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British Playwrights Since 1950
This is a list of British dramatists who wrote their plays in the 1950s or later. A–G *Michael Abbensetts * Rodney Ackland * Jim Allen *Karim Alrawi * Jeffrey Archer * John Arden *Alan Ayckbourn * Enid Bagnold * John Roman Baker *Howard Barker * Peter Barnes * Mike Bartlett * Richard Bean * Alistair Beaton * Alan Bennett *Steven Berkoff *Tess Berry-Hart * Torben Betts * Alice Birch *Alan Bleasdale * Robert Bolt *Edward Bond * Leslie Bonnet * John Griffith Bowen *Howard Brenton * Jon Brittain *Moira Buffini *Gregory Burke *Margaret Busby * Leo Butler * Jez Butterworth *Glyn Cannon * Jim Cartwright * James Martin Charlton * Jimmy Chinn *Caryl Churchill * Ray Cooney *Noël Coward * Martin Crimp *Patricia Cumper * Sarah Daniels * April De Angelis * Shelagh Delaney * William Douglas-Home *Stuart Draper * Nell Dunn * David Edgar * David Eldridge * Inua Ellams * Ben Elton * Kevin Elyot * Tim Firth * Michael Frayn * Terence Frisby * Christopher Fry * Pam Gems *Juliet Gilkes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Abbensetts
Michael John Abbensetts (8 June 1938 – 24 November 2016)Michelle Yaa Asantewa Way Wive Wordz, 25 November 2016. was a Guyana-born British writer who settled in England in the 1960s. He had been described as "the best Black playwright to emerge from his generation, and as having given "Caribbeans a real voice in Britain". He was the first black British playwright commissioned to write a television drama series, ''Empire Road'', which the BBC aired from 1978 to 1979.Michael Coveney"Michael Abbensetts obituary" ''The Guardian'', 20 November 2016. Early years Born in Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana), the son of Neville John (a doctor) and Elaine Abbensetts, Michael Abbensetts attended Queen's College from 1952 to 1956, then Stanstead College, Quebec, Canada, and Sir George Williams University, in Montreal (1960–61), before moving to England "around 1963".Michelle Stoby, "Black British Drama After ''Empire Road'': An interview with Michael Abbensetts", ''Wasafiri'', Iss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torben Betts
Torben Betts (born 10 February 1968, in Stamford, Lincolnshire) is an English playwright, screenwriter and actor. Betts attended the University of Liverpool, where he read English Literature and English Language, and originally trained to become an actor but later changed course to begin writing plays. Betts stated that part of the reason for this transition was the difficulty he faced as an actor without an agent and that playwriting allowed him to "exercise all my instincts as an actor without actually having to live the life". In 1999 Alan Ayckbourn invited him to be the resident dramatist at Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre. ''A Listening Heaven'' premiered there that year before a second production took place at the Edinburgh Royal Lyceum in 2001. The play was nominated as the TMA Best New play that year. During this period Betts was enjoying success on the London fringe at the Battersea Arts Centre with plays like ''Incarcerator'', a drama in rhyming couplets and '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jez Butterworth
Jeremy "Jez" Butterworth (born March 1969) is an English playwright, screenwriter, and film director. He has written screenplays in collaboration with his brothers, John-Henry and Tom. Life and career In March 1969, Butterworth was born in London, England. He has three brothers: older brothers Tom (born 1966) and Steve (born 1968); and younger brother John-Henry (born 1976). He also has a sister, Joanna. He attended Verulam Comprehensive School, St Albans and St John's College, Cambridge. All the brothers have been active in film and theatre: Steve is a producer, while Tom and John-Henry are writers. Butterworth's play '' Mojo'', which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 1995, won the 1996 Laurence Olivier, ''Evening Standard'', The Writer's Guild, and the George Devine awards, and the Critic's Circle Award. Butterworth also wrote and directed the film adaptation of ''Mojo'' (1997). The film featured Harold Pinter. Butterworth has said that Harold Pinter, 2005 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leo Butler
Leo Butler (born 1974 in Sheffield) is a British playwright. His plays have been staged, among others, by the Royal Court, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Almeida Theatre. His plays have been published by Bloomsbury A & C Black. His 2001 play Redundant won the George Devine Award. Between 2005 and 2014 he was Playwriting Tutor for the Royal Court Young Writers Programme. Plays *'' Made of Stone'' (2000) premiered as part of the Young Writers' Festival at Royal Court Theatre, directed by Deborah Bruce *'' Redundant'' (2001) premiered at Royal Court Theatre, directed by Dominic Cooke *''Devotion'' (2002) produced by Theatre Centre premiered at Redbridge Drama Centre, directed by Liam Steel *''Lucky Dog'' (2004) premiered at Royal Court Theatre, directed by James Macdonald *''The Early Bird'' (2006) premiered at Queen's Theatre in the Belfast Festival, directed by Rachel O'Riordan *''Heroes'' (2007) premiered by touring with the National Theatre, directed by Samantha P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Busby
Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's youngest and first black female book publisherJazzmine Breary"Let's not forget" in ''Writing the Future: Black and Asian Writers and Publishers in the UK Market Place'', Spread the Word, April 2013, p. 30. when she and Clive Allison (1944–2011) co-founded Margaret Busby"Clive Allison obituary" ''The Guardian'', 3 August 2011. the London-based publishing house Allison and Busby (A & B) in the 1960s. She edited the anthology '' Daughters of Africa'' (1992), and its 2019 follow-up '' New Daughters of Africa''. She is a recipient of the Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature.Natasha Onwuemezi"Busby to compile anthology of African women writers" '' The Bookseller'', 15 December 2017. In 2020 she was voted one of the " 100 Great Black Britons". [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gregory Burke
Gregory Burke (born 1968) is a Scottish playwright and screenwriter from Rosyth, Fife. Early life and education Burke's family moved to Gibraltar in 1979 and returned to Dunfermline in 1984. He attended St John's Primary in Rosyth, St Christopher's Middle School and Bayside Comprehensive in Gibraltar, and St Columba's High School, Dunfermline. He attended the University of Stirling for two years before dropping out. Works Burke's first play was '' Gagarin Way'', set in the factories of West Fife. His play ''Black Watch'', for the National Theatre of Scotland, debuted at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, meeting with critical acclaim. ''Black Watch'' has since been performed throughout Scotland and has also toured theatres internationally. Burke has also written ''Occy Eyes'', ''The Straits'', ''Unsecured'', ''On Tour'', ''Liar'', and ''Shell Shocked''. His most recent play was ''Hoors'', which opened at the Traverse Theatre on 1 May 2009. Controversy Burke's time at St ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moira Buffini
Moira Buffini (born 29 May 1965) is an English dramatist, director, and actor. Early life Buffini was born in Cheshire to Irish parents, and attended St Mary's College at Rhos-on-Sea in Wales as a day girl. She studied English and Drama at Goldsmiths College, London University (1983–86).http://www.proscenium.org.uk/productions/assets/0306-dinner/programme.pdf She subsequently trained as an actor at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff. Career For ''Jordan'', co-written with Anna Reynolds in 1992, she won a Time Out Award for her performance and Writers' Guild Award for Best Fringe play. Her 1997 play ''Gabriel'' was performed at Soho theatre, winning the LWT Plays on Stage award and the Meyer-Whitworth Award. Her 1999 play '' Silence'' earned Buffini the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for best English-language play by a woman. ''Loveplay'' followed at the RSC in 2001, then ''Dinner'' at the National Theatre in 2003 which transferred to the West End and wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jon Brittain
Jon Brittain (born May 1987) is an Olivier Award-winning playwright, comedy writer and director who was born in Chester in the northwest of England and grew up in the Netherlands. He graduated from the University of East Anglia with a BA in 2008. His play ''Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...'' received its world premiere at Theatre503 in October 2015 and subsequently received an Off West End Award nomination for Best New Play. Previously he co-wrote and directed the hit show ''Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho'', starring Matt Tedford. He also directed stand-up comedian John Kearns's Fosters' Award winning shows ''Sight Gags for Perverts'' and ''Shtick''. References External links * https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYKdkHQ5xxlEBA222w_vVTQ {{DEFAUL ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Brenton
Howard John Brenton FRSL (born 13 December 1942) is an English playwright and screenwriter. While little-known in the United States, he is celebrated in his home country and often ranked alongside contemporaries such as Edward Bond, Caryl Churchill, and David Hare. Early years Brenton was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, son of policeman (later Methodist minister) Donald Henry Brenton and his wife Rose Lilian (née Lewis). He was educated at Chichester High School For Boys and read English Literature at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. In 1964 he was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal for Poetry.ADC Theatre Archives, Cambridge. While at Cambridge he wrote a play, ''Ladder of Fools'' which was performed at the ADC Theatre as a double bill with "Hello-Goodbye Sebastian" by John Grillo in April 1965, and at the Oxford Playhouse in June of that year. It was described by Eric Shorter of ''The Daily Telegraph'' as "Actable, gripping, murky and moody: how often can you say that o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Griffith Bowen
John Griffith Bowen (5 November 1924 – 18 April 2019) was a British playwright and novelist. Early life John Bowen was born in Calcutta, India, to Ethel (née Cook) and Hugh Bowen; his father was the manager of the Shalimar Print Works in Gobariah. John Bowen's grandfather was an Inspector of Police in Calcutta. At the age of five and a half he was placed on a boat in Bombay and sent back to Britain where he was brought up by his uncle Donald and aunt Dolly in Whitehaven. Bowen was sent to board at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Crediton in Devon, where he developed an interest in literature and drama. In 1939, his mother returned to England with her three younger children, Patricia (b. 1926) and twins Daphne and David (b. 1930), and rented a house near Crediton. In 1940, having read about the bombing of Britain in ''The Times of India'', Bowen's father sent a cable to his wife saying "Bring the children out", though no bombs had fallen in or near Crediton. The whole family ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leslie Bonnet
Group Captain Leslie Bonnet (22 August 1902 – 10 December 1985) was an RAF officer, short-story writer and duck-breeder, creating the Welsh Harlequin Duck, the only true Welsh duck breed. Early life Bonnet was born 1902 in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. His father was a bank manager in London's Chancery Lane; his mother was one of the Dudleys, a Staffordshire farming family"Pa-na-ta of ducks and drakes", by J.C. Griffith Jones. WESTERN MAIL, June 1961. He succeeded in winning a scholarship to Watford Boys Grammar School, from where he proceeded to St Catharine's College, Cambridge University, in 1920. He studied English and Law, obtaining a double first in 1923. In the depressed 1920s, graduates were a glut on the market and he took a job selling "Watford" chocolates in Norfolk. He also stood as a Liberal parliamentary candidate in Watford but lost by a small number of votes. Pre-war years Bonnet worked for the Bank of England for 15 years. In 1928, he married his firs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Bond
Edward Bond (born 18 July 1934) is an English playwright, theatre director, poet, theorist and screenwriter. He is the author of some fifty plays, among them '' Saved'' (1965), the production of which was instrumental in the abolition of theatre censorship in the UK. Other well-received works include '' Narrow Road to the Deep North'' (1968), ''Lear'' (1971), ''The Sea'' (1973), ''The Fool'' (1975), ''Restoration'' (1981), and the ''War'' trilogy (1985). Bond is broadly considered among the major living dramatists but he has always been and remains highly controversial because of the violence shown in his plays, the radicalism of his statements about modern theatre and society, and his theories on drama. Early life Edward Bond was born on 18 July 1934 into a lower-working-class family in Holloway, North London. As a child during World War II he was evacuated to the countryside but was present during the bombings on London in 1940 and 1944. This early exposure to the v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
