Tom Wright (Australian playwright)

Tom Wright (born 1 January 1968) is an Australian theatre writer, mostly known for his adaptations and translations.

Biography

Tom Wright was born and grew up in Melbourne. He studied Fine Art and English at Melbourne University. ^[1]

In 2003 he was appointed Artistic Associate at Sydney Theatre Company (STC); in 2007 he became Associate Director. He left the company in 2012. ^[2]

In 2016 he joined Belvoir as an Artistic Associate. ^[3]

Career

Wright began as an actor, joining Jean-Pierre Mignon's Australian Nouveau Theatre (Anthill) in late 1991. In 1991 he resumed working with Barrie Kosky (who had directed him in student productions at Melbourne University) as a member of Gilgul, a Melbourne company exploring Jewish cultural identity. He acted in their productions of The Dybbuk (1992), Es Brent (1993), The Wilderness Room (1995) and The Operated Jew (1996).^{[ citation needed ]}

He began writing for the theatre in the late 1990s, although he continued performing into the early 2000s. This Is a True Story, a monologue dealing with a death row case, which he wrote and performed, had multiple seasons and later toured to Sydney and London. ^[4]

Lorilei: A Meditation on Loss, based on another death row case, and performed by Anna Galvin, played in Melbourne, Sydney, Edinburgh, London and Vancouver in 2003, and has since gone on to be performed in other nations such as Belgium and Pakistan. ^[5] The BBC Radio 4 radio version of Lorilei won the Gold Prize for Drama at the Radio Academy Awards in 2007.^{[ citation needed ]}

In 2006 he again resumed working with Kosky, writing The Lost Echo, an eight-hour adaptation of Ovid's Metamorphoses . ^[6] At the 2007 Helpmann Awards this production won five awards, including Best Play and Best New Australian work. ^[7]

Wright's adaptation of Euripides' tragedy The Women of Troy was awarded Best Mainstage Production at the 2008 Sydney Theatre Awards. ^[8]

In 2009 his co-adaptation of Shakespeare's history plays, performed under the title The War of the Roses, was directed by Benedict Andrews for Sydney Theatre Company. This production collected four Helpmanns in 2009, including Best Play, ^[9] and was listed as the theatre masterpiece of the decade by The Monthly in October 2011. ^[10]

Wright's 2012 play On The Misconception of Oedipus played at Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne and Perth Theatre Company, under the direction of Matthew Lutton. It won four Green Room Awards that year including Best Writing. ^{[11] [12]}

In 2014 Wright's play Black Diggers premiered in Sydney under the direction of Wesley Enoch; later it toured Australia playing in Melbourne, Canberra, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Bendigo. A text exploring Indigenous Australian experiences in the First World War, Black Diggers was awarded the Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting at the 2015 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards. ^[13]

2017 saw the premier of The Real and Imagined History of The Elephant Man, a play that revisited the actual history of Joseph Merrick joining up what is known about his tragic life with passages that explore the depth of what it is to be a disabled person. The play premiered on 4 August 2017, ^[14] starring Daniel Monks in the title role. The cast also featured Paula Arundell, Julie Forsyth, Emma J. Hawkins, and Sophie Ross. The play toured the UK in 2023, directed by Stephen Bailey and starring Zak Ford-Williams as Joseph. ^[15] This cast of this production included Annabelle Davies and Nadia Nadarajah, and off the back of this production the play was published as a book. ^[16]

Personal life

Wright's partner is Jo Dyer, the political candidate, lawyer and theatre producer. ^[17]

Selected works

• Ghost Train , (Kroetz, Napier St Theatre (Melbourne), 1995)
• The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Brecht, Belvoir, 1998)
• Ubu (after Jarry. Melbourne Festival, 2001)
• Medea (Melbourne Festival, 2002, directed by Daniel Schlusser)
• This Is a True Story (2002)
• Babes in the Wood (Playbox Theatre, Melbourne, 2003)
• Lorilei (2003)
• Tense Dave (Chunky Move, 2003)
• Mr Puntila and his Man Matti (Brecht, for Australian Theatre for Young People, 2004)
• A Journal of the Plague Year (Defoe, Malthouse, 2005)
• The Odyssey (Malthouse, 2006)
• The Lost Echo (STC, 2006)
• The Duel (2007)
• Criminology (with Lally Katz, Arena Theatre Company, 2007; directed by Rosemary Myers)
• Tales From the Vienna Woods (Ödön von Horváth, STC, 2007)
• The Women of Troy (STC and Malthouse, 2008)
• The War of the Roses (2009)
• Optimism (after Voltaire, Sydney Opera House, 2009)
• Baal (Brecht, STC and Malthouse, 2011; directed by Simon Stone)
• Oresteia (STC, 2011)
• The Histrionic (Thomas Bernhard, 2011) ^[18]
• The Castle (after Franz Kafka, STC, 2012)
• On the Misconception of Oedipus (2012)
• The Misanthrope (Molière, Malthouse, 2013)
• Black Diggers (Sydney Festival, 2014)
• The Good Person of Szechuan (Brecht, Malthouse 2014, toured Shanghai and Beijing, directed by Meng Jinghui)
• Picnic at Hanging Rock (adapted from the novel by Joan Lindsay, Malthouse and Black Swan State Theatre Company, 2016)
• Biographica (libretto, composer Mary Finsterer, Sydney Chamber Opera, 2017)
• The Real & Imagined History of The Elephant Man (2017)
• Bliss (after Peter Carey's novel, Malthouse and Belvoir, 2018) ^[19]
• The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Brecht, Sydney Theatre Company, 2018) ^[20]
• Life of Galileo (Brecht, Belvoir, 2019)
• The Last Season (Force Majeure (Dance Company), 2021)
• Antarctica (libretto; composer Mary Finsterer, Sydney Chamber Opera, Holland Festival 2022 & Sydney Festival 2023)

References

1. Margaret Throsby. Interview of Tom Wright, 27 January 2009. ABC Classic FM
2. "STC Sacks Associate Director". The Australian . 13 October 2012 – via Trove.
3. "Belvoir Staff".
4. "This Is a True Story". Kate Herbert Theatre Reviews.
5. "Lorelei And The Quality of Mercy". Dawn . Karachi. 18 December 2015.
6. "Tom Wright". Doollee.
7. "Past nominees and winners". Helpmann Awards.
8. "Sydney Theatre Awards 2008 Winners".
9. "Past Nominees and Winners". Helpmann Awards.
10. "Theatre Masterpiece". The Monthly .
11. "2012 Green Room Awards Recipients". Australian Stage.
12. "Tom Wright: Director". artshub.com.au.
13. "Winners Announced For 2015 Premier's Literary Awards". History Council NSW.
14. "Stories of M - The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man". Stories of M. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
15. "Interview - Zak Ford-Williams - Taking on the Elephant Man - Able Magazine". ablemagazine.co.uk. Retrieved 24 August 2024. I think there's a slight advantage, because I'm so used to being very aware and having to control my body and my mouth. When I have to change my physicality or my voice I have, I feel, a great awareness to begin with.
16. Wright, Tom. "The Real & Imagined History of the Elephant Man". Nick Hern Books. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
17. Wright, Ilona (28 February 2019). "Adelaide Writers' Week: Jo Dyer's write connections". Adelaide Review. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
18. "Feature: Tom Wright", Sydney Theatre Company Magazine, 25 September 2011
19. "Bliss". Malthousetheatre.com.au.
20. "Sydney Theatre Company 2018 Season". sydneytheatre.com.au. Retrieved 10 October 2017.