Robert Holman

Robert Holman (1952 – 3 December 2021) was a British dramatist whose work has been produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and the Royal Court Theatre, as well as in the West End and elsewhere, since the 1970s. He was a resident dramatist at both the RSC and the National Theatre.

Career and reputation Holman was brought up on a farm in North Yorkshire and worked as a bookshop assistant at Paddington station for three years after leaving school before receiving an Arts Council bursary in 1974. without ever becoming what might be termed a fashionable writer. Unlike more obviously politically committed writers – for example Edward Bond, Caryl Churchill or David Hare – Holman writes neither issue plays nor ones which lead audiences to predetermined ideological ends. His plays are often set in specific landscapes, with scenes set out of doors preferred over domestic interiors. Recurring tropes in his plays include the family, intergenerational relationships and meetings between strangers. Academic commentary on Holman's work is scarce. Critical reaction has wavered from the enthusiastic and respectful to the bemused, performed at the Lyric Hammersmith. A documentary, Robert Holman, A Writer's Writer was made by the Donmar Warehouse, celebrating Holman's influence on younger writers including David Eldridge, Simon Stephens, Samantha Ellis, and Duncan Macmillan.

Holman died on 3 December 2021, at the age of 69.

Plays The Grave Lovers (1972) Progress in Unity (Middlesbrough Town Hall, 1972) Coal (1973) The Nature Cause (Cockpit Theatre, 1974) Mud (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 1974) Outside the Whale (Traverse Theatre, 1976) German Skerries (Bush Theatre, 1977) Mucking Out (BBC Second City Firsts 1978) Rooting (Traverse Theatre, 1979) The Estuary (Bush Theatre, 1980) Chance of a Lifetime (BBC Play for Today, 1980) Other Worlds (Royal Court, 1983) Today (RSC, 1984) The Overgrown Path (Royal Court Theatre, 1985) This is History Gran (BBC, 1986) Being Friends (Bush Theatre, 1986) Lost (Bush Theatre, 1986) Making Noise Quietly (Bush Theatre, 1987) Across Oka (RSC, 1988) Rafts and Dreams (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 1990) Bad Weather (RSC, 1998) Holes in the Skin (Chichester Festival Theatre, 2003) Jonah and Otto (Royal Exchange Theatre, 2008; Park Theatre, 2014) A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky (Lyric Hammersmith, 2010) written with David Eldridge and Simon Stephens A Breakfast of Eels (The Print Room Theatre, 2015) The Lodger (Coronet Theatre, 2021)

Novel The Amish Landscape (Nick Hern Books, 1992)