About me as a writer.
In this country I am best known as a playwright, and specifically as a Royal
Court playwright. I have always been seen as being outside the
mainstream, but although my work is usually called surreal or absurdist, I
wouldn't really call it that, and I have also written fairly conventional plays
too, and conventional books.I am generally regarded as highly original,
although that's not saying much- British theatre, although it describes itself
as otherwise is very conservative stylistically, and very intolerant in terms of
politics, holding a very narrow party line. Woe betide anyone who crosses
the middle class, so-called-left, line.
As for teaching, I have generally avoided teaching writing. It always seemed
pointless. After all if someone has something to say they had better find how
to say it – there is no such thing as a writer, really.
Now, after many years have passed there are seemingly more people than
ever wanting to be writers, of various kinds, and the stream of bullshit I
used to see being taught to them, has turned into a sea, and people are
sailing around in little boats on the sea, life boats, like after a shipwreck.
And the sinking ship is writing itself.
Who am I to say?
I have written in most forms, and I will suggest here examples of my work
you can read if you want to see if I know what I'm talking about. You may
not think so. Of course.
Here is a short list you can have a look at
The Ice Floe Girl – a romantic novel (Conrad Press)
The World's Biggest Diamond – a conventional drama (Oberon)
Gods Island – an play about God and Mary (Oberon, Levellers Press)
A Holiday in the Sun.- a satire (Oberon)
Helping Themselves – a polemic about theatre and other arts from 1914 to
now (Levellers Press)
A Worthless Man - a play (Levellers Press)
Dracula The Messiah - a film. (Two-Cities Films, distrb. Gaumont-British)
I had plays on at the Royal Court when I was 26, I was published by
Penguin at 27, and by the time I was 33 I had plays at the Comedie
Francaise and the Theatre de L' Odeon, theatre nationale de L'Europe,
and in theatres all around the world. They were everything from satire to
romantic dramas.
I have written polemics, articles, cultural criticism and analysis (which
Dame Beryl Bainbridge called 'a hand book for rebellion'), economics (the
book is in the House of Commons Library) musicals and films. And 80
songs. My most recent work is a novel The Ice Floe Girl. Le Monde and
La Liberation called my work masterpieces, London critics said 'theatre
can never be the same again', The Guardian called me an absurdist-marxist
the Sunday Times and Evening Standard both gave me 5 stars and The
Independent hated me, what better boasts can there be? Harold Pinter told
me he had read my work and Tom Stoppard left one of my plays with an
enigmatic smirk on his face.
Dominic Dromgoole, Artistic Director of the Globe Theatre while declaring
himself 'not a fan' wrote this in The Full Room: An A-Z of
Contemporary Playwriting:
" Gregory Motton Much the most reviled figure amongst the
establishment Gregory has carved out a career in permanent
opposition. He's the Dennis Skinner or the Tony Benn of the
playwriting fraternity. Many of the most ambitious, if they suspect
you might have a different agenda from their careerist one, will
ask if you are a fan of Gregory Motton, as if they are from the
House Un-american Activities Committee. How has Gregory
managed to get up most people's noses? First because he believes
art is serious and that art is distinct from entertainment. This
doesn't go down too well in this day and age. If adrenaline isn't
constantly high, if jokes , sentiment and ideas aren't bombarding
the audience like bullets at Omaha beach then an audience bred
on hit culture finds it hard to maintain attention. Gregory's work
is obscure, surreal, pointilliste. It lives in the absurd of the present
day, gathering together the detritus of our lives to form shapes and
patterns that are simultaneously recognisable and strange. He
takes a story and a world, atomises it, then reassembles it in a
completely new way. The shock of the old, radically reconfigured.
He also quotes from a wide range of texts, lyrics, and voices, with
a seriousness that acknowledges the importance of tradition. It is
partly this literariness, together with a dash of absurdism and high
style that makes him so popular in France. In Paris , where they
approach art with the same sombre Acedemie seriousness with
which they approach everything from biscuits to bombs, Gregory
is a big noise. In London they approach art as if it is a disease, he
is a squeak. Gregory hasn't helped his own cause by writing
essays about everything that's wrong. He writes about theatre
with insight and intelligence and passion. He has analysed with
acuity the insane over-staffing of most theatre companies and the
criminal long term neglect of most writers. A lot of the solutions
he presents are perfectly practial. But the theatre village is a small
paranoid and bullying culture that does not like to be criticised
from without, let alone from within. Personally I am not
Gregory's greatest fan. He wrote an achingly beautiful romance
called The Life of St.Fanny By Herself , a wonderfully magical
and theatrical meditation on charm, The Terrible Voice of Satan,
and a desolating image of split identity - Looking At You
(revived) Again, all of which I enjoyed and appreciated, and have
stuck fast in the mind. Others I've had trouble with. But many of
the people I admire most worship Gregory. But he flies in the face
of the glibness and shallowness of contemporary entertainment,
without compromise. There aren't enough people doing that."
So, as you can see, I have been a controversial figure. (but I am also a prize
winning translator known for good old fashioned accuracy and faithfulness
to the text) I have been somewhere near the top and reside permanently at
the bottom, my criticisms of the theatre establishment have led to me being
in a state of permanent exile, but I have written speeches for leading
politicians in important national debates. No-one usually doubts the quality
of my work, and that is the main point here in terms of teaching.
In this country I am best known as a playwright, and specifically as a Royal
Court playwright. I have always been seen as being outside the
mainstream, but although my work is usually called surreal or absurdist, I
wouldn't really call it that, and I have also written fairly conventional plays
too, and conventional books.I am generally regarded as highly original,
although that's not saying much- British theatre, although it describes itself
as otherwise is very conservative stylistically, and very intolerant in terms of
politics, holding a very narrow party line. Woe betide anyone who crosses
the middle class, so-called-left, line.
As for teaching, I have generally avoided teaching writing. It always seemed
pointless. After all if someone has something to say they had better find how
to say it – there is no such thing as a writer, really.
Now, after many years have passed there are seemingly more people than
ever wanting to be writers, of various kinds, and the stream of bullshit I
used to see being taught to them, has turned into a sea, and people are
sailing around in little boats on the sea, life boats, like after a shipwreck.
And the sinking ship is writing itself.
Who am I to say?
I have written in most forms, and I will suggest here examples of my work
you can read if you want to see if I know what I'm talking about. You may
not think so. Of course.
Here is a short list you can have a look at
The Ice Floe Girl – a romantic novel (Conrad Press)
The World's Biggest Diamond – a conventional drama (Oberon)
Gods Island – an play about God and Mary (Oberon, Levellers Press)
A Holiday in the Sun.- a satire (Oberon)
Helping Themselves – a polemic about theatre and other arts from 1914 to
now (Levellers Press)
A Worthless Man - a play (Levellers Press)
Dracula The Messiah - a film. (Two-Cities Films, distrb. Gaumont-British)
I had plays on at the Royal Court when I was 26, I was published by
Penguin at 27, and by the time I was 33 I had plays at the Comedie
Francaise and the Theatre de L' Odeon, theatre nationale de L'Europe,
and in theatres all around the world. They were everything from satire to
romantic dramas.
I have written polemics, articles, cultural criticism and analysis (which
Dame Beryl Bainbridge called 'a hand book for rebellion'), economics (the
book is in the House of Commons Library) musicals and films. And 80
songs. My most recent work is a novel The Ice Floe Girl. Le Monde and
La Liberation called my work masterpieces, London critics said 'theatre
can never be the same again', The Guardian called me an absurdist-marxist
the Sunday Times and Evening Standard both gave me 5 stars and The
Independent hated me, what better boasts can there be? Harold Pinter told
me he had read my work and Tom Stoppard left one of my plays with an
enigmatic smirk on his face.
Dominic Dromgoole, Artistic Director of the Globe Theatre while declaring
himself 'not a fan' wrote this in The Full Room: An A-Z of
Contemporary Playwriting:
" Gregory Motton Much the most reviled figure amongst the
establishment Gregory has carved out a career in permanent
opposition. He's the Dennis Skinner or the Tony Benn of the
playwriting fraternity. Many of the most ambitious, if they suspect
you might have a different agenda from their careerist one, will
ask if you are a fan of Gregory Motton, as if they are from the
House Un-american Activities Committee. How has Gregory
managed to get up most people's noses? First because he believes
art is serious and that art is distinct from entertainment. This
doesn't go down too well in this day and age. If adrenaline isn't
constantly high, if jokes , sentiment and ideas aren't bombarding
the audience like bullets at Omaha beach then an audience bred
on hit culture finds it hard to maintain attention. Gregory's work
is obscure, surreal, pointilliste. It lives in the absurd of the present
day, gathering together the detritus of our lives to form shapes and
patterns that are simultaneously recognisable and strange. He
takes a story and a world, atomises it, then reassembles it in a
completely new way. The shock of the old, radically reconfigured.
He also quotes from a wide range of texts, lyrics, and voices, with
a seriousness that acknowledges the importance of tradition. It is
partly this literariness, together with a dash of absurdism and high
style that makes him so popular in France. In Paris , where they
approach art with the same sombre Acedemie seriousness with
which they approach everything from biscuits to bombs, Gregory
is a big noise. In London they approach art as if it is a disease, he
is a squeak. Gregory hasn't helped his own cause by writing
essays about everything that's wrong. He writes about theatre
with insight and intelligence and passion. He has analysed with
acuity the insane over-staffing of most theatre companies and the
criminal long term neglect of most writers. A lot of the solutions
he presents are perfectly practial. But the theatre village is a small
paranoid and bullying culture that does not like to be criticised
from without, let alone from within. Personally I am not
Gregory's greatest fan. He wrote an achingly beautiful romance
called The Life of St.Fanny By Herself , a wonderfully magical
and theatrical meditation on charm, The Terrible Voice of Satan,
and a desolating image of split identity - Looking At You
(revived) Again, all of which I enjoyed and appreciated, and have
stuck fast in the mind. Others I've had trouble with. But many of
the people I admire most worship Gregory. But he flies in the face
of the glibness and shallowness of contemporary entertainment,
without compromise. There aren't enough people doing that."
So, as you can see, I have been a controversial figure. (but I am also a prize
winning translator known for good old fashioned accuracy and faithfulness
to the text) I have been somewhere near the top and reside permanently at
the bottom, my criticisms of the theatre establishment have led to me being
in a state of permanent exile, but I have written speeches for leading
politicians in important national debates. No-one usually doubts the quality
of my work, and that is the main point here in terms of teaching.
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