Peter Charles Patrick Oswald (born 1965) is an English

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

specialising in verse drama, resident at

Shakespeare's Globe Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse for which William Shakespeare wrote his plays, in the London Borough of Southwark, on the south bank of the River Thames. The original theatre was built in ...

from 1998 to 2009.

Early life

Oswald was born the second of four children (eldest of three sons) of farmer and stockbroker Peter David Hamilton Oswald and Juliet (née McLaughlin), of Fliskmillan,

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

, Scotland. His uncle was Sir

Julian Oswald Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Julian Robertson Oswald (11 August 1933 – 19 July 2011) was a senior Royal Navy officer. After training as a gunnery specialist, Oswald commanded a frigate and then a destroyer before achieving higher command in t ...

First Sea Lord The First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff (1SL/CNS) is the military head of the Royal Navy and Naval Service of the United Kingdom. The First Sea Lord is usually the highest ranking and most senior admiral to serve in the British Armed ...

from 1989 to 1993. The Oswalds were landed gentry, of Cavens,

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from the ...

, and

Auchincruive Auchincruive is a former country house and estate in South Ayrshire, Scotland. It is located east of Ayr, on the north bank of the River Ayr. Auchincruive House was built in the 18th century on the site of an earlier mansion. In 1927, the estate ...

(now named "Oswald Hall"),

South Ayrshire South Ayrshire ( sco, Sooth Ayrshire; gd, Siorrachd Àir a Deas, ) is one of thirty-two council areas of Scotland, covering the southern part of Ayrshire. It borders onto Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayrshire and North Ayrshire. On 30 June 2 ...

, Scotland, descending from merchant

George Oswald George Oswald of Scotstoun (1735–1819) was a Scottish merchant of Glasgow. In 1797 he was elected Rector of the University of Glasgow. Life He was the son of the Rev. James Oswald (1703–1793), and nephew of the merchant Richard Oswald (170 ...

Rector of the University of Glasgow The (Lord) Rector of the University of Glasgow is one of the most senior posts within the institution, elected every three years by students. The theoretical role of the rector is to represent students to the senior management of the university ...

from 1797 to 1799,

Career

Oswald was the first writer/playwright-in-residence at

theatre, London, for which he wrote three new plays, from 1998 to 2009. He was later playwright-in-residence at the

Finborough Theatre The Finborough Theatre is a fifty-seat theatre in the West Brompton area of London (part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea) under artistic director Neil McPherson. The theatre presents new British writing, as well as UK and world p ...

. Oswald established his own company, Heart's Tongue, to produce some of his plays. In March 2022, Oswald was interviewed about his verse drama plays on the podcast '' Hamlet to Hamilton: Exploring Verse Drama'', hosted by Emily C. A. Snyder and Colin Kovarik.

Personal life

Oswald is married to the poet

Alice Oswald Alice Priscilla Lyle Oswald (née Keen; born 31 August 1966) is a British poet from Reading, Berkshire. Her work won the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2002 and the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2017. In September 2017, she was named as BBC Radio 4's second Poet ...

, with whom he has three children.Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage, 146th edition, ed. Charles Kidd, David Williamson, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 2000, p. 852 They live in

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, southwest England. His brother is the author James Oswald.

Books

* Peter Oswald; Mary Stuart.

Samuel French Samuel French (1821–1898) was an American entrepreneur who, together with British actor, playwright and theatrical manager Thomas Hailes Lacy, pioneered in the field of theatrical publishing and the licensing of plays. Biography French foun ...

, London, 2006 * Peter Oswald; The Golden Ass or the Curious Man. Comedy in three parts after the novel ''Metamorphoses'' by Lucius Apuleius. Oberon Books: London, GB. 2002. . * Peter Oswald; Earth Has Not Any Thing to Shew More Fair: A Bicentennial Celebration of Wordsworth's Sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge (co-editor with

and Robert Woof) Shakespeare's Globe & The

Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

Trust, 2002 * Peter Oswald; Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards. A drama in verses after an eighteenth-century Japanese puppet play by the

kabuki is a classical form of Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. Kabuki is thought to ...

playwright

Chikamatsu Monzaemon was a Japanese dramatist of jōruri, the form of puppet theater that later came to be known as bunraku, and the live-actor drama, kabuki. The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' has written that he is "widely regarded as the greatest Japanese dramatis ...

. Methuen Drama, London, GB. 1996 (USA: Heinemann, Portsmouth, New Hampshire). .

References

External links

Peter Oswald's poetry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oswald, Peter English dramatists and playwrights Living people Place of birth missing (living people) 1965 births English male dramatists and playwrights