Howard Barker

Bernhard Reitz (Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz)

Ed. by Aleks Sierz, Independent Scholar - Europe
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

Born 28 Jun 1946
Activity 1969-ongoing

Places

Born in England
Active in England; France

Activities

Primary

Playwright / Dramatist
Theatre Director

Other

Painter
Poet

Resources

Barker's Works

Save to Bookshelf

When critic Claire Armistead reviewed Howard Barker’s

All He Fears

for the

Guardian

in 1994, she rhetorically asked her readers whether “this great eccentric of English playwriting [is] a prophet or a poseur, a wit or a fool?” This question reverberates in British theatre criticism until today, and whenever a new play by Barker is to be assessed, his standing and importance as a playwright is discussed anew. Although from the mid-seventies onwards there have been a few theatre critics who described Barker’s work as “promising”, the majority of British reviewers still tend to support those who have accused Barker of not heeding “our need for a story” (Eric Shorter in the

Daily Telegraph

, 1983), of having “remarkably little interest in dramatic construction or character…

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2958 words

Citation: Reitz, Bernhard. "Howard Barker". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 April 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5519, accessed 22 November 2024.]