MICHAEL FRAYN

'Michael Frayn' (born 8 September 1933) is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce ''Noises Off'' and the dramas ''Copenhagen'' and ''Democracy''. His novels, such as ''Towards the End of the Morning'', ''Headlong'' and ''Spies'', have also been critical and commercial successes, making him one of the handful of writers in the English language to succeed in both drama and prose fiction. His works often raise philosophical questions in a humorous context.

Contents

Early life

Works

Awards

Bibliography

Novels

Plays

Non-Fiction

Links

External links

Early life

Frayn was born in London and educated at Kingston Grammar School. Following two years of National Service, during which he learned Russian at the Joint Services School for Linguists, Frayn read Moral Sciences (Philosophy) at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, graduating in 1957. He then worked as a reporter and columnist for ''The Guardian'' and ''The Observer'', where he established a reputation as a comic writer, and began publishing his plays and novels. Frayn's wife is Claire Tomalin, the biographer and literary journalist.

Works

Perhaps his best known work, and considered by many to be his finest, the play ''Copenhagen'' deals with a historical event, a 1941 meeting between the Danish physicist Niels Bohr and his protege, the German Werner Heisenberg, when Denmark is under German occupation, and Heisenberg is - maybe? - working on the development of an atomic bomb. The play explores various possibilities.
Frayn's most recent play ''Democracy'' ran successfully in London (the National Theatre, 2003-4 and West End transfer), Copenhagen and on Broadway (Brooks Atkinson Theatre, 2004-5); it dramatizes the story of German chancellor Willy Brandt and his personal assistant, the East German spy Günter Guillaume.
His other original plays include two evenings of short plays, ''The Two of Us'' and ''Alarms and Excursions'', the philosophical comedies ''Alphabetical Order'', ''Benefactors'', ''Clouds'', ''Make and Break'' and ''Here'', and the farces ''Donkeys Years'', ''Balmoral'' (aka ''Liberty Hall''), and ''Noises Off'', which critic Frank Rich in his book ''The Hot Seat'' claimed "is, was, and probably always will be the funniest play written in my lifetime."

He has written a number of novels, including, ''Headlong'' (shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize), ''The Tin Men'' (won the 1966 Somerset Maugham Award), ''The Russian Interpreter'' (1967, Hawthornden Prize) ''Towards the End of the Morning'', ''Sweet Dreams'', ''A Landing on the Sun'', ''A Very Private Life'' and ''Now You Know''. The most recent, ''Spies'', won the Whitbread Prize for Fiction in 2002. He has also written a book about philosophy, ''Constructions'', and a book of his own philosophy, ''The Human Touch''.
His columns for ''The Guardian'' and ''The Observer'' (collected in ''The Day of the Dog'', ''The Book of Fub'' and ''On the Outskirts'') are models of the comic essay; in the 1980s a number of them were adapted and performed for BBC Radio 4 by Martin Jarvis.
He has also written screenplays for the film ''Clockwise'', starring John Cleese, and the TV series ''Making Faces'', starring Eleanor Bron.
He is now considered to be Britain's finest translator of Anton Chekhov - adapting the four major plays (''The Seagull'', ''Uncle Vanya'', ''Three Sisters'' and ''The Cherry Orchard'') as well as an early untitled work, which he titled ''Wild Honey'' (other translations of the work have called it ''Platonov'' or ''Don Juan in the Russian Manner'') and a number of Chekhov's smaller plays for an evening called ''The Sneeze'' (originally performed on the West End by Rowan Atkinson).
On 24 November 2006 he was a guest at The Royal Society in London to discuss his book ''The Human Touch''.[1]

Awards

★ 1966: Somerset Maugham Award for ''The Tin Men''

★ 1975: London Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy, for ''Alphabetical Order''

★ 1976: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy, for ''Donkey's Years''
★

★ 1980: London Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy for ''Make and Break''

★ 1982: London Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy, for ''Noises Off''

★ 1982: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy, for ''Noises Off''

★ 1984: London Evening Standard Award for Best Play, for ''Benefactors''

★ 1986: New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play of the 1985-86 Season for ''Benefactors''

★ 1990: International Emmy Award for ''First and Last''

★ 1991: Sunday Express Book of the Year, for ''A Landing on the Sun''

★ 1998: Critics' Circle Theatre Awards for Best New Play, for ''Copenhagen''

★ 1998: London Evening Standard Award for Best Play, for ''Copenhagen''

★ 2000: Tony Award for Best Play (USA) for ''Copenhagen''

★ 2000: New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play of the 1999-2000 Season for ''Copenhagen''

★ 2002: Whitbread Best Novel Award for ''Spies'' (the overall Whitbread Prize went to his wife, Claire Tomalin)

★ 2003: Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book (Eurasia Region) for ''Spies''

Bibliography

Novels

★ ''The Tin Men'' (1965)

★ ''The Russian Interpreter'' (1966)

★ ''Towards the End of the Morning'' (1967)

★ ''A Very Private Life'' (1968)

★ ''Sweet Dreams'' (1973)

★ ''The Trick of It'' (1989)

★ ''A Landing on the Sun'' (1991)

★ ''Headlong'' (1999)

★ ''Spies'' (2002)

Plays

★ ''The Two of Us'', four one-act plays for two actors (1970)
::''Black and Silver, Mr. Foot, Chinamen, and The new Quixote''

★ ''Alphabetical Order'' and ''Donkeys' Years'' (1977)

★ ''Clouds'' (1977)

★ ''Make and Break'' (1980)

★ ''Noises Off'' (1982)

★ ''Benefactors'' (1984)

★ ''Wild Honey'' trans. Chekhov (1984)

★ ''Balmoral'' (1987)

★ ''First and Last'' (1989)

★ '' (1990)

★ ''Jamie on a Flying Visit; and Birthday'' (1990)

★ ''Look Look'' (1990)

★ ''Audience'' (1991)

★ ''Here'' (1993)

★ ''La Belle Vivette'', a version of Jacques Offenbach's ''La Belle Hélène'' (1995)

★ ''Now You Know'' (1995)

★ '' (1998)

★ ''Copenhagen'' (1998)

★ '' (2000)

★ ''Democracy'' (2003)

Non-Fiction

★ ''The Day of the Dog'', articles reprinted from ''The Guardian'' (1962)

★ ''The Book of Fub'', articles reprinted from ''The Guardian'' (1963)

★ ''On the Outskirts'', articles reprinted from ''The Observer'' (1964)

★ ''At Bay in Gear Street'', articles reprinted from ''The Observer'' (1967)

★ ''The Original Michael Frayn'', a collection of the above four, plus nineteen new ''Observer'' pieces.

★ ''Speak After the Beep: Studies in the Art of Communicating with Inanimate and Semi-animate Objects'', articles reprinted from ''The Guardian'' (1995)

★ ''Constructions'', a volume of philosophy (1974)

★ ''Celia's Secret: An Investigation'' (US title ''The Copenhagen Papers'' ), with David Burke (2000)

★ ''The Human Touch: Our part in the creation of the universe'' (2006)

Links

★ Theatre Archive Project

External links

★ British Council biography

★ Profile on BBC Four

★ Michael Frayn at the Internet Broadway Database

★ Profile at PFD, a literary and talent agency

★ Faber and Faber - Michael Frayn's UK publisher

★ Faber reading guide to Headlong