"The Better Half (play) The Better Half is a one-act play by Noël Coward first performed in 1922 by the Grand Guignol theatre company. It was never published and thought to be lost until Richard Hand and Mike Wilson, researchers writing a book on the theatre company, discovered it in the British Library in September 2007, where it had been deposited as part of the Lord Chamberlain's Plays collection. According to Wilson, the play is about a ""husband and wife [who] are in an unhappy relationship and he is about to embark on an affair, but he is an honourable"
"Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a Nobel Prize-winning British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include ""The Birthday Party"" (1957), ""The Homecoming"" (1964), and ""Betrayal"" (1978), each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include ""The Servant"" (1963), ""The Go-Between"" (1971), ""The French Lieutenant's Woman"" (1981), ""The Trial"" (1993), and ""Sleuth"" (2007). He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television, and film productions of his own and"
"read every play published in French since 1900. Thomas died in 1989 in Paris. His most celebrated play may be overdue for re-evaluation. Robert Thomas (director) Robert Thomas (28 September 1927 in Gap, Hautes-Alpes – 3 January 1989) was a French writer, actor and film director. As a writer, almost from the beginning, he was fascinated by a curious genre that he helped invent: the comédie policière or comedy thriller, of which ""Eight Women"" is an example. In 1960, Thomas had a hit with ""Man Trap"", a humorous murder mystery which was an overnight success in Paris. Alfred Hitchcock bought"
"John Constable (writer) John Hamilton Constable (born 22 July 1952) is an English playwright, poet, performer and activist, author of ""The Southwark Mysteries"". He is also known as John Crow, the urban shaman of Cross Bones. Constable was born in Much Wenlock, Shropshire in 1952. He was educated at Oswestry School (1963–69) and Queens' College, Cambridge (1970–73). In the mid-1970s, he performed at David Medalla's Artists For Democracy. From 1977-79, he lived in Japan and travelled widely in the Far East, and from 1980–82, toured Europe with the street theatre group Sheer Madness, playing Hamlet in the devised show ""Shakespeare’s"
"Beverley Cross Alan Beverley Cross (13 April 1931 – 20 March 1998) (known as Beverley Cross) was an English playwright, librettist and screenwriter. Born in London into a theatrical family, and educated at the Nautical College Pangbourne, Cross started off by writing children's plays in the 1950s. He achieved instant success with his first play, ""One More River"", which dealt with a mutiny in which a crew puts its first officer on trial for manslaughter. The play premiered in 1958 at the New Shakespeare Theatre Liverpool, starring Robert Shaw, directed by Sam Wanamaker, and in 1959, still with Robert Shaw,"
"classic and ""North and South"" (1975) from the 1855 novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. He died, aged 63, in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. David Turner (dramatist) David Turner (18 March 1927 – 10 December 1990) was a British playwright. Turner was born in Birmingham and came from a working-class background. He studied French at Birmingham University and subsequently worked as a school teacher in that city. He is best remembered for his stage play ""Semi-Detached"", first performed during 1962, which reached Broadway and was made into the film ""All the Way Up"" (1970). He prepared modern versions of classic plays including John"
"Susanna Centlivre Susanna Centlivre (c. 1667–1670 – 1 December 1723), born Susanna Freeman and also known professionally as Susanna Carroll, was an English poet, actress, and ""the most successful female playwright of the eighteenth century"". Centlivre's ""pieces continued to be acted after the theatre managers had forgotten most of her contemporaries."" During a long career at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, she became known as the second woman of the English stage, after Aphra Behn. The main source of information on Centlivre's early life is Giles Jacob, who claimed he had received an account of it directly from her. This"
"hospice at the age of 75. His death was announced on 25 June 2010. Alan Plater Alan Frederick Plater CBE FRSL (15 April 1935 – 25 June 2010) was an English playwright and screenwriter, who worked extensively in British television from the 1960s to the 2000s. Plater was born in Jarrow, England, although his family moved to Hull in 1938. He attended Kingston High School. Jarrow was much publicised as a severely economically depressed area before the Second World War (Plater joked that his family left Jarrow just after the Great Depression to catch Hull just before the Blitz). He"
"Oliver Reed Robert Oliver Reed (13 February 1938 – 2 May 1999) was an English actor known for his upper-middle class, macho image, hellraiser lifestyle, and ""tough guy"" roles. Notable films include ""The Trap"" (1966), playing Bill Sikes in the Best Picture Oscar winner ""Oliver!"" (1968), ""Women in Love"" (1969), ""Hannibal Brooks"" (1969), ""The Devils"" (1971), portraying Athos in ""The Three Musketeers"" (1973), ""Tommy"" (1975), ""Lion of the Desert"" (1981), ""Castaway"" (1986), ""The Adventures of Baron Munchausen"" (1988) and ""Funny Bones"" (1995). For playing Antonius Proximo, an old, gruff gladiator trainer in Ridley Scott's ""Gladiator"" (2000) in what was his"
"Edward Albee Edward Franklin Albee III ( ; March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016) was an American playwright known for works such as ""The Zoo Story"" (1958), ""The Sandbox"" (1959), ""Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"" (1962), and ""A Delicate Balance"" (1966). Three of his plays won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and two of his other works won the Tony Award for Best Play. His works are often considered as frank examinations of the modern condition. His early works reflect a mastery and Americanization of the Theatre of the Absurd that found its peak in works by European playwrights"
"David Hare (playwright) Sir David Hare (born 5 June 1947) is an English playwright, screenwriter and theatre and film director. Best known for his stage work, Hare has also enjoyed great success with films, receiving two Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for writing ""The Hours"""" ""in 2002, based on the novel written by Michael Cunningham, and ""The Reader"""" ""in 2008, based on the novel of the same name written by Bernhard Schlink. In the West End, he had his greatest success with the plays"" Plenty"", which he adapted into a film starring Meryl Streep in 1985, ""Racing Demon"""
"Max Catto Maxwell Jeffrey Catto (29 July 1907 – 12 March 1992) was born Mark Finkell in Manchester, England and was an English playwright and novelist. Catto wrote adventure novels and dramas for more than four decades and also wrote under the pseudonym Simon Kent. Ten of his works were adapted for film, the most notable of which was the novel ""The Killing Frost"", which became Carol Reed's 1956 film ""Trapeze"". Although he was a holder of a degree in electrical engineering from Manchester University, Catto began writing novels and plays in the late 1930s. After a stint in the"
"by Richard Pearson. 2018. John Trapp John Trapp (5 June 1601, in Croome D'Abitot – 16 October 1669, in Weston-on-Avon), was an English Anglican Bible commentator. His large five-volume commentary is still read today and is known for its pithy statements and quotable prose. His volumes are quoted frequently by other religious writers, including Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892), Ruth Graham, the daughter of Ruth Bell Graham, said that John Trapp, along with C.S. Lewis and George MacDonald, was one of her mother's three favorite sources for quotations. Trapp studied at the Free School in Worcester and then at Christ Church, Oxford"
"Alan Plater Alan Frederick Plater CBE FRSL (15 April 1935 – 25 June 2010) was an English playwright and screenwriter, who worked extensively in British television from the 1960s to the 2000s. Plater was born in Jarrow, England, although his family moved to Hull in 1938. He attended Kingston High School. Jarrow was much publicised as a severely economically depressed area before the Second World War (Plater joked that his family left Jarrow just after the Great Depression to catch Hull just before the Blitz). He trained as an architect at King's College, Newcastle (later the University of Newcastle), but"
"(1929) he retired from the theatre. Sutro also published a volume of stories (""The Foolish Virgins"", 1904), a collection of sketches (""About Women"",1931), and a volume of memoirs, (""Celebrities and Simple Souls"", 1933). Sutro died after a few days' illness at his home in Witley, Surrey, on 11 September 1933. His widow died the following year. They had no children. Alfred Sutro Alfred Sutro OBE (7 August 1863 – 11 September 1933) was an English author, dramatist and translator. In addition to a succession of successful plays of his own in the first quarter of the 20th century, Sutro made"
"The Fool (play) The Fool is a play by the English playwright Edward Bond. It traces the life of the poet John Clare against the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution, from his roots in rural East Anglia via literary success in London to his final years in a lunatic asylum. The play was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in November 1975 in a production directed by Peter Gill and featuring Tom Courtenay, David Troughton and Nigel Terry among others. After a 35-year hiatus, ""The Fool"" was revived in the UK in late 2010 as part of the six-play"
"In 1995 he wrote the libretto for Stephen McNeff's opera ""Paradise of Fools"", which premiered at the Unicorn Theatre. His first full-length play ""Of Rats and Men"", set in a psychology lab, was staged at the Canal Cafe Theatre in 1996 and went on to the Edinburgh Festival. He adapted it for BBC Radio, starring Anton Lesser, and it was nominated for a Sony Award. Richard Bean Richard Bean (born Richard Anthony Bean in East Hull, 11 June 1956) is an English playwright. Bean was educated at Hull Grammar School, and then studied Social Psychology at Loughborough University, graduating with"
"died in London in 1998, three weeks and three days before his 67th birthday. He was the stepfather of Maggie Smith's children from her earlier marriage, actors Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin. Beverley Cross Alan Beverley Cross (13 April 1931 – 20 March 1998) (known as Beverley Cross) was an English playwright, librettist and screenwriter. Born in London into a theatrical family, and educated at the Nautical College Pangbourne, Cross started off by writing children's plays in the 1950s. He achieved instant success with his first play, ""One More River"", which dealt with a mutiny in which a crew puts"
"for Best Supporting Actor. A funeral for Reed was held in Churchtown, County Cork, in Ireland where he resided the last years of his life, his body being interred in Churchtown's Bruhenny Graveyard. On his gravestone reads the message, ""He made the air move"". Oliver Reed Robert Oliver Reed (13 February 1938 – 2 May 1999) was an English actor known for his upper-middle class, macho image, hellraiser lifestyle, and ""tough guy"" roles. Notable films include ""The Trap"" (1966), playing Bill Sikes in the Best Picture Oscar winner ""Oliver!"" (1968), ""Women in Love"" (1969), ""Hannibal Brooks"" (1969), ""The Devils"" (1971),"
"by other writers: Other works including discussions on Rattigan's theatre: Terence Rattigan Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan, CBE (10 June 191130 November 1977) was a British dramatist. He was one of England's most popular mid twentieth century dramatists. His plays are typically set in an upper-middle-class background. He wrote ""The Winslow Boy"" (1946), ""The Browning Version"" (1948), ""The Deep Blue Sea"" (1952) and ""Separate Tables"" (1954), among many others. A troubled homosexual, who saw himself as an outsider, his plays centred on issues of sexual frustration, failed relationships, and a world of repression and reticence. Terence Rattigan was born in 1911"
"Robert Marasco Robert Marasco (September 22, 1936 – December 6, 1998) was an American horror novelist, playwright, and teacher. He is best known for his 1970 Broadway play ""Child's Play"", and his supernatural novel ""Burnt Offerings"" (1973), which was adapted into a 1976 film of the same name. Born in the Bronx, New York City, Marasco attended Regis High School in Manhattan and graduated from Fordham University. After graduating from college, Marasco taught Latin at his high school ""alma mater"". During his time teaching at Regis High School, Marasco wrote ""Child's Play"". ""Child's Play"" debuted at the Royale Theater in"
"Alfred Sutro Alfred Sutro OBE (7 August 1863 – 11 September 1933) was an English author, dramatist and translator. In addition to a succession of successful plays of his own in the first quarter of the 20th century, Sutro made the first English translations of works by the Belgian writer Maurice Maeterlinck. Sutro was born in London, the third and youngest son of Sigismund Sutro, a medical practitioner and authority on continental spas and their cures. Sutro senior, who was of German and Spanish Sephardic ancestry, had come to England from Germany as a young man and become a British"
"James Martin Charlton James Martin Charlton (born 29 July 1966) is an English playwright, theatre director and filmmaker. He was born in Romford, Greater London, United Kingdom in 1966. His play ""Fat Souls"" won the 1992 International Playwriting Festival at Warehouse Theatre, Croydon, where it premièred in 1993. ""Fat Souls"" and the plays which followed it - ""Groping in the Dark"" and ""Coming Up"" - use verse dialogue, soliloquies and emblematic characterisation all strapped to contemporary stories. The spiritual/anarchist strain in his writing continued in ""Divine Vision"", a biographical play about the relationship between William Blake and his patron, William"
"Alan Grint and John Irvin. Arthur Hopcraft was a well-respected UK scriptwriter known for his adaptations of TV plays and novels. He won the BAFTA writer's award in 1985, and is best known for TV miniseries including ""Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"" (1979), ""Bleak House"" (1985), ""A Perfect Spy"" (1987) and ""A Tale of Two Cities"" (1989). The Nearly Man The Nearly Man is a UK TV play and series from the mid-1970s, about a middle-class Labour MP. Both play and series were written by Arthur Hopcraft; actors in the cast of both include Tony Britton in the title role, Wilfred"
"Lily Tomlin, Mike Nichols, Julie Harris, Simon Callow, Emma Thompson, Charles Busch, David Mamet, Julia Sweeney, Annette Bening, Maureen Lipman and John Lithgow. Ruth Draper Ruth Draper (December 2, 1884December 30, 1956) was an American actress, dramatist and noted diseuse who specialized in character-driven monologues and monodrama. Her best-known pieces include ""The Italian Lesson"", ""Three Women and Mr. Clifford"", ""Doctors and Diets"", and ""A Church in Italy"". Ruth Draper was born in New York City, the youngest child of Dr. William Henry and Ruth (née Dana) Draper. Her father, who was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, had the affluence to support"
"Ken Campbell Kenneth Victor Campbell (10 December 1941 – 31 August 2008) was an English writer, actor, director and comedian known for his work in experimental theatre. He has been called ""a one-man dynamo of British theatre."" Campbell achieved notoriety in the 1970s for his nine-hour adaptation of the science-fiction trilogy ""Illuminatus!"" and his 22-hour staging of Neil Oram's play cycle ""The Warp"". The ""Guinness Book of Records"" listed the latter as the longest play in the world. ""The Independent"" said that, ""In the 1990s, through a series of sprawling monologues packed with arcane information and freakish speculations on the"
"Terence Rattigan Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan, CBE (10 June 191130 November 1977) was a British dramatist. He was one of England's most popular mid twentieth century dramatists. His plays are typically set in an upper-middle-class background. He wrote ""The Winslow Boy"" (1946), ""The Browning Version"" (1948), ""The Deep Blue Sea"" (1952) and ""Separate Tables"" (1954), among many others. A troubled homosexual, who saw himself as an outsider, his plays centred on issues of sexual frustration, failed relationships, and a world of repression and reticence. Terence Rattigan was born in 1911 in South Kensington, London, of Irish Protestant extraction. He had"
"Court Theatre in London. His 1959 play, ""Serjeant Musgrave's Dance"", in which four army deserters arrive in a northern mining town to exact retribution for an act of colonial violence, is considered to be his best. His work was influenced by Bertolt Brecht and Epic Theatre as in ""Left-Handed Liberty"" (1965, on the anniversary of Magna Carta. Other plays include ""Live Like Pigs"", ""The Workhouse Donkey"", and ""Armstrong's Last Goodnight"", the last of which was performed at the 1963 Chichester Festival by the National Theatre after it was rejected by the Royal Court. His 1978 radio play ""Pearl"" was considered"
"Warren Chetham-Strode Reginald Warren Chetham-Strode, MC (28 January 1896 – 26 April 1974) was an English author and playwright. He wrote several plays including ""The Guinea Pig"" (1946) which was turned into a movie in 1948. He also wrote screenplays for several films between 1935 and 1951 including ""Odette"" (1950). He was educated at Sherborne School. During World War I, he was commissioned into the Border Regiment. As a lieutenant, he was awarded the Military Cross in 1916. His elder brother Edward Randall Chetham-Strode was killed in action in 1917. He wrote the BBC Radio series, ""The Barlowes of Beddington"","
"(1973), ""The Best of Enemies"" (1976), ""Sister Dora"" (1977), and ""Star Over Bethlehem"" (1981). <br> <br> Christopher Fry Christopher Fry (18 December 1907 – 30 June 2005) was an English poet and playwright. He is best known for his verse dramas, notably ""The Lady's Not for Burning"", which made him a major force in theatre in the 1940s and 1950s. Fry was born as Arthur Hammond Harris in Bristol, the son of Charles John Harris, a master builder who retired early to work full-time as a licensed Lay Reader in the Church of England, and his wife Emma Marguerite Fry"
"of the effulgence of the cast, the play fizzled out at the end of its regulation two weeks. I was not particularly depressed about this; ""The Rat Trap"" was a dead love.' The play was published in London by Ernest Benn in 1924 in volume 13 of the ""Contemporary British Dramatists"" series, and was republished by Heinemann in 1934 in Coward's ""Play Parade, Volume III"". In his introduction Coward writes: 'It is not without merit. There is some excruciatingly sophisticated dialogue in the first act of which, at the time, I was inordinately proud. From the point of view of"
"turn on the lamp. In ""Krapp's Last Tape"" before Krapp can access his he needs to locate the appropriate tape and switch on the machine. Today, when digital technologies accentuate the process of the externalisation of memory begun with the invention of written language, these plays are more relevant than ever. A Piece of Monologue A Piece of Monologue is a fifteen-minute play by Samuel Beckett. Written between 2 October 1977 and 28 April 1979 it followed a request for a “play about death” by the actor David Warrilow who starred in the premiere in the Annex at La MaMa"
"Rope (play) Rope is a 1929 British play by Patrick Hamilton. In formal terms, it is a well-made play with a three-act dramatic structure that adheres to the classical unities. Its action is continuous, punctuated only by the curtain fall at the end of each act. It may also be considered a thriller. Samuel French published the play in 1929. The play is set on the first floor of a house in Mayfair, London in 1929. The story, thought to be based loosely on the Leopold and Loeb murder case in 1924, concerns two young university students, Wyndham Brandon and"