Posted by: Iain Fisher
« on: October 02, 2009, 05:09:57 PM »Poet, translator and playwright Tony Harrison is the first winner of the PEN/Pinter prize and will receive the award on 14 Oct 2009.
Tony Harrison is best known for the long poem V, very much a poem for performance.
He has regularly written new plays for The National Theatre in London including The Trackers of Oxyrhyncus (his translation and completion of a fragment of a Sophocles play) and Square Rounds, both of which were hugely popular. He managed to combine intellectualism with popular appeal.
His last piece, Fram, was spectacularly badly received, emptying the theatre during the interval. It was a very poor piece, unable to decide what it was about and unable to focus, resulting in long sequences of poorly related scenes. Hopefully he will soon be back to form.
The Guardian newspaper commissioned Harrison to go to Bosnia and his poetry from these probably contributed most to him winning the prize.
Tony Harrison is best known for the long poem V, very much a poem for performance.
He has regularly written new plays for The National Theatre in London including The Trackers of Oxyrhyncus (his translation and completion of a fragment of a Sophocles play) and Square Rounds, both of which were hugely popular. He managed to combine intellectualism with popular appeal.
His last piece, Fram, was spectacularly badly received, emptying the theatre during the interval. It was a very poor piece, unable to decide what it was about and unable to focus, resulting in long sequences of poorly related scenes. Hopefully he will soon be back to form.
The Guardian newspaper commissioned Harrison to go to Bosnia and his poetry from these probably contributed most to him winning the prize.