Mark Ravenhill (1966 – )
One of Britain’s leading contemporary playwrights, Mark Ravenhill grew up in West Sussex and displayed an interest in theatre even as a child, putting on plays with his brother. He studied English and Drama at Bristol University from 1984-7 before starting work as a freelance director and drama teacher.
His best-known plays include Shopping and Fucking (1996), Some Explicit Polaroids (1999), and Mother Clap’s Molly House (2001) which explored the recently rediscovered story of effeminate homosexual society in Georgian London. Citizenship (National Theatre and national tour, 2006) was a play for young audiences which dealt with sexuality. Ravenhill’s life of the performer and gay rights activist Bette Bourne A Life In Three Acts won an Edinburgh Fringe First in 2009. In 2011 he and the composer Conor Mitchell wrote a song cycle called Ten Plagues for the singer Marc Almond.
From 2005 -2009, he wrote a regular column for The Guardian. He has been HIV positive since 1991.
By kind permission of Mark Ravenhill
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Andrew Foyle
Last edited: 6/11/2011