Michael Gow (born 14 February 1955) is an Australian playwright and

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

, notable for his 1986 play ''

Away Away may refer to: Film and television * ''Away'' (2016 film), a British film directed by David Blair * ''Away'' (2019 film), a Latvian animated silent film by Gints Zilbalodis * Away (2025 film), a drama film by Gerard Oms * ''Away'' (TV series ...

''.

Early life

Born in Sydney, Gow acted and directed with the Dramatic Society from 1973 to 1976 s a student at

Sydney University The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

. After graduation, Gow went on to act professionally with

Nimrod Nimrod is a Hebrew Bible, biblical figure mentioned in the Book of Genesis and Books of Chronicles, the Books of Chronicles. The son of Cush (Bible), Cush and therefore the great-grandson of Noah, Nimrod was described as a king in the land of Sh ...

, Thalia and

Sydney Theatre The Roslyn Packer Theatre Walsh Bay is a theatre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The theatre is on Hickson Road at Walsh Bay, west of The Wharf Theatre, opposite Pier 6/7 on Walsh Bay. It seats up to 896 people. Originally named as the S ...

Companies.

Career

After Gow received notice as a playwright for ''The Kid'' in 1983, his play ''Away'' (first performed in 1986 by Sydney's

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 Stables Theatre in Kings Cross. the artistic director is Declan Greene. Artistic directors ...

) established him as a major Australian playwright. ''Away'' is the story of three Australian families who go on holiday "up the coast" for Christmas 1967 as a remedy to personal crises, whose story threads eventually interconnect. The families cross the class and social divides: one is in a smart hotel, another is at the local caravan park; another is in the throes of possible divorce. These factors are woven into a story of love and loss that allows a young boy and girl to taste first love and the pain of death while their parents cope, more or less, with the consequences. ''Away'' received multiple productions in Australia and internationally, and remains a landmark of Australian contemporary drama and the best of Gow's earlier work. Other plays of the late 1980s and early 1990s include ''Europe'', an intriguing work as a young man and a European actress of uncertain age meet in her dressing room, '' Furious'' and '' Sweet Phoebe''. Gow's writing for television includes the 1984 telemovie ''

Crime of the Decade In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Cane ...

'' and a 1989 miniseries adaptation of

Sumner Locke Elliott Sumner Locke Elliott (17 October 191724 June 1991) was an Australian (later American) novelist and playwright. Biography Elliott was born in Sydney to the writer Sumner Locke and the journalist Henry Logan Elliott. His mother died of eclampsi ...

's ''

Edens Lost ''Edens Lost'' is a 1989 Australian mini-series based on the novel of the same title by Sumner Locke Elliott, produced by Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Central Independent Television. Gillian Armstrong and Margaret Fink had pla ...

'' for which he received an AFI Award for Best Screenplay in a Miniseries. He was the artistic director at the

Queensland Theatre Company Queensland Theatre, formerly the Queensland Theatre Company and Royal Queensland Theatre Company, is a professional theatre company based in Brisbane, Australia. It regularly performs in its own Bille Brown Theatre and the Queensland Performin ...

from 1999 until 2010. Productions he directed for the company included ''Private Fears in Public Places'', ''

John Gabriel Borkman ''John Gabriel Borkman'' is a 1896 play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was his penultimate work. Plot The Borkman family fortunes have been brought low by the imprisonment of John Gabriel who used his position as a bank manager to ...

'', ''

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' is a play by Edward Albee first staged in October 1962. It examines the complexities of the marriage of middle-aged couple Martha and George. Late one evening, after a university faculty party, they rece ...

'' (2007); ''

The Importance of Being Earnest ''The Importance of Being Earnest, a Trivial Comedy for Serious People'' is a play by Oscar Wilde, the last of his four drawing-room plays, following ''Lady Windermere's Fan'' (1892), ''A Woman of No Importance'' (1893) and ''An Ideal Husban ...

'',

Heiner Müller Heiner Müller (; 9 January 1929 – 30 December 1995) was a German (formerly East German) dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution to postmodern drama and postd ...

's ''Anatomy Titus Fall of Rome: A Shakespeare Commentary'', ''

I Am My Own Wife ''I Am My Own Wife'' is a play by Doug Wright based on his conversations with the German antiquarian Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. The one-person play premiered Off-Broadway in 2003 at Playwrights Horizons. It opened on Broadway later that year. T ...

'', (2008); ''The School of Arts'' and ''

The Crucible ''The Crucible'' is a 1953 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay from 1692 to 1693. Miller wrote ...

'' (2009). Gow had not written a full-length play for ten years while fully engaged as artistic director of Queensland Theatre Company. In 2007, his play ''Toy Symphony'' received its world premiere production at Sydney's

Belvoir St Theatre Belvoir is an Australian theatre company based at the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney, Australia, originally known as Company B. Its artistic director is Eamon Flack. The theatre comprises two performing spaces: the Upstairs Theatre and the small ...

. It was a critical and popular success, starring

Richard Roxburgh Richard Roxburgh (born 23 January 1962) is an Australian actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of a number of accolades across film, television, and theatre, including several AFI and AACTA Awards, Logie Awards, and Helpmann Awards. He bega ...

in his first stage role for some years. ''

Toy Symphony The Toy Symphony (original titles: ''Berchtoldsgaden Musick'' or ''Sinphonia Berchtolgadensis'') is a symphony in C major dating from the 1760s with parts for toy instruments, including toy trumpet, Ratchet (instrument), ratchet, bird calls (cucko ...

'' is a further exploration of Gow's

Shire Shire () is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries. It is generally synonymous with county (such as Cheshire and Worcestershire). British counties are among the oldes ...

roots and much else besides. ''Toy Symphony'' was awarded Best New Australian Work at the 2008 Helpmann Awards, and the production was also nominated for Best Play. The production also won four

Sydney Theatre Awards The Sydney Theatre Awards are annual awards to recognise the strength, quality and diversity of professional theatre in Sydney, Australia. They were established in 2005 by a group of major Sydney theatre critics. The awards recognise mainstage and ...

including Best Mainstage Production. Gow criticised the new HSC syllabus in 2017, which had a renewed emphasis on classic works.

Works

*''The Kid'' (1983) *''The Astronaut's Wife'' (1985) *''

'' (1986) *''17'' (N/A) *''On Top of the World'' (1987) *''Europe'' (1987) *''1841'' (1988) *''All Stops Out'' (1989) *'' Furious'' (1994) *'' Sweet Phoebe'' (1994) *''Live Acts On Stage'' (1996) *''Up Here'' (2004) *'' The Fortunes of Richard Mahony'', adapted from the novel by

Henry Handel Richardson Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson (3 January 1870 – 20 March 1946), known by her pen name Henry Handel Richardson, was an Australian author. Life Born in East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, into a prosperous family that later fell on har ...

(2004) *''

'' (2007) *''

Once in Royal David's City Once in Royal David's City is a Christmas carol originally written as a poem by Cecil Frances Alexander. The carol was first published in 1848 in her hymnbook ''Hymns for Little Children''. A year later, the English organist Henry Gauntlett d ...

'' (2014) * ''Goldilocks'' (2019)

References

External links

*
titles on www.australianplays.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gow, Michael Living people Australian dramatists and playwrights Australian theatre directors Helpmann Award winners 1955 births