Nicholas Verney Wright (born 1940 in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

) is a British

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Ben Jonson coined the term "playwri ...

Biography

Nicholas Wright was born in Cape Town, attended Rondebosch Boys' School and from the age of six was a child actor on radio and on the stage. He came to London in 1958 to train as an actor at the

London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) is a drama school located in Hammersmith, London. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest specialist drama school in the British Isles and a founding member of the Federation of Drama Schools. In ...

(LAMDA) and subsequently worked as a floor-assistant in BBC Television and as a runner in film, notably

John Schlesinger John Richard Schlesinger ( ; 16 February 1926 – 25 July 2003) was an English film and stage director, and actor. He emerged in the early 1960s as a leading light of the British New Wave, before embarking on a successful career in Hollywood ...

's ''Far From the Madding Crowd''. He started work at the

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 ...

in 1965 as Casting Director and became, first, an assistant director there and then the first Director of the Royal Court's Theatre Upstairs, where for several years he presented an innovatory programme of new writing. From 1975 to 1977 he was joint artistic director of the Royal Court and he was subsequently a member of the Royal Court Theatre's Board. He is former literary manager and associate director of the

Royal National Theatre The National Theatre (NT), officially the Royal National Theatre and sometimes referred to in international contexts as the National Theatre of Great Britain, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England, ...

, and a former member of the National Theatre Board. In 2015 and 2016 he was the judge of the Yale Drama Series competition for playwrights. His publications include ''99 Plays'', a survey of drama from

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; ; /524 – /455 BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek tragedy, tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is large ...

to the present day, and ''Changing Stages'', co-written with Richard Eyre.

Theatre work

* 1978 ''Treetops'' (Riverside Studios) (George Devine Award) * 1979 ''The Gorky Brigade'' (Royal Court Theatre) * 1980 ''One Fine Day'' (Riverside Studios) * 1983 ''The Crimes of Vautrin'' (Joint Stock Theatre Company) * 1983 ''The Custom of the Country'' (Royal Shakespeare Company) * 1984 ''The Desert Air'' (Royal Shakespeare Company) * 1988 ''Mrs. Klein'' (i.e.

Melanie Klein Melanie Klein (; ; Reizes; 30 March 1882 – 22 September 1960) was an Austrian-British author and psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst known for her work in child analysis. She was the primary figure in the development of object relations theory. Kl ...

) (Royal National Theatre, Lucille Lortel Theatre, NY)) * 1993 ''More Tales of the City'' (TV adaptation) (Channel 4) * 1996 ''John Gabriel Borkman'' (adaptation) (Royal National Theatre) * 1998 ''Naked'' (adaptation) (Almeida Theatre and Playhouse Theatre) * 2000 ''Cressida'' (Almeida at the Albery Theatre) * 2001 ''Lulu'' (adaptation) (Almeida Theatre) * 2003 ''

Vincent in Brixton ''Vincent in Brixton'' is a 2002 play by Nicholas Wright. The play premiered at London's National Theatre with Jochum ten Haaf in the title role. It transferred to the Playhouse Theatre and later to Broadway. It focuses on artist Vincent v ...

'' (Olivier Award, best new play 2003) (Royal National Theatre, Golden Theater NY.) * 2003 ''Three Sisters'' (adaptation) (Royal National Theatre) * 2003 ''

His Dark Materials ''His Dark Materials'' is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman consisting of '' Northern Lights'' (1995; published as ''The Golden Compass'' in North America), '' The Subtle Knife'' (1997), and '' The Amber Spyglass'' (2000). It follo ...

'', adapted from the trilogy by Philip Pullman (Royal National Theatre) * 2003 '' The Little Prince'' (opera libretto adapted from Saint-Exupéry's novella; music by

Rachel Portman Rachel Mary Berkeley Portman (born 11 December 1960)), a collection of original pieces for piano, violin and cello, with Portman playing the piano. In 2023 she released a second album ''Beyond the Screen – Film Works on Piano'' which features ...

) (BBC Television) * 2006 '' Man on the Moon'' (TV opera libretto with music by Jonathan Dove) (Channel 4) * 2006 ''Thérèse Raquin'' (adaptation) (Chichester Festival Theatre and Royal National Theatre) * 2007 ''The Reporter'' (Royal National Theatre) * 2008 ''He's Talking'' (Royal National Theatre) * 2008 ''The Big Bonanza'', ''Poison'' and ''The Boy with an African Heart'' for '' The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency'' (TV) (BBC TV, HBO) * 2011 ''Rattigan's Nijinsky'' (Chichester Festival Theatre) * 2011 ''The Last of the Duchess'' adapted from the book by Caroline Blackwood. (Hampstead Theatre) * 2012 ''Travelling Light'' (Royal National Theatre) * 2013 ''A Human Being Died That Night'', adapted from the book by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela (Hampstead Theatre; Fugard Theatre, Cape Town; Market Theatre, Johannesburg) * 2014 ''Regeneration'', adapted from the novel by Pat Barker (Northampton Royal and Derngate Theatre and Touring Consortium Theatre Company) * 2017 "The Slaves of Solitude", adapted from the novel by Patrick Hamilton. Hampstead Theatre. His libretto for '' Marnie'', an opera by Nico Muhly, based on the novel by Winston Graham, was produced by the

English National Opera English National Opera (ENO) is a British opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in E ...

, London in 2017 and by the Metropolitan Opera, New York in 2018. He is currently (2016) writing a stage version of

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

's '' Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' for Gale King Productions and writing an original play about the last 24 hours in the life of

Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto (21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990, and again from 1993 to 1996. She was also the first woman elected to head a democratic governmen ...

References

External links

* * * * *Nicholas Wright at the Royal Court: http://www.royalcourttheatre.com/about-us/artistic-directors/nicholas-wright *Nicholas Wright on "Mrs. Klein": http://www.connectingconversations.org/?location_id=2&item=277 *Nicholas Wright on "His Dark Materials" https://web.archive.org/web/20140506165616/http://www.stagework.org.uk/webdav/harmonise%40Page/%40id%3D6010%26Section/%40id%3D159.html *Neil Dowden in Exeunt Magazine on "Travelling Light" http://exeuntmagazine.com/features/nicholas-wright/ *Spectator review of "A Human Being Died That Night" http://www.spectator.co.uk/arts/theatre/9225251/a-play-whose-value-to-history-it-would-be-hard-to-exaggerate/ *Michael Coveney on Nicholas Wright: http://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/05-2014/nicholas-wright-interview-hampstead-theatre-a-human-being-died-that-night_34562.html *Paul Taylor reviews "Regeneration" https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/regeneration-royal-and-derngate-northampton--review-gutting-and-unmissable-9710669.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Nicholas 1940 births Male actors from London Alumni of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art British male actors 20th-century British dramatists and playwrights British male screenwriters British theatre directors Living people Writers from Cape Town British male dramatists and playwrights British opera librettists 21st-century British dramatists and playwrights