- Torben Betts
Infobox actor
name = Torben Betts
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birthdate = bda|1968|02|10|df=y
birthplace = Stamford, Lincs, UK
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occupation =Playwright Torben Betts (born 1968) is an English
playwright . Born inStamford, Lincolnshire , he was educated atStamford School and theUniversity of Liverpool . He originally trained and worked as anactor .He was the Arts Council of England writer-in-residence at the
Stephen Joseph Theatre , Scarborough, in 1999 and recent commissions byAlan Ayckbourn have been "The Optimist" (2002), "Her Slightest Touch" (2003) and "The Swing of Things" (2006). A consistently controversial dramatist, he has been hailed as a successor to writers as diverse as Ayckbourn andHoward Barker .Betts' play "The Unconquered", in a touring production by the Stellar Quines company, was Best New Play in the 2006-7
Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland .----
The playwright and poet Liz Lochhead called him 'just about the most original and extraordinary writer of drama we have'. 'Time Out' said he was 'an uncommonly talented playwright'. A critic in 'The Times' claimed he chose words with the 'precision of a Conrad or a Naipaul'. High praise indeed for Torben Betts before he has even reached the age of 40. Extraordinary though this acclaim is, what is even more remarkable is the playwright’s capacity to change his spots. He has the shape-shifting ability to be all things to all people. So varied are his plays, it’s hard to believe they are all the work of the same man.
On one hand there are the domestic comedy-dramas like 'A Listening Heaven', a middle-class tragedy about parents and children, 'Clockwatching', a black family comedy, 'Her Slightest Touch' and 'The Swing of Things'.
On the other hand there are the demanding poetic tragedies that most closely recall the pugnacious theatre of Howard Barker. Among these are 'Five Visions of the Faithful', a savage philosophical satire about religion, 'Incarcerator', a grotesque verse drama, and the award-winning 'The Unconquered', a high-octane tragi-comedy about a Britain undergoing the upheaval of a people’s revolution.
His name has also been mentioned in the same breath as Pinter, Beckett, Berkoff, Albee and Bond, writers normally thought to be at the opposite end of the spectrum to Ayckbourn. If Betts is the missing link between the two, it is because he is prepared to show the comfortable middle-class settings and easy comedy of manners with which many audiences feel at home, as well as the seams of despair that lie behind the cheery face his characters show to the world. Like Ayckbourn in his darker moments, Betts explores the emotional void behind the sunny exterior; and like Barker in his lighter moments, he is prepared to laugh in the face of looming tragedy.'
Mark Fisher, Guardian
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List of works
* "A Listening Heaven" (1996)
* "Incarcerator" (1997)
* "The Biggleswades" (1997)
* "Mummies and Daddies" (1998)
* "Spurning Comfort" (1998)
* "Five Visions of the Faithful" (2000)
* "Clockwatching" (2000)
* "Silence and Violence" (2001)
* "The Last Days of Desire" (2001)
* "The Optimist" (2002)
* "Her Slightest Touch" (2002)
* "The Lunatic Queen" (2003)
* "The Error of Their Ways" (2004)
* "The Swing of Things" (2005)
* "The Company Man" (2006)
* "The Unconquered" (2007)
* "Lie of the Land" (2008)Awards and nominations
Winner, Best New Play 2006/07 for "The Unconquered", Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland
Nominated, Edinburgh Fringe First Award 2008 for "Lie of the Land"
Nominated, Best New Play 2001 for" A Listening Heaven", TMA Awards
Reviews
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/02/28/btshaw28.xml Centuries apart - two dramas that put a bomb under the nuclear family] Review of "The Unconquered", Daily Telegraph, 2007
[http://www.sundayherald.com/misc/print.php?artid=1234221 Beauty forged in darkness] Review of "The Unconquered", Glasgow Sunday Herald, 2007
[http://joycemcmillan.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/the-unconquered/ Timely, well-crafted, and unforgettable] Joyce MacMillan on "The Unconquered", Scotsman, 2008
[http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/theatre/review-23542969-details/Rural+idyll+proves+another+lost+Eden/review.do?reviewId=23542969 Rural idyll proves another lost Eden] Review of "Lie of the Land", Evening Standard, 2008
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2001/may/22/theatre.artsfeatures The new Molière of the middle classes?] Alfred Hickling on "Clockwatching", Guardian, 2001
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2005/mar/13/theatre1 That's no lady, that's my wife] Review of "The Lunatic Queen" and "The Biggleswades", Observer, 2005
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/aug/15/edinburgh04.edinburgh A new Dacre take on morality] Michael Coveney in the Observer on "Five Visions of the Faithful", 2004
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2001/jan/20/1 Maggie and the kitchen sink] Michael Billington in the Guardian on "A Listening Heaven" and "Incarcerator", 2001
External links
* [http://www.torbenbetts.com Torben Betts] — Official website
Publications, Collected Plays
Plays One ("A Listening Heaven, Mummies and Daddies, Clockwatching") - Oberon Books, 2000
Plays Two ("Incarcerator, Five Visions of the Faithful, Silence and Violence, The Biggleswades, The Last Days of Desire") - Oberon Books, 2001
Plays Three ("The Optimist, The Swing of Things, The Company Man") - Oberon Books, 2008
Publications, Single Plays
"The Lunatic Queen" - Oberon Books, 2005
"The Unconquered" - Oberon Books, 2007 and 2008
"The Error of their Ways" - Oberon Books, 2007
"Lie of the Land" - Oberon Books, 2008
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