Neil Bartlett (playwright)

Neil Bartlett (playwright)
Neil Vivian Bartlett, OBE, (born 1958) is a British director, performer, translator and writer. He was one of the founding members of Gloria, a production company established in 1988 to produce his work along with that of Nicolas Bloomfield, Leah Hausman and Simon Mellor.
His work has garnered several awards, including the 1985 Perrier Award (as director for Complicite, for More Bigger Snacks Now), the Time Out Dance Umbrella Award (for A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep), a Writers Guild Award (for Sarrasine), a Time Out Theatre Award (for A Judgement in Stone), and the Special Jury Prize at the Cork Film Festival (for Now That It's Morning). His production of The Dispute won a Time Out Award for Best Production in the West End and the 1999 TMA Best Touring Production award. He was appointed an OBE in 2000 for his services to the arts.
His 2004 production of Shakespeare's Pericles was nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Theatrical Achievement in 2004
Career
Bartlett's first book, Who Was That Man, showed how the gay history of London in the 1890s affected Bartlett's life as a gay man in London in the 1980s. His fourth novel, The Disappearance Boy, was published in London by Bloomsbury Circus in January 2014; his most recent novel Address Book was published in London by Inkandescent in November 2021.
Bartlett's early performance work with Gloria included A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep, Sarrasine and Night after Night. He also served as artistic director at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith from 1994 until 2004. At the Lyric he directed productions of classic British plays, foreign classics which he translated or adapted, and a series of notable Christmas shows. The following are some of the plays he directed and translated:
The first English production of Jean Genet's Splendid's
Kleist's Prince of Homburg and Marivaux's La Dispute
His adaptation of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, and A Christmas Carol.
Adaptation of The Servant by Robin Maugham.
Many of Bartlett's translations of classic plays have been performed throughout the world.
Since leaving the Lyric he has created work for leading cultural producers including the National Theatre in London, the Abbey in Dublin, the Bristol Old Vic, the Manchester Royal Exchange, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Manchester International Festival, the Brighton Festival, the Aldeburgh Festival, the Holland Festival, the Wellcome Foundation and Tate Britain.
He also took part in the Bush Theatre's 2011 project Sixty Six Books, where he wrote a piece based upon a chapter of the King James Bible
In 2022, he adapted Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando for a West End production that was directed by Michael Grandage and starred Emma Corrin.
Work
Fiction
Who Was That Man: A Present for Mr. Oscar Wilde (1988)
Ready to Catch Him Should He Fall (1992)
Mr. Clive and Mr. Page (1996)
Skin Lane (2007)
The Disappearance Boy (2014)
Address Book 2021
"When the Time Comes; or, the Case of the Man Who Didn't Know" (short story)
Theatre and radio
More Bigger Snacks Now (1985), director for Complicité
A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep (Part One) (1987)
The Misanthrope (1988), translator for Red Shift
Lady Audley's Secret (1988–89) for Gloria
A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep (Part Three) (1989–90) for Gloria
Berenice (1990) for the Royal National Theatre
The School for Wives (1990) for the Derby Playhouse
Sarrasine (1990–91) for Gloria
The Avenging Woman (1991) in Riga
Let Them Call It Jazz (1991) for Gloria
Twelfth Night (1992) for the Goodman Theatre, Chicago
A Judgement in Stone (1992) for Gloria
The Game of Love and Chance (1992–93) for Gloria/Cambridge Theatre Co./Royal National Theatre
Night After Night (Part One) (1993), musical
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1993), Lyric Hammersmith
Romeo and Juliet (1995), Lyric Hammersmith/West Yorkshire Playhouse
The Letter by Somerset Maugham (1995), Lyric Hammersmith
Mrs Warren's Profession by Bernard Shaw (1996), Lyric Hammersmith
Cause Celebre by Terrence Rattigan (1998), Lyric Hammersmith
The Seven Sacraments of Nicolas Poussin (1998)
The Verger Queen or Bette's Full Service (2000)
In Extremis (2000)
Does You Good (2001)
Camille (2003), adaptation of The Lady of the Camellias
Pericles by William Shakespeare (2003), Lyric Hammersmith,
Don Juan by Molière (2004), Lyric Hammersmith,
Improbable (2004), radio
Dido, Queen of Carthage by Christopher Marlowe (2005), ART Boston,
The Rake's Progress Auden/Stravinsky (2006), Aldeburgh Festival,
Oliver Twist (2007), ART Boston,
The Maids by Genet (2007), Brighton Festival,
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare (2008), Royal Shakespeare Company,
An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde (2008), The Abbey, Dublin,
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (2008), Royal Shakespeare Company,
Everybody Loves A Winner (2009), Manchester Royal Exchange,
The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten (2009), Aldeburgh Festival,
Or You Could Kiss Me (2010), with Handspring Theatre Company, National Theatre, London,
The Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky (2011), Opera North,
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (2012), The Abbey, Dublin,
The Canticles by Benjamin Britten (2013), Brighton Festival/Royal Opera House, London,
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (2013), The Bristol Old Vic,
Owen Wingrave by Benjamin Britten (2014), The Edinburgh International Festival,
Stella (2016), London International Festival of Theatre,
The Plague by Albert Camus (2017), Arcola Theatre, London.
Medea (Written in Rage) by Jean-René Lemoine (2017), Birmingham Rep
Twenty Four Hours of Peace (2019) Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.
The Importance of Being Earnest (2020) RADA, London.
Tenebrae; Lessons Learnt in Darkness (2020) Brighton Festival.
Orlando (2022), Garrick Theatre, London.
Television
That's What Friends Are For (1988) television, for After Image/Channel Four
Where Is Love? (1988) television, for ICA/BBC2
Pedagogue (1988) with Stuart Marshall
That's How Strong My Love Is (1989) television, for Channel Four
Now That It's Morning (1992) television, for Channel Four/British Screen
References
Sources
Bartlett, Neil, adapter. 2003. Camille. By Alexandre Dumas fils. London: Oberon. .
Bartlett, Neil. 2005. Solo Voices: Monologues 1987-2004. London: Oberon. .
Burton, Peter, editor. 2008. A Casualty of War: the Arcadia Book of Gay Short Stories. London: Arcadia Books. .
External links
Official website
Brief biography
IMDB biography
1958 births
English gay actors
English gay writers
Living people
English translators
English theatre directors
English male radio actors
21st-century English novelists
Gay dramatists and playwrights
Gay novelists
English LGBT novelists
English male dramatists and playwrights
English male novelists
English LGBT dramatists and playwrights
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
20th-century English male writers
20th-century British translators
20th-century English LGBT people
21st-century English male writers
English male non-fiction writers
21st-century British translators
21st-century English LGBT people