Howard Barker[1] (born 28 June 1946)[2] is a British playwright, screenwriter and writer of radio drama, painter, poet, and essayist, writing predominantly on playwriting and the theatre.
[3] The author of an extensive body of dramatic works since the 1970s, he is best known for his plays Scenes from an Execution,[4][5][6] Victory,[6] The Castle,[6][5] The Possibilities,[5][4] The Europeans, Judith[4] and Gertrude – The Cry[6][4] as well as being a founding member of, primary playwright for and stage designer for British theatre company The Wrestling School.
His play Scenes from an Execution, for example, centers on the aftermath of the Battle of Lepanto (1571) and a fictional female artist commissioned to create a commemorative painting of the Venetian victory over the Ottoman fleet.
For Barker, Chekhov is a playwright of bad faith, a writer who encourages us to sentimentalize our own weaknesses and glamorize inertia.
In A Hard Heart, Riddler, described by the playwright as "A Woman of Originality",[9] is called upon to use her considerable brilliance in fortifications and tactics to save her besieged city.
"[10] Barker has acknowledged he has had greater success as playwright internationally than in his home country of Britain and many of his plays have been translated into other languages.
In Britain, Barker is "largely unknown" and he has been described as "cut[ting] a Byronic dash in British Theatre – sardonic, detached, the insider's outsider.
"[10] Barker's work has influenced and inspired a number of notable British playwrights, including Sarah Kane, David Greig,[12] Lucy Kirkwood,[13] and Dennis Kelly.
[17] In Britain, Howard Barker formed The Wrestling School Company in 1988 to produce his own work in his native country.