Gregory Motton (born September 1961) is a British playwright and author. Best known for the originality of his formally demanding, largely a-political theatre plays at the

Royal Court A royal court, often called simply a court when the royal context is clear, is an extended royal household in a monarchy, including all those who regularly attend on a monarch, or another central figure. Hence, the word "court" may also be appl ...

in the 1980s and 1990s, state of the nation satires in the 1990s, and later for his polemics about working class politics, ''A Working Class Alternative To Labour'' and ''Helping Themselves – The Left Wing Middle Classes In Theatre And The Arts''. He speaks fluent Swedish and is one of the chief translators of Strindberg's plays, known for his strict advocacy of translations rather than versions.

Early life

Gregory Motton was born in September 1961 in Wood Green in the London borough of

Enfield Enfield may refer to: Places Australia * Enfield, New South Wales * Enfield, South Australia ** Electoral district of Enfield, a state electoral district in South Australia, corresponding to the suburb ** Enfield High School (South Australia) ...

the second child of Bernadette (née Clancy) from

Rosscarbery Rosscarbery () is a village and census town in County Cork, Ireland. The village is on a shallow estuary, which opens onto Rosscarbery Bay. Rosscarbery is in the Cork South-West (Dáil Éireann) constituency, which has three seats. History The ...

in West

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

, Ireland, a bar-maid, and David Motton, of

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Wal ...

, London, a writer of children's comics. He attended St. Angela's Convent, St. Paul's School, and Winchmore Comprehensive.

Early career

Gregory Motton's first two plays went on in quick succession: ''Chicken'' (directed by

Kate Harwood Kate Harwood is a British television producer. She became managing director of the revived Euston Films in summer 2014. Early life Kate graduated from the University of Birmingham with a degree in Drama and Theatre Arts in 1981 before becoming an ...

) at the

Riverside Studios Riverside Studios is an arts centre on the banks of the River Thames in Hammersmith, London, England. The venue plays host to contemporary performance, film, visual art exhibitions and television production. Having closed for redevelopment i ...

in April 1987, and then ''Ambulance'' (directed by

Lindsay Posner Lindsay Steven Posner (born 6 June 1959)"Lindsay Posner ...

) at the

in September 1987. His unconventional writing style soon dispersed the initial keen interest it had first awakened in managements and critics. His third play, ''Downfall'', again directed by Lindsay Posner at the Royal Court in July 1988, contained 56 very brief scenes, 26 characters and a fragmented illogical structure. It brought fierce condemnation from the critics, an empty theatre, and an end of the Royal Court's interest in Motton for several years. His fourth play, ''Looking at You (revived) Again'' commissioned originally by the

National Theatre Studio The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. In ...

, continued with the lyrical aspects of the previous plays but with a more economical technique . It followed a simple story but had a more or less non-naturalistic lyrical form. Rejected by Peter Gill, the then artistic director of the National Theatre Studio, it did not receive a rehearsed reading. It was produced by Simon Usher at the

Leicester Haymarket The Leicester Haymarket Theatre is a theatre in Leicester, England, next to the Haymarket Shopping Centre on Belgrave Gate in Leicester City centre. History The Haymarket Theatre was opened by Sir Ralph Richardson and the opening season started ...

in June 1989, during the period of

David Gothard David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

's co-artistic directorship. The play was transferred to the Bush Theatre by Jenny Killick, was unanimously disliked by the critics, and the theatre was empty once again. Consequently, it was not until a further three years later that two of Motton's plays were produced, almost simultaneously: ''A Message for the Broken Hearted'', directed by Ramin Gray, March 1993, at the

Liverpool Everyman The Everyman Theatre stands at the north end of Hope Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It was founded in 1964, in Hope Hall (once a chapel, then a cinema), in an area of Liverpool noted for its bohemian environment and political edge, a ...

; and ''The Terrible Voice of Satan'', directed by James MacDonald, July 1993, at the Royal Court, now being run by

Stephen Daldry Stephen David Daldry CBE (born 2 May 1960) is an English director and producer of film, theatre, and television. He has won three Olivier Awards for his work in the West End and three Tony Awards for his work on Broadway. He has received thr ...

. (Motton and Gray formed the Ducks and Geese Theatre Company to bring the former play to London, at the Battersea Arts Centre. They subsequently worked together directing a number of Motton's plays in France.) Both plays met with almost universal disapproval by the critics, and Motton's brief career in Britain was effectively over. Excepting ''A Little Election Satire'' for one week at the

Gate Theatre The Gate Theatre is a theatre on Cavendish Row in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded in 1928. History Beginnings The Gate Theatre was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir with Daisy Bannard Cogley and Gearóid Ó Lochlai ...

in 1997 under David Farr, it was to be another twelve years before one of his plays was produced there. His plays remained out of print in English until 1997 when James Hogan of

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 ...

began the re-publication of all his plays in several volumes.

France

During that period his plays were premiered in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. Notable productions were by the director Claude Régy(''Downfall'' 1992 and ''Terrible Voice of Satan'' Oct 1994), and also by the director Éric Vigner (''Looking at You (revived) Again'' - "Reviens à toi (encore)" 1994) at the

Theatre de l'Odeon Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

*, while the play was rejected by the NT Studio for a reading. (Also premiered in that theatre was ''Loue Sois le Progress 1998''). During this period Motton wrote the "Gengis" series of satirical political plays ('' Cat and Mouse (Sheep),'' premiered at the Theatre de L'Odeon, ''Gengis Amongst the Pygmies'', premiered at the Comedie Francaise, ''A Holiday in the Sun'', premiered on Radio France Culture, and ''The Rape Of Europe''). The first of these, '' Cat And Mouse (Sheep)'', was directed by Ramin Gray and Gregory Motton in English, and this production was seen briefly in Britain at the

under David Farr, a few months later. All four plays of that series have been the subject of public readings at the Royal Court, but never produced there. British critic Michael Billington noted Motton's presence abroad, which he interpreted in the following manner: "Ignored in his native Britain, Gregory Motton is widely performed in France and, watching the premiere (at the Comedie Francaise) of his latest piece, it is not difficult to see why. Motton studiously rejects naturalism and instead offers a comic-strip satire on capitalist consumerism in the style of Jarry, Ionesco or Vian. He is like an absurdist with Marxist tendencies".(Guardian 2004)

Recent work

Motton's relationship with the Royal Court began again in 2005, during

Ian Rickson Ian David Rickson (born 1963) is a British theatre director. He was the artistic director at the Royal Court Theatre in London from 1998 to 2006.

's tenure. Rickson was not a natural enthusiast for Motton's work and was reluctant to produce any of his characteristically unconventional plays to which there had always been significant opposition. He decided against producing ''A Holiday in the Sun''. which he had commissioned and which was the subject of a reading. He was finally persuaded to produce ''The World's Biggest Diamond'' in 2005 which is a largely conventional drama about a lifelong love affair. This starred

Jane Asher Jane Asher (born 5 April 1946)The International Who's Who of Women, 3rd edition, ed. Elizabeth Sleeman, Europa Publications, 2002, p. 29 is an English actress and author. She achieved early fame as a child actress and has worked extensively in f ...

and

Michael Feast Michael Feast (born 25 November 1946) is an English actor of stage and screen. He was born in Brighton, and trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. He performed in the original 1968 London production of ''Hair''. He worked several ti ...

and, perhaps surprisingly, earned the Royal Court the only 5 star review it had so far received during Rickson's term there. Ironically perhaps, Alex Sierz took this as a sign of a change in Motton's writing "The World's Biggest Diamond by Gregory Motton (Royal Court) Is Motton our English

Strindberg Johan August Strindberg (, ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than sixty p ...

? This account of two lovers who meet for a weekend after 30 years seethes with Scandinavian gloom. But whatever happened to Motton's distinctively weird personal vision?" (Alex Sierz) Motton's plays have been produced only once in the past 17 years in Britain and never, in Britain, in a theatre with more than 90 seats. It is perhaps for this reason that he is considered by some commentators to have been rejected, along with some other writers, by the theatre establishment; Playwright

Mark Ravenhill Mark Ravenhill (born 7 June 1966) is an English playwright, actor and journalist. Ravenhill is one of the most widely performed playwrights in British theatre of the late-twentieth and twenty-first centuries. His major plays include ''Shoppin ...

, wrote: "The English theatre has for some 50 years told itself that it is a writers' theatre. It's odd, then, that the English theatre should have produced a substantial list of playwrights who have become alienated from our theatres, often at the peak of their power.In my imagination there's a strange hinterland, an empty

multi-storey car park A multistorey car park ( British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a bui ...

standing at a point equidistant from both the

and the National Theatres, where the shades of once-celebrated playwrights such as

Arnold Wesker Sir Arnold Wesker (24 May 1932 – 12 April 2016) was an English dramatist. He was the author of 50 plays, four volumes of short stories, two volumes of essays, much journalism and a book on the subject, a children's book, some poetry, and oth ...

John Arden John Arden (26 October 1930 – 28 March 2012) was an English playwright who at his death was lauded as "one of the most significant British playwrights of the late 1950s and early 60s". Career Born in Barnsley, son of the manager of a glass f ...

Howard Barker Howard Barker (born 28 June 1946) is a British playwright, screenwriter and writer of radio drama, painter, poet, and essayist writing predominantly on playwriting and the theatre. The author of an extensive body of dramatic works since the 197 ...

and Gregory Motton wander up and down". To others Motton is a natural dissident because of the form and the content of his writing.

Dominic Dromgoole Dominic Dromgoole (born 25 October 1963)DROMGOOLE, Dominic Charles Flemi ...

("not a fan of Motton's work") calls him the

Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. A member of the Labour Party, ...

Dennis Skinner Dennis Edward Skinner (born 11 February 1932) is a British former politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolsover for 49 years, from 1970 to 2019. He is a member of the Labour Party. Known for his left-wing views and acerbic w ...

of playwriting. Most recently, Gregory Motton has begun writing musicals. He wrote the music, lyrics and books of three in less than three years, having composed more than 60 songs. They are; ''

Nefertiti Neferneferuaten Nefertiti () ( – c. 1330 BC) was a queen of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the great royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a radical change in national religious policy, in which ...

and

Akhenaten Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, ( egy, ꜣḫ-n-jtn ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth D ...

'', ''The Mystery Of Hill Street'' and ''Dracula''. He wrote a fourth '' Tristan and Yseult'' in 2014. In 2014 he released a double CD album, called ''Damnation and Praise'' (Exile Music), containing a selection of 27 songs from 4 of his musicals. In 2020 ''The Ice-Floe Girl'' was published as a memoir (Conrad Press 2021)ISBN978-1-913567-34-7 "an account of an ephemeral beauty...an angelic Swedish au-pair."

Awards

In 2012, Strindberg's centenary year in Sweden, Motton was awarded the Swedish Writers Guild ( Dramatikerförbundet) Göran O Eriksson Award for his translations of Strindberg. This award was presented on the stage of Strindbergs Intima Teater, in Stockholm. The jury's motivation for the award was "Gregory Motton is a very many-sided translator whose work is valued by a great number of authors. His translations of dramatic works of widely differing genres and styles, display a faithfulness which points to the kind of sensitivity, integrity and precision, that comes of great professional skill."

Theatre and politics

In various articles and interviews Motton has voiced some criticisms of British theatre, ''("The Stage of Hollow Moralising")'' Guardian 16 April 1992, reprinted Theatre Forum Fall 1992, The Stage 1 April 1993, Whats On 5 May 1993, and most notably in the mid-1990s when he wrote an article about the high administrative staffing levels and low plays output of Britains regional theatres. Patrick Marmion wrote; "He stands aside from the mainstream orthodoxy of issue based writing....Now theatres are looking at his plays but remain edgy about what he may say in them." Motton's comments about British theatre may have alienated theatres against him. More recently he wrote a book, ('' Helping Themselves- the Left Wing Middle Classes in Theatre and the Arts ''), criticising the influence of the middle class left in both the arts and politics, and their effect on working class representation in politics. It includes an examination of the working class identity of the Royal Court in the 1969s and 70s, with specific reference to the

public school Public school may refer to: * State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government * Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...

origins of many of their best known writers This book was commissioned by

, but was rejected by them for publication. It is published by Levellers Press. It was accepted for sale in the Royal Court bookshop by the Royal Court Artistic Director Dominic Cooke, despite its robust criticisms of that theatre. No more of Motton's plays were published by Oberon Books subsequent to that date. In December 2013 Motton published ''A Working Class Alternative to Labour'' a book outlining a collection of policies designed to remove poverty, by the means of a high statutory minimum wage and a return to manufacturing. The central idea of the book is to shift money and economic activity from the top end of the economy to the lower end, and proposes a challenge to the predominance of large capital and its influence in our society, most notably by ending Britain's reliance on profits from investment in foreign industries (through investment banking) for the balance of payments. He proposes a return to what is called 'traditional banking' where money from current accounts is invested in domestic industries. He advocates free and ''untested'' access to

grammar schools A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school, ...

for all who want it, as a means of countering the predominance of a public school educated elite in positions of power. There is a section describing the workings of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

, and a critique of its lack of democratic accountability. He points out that the government of the EU (the executive) is not elected, and that the European Union elections, are only of MEPS and are therefore largely cosmetic since the executive is not drawn from the MEPS and cannot be removed by elections. Motton portrays the EU as a largely capitalist organisation designed to drive down

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colo ...

wages. He characterises the EU's appropriation of political power, by-passing democracy, as a ''coup d'état'' by the administrative classes of Europe. He gives evidence of a belief amongst EU leaders that political and economic decisions are best made without reference to democracy. This book is now in the House of Commons Library.

Film

For

Two Cities Films Two Cities Films was a British film production company. Formed in 1937, it was originally envisaged as a production company operating in the two cities of London and Rome which gave the company its name. The driving forces behind the company were ...

he has written and directed four full-length feature films, that make up a quartet of films called ''The Four Gospels of Dracula the Messiah.'' Filming began in 2017 and ended in 2021. They are; 1 ''The Four Gospels of Dracula the Messiah, part one: A Voice Crying In The Wilderness.'' 1hr 16mins. 2 ''The Four Gospels of Dracula the Messiah, part two: Conquering Death.'' 1hr 16 mins. 3 ''The Four Gospels of Dracula the Messiah, part three: The Seducer.'' 1 hr 24 mins. Part four is due to be released in January 2022,. In 2022 he directed ''Lilith'', also for Two Cities Films.

Selected works

Plays include

*''Chicken'' (Penguin, Oberon) Riverside Studios 1987, *''Ambulance'' (Penguin,/Oberon) Royal Court 1987, *''Downfall'' (Methuen, Oberon ) Royal Court 1988, *''Looking at You (Revived) Again,'' (Flood Books, Oberon) Leicester Haymarket 1989, *''A Message for the Broken Hearted'' 1993 (Flood Books, Oberon) Liverpool Playhouse, *''The Terrible Voice of Satan'' (Flood Books, Oberon) Royal Court 1993, *'' Cat and Mouse (Sheep)'' (Flood Books, Oberon) Theatre de L'Odeon 1995, *''The Forest of Mirrors'' (Methuen) National Theatre Studio, *''In Praise of Progress'' (Oberon) Theatre de L'Odeon 1999, *''A Little Satire'' (Oberon) Gate Theatre 1997, *''God's Island'' (Oberon) Theatre de La Tempête 2001, *''You Need Some of This,''

Théâtre de Gennevilliers The théâtre de Gennevilliers is a French national dramatic center inaugurated on 22 January 1983, 19 years after the arrival of Bernard Sobel at Gennevilliers in the Hauts-de-Seine departement. In 2007, Bernard Sobel is succeeded by Pascal Rambe ...

, *''Gengis Amongst the Pygmies'' (Oberon) Comedie Francaise 2004, *''A Holiday In The Sun'' (Oberon) Radio France Culture 2005, *''The World's Biggest Diamond'' (Oberon) Royal Court 2005, *''The Rape Of Europe'' (Levellers Press 2011) Commissioned 2008, Calder Bookshop Theatre Jan 2013 *''Petrol'' (Levellers Press 2013) Gulbenkian Theatre March 2013

Short plays

*''The Jug'' 1990 BBC Radio, *''Lazy Bríen'' 1991 BBC Radio, *''A Monologue'' (Oberon) Musee Dauphioise 1998, *''The Mother'', *''Pirates''.

Musicals

*''The Mystery Of Hill Street'' (Script, words and music of 20 songs)2010 *''Nefertiti and Akhenaten'' (Script, words and music of 16 songs)2011 *''Dracula'' (Script, words and music of 27 songs, plus 5 instrumental pieces)2012

Books

*''Helping Themselves - The Left Wing Middle Classes in Theatre and the Arts'' (Levellers Press 2009) *''A Working Class Alternative To Labour'' (Levellers Press 2013) *''The Ice-Floe Girl'' (Conrad Press 2020)

Translations from Swedish

*''The Ghost Sonata'' (Oberon) *''The Pelican'' (Oberon), *''Swanwhite'' (Oberon), *''The Burned Site'' (Oberon), *''The Storm'' (Oberon), *'' The Father'' by

August Strindberg Johan August Strindberg (, ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than sixty p ...

(Oberon), *''

Miss Julie ''Miss Julie'' ( sv, Fröken Julie) is a naturalistic play written in 1888 by August Strindberg. It is set on Midsummer's Eve and the following morning, which is Midsummer and the Feast Day of St. John the Baptist. The setting is an estate of ...

'' by

. (Oberon), *''Comrades'' by

(Oberon), *''

Creditors A creditor or lender is a party (e.g., person, organization, company, or government) that has a claim on the services of a second party. It is a person or institution to whom money is owed. The first party, in general, has provided some property ...

'' by

(Oberon), *''The Great Highway'' (Oberon), *''The Black Glove'' (Oberon), *''The Dance of Death'' (Oberon), *''Easter'' (Oberon)

Translations from Norwegian

*''The Name'' by Jon Fosse (Oberon), *''Someone Is Going to Come'' by Jon Fosse(Oberon)

Translations from German

*''Woyzeck'' (Nick Hern Books)Nick Hern Books Woyzeck, Buchner, Motton

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Motton, Gregory Living people English dramatists and playwrights English satirists Translators from Swedish Translators from Norwegian Translators from German Translators to English English translators 1961 births Date of birth missing (living people) English male dramatists and playwrights People educated at Winchmore School English male non-fiction writers