Howard Brenton

Howard Brenton

Howard Brenton was born in Portsmouth in 1942. His many plays include Christie in Love (Portable Theatre, 1969); Revenge (Theatre Upstairs, 1969); Magnificence (Royal Court Theatre,1973); The Churchill Play (Nottingham Playhouse, 1974, and twice revived by the RSC, 1978 and 1988); Bloody Poetry (FocoNovo, 1984, and Royal Court Theatre, 1987); Weapons of Happiness (National Theatre, Evening Standard Award, 1976); Epsom Downs (Joint Stock Theatre, 1977); Sore Throats (RSC,1978); The Romans in Britain (National Theatre, 1980, revived at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 2006); Thirteenth Night (RSC,1981); The Genius (1983), Greenland (1988) and Berlin Bertie (1992), all presented by the Royal Court; Kit’s Play (RADA Jerwood Theatre, 2000); Paul (National Theatre, 2005); In Extremis (Shakespeare’s Globe, 2006 and 2007); Never So Good (National Theatre, 2008); The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists adapted from the novel by Robert Tressell (Liverpool Everyman and Chichester Festival Theatre, 2010); Anne Boleyn (Shakespeare’s Globe, 2010 and 2011); 55 Days (Hampstead Theatre, 2012); #aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei (Hampstead Theatre, 2013); The Guffin (NT Connections, 2013); Drawing the Line (Hampstead Theatre, 2013); Doctor Scroggy's War (Shakespeare's Globe, 2014); Lawrence After Arabia (Hampstead Theatre, 2016); The Blinding Light (Jermyn Street Theatre, 2017), The Shadow Factory (NST City, Southampton, 2018), Jude (Hampstead Theatre, 2019) and Cancelling Socrates (Jermyn Street Theatre, London, 2022).

Collaborations with other writers include Brassneck (with David Hare, Nottingham Playhouse, 1972); Pravda (with David Hare, National Theatre, Evening Standard Award, 1985) and Moscow Gold (with Tariq Ali, RSC, 1990).

Versions of classics include The Life of Galileo (1980) and Danton's Death (1982), both for the National Theatre; Goethe's Faust (1995/6) for the RSC; a new version of Danton's Death for the National Theatre (2010); and versions of Strindberg's Dances of Death (Gate Theatre, 2013), Miss Julie (Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, & Jermyn Street Theatre, London, 2017) and Creditors (Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, & Jermyn Street Theatre, London, 2019).

He wrote thirteen episodes of the BBC1 drama series Spooks (2001–05, BAFTA Best Drama Series, 2003).

A celebration of a great English heroine, Anne Boleyn dramatises the life and legacy of Henry VIII's notorio...
Robert Tressell's classic pre-First World War account of the working lives of a group of housepainters and decorators...
A two-part version of Goethe's great work, retaining the mighty scope, linguistic daring and philosophical intricacy...
A fascinating portrait of Harold Macmillan in an epic play about the decline of British fortunes in the middle of the...
An irreverent and provocative drama questioning the basis of Christianity, by the author of The Romans in Britain...
A gripping historical play that dramatises a crucial moment of English history.
A timely play based on the true story of an imprisoned Nobel Laureate.
A gripping new version of Strindberg's masterly, darkly hilarious depiction of the struggles and strains of marriage....
A vivid telling of the chaotic story of the partition that shaped the modern world.
A spellbinding retelling of the passionate and legendary love story of Abelard and Heloise.
An epic, hilarious and moving play that takes a sideways look at the First World War.
A play about T.E. Lawrence, once celebrated as Lawrence of Arabia, but who now wants only to be normal once more.
A powerful play about the life of playwright August Strindberg, focusing on what he called his 'Inferno' period, when...
Autumn 1940. The Battle of Britain rages. From the ashes of a devastated Southampton, a story of chaos, courage and c...
A modern-day tale of unexpected genius and of our struggle to accommodate extraordinary talent, loosely inspired by T...