Andrea Dunbar
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Andrea Dunbar (22 May 1961 – 20 December 1990) was an English playwright. She wrote ''The Arbor'' (1980) and ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'' (1982), an autobiographical drama about the sexual adventures of teenage girls living in a run-down part of
Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...
, West Yorkshire. She wrote most of the adaptation for the film ''
Rita, Sue and Bob Too ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'' is a 1987 British comedy-drama film directed by Alan Clarke and starring Michelle Holmes, Siobhan Finneran, George Costigan, and Lesley Sharp. Set in Bradford, West Yorkshire, the film is about two teenage schoolg ...
'' (1987).


Early life

Born on 22 May 1961, Dunbar was raised on Brafferton Arbor on the
Buttershaw Buttershaw is a residential area of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It is bounded by Horton Bank Top to the north, Wibsey to the east, Woodside to the south and Shelf to the west. Buttershaw consists mostly of 1940s council housing with t ...
council estate Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council housing or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011, when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in social housing. D ...
in
Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...
, England, with seven brothers and sisters. Both her parents had worked in the
textile industry The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, production and distribution of textiles: yarn, cloth and clothing. Industry process Cotton manufacturing Cotton is the world's most important natural fibre. In the year 2007, th ...
. Dunbar attended Buttershaw Comprehensive School.
"When 15-year-old Andrea Dunbar failed to bring in the ingredients for a domestic science lesson, her punishment was to spend her lunchtime writing the words ‘Why I Don’t Like Cookery’. What Andrea wrote instead was a witty essay on how baking buns was a middle-class pursuit and joints of meat were more practical for big families on Buttershaw estate. 'When the essay was passed around the staffroom, to howls of laughter, head of drama Tony Priestley was astonished at what he saw,' wrote
Adelle Stripe Adelle Stripe (born 1976) is an English writer and journalist. Work Stripe's writing is rooted in the non-fiction novel form and explores working-class culture, untold histories of Northern England, popular music, and small-town life. ''Bl ...
in her acclaimed novel ''Black Teeth And A Brilliant Smile''. 'It was obvious to him that she had a gift for saying the right thing. And she was funny. He asked if she’d like to join his class. What happened over coming months would change Andrea’s life forever.'"


Career

Dunbar began her first play, ''The Arbor'', in 1977 at the age of 15, writing it as a classroom assignment for CSE English, "in green biro on pages torn from a school exercise book". It is the story of "a Bradford schoolgirl who falls pregnant to her Pakistani boyfriend on a racist estate," and has an abusive drunken father. Encouraged by her teacher, she was helped to develop the play to performance standard. It received its première in 1980 at London's
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 West End theatre#London's non-commercial theatres, non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, London, England, opene ...
, directed by
Max Stafford-Clark Maxwell Robert Guthrie Stewart "Max" Stafford-Clark (born 17 March 1941) is a British theatre director. Life and career Stafford-Clark was born in Cambridge, the son of David Stafford-Clark, a physician, and Dorothy Crossley (née Oldfield). H ...
. At the age of 18, Dunbar was the youngest playwright to have her work performed there. Alongside a play entered by Lucy Anderson Jones, ''The Arbor'' jointly won at the Young Writers' Festival, and was later augmented and performed in New York City. On 26 March 1980, she was featured in the BBC's ''
Arena An arena is a large enclosed venue, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, Music, musical performances or Sport, sporting events. It comprises a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for specta ...
'' arts documentary series. Dunbar was quickly commissioned to write a follow-up play, ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'', first performed in 1982, with
Tracey Ullman Tracey Ullman (born Trace Ullman; 30 December 1959) is a British-American actress, singer, dancer, screenwriter, producer, and director. Despite being frequently referred to as a comedian, Ullman considers herself a character actress. Critics h ...
. This explores similar themes to ''The Arbor'' through the lives of two teenage girls who are having affairs with the same married man. Dunbar's third and final play, ''Shirley'' (1986), places greater emphasis on a central character. It depicts a girl's "tumultuous relationship" with her mother. As she explained, she meant to write "about Shirley and John but, you know, I wrote the mother in and she bloody took over the whole play." The film version of ''
Rita, Sue and Bob Too ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'' is a 1987 British comedy-drama film directed by Alan Clarke and starring Michelle Holmes, Siobhan Finneran, George Costigan, and Lesley Sharp. Set in Bradford, West Yorkshire, the film is about two teenage schoolg ...
'' (1987) was adapted for the cinema by Dunbar, directed by
Alan Clarke Alan John Clarke (28 October 1935 – 24 July 1990) was an English television and film director, producer and writer. Life and career Clarke was born on 28 October 1935, in Wallasey. Most of Clarke's output was for television rather than cin ...
and filmed on the Buttershaw estate. Dunbar disowned the film when more writers were brought in to give it a happier ending. However, it created considerable controversy on the estate because of its negative portrayal of the area. Dunbar was threatened by several residents, but nevertheless continued to live there. In 2010 a commemorative
blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...
on Dunbar's former home on Brafferton Arbor was unveiled in the presence of her relatives.


Personal life

Dunbar first became pregnant at the age of 15; the baby was stillborn at six months. Gardner, Lyn (4 July 1998)
"Born to Write and Die"
''The Guardian''; via artangel.org.uk.
She later had three children by three different fathers. The first, Lorraine Dunbar, was born in 1979, and had a Pakistani father. A year later, in 1980, Lisa was born, again while Dunbar was still a teenager.Allen, Liam (22 October 2010)
"The Arbor: In the footsteps of Rita, Sue and Bob"
''BBC News''.
About three years later, she had a son, Andrew, with Jim Wheeler. As a single mother, Dunbar, spent 18 months in a refuge for battered women, living in a
Women's Aid Women's Aid Federation of England, commonly called Women's Aid within England, is one of a group of charities across the United Kingdom. There are four main Women's Aid Federations, 3 for each of the countries of the United Kingdom, and one for t ...
refuge in
Keighley Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford. Keighley is north-west of Bradford, n ...
and became an increasingly heavy drinker.
"One day she was sat on a bar stool in the ''Cap n' Bells'' pub when someone she knew dragged her off the stool by her hair and threw her to the floor and then walked out."
"Having complained of headaches for weeks, she collapsed in her local pub and could not be revived."
In 1990, she died of a
brain haemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as hemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain (i.e. the parenchyma), into its ventricles, or into both. An ICH is a type of bleeding within the skull and one kind of stro ...
in Bradford Royal Infirmary at the age of 29, after falling ill in ''The Beacon'', a pub on the Buttershaw Estate, at the junction of Reevy Road West and The Crescent. It was closed in 2016 and demolished in 2019, but appears in the opening shot of ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too''. Her cremated remains were buried at Scholemoor Cemetery and Crematorium (Section N, Grave 1219) in Bradford. Her headstone is a small black granite cross. In 2007, her eldest daughter Lorraine Dunbar, a heroin addict at the time, was convicted of
manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...
and jailed for three years, for causing the death of her child by gross neglect after the child ingested a lethal dose of
methadone Methadone, sold under the brand names Dolophine and Methadose among others, is a synthetic opioid used medically to treat chronic pain and opioid use disorder. Prescribed for daily use, the medicine relieves cravings and opioid withdrawal sym ...
."Tribeca '10 , Clio Barnard's 'The Arbor' Defies Categorization"
''Indiewire'', 15 April 2010,
In January 2018, her daughter Lisa Pearce died of
stomach cancer Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a malignant tumor of the stomach. It is a cancer that develops in the Gastric mucosa, lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a numb ...
after having been diagnosed in December 2016.
"I grew up in Bradford in the 1980s, not much younger than Rita and Sue when the film came out and with pretty much the same dress sense. The three settings - manicured suburbia, the all-white Buttershaw estate, and the Victorian backstreets populated by Pakistani families - are familiar. (Bob’s street is very familiar: my schoolfriend Lucy lived on it, and if you look in the background of the scene where Fat Fucking Mavis pulls up in her
Austin Metro The Metro is a supermini car, later a city car that was produced from 1980 to 1998, first by British Leyland (BL) and later by the Rover Group. It was launched in 1980 as the Austin Mini Metro (styled AUSTIN miniMETRO). The Mini Metro was inte ...
, you can see her on her bike. God, I was jealous). I’ve watched it more times than I can count." — Anita Singh,
The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...


Depictions

In 2000, Dunbar's life and her surroundings were revisited in the play ''A State Affair'' by
Robin Soans Robin Soans (born 20 June 1946) is a British actor, and a playwright specialising in verbatim and documentary plays. These plays include ''Across the Divide'' (2007); ''A State Affair'' (2000) which looked at life on a Bradford estate, produced ...
. A film about her life, ''
The Arbor Andrea Dunbar (22 May 1961 – 20 December 1990) was an English playwright. She wrote ''The Arbor'' (1980) and ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'' (1982), an autobiographical drama about the sexual adventures of teenage girls living in a run-down part of ...
'', directed by
Clio Barnard Clio Barnard (born 1 January 1965) is a British director of documentary and feature films. She won widespread critical acclaim and multiple awards for her debut, '' The Arbor'', an experimental documentary about Bradford playwright Andrea Dunba ...
, was released in 2010. The film uses actors lip-synching to interviews with Dunbar and her family, and concentrates on the strained relationship between Dunbar and her daughter Lorraine. A novel inspired by Dunbar's life and work, ''Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile'' by
Adelle Stripe Adelle Stripe (born 1976) is an English writer and journalist. Work Stripe's writing is rooted in the non-fiction novel form and explores working-class culture, untold histories of Northern England, popular music, and small-town life. ''Bl ...
, was published in 2017 by
Wrecking Ball Press Wrecking Ball Press is an independent poetry and prose publishing company, based in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was established and is edited by Shane Rhodes. Wrecking Ball Press produces a regular anthology, ...
. It was shortlisted for the Portico Prize for Literature and the
Gordon Burn Prize The Gordon Burn Prize was launched in 2013 as a vehicle by which "to reward fiction or non-fiction written in the English language, which in the opinion of the judges most successfully represents the spirit and sensibility of nowiki/>Gordon Burn ...
. A second edition came from
Fleet Publishing Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries, it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...
in the same year. In 2019, a stage adaptation by Freedom Studios and screenwriter Lisa Holdsworth was announced in ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
''. Dramatisation of Stripe's novel focused on women's relationships, with a cast of five sharing the roles. It portrayed a teenage Dunbar rising to national note with her autobiographical works ''The Arbor'' and ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'', and the challenges of life on the
Buttershaw Buttershaw is a residential area of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It is bounded by Horton Bank Top to the north, Wibsey to the east, Woodside to the south and Shelf to the west. Buttershaw consists mostly of 1940s council housing with t ...
estate in
Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...
. A 2019, Woolyback production for
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
written and directed by Sean Grundy – ''Rita, Sue and Andrea Too'' – dramatized the life and career of Dunbar, played by
Natalie Gavin Natalie Gavin (born 27 July 1988) is an English actress. On television, she is known for her roles in the BBC dramas '' Prisoners' Wives'' (2012) and '' The Syndicate'' (2013), and the ITV drama ''Jericho'' (2016). Early life and education ...
. In April 2024, Bristol-based artist ''Stewy'' created a spray-painted stencil artwork of Andrea Dunbar, on the side of ''The Queen'' pub, on Bridge Street, in Bradford.


Works

*''The Arbor'' (1977) *''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'' (1982) *''Shirley'' (1986) *


Further reading

* * * * * * * *


References


External links

*
Andrea Dunbar
at
theguardian.com ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunbar, Andrea 1961 births 1990 deaths 20th-century English dramatists and playwrights English women dramatists and playwrights Writers from Bradford