Howard Barker
Howard Barker
Howard Barker is a British playwright...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth28 June 1946
theatre elements impossible
I am so far as I am aware not at all influenced by dramatists, expect for Shakespeare, who I have to say, it is impossible not to be influenced by if you hold language to be the major element of theatre.
writing dark light
When I write, I am not giving a lecture, I am speculating on behavior. Sometimes this is dangerous, but it should be. As I say often, theatre is a dark place and we should keep the light out of it.
character sympathetic
I don't like sympathetic characters.
beautiful secret theatre
We are suffocated by writers who want to enlighten us with their truths. For me, the theatre is beautiful because it is a secret, and secrets seduce us, we all want to share secrets.
say-anything world said
I never 'say' anything in my work. I invent a world. Let others decide what is being 'said'.
cannot discipline english heroes literary since speak
The English (I cannot speak of the Scots) are moralistic, and have made moralizing their discipline since the reformation. They like to be told what to think, and their literary heroes are moralists.