Click on a Play title below for more information

HOWARD BARKER   (1946 - )


To add a picture of Howard Barker to this page, click on Contact Us, above
   Nationality:
British
   Literary Agent: *:
   Email:
n/a
   Website:
n/a

* If shown, click on the literary agent's name for full contact details and links to all the Playwrights they represent.

Plays by Howard Barker

HOWARD BARKER
13 Objects
1st Produced:
-
-
Company:
-
1st Published:
2006
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis: A spade. A cup and saucer. A medal. A pair of shoes. A rattle. A camera. A ring. A painting. A pair of spectacles. An urn. A postcard. A bucket. A drum. 13 objects. Everyday. Dull. Mundane. But what if one was capable of inspiring tears? Or a great passion? Even a war. The play explores the intimate connection we often make with everyday objects. Although familiar and mundane in themselves, they can resonate with intense memories or extreme feelings. Here a series of simple items inspire a moment of great sorrow, joy, pain, anger, even a substitute for the identity of a human being. Powerful poetic language, provocative ideas and rich, dark humour build a compelling and fascinating exploration of the secret lives of everyday objects.
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Actress With An Unloved Child
1st Produced:
-
2007
Company:
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
Work in Progress
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis: The funeral of a great artist ... The mourners bicker and pay their respects at the same time ... His mistress appears naked with a child ... But why? As events unfold a growing sense infects the mourners that they are being manipulated from beyond the grave ...
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
All He Fears
1st Produced:
Theatre Barge, London
1994
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis:
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Alpha Alpha
1st Produced:
Open Space, London
1972
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis: The Kray twins entertain an English peer to an exhibition of matricide
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Animals In Paradise
1st Produced:
-
-
Company:
-
1st Published:
2006
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
large cast
Notes: -
Synopsis: -
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Bang
1st Produced:
London
1973
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis:
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Birth On A Hard Shoulder
1st Produced:
Stockholm
1980
Company:
-
1st Published:
in Two Plays for the Right", Calder
1982
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis:
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Bite Of The Night, The
1st Produced:
The Pit, London
1988
Company:
1st Published:
Calder & Boyers, London
1988
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis:
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Brutopia: Secret Life In Old Chelsea
1st Produced:
-
-
Company:
-
1st Published:
in "Barker, Howard, Collected Plays Vol.2" Calder & Boyers, London
1993
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
Historiacal drama
-
Parts:
Male
12
Female
5
Parts Other:
extras
Notes: -
Synopsis: a riposte to the conventional image of Thomas More, this play takes as its starting point the alienation of the least favoured of his daughters and her secret composition of a counter text to her father's classic Utopia
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Castle, The
1st Produced:
The Pit, London
1985
Company:
-
1st Published:
Calder & Boyers, London
1985
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
Triumph
-
Parts:
Male
10
Female
2
Parts Other:
extras
Notes: -
Synopsis: The return of Crusading males to a feminised feudal demesne provides the central theme as conflict breeds confusion
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Cheek
1st Produced:
1970
Company:
-
1st Published:
in "New Short Plays 3", Eyre Methuen, London
1972
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
4
Female
5
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis: An unemployed youth seeks salvation through personal philosophy
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Claw
1st Produced:
London
1975
Company:
-
1st Published:
Calder & Boyers, London
1977
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
10
Female
4
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis: A deprived youth catches a glimpse of the ruling class
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Crimes In Hot Countries
1st Produced:
1982
Company:
-
1st Published:
Calder & Boyers, London
1984
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
13
Female
4
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis: a British profiteer who sets up shop in a remote colonial outpost along with three prostitutes arriving to relieve the frustration of garrisoned troops
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Dead Hands
1st Produced:
2004
Company:
1st Published:
Oberon, London
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
2
Female
1
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis: A young man rushes to reach the bedside of his dying father, but arrives too late. His younger brother was present at the death, but his attitude is strangely ambiguous, and the elder brother becomes suspicious. The intentions of the dead man's mistress are also unclear. The mourners become increasingly consumed by feverish imagining, building a powerfully tense atmosphere as their characters start to disintegrate.
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Don't Exaggerate
1st Produced:
London
1984
Company:
-
1st Published:
Calder & Boyers, London
1985
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis:
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Downchild
1st Produced:
The Pit, London
1985
Company:
-
1st Published:
Calder & Boyers, London
1985
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis:
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Dumb Woman's Ecstasy, The
1st Produced:
-
-
Company:
-
1st Published:
in "Barker, Howard, Collected Plays Vol.2" Calder & Boyers, London
1993
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
2
Female
1
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis:
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Early Hours of a Reviled Man
1st Produced:
1999
Company:
Rhyme And Reason
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis:
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Ecstatic Bible, The
1st Produced:
-
-
Company:
-
1st Published:
Oberon, London
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis: A testament to the millienium, Howard Barker's Ecstatic Bible sweeps through a landscape shaped by the European political and social experience of the twentieth century. A series of interlocking narratives negotiate a strange landscape - streets, a chateau, a hospital ward of war wounded - inhabited by amoral and passionate characters. Provocative imagery and poetic language are suffused with a rich, dark humour. This intriguing collection of parables without morality carries within it the profound echoes of past pain and comic contradiction.
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Edward : The Final Days
1st Produced:
Open Space, London
1972
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis: Edward heath, a mischievous biography
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Europeans, The
1st Produced:
Greenwich, London
1993
Company:
1st Published:
in "Playscript 118" Calder & Boyers, London
1990
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis: set in the liberated Vienna of 1683 is a play of contrasting freedoms, takes one of the great eruptions of Islamic imperialism as the background for a young woman's insistence on her right to her own identity
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Faceache
1st Produced:
London
1971
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis:
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Fair Slaughter
1st Produced:
1977
Company:
-
1st Published:
Playscript 82, Calder and Boyars, London
1978
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
8
Female
2
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis: a veteran communist and oldest living murderer in England, lies in a prison hospital planning his escape
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Fence, The: In It's Thousandth Year
1st Produced:
2005
Company:
1st Published:
Oberon, London
2005
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
4
Female
4
Parts Other:
extras
Notes: -
Synopsis: inspired by the long distance fence under construction in the Gaza to separate the Palestinian and Jewish communities. Set in a world of rising frontiers and illegal immigration, The Fence uses powerful poetic language, provocative ideas and rich, dark humour to build a compelling epic about scandal in a ruling monarchy and its subsequent downfall. At the heart of this tale is the intensely personal story of a blind boy's struggle to discover his true identity in a world where nothing is what it seems
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Gary the Thief / Gary Upright
1st Produced:
1990
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes: From Poems By Howard Barker
Synopsis:
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Gertrude - The Cry
1st Produced:
2002
Company:
-
1st Published:
2006
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis: Barker's abiding interest in interrogating the great classics for their 'silences' is shown in Gertrude - The Cry, his re-writing of the Hamlet story. Scarcely examined in Shakespeare, the passion of Gertrude for Claudius is made the centre of this harrowing tragedy, casting new light on the personality of Hamlet himself.
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Golgo: Sermons On Pain And Privilege
1st Produced:
Leicester
1989
Company:
-
1st Published:
Calder & Boyers, London
1990
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis:
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Hang Of The Goal, The
1st Produced:
1978
Company:
-
1st Published:
in "Playscript 94" Calder & Boyers, London
1982
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
10
Female
3
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis: it takes the lid off one of the most enclosed institutions in this or any society - the prison
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Hard Heart, A
1st Produced:
1992
Company:
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
3
Female
4
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis: explores the ways we protect our political and human borders. Barkers prophetic drama imagines a country facing invasion. 'Praxis' the Queen enlists the Genius 'Riddler' to devise a strategy to protect their threatened culture, but is the sacrifice too much?
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Hated Nightfall
1st Produced:
1994
Company:
1st Published:
in "Playscript 120" Calder & Boyers, London
1994
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
Historical Tragedy
-
Parts:
Male
8
Female
4
Parts Other:
extras
Notes: -
Synopsis: speculation on what occurred on the last night in the lives of the Russian Imperial family
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
He Stumbled
1st Produced:
2000
Company:
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
6
Female
3
Parts Other:
-
Notes: -
Synopsis: Doja, an anatomist whose reputation for embalming dead monarchs is second to none, is summoned by an obscure kingdom where the king is on his deathbed. But no sooner has Doja put the first incision into the body than he is besieged by the queen, the young prince and others in the kingdom who all want to seduce him.. He senses that he is in extreme danger but is powerless to escape and avoid his doom. He is forced to collude in his own assassination.
Lyn Gardner, Guardian
Top of Page
HOWARD BARKER
Heaven
1st Produced:
-
-
Company:
-
1st Published:
in "Playscript 94" Calder & Boyers, London
1982
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
Screenplay
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-