Emotion is a Theatrical Weapon

Abstract

Louise Page was born in London in 1955, but lived in Sheffield from the age of five until a short while ago. She read drama at Birmingham University, and took a postgraduate diploma in playwriting, then returned to Sheffield in 1979 as Fellow in Drama and Television. In 1982–83 she was resident writer at the Royal Court, and in 1985 was awarded the first J. T. Grein Prize by the Critics’ Circle. With a string of widely-produced plays from the early Tissue through Salonika and Golden Girls to the more recent Beauty and the Beast and Diplomatic Wives, Louise Page is now firmly established as one of the leading playwrights of her generation. The present interview was recorded while she was in Greece in September 1988 to prepare the film adaptation of Salonika. The interviewer, Elizabeth Sakellaridou, is Senior Lecturer in Modern English Drama in the University of Thessaloniki. Her publications include Pinter's Female Portraits (Macmillan, 1988), and several articles on modern English drama and feminist criticism. She is currently preparing a study of contemporary British women dramatists. Her ‘NTQ Checklist’ of Louise Page's work follows this interview.