Michael Frayn
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Bibliography
Biography
Acclaimed playwright and novelist Michael Frayn initially rose to prominence in his British homeland writing satirical columns, first for Manchester Guardian and later for The Observer. His early books were compilations of his columns, but he soon graduated to autobiographical novels like "The Russian Interpreter" (1966) and "Toward the End of the Morning" (1967), the latter chronicling his days as a Fleet Street journalist. Though he had co-scripted "Zounds!" for the Cambridge University Footlights while a student, it had failed to move to the West End as expected, so his first professional production was "The Two of Us" (1970), four playlets performed by Richard Briers and Lynn Redgrave. Trained by the British Army to speak Russian, he has used his expertise most frequently to translate Chekhov's plays, beginning with the National Theatre's "The Cherry Orchard" (1977), followed by "Wild Honey" (1984), "The Three Sisters" (1985), "The Seagull" (1986) and "Uncle Vanya" (1987).
After inaugurating his longstanding collaboration with director Michael Blakemore on "Make and Break" (1980), Frayn reteamed with Blakemore on the wonderful back-stage farce "Noises Off" (1982), called by Frank Rich, the former chief drama critic of The New York Times: "The single funniest play I ever saw on the job." Featuring a puerile play-within-a-play sex comedy entitled "Nothing On" and a cast of mediocre British actors on tour in the provinces, "Noises Off" sends up those calamitous (yet engaging) nights in the theater and the real-life illicit love triangles, paralleling those in "Nothing On," that can wreak havoc on a company. The wild romp earned Frayn his first Tony nomination, and he and Blakemore returned to Broadway in 1986 with "Benefactors," a much different kettle of fish which brought him a second Tony nod. A comedy only in the darkest sense, it confirmed the author's contention that "my works are about an ordered world breaking down into disorder." In "Benefactors," marriages and principles are the casualties when the idealized order of modern liberal society comes apart at the seems.
Undaunted by the failures of "Look, Look," which closed after only 27 London performances in 1990, and "Now You Know," which toured the United Kingdom but failed to make it to the West End, Frayn embarked on arguably his most cerebral play, "Copenhagen" (1998), doing for German physicist Werner Heisenberg's Principle what Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" had done for Chaos Theory. "Copenhagen" investigates the unreliability of memory, the ambiguity of human motives and the conflicting loyalties of scientists in wartime by imagining what happened at the famous meeting in 1941 between Heisenberg, who was working for the Nazis at the time, and Neils Bohr, the half-Jewish Danish physicist who had mentored him before the war. Despite demanding an audience to sit up and pay attention, the play directed by Blakemore was a surprise hit in the West End and earned Frayn another Tony nomination when it debuted on Broadway with a completely different cast. Simultaneously, "Headlong," his clever novel about a man who thinks he has found a missing Brueghel in the home of an acquaintance and schemes to acquire it for himself, was short-listed for the prestigious Booker Prize.
Filmography
Writer (Feature Film)
Writer (Special)
Special Thanks (Special)
Life Events
1952
Served in the Artillery and Intelligence Corps of the British Army; sent to Cambridge where he learned (along with Alan Bennett) to speak Russian from Dame Elizabeth Hill
1957
Co-wrote (with John Edwards) "Zounds!" for the Cambridge University Footlights; suffered the rare indignity of the production's failing to transfer to London's West End
1966
Published first novel, "The Tin Men"
1970
First play professionally produced, "The Two of Us"; commissioned by Alexander H Cohen to write a two-character sketch, expanded idea into four playlets starring Richard Briers and Lynn Redgrave
1975
After London performances, "Alphabetical Order" produced at New Haven's Long Wharf Theatre
1976
Wrote "Clouds", a play about Cuba that starred Tom Courtenay and Felicity Kendal
1977
First performance of a play translated by him from Russian, "The Cherry Orchard" at the National Theatre
1980
First association with director Michael Blakemore, "Make and Break"
1982
Reteamed with Blakemore for the extremely successful "Noises Off", which moved to Broadway and earned a 1984 Tony nomination for Best Play
1984
Translated Chekhov's first play, "Wild Honey", which enjoyed productions in London and in NYC (1986), starring Ian McKellan
1986
First screenplay credit, "Clockwise"
1986
Received second Tony nomination for "Benefactors" (originally produced in London in 1984), also directed by Blakemore
1989
Wrote screenplay for "First and Last"
1990
Had a spectacular failure with "Look, Look", which closed after just 27 London performances
1997
Scripted Nick Hurran's feature "Remember Me?"
1998
Reteamed with Blakemore for "Copenhagen", his first original (not a translation) play at London's National Theater; moved to Broadway in 2000 and earned Tony Award for Best Play; 16th original work for the stage and the sixth directed by Blakemore, who also directed "Alarms and Excursions" (short sketches by Frayn) touring Britain during the summer of 1998
2004
Reteamed with Blakemore for "Democracy"; received a Tony nomination for Best Play
Family
Companions
