Tess Berry-Hart is a British playwright and novelist writing for adults, young adults and children. Novels and theatre plays deal with themes such as the European migrant crisis, LGBT rights,

mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

genetic engineering Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including t ...

, and the sex-positive movement. Berry-Hart has also written fiction and

verbatim theatre Documentary theatre is theatre that uses pre-existing documentary material (such as newspapers, government reports, interviews, journals, and correspondences) as source material for stories about real events and people, frequently without altering ...

pieces for stage to support human rights campaigns and to raise funds for the refugee crisis.

Early life

Youngest child of painter and sculptor David Berry-Hart, Tess's paternal grandmother, Alice Berry-Hart, was a journalist and author of children's books and aunt

Marian Lines Marian Alice Lines (née Berry-Hart; 27 November 1933 – 10 November 2012) was a British writer and actress. The majority of Lines' works are libretti for musical productions, and many are for performance by children. Biography Her mother ...

was a playwright and children's author. Great-grandfather David Berry Hart was a noted gynaecologist and one of the first male practitioners in the UK. Berry-Hart was born in Warwickshire, brought up in

Oswestry Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads. The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...

on the

Welsh Marches The Welsh Marches ( cy, Y Mers) is an imprecisely defined area along the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods. The English term Welsh March (in Medieval Latin ...

, and from age 11 to 18, won a music scholarship to study at

Howell's School, Denbigh Howell's School Denbigh ( Welsh: ''Ysgol Howell Dinbych'') was an independent girls only school located in Denbigh, Denbighshire. The school taught girls from the age of 3 up to 18 and contained a pre-preparatory , preparatory, senior and six ...

in North Wales. After school, Berry-Hart spent a year travelling and working in Turkey and Pakistan's North West Frontier as a teacher of English. Berry-Hart graduated magna cum laude with a first-class degree in law from

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

Career

Berry-Hart studied at the Royal Court Theatre Young Writers’ Programme in London under the tutorship of Hanif Kureishi and Simon Stephens. Berry-Hart was selected to be the Royal Court young writing representative at the Interplay Young European Playwrights Festival in Warsaw, Poland, with first play ''Legoland'' which dealt with post-traumatic stress and mental illness. Berry-Hart's theatre work has been subsequently produced in London, New York, Los Angeles, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Ankara, and translated into German and Turkish. In 2019, Berry-Hart was shortlisted for the BBC Wales Writer in Residence Award in partnership with National Theatre Wales. Since November 2021, Berry-Hart is part of the Writers' Group at the Sherman Theatre.

Theatre

In July 2016, Berry-Hart's play CARGO (inspired by experiences encountering child refugees in Calais) set in a cargo container following unaccompanied minors travelling to Europe, was produced by the

Arcola Theatre Arcola Theatre is an Off West End theatre in the London Borough of Hackney. It presents plays, operas and musicals featuring established and emerging artists. The theatre building, in the former Colourworks paint factory on Ashwin Street, Dalst ...

in London. The Turkish translation premiere of Cargo ("Kargo") was produced and toured by the

Turkish State Theatres The Turkish State Theatres ( tr, Devlet Tiyatroları - DT) is the official directorate of the national theatre companies in Turkey. It is bound to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and financed by the state to promote performed arts and enhance t ...

in November 2018. In 2018, the Welsh theatre The Other Room (in Cardiff) commissioned Berry-Hart to write a play for its 2019 Violence Series inspired by their experiences as a volunteer during the Syrian refugee crisis. "The Story" premiered in 2019 and subsequently toured Wales and London in Jan-Feb 2020. In October 2020, the Violence Series trilogy won an LPT 2020 theatre award for Best Transfer. "The Story" is published by

Oberon Books Oberon Books is a London-based independent publisher of drama texts and books on theatre. The company publishes around 100 titles per year, many of them plays by new writers. In addition, the list contains a range of titles on theatre studies, act ...

. In 2021, Berry-Hart became part of the Writers' Group at the Sherman Theatre Cardiff, developing a play called "Last Flight" loosely inspired by experiences volunteering during the

Fall of Kabul (2021) On 15 August 2021, Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul was captured by the Taliban after a major insurgent offensive that began in May 2021. This led to the overthrowing of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan under President Ashraf Ghani and ...

and the

2021 Kabul Airlift Large-scale evacuations of foreign citizens and some vulnerable Afghan citizens took place amid the withdrawal of US and NATO forces during the final days of the war in Afghanistan and the Taliban offensive in Afghanistan in 2021. After the ...

evacuation of Afghanistan.

Verbatim theatre commissions

In 2012, Berry-Hart was commissioned to create a verbatim theatre piece, "Someone To Blame" based on the real-life case of

Sam Hallam Sam Hallam (born 1987), from Hoxton, London, is one of the youngest victims of a UK miscarriage of justice after an appeal court quashed his murder conviction in 2012. Background In 2004, aged 17, Hallam had been sentenced to serve a minimum of ...

, a teenager wrongfully convicted of murder and imprisoned for 7 years. The play highlighted inaccuracies in the case against Hallam and was performed by the

King's Head Theatre The King's Head Theatre, founded in 1970 by Dan Crawford, is an off-West End venue in London. It is the second oldest operating pub theatre in the UK. In 2021, Mark Ravenhill became Artistic Director and the theatre focusses on producing LGBTQ ...

in the weeks before his second appeal. Hallam was released after a second three-hour hearing at the Court of Appeal. An updated gala performance of "Someone To Blame" was staged at the King's Head after his release. In 2014, Berry-Hart was further commissioned by the

in London to write a play about the lives of LGBT Russians following the passing of the anti-gay laws in Russia ahead of the Winter Olympics. "Sochi 2014" was performed at the King's Head's new writing venue, The Hope Theatre London, in 2014, with other benefit performances occurring in New York (performed by Uzo Aduba,

Masha Gessen Masha Gessen (born 13 January 1967) is a Russian-American journalist, author, translator and activist who has been an outspoken critic of the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the former president of the United States, Donald Trump. Gess ...

and Catherine Curtin) as well as Los Angeles that same year. An updated version of Sochi 2014 was produced and won an NSDF commendation award at the Edinburgh Festival, during August 2014. In 2019, Berry-Hart was commissioned to curate the testimonies of women workers in the developing world to produce a short play for

International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wom ...

(#March4Women Rally) hosted by CARE International at

Central Hall Westminster The Methodist Central Hall (also known as Central Hall Westminster) is a multi-purpose venue in the City of Westminster, London, serving primarily as a Methodist church and a conference centre. The building, which is a tourist attraction, also ho ...

. The play was performed live by Helena Bonham Carter, Meera Syal, Nicola Thorp, Naana Agyei-Ampadu, and Nina Sosanya, directed by Berry-Hart. The next year, for IWD 2020, Berry-Hart produced and directed another verbatim play concerning the testimonies of refugees of climate change which was produced at

The Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I ...

and performed by Natalie Dormer,

Nicola Coughlan Nicola Mary Coughlan (born 9 January 1987) is an Irish actress. She is known for her roles as Clare Devlin in the Channel 4 sitcom ''Derry Girls'' (2018–2022) and Penelope Featherington in the Netflix period drama ''Bridgerton'' (2020–presen ...

Sanjeev Bhaskar Sanjeev Bhaskar (born 31 October 1963) is a British actor, comedian and television presenter. He is best known for his work in the BBC Two sketch comedy series '' Goodness Gracious Me'' and as the star of the sitcom '' The Kumars at No. 42''. ...

and Himesh Patel.

Young adult novels

In 2007, Berry-Hart's first novel, '' Escape from Genopolis'', was published by Scholastic Corporation. This was followed by the sequel, ''Fearless'', in 2009.

Refugee crisis

In September 2015, during the European migrant crisis, Berry-Hart visited the Calais Jungle refugee camp in France and upon returning became aid and advocacy co-ordinator for Calais Action, part of the UK

Grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...

Aid movement, sending aid to Calais. Athens, and the islands of Samos, Chios, and Lesvos. Berry-Hart has spoken at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva and ALNAP in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

from a volunteer perspective, and appeared as commentator on refugee issues on the BBC, ITV, and various documentaries and campaigns for the rights of refugees and the need for safe and legal routes to asylum. In 2016, Berry-Hart produced a gala weekend of new writing to raise funds for the Syrian refugee crisis at the Southwark Playhouse featuring short pieces of refugee-related writing by Timberlake Wertenbaker, Anders Lustgarten, Barney Norris, Mediah Ahmed, as well as a collection of Syrian refugee poetry performed by

Denise Gough Denise Gough (born 28 February 1980) is an Irish actress. She is the elder sister of the actress Kelly Gough. She has worked in film, television, video games and theatre. Gough is a double Olivier Award winner. Early life Born in Ennis, Cou ...

and Russell Tovey. The event was compered by comedians

Robin Ince Robin Ince (born 20 February 1969) is an English comedian, actor and writer, known for presenting the BBC radio show ''The Infinite Monkey Cage'' with physicist Brian Cox (physicist), Brian Cox, and his stand-up comedy career. Education After ...

and

Adam Riches Adam Riches (born 29 March 1973) is an English comedian, and 2011 winner of the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award. After his success at the Edinburgh Fringe, he became familiar to UK television audiences through his exaggerated comic parody of act ...

. Berry-Hart is also a founding member of the Citizens of the World Choir for refugees, migrants and friends. In 2021, Berry-Hart helped support and evacuate LGBTQ Afghans after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, as a volunteer with the Turkey-based NGO Aman Project which supports LGBTQ refugees.

Personal life

Berry-Hart identifies as LGBT and is non-binary using they/them pronouns.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berry-Hart, Tess Living people 21st-century English novelists Alumni of King's College London English children's writers English novelists English dramatists and playwrights People from Oswestry Year of birth missing (living people) Non-binary writers LGBT dramatists and playwrights English LGBT novelists