Michael Frayn

Michael Frayn was born in 1933, in the suburbs of London. He began his career as a reporter on The Guardian, then became a columnist on that paper from 1959 to 1962, and for The Observer from 1962 to 1968.

For some years after leaving The Observer, he continued to contribute features to the paper on foreign countries, among them Cuba, Israel, Japan and Sweden and has been writing a column for The Guardian. He has written and presented a series of personal films for BBC Television on Berlin, Vienna, Australia Jerusalem, Prague, and the London suburbs in which he grew up.

He has published ten novels – THE TIN MEN, THE RUSSIAN INTERPRETER, AGAINST ENTROPY, TOWARDS THE END OF THE MORNING, A VERY PRIVATE LIFE, SWEET DREAMS, THE TRICK OF IT, A LANDING ON THE SUN, NOW YOU KNOW, HEADLONG, SPIES and SKIOS, together with two philosophical works, CONSTRUCTIONS and THE HUMAN TOUCH.

Michael’s book about philosophy THE HUMAN TOUCH was published by Faber in 2006.  STAGE DIRECTIONS followed – a collection of his prefaces and postscripts also published by Faber and his latest non-fiction book, MY FATHER’S FORTUNE, was published by Faber in September 2010. For books enquiries please contact Carol Heaton at Greene & Heaton. http://www.greeneheaton.co.uk/

He has written a number of plays for television, and for the stage his work includes THE TWO OF US, ALPHABETICAL ORDER, DONKEYS’ YEARS, CLOUDS, BALMORAL (LIBERTY HALL), MAKE AND BREAK NOISES OFF, BENEFACTORS, LOOK LOOK and HERE. ALPHABETICAL ORDER, MAKE AND BREAK and NOISES OFF all received BEST COMEDY OF THE YEAR awards, whilst BENEFACTORS was named BEST PLAY OF THE YEAR.

He has translated four of Chekhov’s full-length plays – THE CHERRY ORCHARD, THREE SISTERS, THE SEAGULL and UNCLE VANYA and adapted Chekhov’s first, untitled play as WILD HONEY. He has also translated four of his one-act plays – THE EVILS OF TOBACCO, SWAN SONG, THE BEAR and THE PROPOSAL and adapted five short stories DRAMA, THE ALIEN CORN, THE SNEEZE, THE INSPECTOR GENERAL, SWAN SONG and PLOTS for the stage. These, with the exception of PLOTS, were staged collectively as THE SNEEZE. He has translated Tolstoy’s FRUITS OF ENLIGHTENMENT, Yuri Trifonov’s EXCHANGE and Anouilh’s NUMBER ONE.                                                                                                               

MATCHBOX THEATRE had its world premiere at the Hampstead Theatre in 2015.

CLOCKWISE, his first film, was released in 1986 starring John Cleese. His second film, FIRST AND LAST, won an International Emmy Award in 1990. The film of his play, NOISES OFF was produced by Disney. ALPHABETICAL ORDER, DONKEYS’ YEARS, MAKE AND BREAK and BENEFACTORS have all been filmed for U.K. television and A LANDING ON THE SUN was filmed and transmitted (BBC) in 1994.

Michael adapted his novel, NOW YOU KNOW, for the stage which opened at the Hampstead Theatre on the 19th July 1995 and toured the country until Spring of 1996. Two new plays followed.

The first, COPENHAGEN. opened at the National Theatre in May 1998 and transferred to the Duchess Theatre in 1999. It won Best Play at the 1998 Evening Standard Awards and Best Play at the London Critics’ Cicle Awards and has been presented around the world in many languages. ALARMS AND EXCURSIONS (more plays than one) toured in the UK prior to transferring to the Gielgud Theatre in the West End in 1999.

DEMOCRACY had its world premiere at the National Theatre in 2003 and transferred to Broadway in 2004.

His latest play, AFTERLIFE, about impressario Max Reinhardt premiered at the National Theatre in 2008 and has been performed variously abroad including in Salzburg, where Max Reinhardt lived for so many years.

Michael was was awarded the Writer’s Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010 and received the South Bank Show Outstanding Achievement Award 2012.