New South Wales Catalogue.'' Retrieved 31 May 2018.
"Item 1: Louis Nowra interviewed by Martin Portus, 21 November 2017"
''State Library of New South Wales Catalogue.'' Retrieved 31 May 2018.
"Item 2: Louis Nowra interviewed by Martin Portus, 24 November 2017"
''State Library of New South Wales Catalogue.'' Retrieved 31 May 2018. {{DEFAULTSORT:Nowra, Louis Living people 1950 births Australian screenwriters Australian memoirists Australian musical theatre librettists Bisexual writers Australian LGBT writers People from Melbourne Australian opera librettists Australian male novelists 20th-century Australian novelists 20th-century Australian dramatists and playwrights Australian male screenwriters ALS Gold Medal winners Australian male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Australian male writers Male non-fiction writers