Patrick Marber

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Patrick Marber (born 19 September 1964 in London) is an English Jewish writer, actor, and sometimes director associated with the kind of playwriting referred to as in-yer-face theatre. He lives in London, where he was born.

Educated at St Paul's School, Cranleigh School and Wadham College, Oxford (he read English), he was a cast member on the radio shows On The Hour and Knowing Me, Knowing You, and their television spinoffs The Day Today and Knowing Me, Knowing You... with Alan Partridge, after working for a few years as a stand-up comedian. He reunited with the Knowing Me, Knowing You team in 2003 to record commentaries for the DVD release of the show. He also contributed some new in-character audio material to the DVD release of The Day Today in 2004.

His first play was Dealer's Choice, based on his own experiences with gambling addiction, which opened at the Royal National Theatre in February 1995, and won the 1995 Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy.

Marber's After Miss Julie was an adaptation of the Strindberg play Miss Julie for television in 1995, and was performed in 2003-2004 at the Donmar Warehouse by Kelly Reilly, Richard Coyle and Helen Baxendale.

He also wrote the play Closer, which opened at the Royal National Theatre in 1997, and which he adapted into a film in 2004; it was directed by Mike Nichols and starred Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen.

His most recent play was Howard Katz, again first performed at the Royal National Theatre in June 2001. The Roundabout Theatre Company will produce it Off-Broadway in late 2006, starring Alfred Molina.

[edit] Lee and Herring

The comedians Richard Herring and Stewart Lee famously do not like Marber. It is claimed that Marber has "stolen" some of their ideas, and that he cut them out of the writing team in the transition from Radio's "On The Hour" to the TV version The Day Today. Over the years, Marber's relationship to Lee & Herring appears to have mellowed from a genuine hatred into "comedy enemy".

When he is referenced by either comedian, it is usually to solicit laughs as much at their own expense for previous vitriol as it is against Marber's indiscretions. Richard Herring even went so far as to rename part of the male reproductive anatomy "the Marber" in his book Talking Cock.