Michael Gerald Hastings (2 September 1938 – 19 November 2011) was a British playwright, screenwriter, and occasional novelist and poet. He is best known for his 1984 stage play and 1994 screenplay ''

Tom & Viv ''Tom & Viv'' is a 1994 historical drama film directed by Brian Gilbert, based on the 1984 play of the same name by British playwright Michael Hastings about the early love life of American poet T. S. Eliot. The film stars Willem Dafoe, Miran ...

'', about the poet

T.S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National B ...

and his wife Vivienne Haigh-Wood.

Biography

Hastings was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, UK. His early plays – ''Don't Destroy Me'' (1956), ''Yes And After'' (1957) – reflected the influence of the

Angry Young Men The "angry young men" were a group of mostly working- and middle-class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in the 1950s. The group's leading figures included John Osborne and Kingsley Amis; other popular figures included Jo ...

movement and his brief involvement with the circle surrounding

Colin Wilson Colin Henry Wilson (26 June 1931 – 5 December 2013) was an English writer, philosopher and novelist. He also wrote widely on true crime, mysticism and the paranormal, eventually writing more than a hundred books. Wilson called his phil ...

. Hastings later enjoyed mainstream West End success with ''Gloo Joo'' (1978), a farce about a West Indian threatened with deportation from the United Kingdom, which won the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' Comedy of the Year Award in 1979. He wrote numerous stage plays, television screen plays, and in addition to the ''Tom & Viv'' film, scripts for two motion pictures, '' The American'' (1998) and ''

The Nightcomers ''The Nightcomers'' is a 1971 British horror film directed by Michael Winner and starring Marlon Brando, Stephanie Beacham, Thora Hird, Harry Andrews and Anna Palk. It is a prequel to Henry James' 1898 novella ''The Turn of the Screw'', which ...

'' (1971, based on the

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

novella ''

The Turn of the Screw ''The Turn of the Screw'' is an 1898 horror novella by Henry James which first appeared in serial format in '' Collier's Weekly'' (January 27 – April 16, 1898). In October 1898, it was collected in ''The Two Magics'', published by Macmil ...

'' and starring Marlon Brando). Hastings also wrote two

libretti A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major l ...

for Michael Nyman: '' Man and Boy: Dada'' (2003, assisted by Victoria Hardie) and '' Love Counts'' (2005). Hastings' 1950's play ''The Cutting of the Cloth'' saw its world premiere at the

Southwark Playhouse Southwark Playhouse is a theatre in London, located between Borough and Elephant and Castle tube stations. History The Southwark Playhouse Theatre Company was founded in 1993 by Juliet Alderdice and Tom Wilson. They identified the need for a ...

in London, from 11 March till 4 April 2015. The cast were Alexis Caley,

Andy de la Tour Andy de la Tour (born 1948) is an English actor and screenwriter. In films he appeared in '' Plenty'', ''Notting Hill'', the Roman Polanski's ''Oliver Twist'', ''44 Inch Chest'', and '' The Confessions'', and in television '' The Young Ones'', ...

, James El-Sharawy, Paul Rider and Abigail Thaw, directed by Tricia Thorns. Hastings published his first novel, ''The Game'' in 1957, followed by ''The Frauds''. His 1970 novel ''Tussy Is Me'' – about

Eleanor Marx Jenny Julia Eleanor Marx (16 January 1855 – 31 March 1898), sometimes called Eleanor Aveling and known to her family as Tussy, was the English-born youngest daughter of Karl Marx. She was herself a socialist activist who sometimes worked as a ...

– won him the

Somerset Maugham Award The Somerset Maugham Award is a British literary prize given each year by the Society of Authors. Set up by William Somerset Maugham in 1947 the awards enable young writers to enrich their work by gaining experience in foreign countries. The awa ...

. As a poet, he published one collection, ''Love Me, Lambeth, and Other Poems'', in 1961, and his work appeared in

Michael Horovitz Michael Yechiel Ha-Levi Horovitz (4 April 1935 – 7 July 2021) was a German-born British poet, editor, visual artist and translator who was a leading part of the Beat Poetry scene in the UK. In 1959, while still a student, he founded the "tr ...

's 1969 anthology '' Children of Albion: Poetry of the Underground in Britain''.Robert Sheppard
''The Poetry of Saying: British Poetry and Its Discontents 1950-2000''
Liverpool University Press, 2005, p. 42. Hastings died aged 73 on 19 November 2011.

Selected works

Theatre

*''Don't Destroy Me'' (1956) *''Yes And After'' (1957) *''The World's Baby'' (1964) *''For the West (Congo)'' (1965) *''Blue as His Eyes the Tin Helmet He Wore'' (1966) *''Lee Harvey Oswald: A Far Mean Streak of Independence Brought on by Negleck'' (also known as ''The Silence of Lee Harvey Oswald'') (1967) *''The Silence of Saint-Just'' (1972) *''The Cutting of the Cloth'' (written 1973) *''For the West (Uganda)'' (1977) *''Gloo Joo'' (1978) *'' Full Frontal'' (1979) *''Carnival War a Go Hot'' (1979) *''Murder Rap'' (1980) *''Midnight at the Starlight'' (1980) *''

'' (1984) *''Calico'' (2004)

Television

*''Gloo Joo'' (1979)

Books

;Fiction *''The Game'' (1957) *''The Frauds'' (1960) *''Tussy Is Me'' (1970) *''

'' (1971; based on his own screenplay) *''And in the Forest the Indians'' (1975) *''Bart's Mornings and Other Tales of Modern Brazil'' (1975) (short stories) ;Non-fiction *'' Rupert Brooke: The Handsomest Young Man in England'' (1967) *'' Sir Richard Burton: A Biography'' (1978) ;Poetry * ''Love Me, Lambeth, and Other Poems'' (1961)

References

External links

*
Michael Hastings Papers
at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

Profile at Doollee.com
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hastings, Michael 1938 births 2011 deaths 20th-century English dramatists and playwrights 20th-century English male writers People educated at Alleyn's School English screenwriters English male screenwriters People from Brixton English male dramatists and playwrights