Michael Frayn

Michael Frayn was born in 1933, in the suburbs of London. He began his career as a reporter on The Guardian, then became a columnist on that paper from 1959 to 1962, and for The Observer from 1962 to 1968.

He has published ten novels – THE TIN MEN, THE RUSSIAN INTERPRETER, TOWARDS THE END OF MORNING, A VERY PRIVATE LIFE, SWEET DREAMS, THE TRICK OF IT, A LANDING ON THE SUN, NOW YOU KNOW, HEADLONG (nominated for the 1999 Booker Prize), and SPIES (published by Faber & Faber in 2002 and recipient of the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel for that year), together with a volume of philosophy, CONSTRUCTIONS. CELIA’S SECRET was written in co-operation with David Burke who originally played Bohr in Copenhagen and recounted a practical joke played by Burke on Frayn during the West End run of the play. His book on philosophy, THE HUMAN TOUCH, was published by Faber & Faber in September 2006.

He has written a number of plays for television, and for the stage his work includes The Two of Us, Alphabetical Order, Donkeys’ Years, Clouds, Balmoral (Liberty Hall), Make and Break, Noises Off, Benefactors, Look Look and Here. Alphabetical Order, Make and Break and Noises Off all received BEST COMEDY OF THE YEAR awards, whilst Benefactors was named BEST PLAY OF THE YEAR. He has translated four of Chekhov’s full-length plays – The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, The Seagull and Uncle Vanya and adapted Chekhov’s first, untitled play as Wild Honey. He has also translated four of his one-act plays – The Evils of Tobacco, Swan Song, The Bear and The Proposal and adapted six short stories Drama, The Alien Corn, The Sneeze, The Inspector General, Swan Song and Plots for the stage. These, with the exception of Plots, were staged collectively as The Sneeze. He has translated Tolstoy’s Fruits of Enlightenment, Yuri Trifonov’s Exchange and Anouilh’s Number One.

For some years after leaving The Observer, he continued to contribute features to the paper on foreign countries, among them Cuba, Israel, Japan and Sweden and has written columns for The Guardian. He has written and presented a series of personal films for BBC Television on Berlin, Vienna, Australia, Jerusalem, Prague, Budapest and the London suburbs in which he grew up.

Clockwise, his first film, was released in 1986 starring John Cleese. His second film, First and Last, won an International Emmy Award in 1990. The film of his play, Noises Off was produced by Disney. Alphabetical Order, Donkeys’ Years, Make and Break and Benefactors have all been filmed for U.K. television and A Landing on the Sun was filmed and transmitted (BBC) in 1994.

Michael adapted his novel, NOW YOU KNOW, for the stage which opened at the Hampstead Theatre in 1995 and toured the UK in the spring of 1996. A collection of articles written for The Guardian were published in November 1995 by Methuen, under the title SPEAK AFTER THE BEEP. His latest screenplay, entitled Remember Me?, starring Robert Lindsay, Rik Mayall and Imelda Staunton was released in 1997.

His more recent plays include Alarms & Excursions which toured the UK, transferred to the West End in September 1998 and closed on 6th March 1999 and Copenhagen which opened at the National Theatre in May 1998 and won the Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Best Play Awards 1998, the French production at the Theatre Montparnasse won two Molière Awards for Best Production and Best Translation and it was also nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Play. Copenhagen ran for two years at the Duchess Theatre in the West End and opened on Broadway in April 2000 where it ran for one year. The Broadway production won the Outer Critics’ Circle Award for Outstanding Broadway Play. Copenhagen also won the TONY Award for Best Play and the TONY Award for Best Direction of a Play went to Michael Blakemore for Copenhagen. Copenhagen was filmed for BBC 4, directed by Howard Davies, and starring Francesca Annis, Daniel Craig and Stephen Rea.

A new production of Noises Off opened to rave reviews at the Royal National Theatre in October 2000 and played in their repertory prior to a UK spring ‘01 tour. It opened at the Piccadilly Theatre in May 2001 and transfers to the Comedy Theatre in March 2002 and closed in the West End in September. It also toured the UK through to July 2003.
Benefactors was revived in the West End in 2001 and played at the Albery Theatre until the end of September 2002. Noises Off opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on Broadway in November 2001 and ran until September 2002.

Michael’s latest play, Democracy, opened to great critical acclaim in the Cottesloe at the National Theatre and transferred to the Lyttelton before moving to the West End in April 2004, and then on to Broadway.

Donkeys’ Years was revived by Sonia Friedman Productions this year to huge acclaim. It had a long and successful run at the Comedy Theatre in the West End.
The Crimson Hotel received its world premiere at The Donmar Warehouse, London and opened on 31st July, 2007 in a triple bill with two plays by N.F. Simpson (ABSURDIA).

COLLECTED COLUMNS was published in August 2007 and the paperback publication of THE HUMAN TOUCH (Faber) will come out in September.