Playrights List

Born in East London, Pinter began as an actor before writing The Birthday Party. His comedies of menace revealed the tension beneath everyday interactions. A fierce political activist in his later years, he used his Nobel lecture to attack international war crimes. His work transitioned from domestic settings to overtly political themes, but always maintained a unique mastery of rhythm and pauses. He was married to the actress Vivien Merchant and later the historian Lady Antonia Fraser, remaining a central figure in British intellectual life.

Harold Pinter

Born: 1930-10-10

Died: 2008-12-24

A Nobel Prize-winning playwright and activist who created the Pinteresque style, defined by menacing silences, domestic power struggles, and ambiguous dialogue.

5 Best known plays: The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The Homecoming, Betrayal, The Dumb Waiter

Marlowe was a scholar at Cambridge and a suspected government spy. His plays featured overreaching Machiavellian protagonists like Doctor Faustus and Tamburlaine. His life was shrouded in scandal, including accusations of atheism and brawling. He was a pioneer of tragedy, bringing a new level of intellectual and poetic ambition to the stage. His career was tragically brief, yet he fundamentally altered the course of English literature, providing the structural and linguistic blueprint that Shakespeare would eventually perfect during the late 16th century.

Christopher Marlowe

Born: 1564-02-26

Died: 1593-05-30

An Elizabethan poet and playwright who revolutionized English drama with his mighty line of blank verse. He was Shakespeare’s greatest contemporary and influence.

5 Best known plays: Doctor Faustus, Edward II, Tamburlaine the Great, The Jew of Malta, Dido Queen of Carthage

Bennett gained fame with the comedy troupe Beyond the Fringe. He is celebrated for his Talking Heads monologues and plays like The History Boys, which won multiple Tony and Olivier awards. His work often deals with themes of nostalgia, class, and the eccentricities of the British character. He famously lived with a van dweller in his driveway for 15 years, a story he turned into The Lady in the Van. He has declined both a knighthood and a CBE, remaining a humble but essential cultural voice.

Alan Bennett

Born: May 9, 1934

Died:

A beloved British playwright, screenwriter, and diarist known for his keen ear for regional dialogue, gentle irony, and poignant observations on English life.

5 Best known plays: The History Boys, The Madness of George III, Talking Heads, The Lady in the Van, Habeas Corpus

Hare was a key member of the Portable Theatre fringe movement before moving to the National Theatre. His Trilogy of plays in the 1990s examined the Church, the Legal System, and the Labour Party. He is also a prolific screenwriter, nominated for Oscars for The Hours and The Reader. He was knighted in 1998. His work is characterized by its articulate debate and its commitment to examining how public policy and political ideology affect the private lives of individuals across the British social spectrum.

David Hare

Born: Jun 5, 1947

Died:

A leading political playwright of the post-war era, known for his large-scale State of the Nation plays that critique British institutions and power.

5 Best known plays: Plenty, Racing Demon, Skylight, Pravda, Amy's View

Based primarily at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, Ayckbourn is famous for his technical ingenuity—such as plays that can be watched in different orders or on multiple stages simultaneously. Despite their comedic surface, his plays often touch on domestic misery and emotional neglect. He has won numerous Olivier and Tony awards and was knighted in 1997. He is one of the most performed living playwrights in the world, with his work translated into over 35 languages and staged continuously across the globe.

Alan Ayckbourn

Born: 1939-04-12

Died:

A prolific master of farce and social comedy who has written over 80 plays, often exploring the dark complexities of marriage and middle-class suburban life.

5 Best known plays: The Norman Conquests, Absurd Person Singular, Bedroom Farce, Woman in Mind, A Chorus of Disapproval

Born in Dublin, Shaw moved to London to become a journalist and novelist before finding fame in drama. He used the stage to challenge Victorian morality and class structures. His successes include the monumental Pygmalion and Saint Joan. He was a vegetarian, a socialist, and a leading member of the Fabian Society. His influence on the English language is second only to Shakespeare, and he remains a towering figure in world literature for his ability to blend comedy with deep social philosophy.

George Bernard Shaw

Born: 1856-07-26

Died: 1950-11-02

A prolific Irish playwright and social critic who revolutionized Western theatre with his intellectual wit and co-founded the London School of Economics. Only person to win a Nobel and Oscar.

5 Best known plays: Pygmalion, Saint Joan, Man and Superman, Major Barbara, Mrs. Warren's Profession

Born in Yorkshire, Priestley served in WWI, an experience that shaped his socialist outlook. He became a popular broadcaster during WWII, providing morale-boosting radio Postscripts. His play An Inspector Calls is a masterpiece of mid-century drama and a staple of British education. Throughout his career, he wrote over 50 plays and numerous novels, consistently advocating for social justice. He was a founding member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and turned down a knighthood and a peerage during his lifetime.

J.B. Priestley

Born: 1894-09-13

Died: 1984-08-14

A versatile English novelist and playwright famous for his Time plays and social commentary. His work often explores social responsibility and the cyclical nature of human experience.

5 Best known plays: An Inspector Calls, Time and the Conways, When We Are Married, Dangerous Corner, The Good Companions

Rattigan was educated at Harrow and Oxford and became one of the most commercially successful playwrights of the 1940s and 50s. As a gay man living in a time of illegality, his work often dealt with forbidden or unrequited love through subtext. Though his style was temporarily unfashionable during the Angry Young Men era, his reputation has seen a massive posthumous revival, with plays like The Deep Blue Sea now regarded as all-time classics of British dramatic literature.

Terence Rattigan

Born: 1911-06-10

Died: 1977-11-30

A master of the well-made play who explored repressed emotions and the quiet tragedies of the English middle class with profound psychological sensitivity and technical precision.

5 Best known plays: The Deep Blue Sea, The Winslow Boy, The Browning Version, Separate Tables, Flare Path

Kane’s debut play Blasted caused a national scandal for its graphic violence, but she was eventually recognized as a major poetic voice. Her work moved from naturalistic violence to highly stylized, abstract explorations of the human soul. She struggled with severe clinical depression throughout her adult life. Despite her short career, her impact on European theatre was seismic; her final play, 4.48 Psychosis, written shortly before her death, is considered a haunting masterpiece of dramatic vulnerability and structural innovation.

Sarah Kane

Born: 1971-02-03

Died: 1999-02-20

A central figure of the 1990s In-Yer-Face theatre movement, known for her visceral, poetic, and confrontational explorations of love, desire, and psychological pain.

5 Best known plays: Blasted, 4.48 Psychosis, Crave, Cleansed, Phaedra's Love

Beckett lived in Paris for most of his life and wrote in both French and English. He served in the French Resistance during WWII. His play Waiting for Godot revolutionized modern drama by abandoning traditional plot for a static, philosophical exploration of hope and despair. He was notoriously private and lived a simple life despite his global fame. His late works became increasingly minimalist, stripped of all but the most essential language and movement, influencing generations of writers and artists.

Samuel Beckett

Born: 1906-04-13

Died: 1989-12-22

An Irish avant-garde playwright and Nobel laureate who defined the Theatre of the Absurd. His minimalist works examine human existence through a lens of bleak humor and silence.

5 Best known plays: Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Krapp's Last Tape, Happy Days, Not I

Osborne’s 1956 debut at the Royal Court changed British culture overnight. He was known for his anti-hero protagonists and his vitriolic prose. His personal life was as volatile as his plays; he was married five times and often engaged in public feuds with critics and the establishment. Despite his later reputation as a Blimpish reactionary, his early work provided the voice for a post-war generation frustrated by the stifling class system and the decline of the British Empire.

John Osborne

Born: 1929-12-12

Died: 1994-12-24

The primary Angry Young Man of British theatre whose play Look Back in Anger broke the mold of polite society drama to introduce raw working-class realism.

5 Best known plays: Look Back in Anger, The Entertainer, Inadmissible Evidence, Luther, A Patriot for Me

Stoppard fled the Nazis as a child and eventually settled in England, starting his career as a journalist. He shot to fame with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which reimagined Hamlet from the perspective of minor characters. His work often explores science, history, and human rights. He has won four Tony Awards and an Academy Award for Shakespeare in Love. In recent years, his play Leopoldstadt addressed his Jewish heritage and the Holocaust, winning widespread acclaim for its emotional depth.

Tom Stoppard

Born: N/A

Died: 1937-07-03

A knighted Czech-born British playwright celebrated for his dazzling intellectual wit, linguistic gymnastics, and ability to weave complex philosophy into engaging dramatic narratives.

5 Best known plays: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Arcadia, The Real Thing, Travesties, Leopoldstadt

Churchill rose to prominence in the 1970s at the Royal Court Theatre. She is famous for inventing overlapping dialogue and for plays that shift through time or use surrealism to highlight social injustice. Top Girls remains a landmark of feminist drama. She avoids the limelight and rarely gives interviews, preferring to let her diverse and ever-evolving body of work speak for itself. Her influence on contemporary playwrights is immense, particularly in her blending of the personal with the deeply political.

Caryl Churchill

Born: Sep 3, 1938

Died:

One of the world's most influential living playwrights, known for her radical experimentation with dramatic form and her sharp, feminist political critiques.

5 Best known plays: Top Girls, Cloud Nine, Serious Money, Far Away, A Number

24 December 2008