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Bryony Lavery

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Bryony Lavery (born 1947) is a British dramatist, known for her successful and award-winning 1998 play Frozen. In addition to her work in theatre, she has also written for television and radio. She has written books including the biography Tallulah Bankhead and The Woman Writer's Handbook. She taught playwriting at the University of Birmingham.

Biography

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Lavery grew up in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.[1]

Having begun her career as an actress, she decided that she wanted to write plays with better parts for women.[citation needed] Early in her career she founded a theatre company called Les Oeufs Malades (The Bad Eggs) with actors Gerard Bell and Jessica Higgs. She also founded Female Trouble, More Female Trouble, and served as artistic director of Gay Sweatshop.

Her plays have a feminist undertone.[2] She has written such plays as More Light, which has only one male speaking role, with almost entirely female casts. By 2002, she had written more than twenty plays.[3]

In addition, she has written translations of such works as Chekhov's Uncle Vanya.[4]

She has written five plays for the National Theatre Connections series. Her successful Frozen triggered a controversy and discussion about artistic sources and plagiarism. It was the subject of a piece by Malcolm Gladwell published in The New Yorker and collected in his book What the Dog Saw.

She adapted Treasure Island, the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, as a play which was first performed on the Olivier Stage of the National Theatre, London, on 3 December 2014.[5]

She was married to a man until her early thirties. Since that period, Lavery has identified as gay.[1]

Selected works

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  • The Two Marias (1988) – Theatre Centre
  • Her Aching Heart (1992)
  • Peter Pan (1991) – a pantomime
  • Goliath (1997)
  • More Light (1997) – National Theatre Connections
  • Frozen (1998)
  • The Magic Toyshop (2001)
  • A Wedding Story (2000)
  • Illyria (2002) – NT Connections
  • Last Easter (2004)
  • Stockholm (2007) – Frantic Assembly
  • Red Sky (2007, play) – NT Connections
  • It Snows (2008, play) – NT Connections
  • Breathing Underwater (1998 radio play) – BBC Radio 7
  • Kursk (2009, play) – Young Vic
  • Beautiful Burnout (2010) – Frantic Assembly / National Theatre of Scotland
  • Dirt (2012, play) – Studio Theatre
  • The Believers (2014, play) – Tricycle Theatre

Stage adaptations

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References

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  1. ^ a b Lavery, Bryony (24 November 2017) [May 18, 2012]. "Theatre Profile: An Interview with Bryony Lavery". paulacitron.ca (Interview). Interviewed by Citron, Paula. Archived from the original on 20 January 2025. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  2. ^ Gardner, Lyn (6 April 2006). "'I was naive and stupid'". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  3. ^ Kellaway, Kate (23 June 2002). "Comedy of terrors". Culture. The Observer. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  4. ^ Cavendish, Dominic (2 April 2007). "On the Road". Theatre. The Daily Telegraph. p. 28. Retrieved 12 June 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Thomas-Corr, Johanna (4 December 2014). "National treasure: Arthur Darvill on his new role in Treasure Island at the National Theatre". Theatre. Evening Standard. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  6. ^ "Swallows and Amazons". Storyhouse. Archived from the original on 22 March 2023. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  7. ^ "The Book of Dust - La Belle Savauage". Bridge Theatre. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
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