Joanna Laurens

Joanna Laurens (April 21, 1978 - ) is an English playwright.

Although born in Bristol, Laurens grew up in Jersey. She studied french horn at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama before leaving the course to read English at Queen's University of Belfast [ [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article1060969.ece Never at a loss for new worlds - Times Online ] ] .

Career

Joanna Laurens' plays deal with themes of frustrated sexual desire, love, longing and death. They are characterised by an intense lyricism and a linguistic and poetic experimentation and are often written in blank verse. Using non-naturalistic language, her work is at variance with the naturalism of much 20th Century English theatre and has divided critical opinion [ [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article839245.ece All that's gold does not glister - Times Online ] ] .

Her published output to date consists of three plays and she has also written for radio.

Laurens' first play was "The Three Birds". She wrote the play while a student at Queen's, where it was given a public reading [ [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1104290,00.html Make it up | | guardian.co.uk Arts ] ] . "The Three Birds" opened at the Gate Theatre, London, in October 2000, and was directed by Rebecca Gatward. The play won Laurens the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards for Most Promising Playwright and the Time Out award for Most Outstanding New Talent [ [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,1099954,00.html On the verge | Magazine | The Observer ] ] . The play also received the Best New Play award from the German government's Cultural Committee [ [http://unitedagents.co.uk/stage/joanna-laurens/ United Agents: Joanna Laurens] ] and Laurens was a finalist for the [http://www.blackburnprize.org/prize.htm Susan Smith Blackburn Prize] .

"Five Gold Rings", Laurens' second play opened at the Almeida Theatre in December 2003 and was directed by Michael Attenborough. It was followed by "Poor Beck", which opened in 2004 at the The Other Place in a production by the Royal Shakespeare Company, directed by Daniel Fish [ [http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre/reviews/macbeth-arcola-londonbrthe-weatherbear-hug-royal-court-upstairs-londonbrpoor-becktynan-the-other-placeswan-stratforduponavon-544134.html Theatre review: Poor Beck The Independent] ]

Laurens is often aligned with Sarah Kane. Michael Billington in the Guardian referred to Laurens as "the most original theatrical voice to have emerged since Sarah Kane" [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4109973,00.html Guardian Unlimited | Archive Search ] ] . Lyn Gardner in the Guardian also compared Laurens to Kane: "Laurens writes with such murderous beauty that you are put in mind of the late Sarah Kane" [ [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/reviews/story/0,,702972,00.html Theatre review: The Three Birds | | guardian.co.uk Arts ] ] . Laurens has resisted this alignment, saying "I don't see much comparison" [ [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,1099954,00.html On the verge | Magazine | The Observer ] ] .

Laurens' work has been much more widely produced on the continent than in the UK, receiving particular attention in Germany [ [http://www.philosophia-online.de/mafo/heft2004-2/Fuchs_Joanna_Laurens.htm Philosophia Online: Joanna Laurens] ] . She has been writer in residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company, writer on attachment to the Royal National Theatre Studio and recipient of the Pearson Award [ [http://unitedagents.co.uk/stage/joanna-laurens/ United Agents: Joanna Laurens] ] .

Plays

* "The Three Birds" (2000)
* "Five Gold Rings" (2003)
* "Poor Beck" (2004)

References

*Theatre Record and its Annual Indexes