Michael Gerald Hastings (2 September 1938 – 19 November 2011) was a British playwright, screenwriter, and occasional novelist and poet. He is best known for his 1984 stage play and 1994 screenplay '' Tom & Viv'', about the poet T.S. Eliot and his wife Vivienne Haigh-Wood.

Biography

Hastings was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, UK. His early plays – ''Don't Destroy Me'' (1956), ''Yes And After'' (1957) – reflected the influence of the Angry Young Men movement and his brief involvement with the circle surrounding Colin Wilson. Hastings later enjoyed mainstream West End success with ''Gloo Joo'' (1978), a farce about a West Indian threatened with deportation from the United Kingdom, which won the ''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

'' Comedy of the Year Award in 1979. He wrote numerous stage plays, television screen plays, and in addition to the ''Tom & Viv'' film, scripts for two motion pictures, '' The American'' (1998) and '' The Nightcomers'' (1971, based on the

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

novella '' The Turn of the Screw'' and starring

Marlon Brando Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Widely regarded as one of the greatest cinema actors of the 20th century,''Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia''

). Hastings also wrote two libretti for Michael Nyman: '' Man and Boy: Dada'' (2003, assisted by Victoria Hardie) and '' Love Counts'' (2005). Hastings' 1950s play ''The Cutting of the Cloth'' saw its world premiere at the Southwark Playhouse in London, from 11 March till 4 April 2015. The cast were Alexis Caley, Andy de la Tour, James El-Sharawy, Paul Rider and Abigail Thaw, directed by Tricia Thorns. Hastings published his first novel, ''The Game'' in 1957, followed by ''The Frauds''. His 1970 novel ''Tussy Is Me'' – about

Eleanor Marx Jenny Julia Eleanor Marx (16 January 1855 – 31 March 1898), sometimes called Eleanor Aveling and known to her family as Tussy, was the English-born youngest daughter of Karl Marx. She was herself a Socialism, socialist activist who sometimes ...

– won him the Somerset Maugham Award. As a poet, he published one collection, ''Love Me, Lambeth, and Other Poems'', in 1961, and his work appeared in Michael Horovitz's 1969 anthology '' Children of Albion: Poetry of the Underground in Britain''.Robert Sheppard
''The Poetry of Saying: British Poetry and Its Discontents 1950-2000''
Liverpool University Press, 2005, p. 42. Hastings died aged 73 on 19 November 2011.

Selected works

Theatre

*''Don't Destroy Me'' (1956) *''Yes And After'' (1957) *''The World's Baby'' (1964) *''For the West (Congo)'' (1965) *''Blue as His Eyes the Tin Helmet He Wore'' (1966) *''Lee Harvey Oswald: A Far Mean Streak of Independence Brought on by Negleck'' (also known as ''The Silence of Lee Harvey Oswald'') (1967) *''The Silence of Saint-Just'' (1972) *''The Cutting of the Cloth'' (written 1973) *''For the West (Uganda)'' (1977) *''Gloo Joo'' (1978) *'' Full Frontal'' (1979) *''Carnival War a Go Hot'' (1979) *''Murder Rap'' (1980) *''Midnight at the Starlight'' (1980) *'' Tom & Viv'' (1984) *''Calico'' (2004)

Television

*''Gloo Joo'' (1979)

Books

;Fiction *''The Game'' (1957) *''The Frauds'' (1960) *''Tussy Is Me'' (1970) *'' The Nightcomers'' (1971; based on his own screenplay) *''And in the Forest the Indians'' (1975) *''Bart's Mornings and Other Tales of Modern Brazil'' (1975) (short stories) ;Non-fiction *'' Rupert Brooke: The Handsomest Young Man in England'' (1967) *'' Sir Richard Burton: A Biography'' (1978) ;Poetry * ''Love Me, Lambeth, and Other Poems'' (1961)

References

External links

*
Michael Hastings Papers
at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center, known as the Humanities Research Center until 1983, is an archive, library, and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe ...

Profile at Doollee.com
*
Michael Hastings
at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hastings, Michael 1938 births 2011 deaths 20th-century English dramatists and playwrights 20th-century English male writers People educated at Alleyn's School English screenwriters English male screenwriters People from Brixton English male dramatists and playwrights