April De Angelis
April De Angelis (born April 1960) is an English dramatist[1] of part Sicilian descent. She is a graduate of Sussex University[2] who trained at East 15 Acting School.
De Angelis began her career in the 1980s as an actress with the Monstrous Regiment theatre company.
In 1987, her play Breathless was a prize winner at the 1987 Second Wave Young Women's Writing Festival.
Her plays often feature historical figures. Playhouse Creatures and A Laughing Matter are set in the London theatrical milieu of the 17th and 18th centuries respectively. Wanderlust examines Victorian colonialism and Ironmistress is a verse play exploring Lady Charlotte Guest's factory ownership.
As a librettist, De Angelis contributed to the opera The Silent Twins (2007), composed by Errollyn Wallen, which is based on the case of June and Jennifer Gibbons.[3]
De Angelis tends to write to commission and several of her plays have been produced by Max Stafford-Clark's Out of Joint theatre company.
Plays
[edit]- Breathless (1987)
- Women in Law (1988)
- Wanderlust (1988, Oval House Theatre Women's Workshop)
- Visitants (1988)
- Ironmistress (1989, Young Vic Theatre)
- Crux (1989, Paines Plough)
- Frankenstein (1989)
- The Life and Times of Fanny Hill (1991, Red Shift Theatre Company)
- Hush (1992, Royal Court Theatre)
- Greed (1993)
- Soft Vengeance (1993)[a]
- Playhouse Creatures (Haymarket Theatre, 1993)
- The Positive Hour (1997, Out of Joint theatre company / Hampstead Theatre)
- A Warwickshire Testimony (1999, Royal Shakespeare Company)
- A Laughing Matter (2002, Out of Joint theatre company)
- Headstrong (2004, Royal National Theatre Shell Connections)
- Wild East (2005, Royal Court Theatre)
- Catch[b] (2007, Royal Court Theatre)
- Wuthering Heights (2008)[c]
- Jumpy (2011)
- After Electra (2015)
- My Brilliant Friend (2017)[d]
- The Village (2018, Theatre Royal Stratford East)[e]
- Wilderness (2019)
- Kerry Jackson (2020)
- Infamous (2023)
- The Divine Mrs S. (2024)
Libretti
[edit]- Pig
- Flight
- Silent Twins (2007)
Notes
[edit]- ^ From the book by Albie Sachs.
- ^ With Stella Feehily, Tanika Gupta, Chloe Moss and Laura Wade
- ^ From the book by Emily Brontë
- ^ From the Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante
- ^ After Fuenteovejuna by Lope de Vega.
References
[edit]- ^ Jones, Eamonn; Marlow, Jean (2004). More duologues for all accents and ages. Psychology Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-87830-179-9. Retrieved 10 April 2011.
- ^ Chris Arnot "No bed of roses", The Guardian, 25 August 1999
- ^ April de Angelis "'Have I the strength to kill her?'", The Guardian, 28 June 2007
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
- English women dramatists and playwrights
- Living people
- 1960 births
- English opera librettists
- English people of Sicilian descent
- Alumni of the University of Sussex
- Alumni of East 15 Acting School
- Women opera librettists
- 20th-century English dramatists and playwrights
- 20th-century English women writers
- 21st-century English dramatists and playwrights
- 21st-century English women writers