Michelene Wandor’s writing for theatre spans the fringe/political theatre of the 1970s, through the formal/experimental, and with the achievement of being the first woman playwright to have a new work on one of the National Theatre’s main stages.
You Two Can be Ticklish
A couple tickle a stranger to death. Lamb and Flag Theatre, 1970.
The Day After Yesterday
Miss World and the rest of us. Act Inn Theatre Club, 1972.
Spilt Milk and Mal de Mere
Traps of mother- and daughterhood. Portable Theatre, 1972.
To Die Among Friends
Five minimalist duologues about identity and sexual politics. Paradise Foundry, 1974.
‘An astonishing density of feeling’
– Time Out
Penthesilea
Version of Kleist’s play about the Queen of the Amazons. Salt Theatre, 1977.
The Old Wives’ Tale
Three women in retirement. Soho Poly Theatre, 1977.
Care and Control
The state and motherhood. Scripted for Gay Sweatshop, 1977.
Floorshow
Cabaret on women and work, co-authored with Caryl Churchill and Bryony Lavery. Monstrous Regiment, 1977.
Whores D’Oeuvres
Two prostitutes cast adrift on a raft. Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1978.
‘Michelene Wandor’s…technical daring and commitment to human values mark her out as a writer to watch…This marvellously textured piece builds pointed satire on a bed of fast-talking comedy, while examining the far-reaching implications of the oldest profession in the world.’
– Time Out
Scissors
Jewish family and a hi-jacking. Almost Free Theatre, 1978.
‘It deals wittily and warmly with the contradictions of being Jewish in the England of the 1970s…’
– Time Out
AID Thy Neighbour
Comedy about two couples and their desires for parenthood – AID meaning here Artificial Insemination by Donor. Theatre at New End, 1978.
‘…a sharp satire on the Ayckbourn version of family life.’
– Time Out
Correspondence
Divorced woman becomes a mature student. Adaptation of own radio play. Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1979.
Rutherford and Son
Adaptation of play by Githa Sowerby. Mrs Worthington’s Daughters at the Royal Court, 1980.
Aurora Leigh
Dramatisation of verse-novel by Elizabeth Barrett Browning about love, writing and female independence. 1979. National Theatre, 1981, starring Felicity Kendal.
‘Michelene Wandor’s quicksilver dramatisation of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sprawling verse novel…’
– Time Out, 1979
‘…captures the lyricism of the poetry… ‘
– Sunday Times, 1981
‘Michelene Wandor’s adaptation makes it very attractive and, indeed, persuasive.’
– Harold Hobson, Times Literary Supplement, 1981
The Blind Goddess
Adaptation of play by Ernst Toller. Red Ladder Theatre Company, 1981.
Future Perfect
Efforts to create a utopia. Co-authored with Paul Thompson and Steve Gooch. Wakefield Tricycle, 1981.
Wild Diamonds
South Africa through the eyes of Olive Schreiner and Cecil Rhodes. Commissioned by Hampstead Theatre Club. Unproduced.
The Wandering Jew
Dramatisation of novel by Eugene Sue, about Paris and the Jesuits. National Theatre, 1987. Starring Philip Voss, Mark Rylance, Sian Thomas.
‘An action-packed Melodrama’
– Time Out
Whose Greenham and Mal de Mere
Early Stages, Royal Shakespeare Company, Barbican, 1986. Starring Miriam Karlin.
Wanted
Surrogacy, an angel and Sarah from the Old Testament. Arc Theatre Company, the Drill Hall, 1988.
Silk Thistle
Pankhursts, mother and daughters. Commissioned by Contact Theatre, Manchester. Unproduced.
Pride and Prejudice
A new stage dramatisation of Jane Austen’s novel. With music from her own notebooks. Watford Palace Theatre, 2009.