April De Angelis

British dramatist

April De Angelis (born April 1960) is an English dramatist^[1] of part Sicilian descent. She is a graduate of Sussex University^[2] who trained at East 15 Acting School.

De Angelis began her career in the 1980s as an actress with the Monstrous Regiment theatre company.

In 1987, her play Breathless was a prize winner at the 1987 Second Wave Young Women's Writing Festival.

Her plays often feature historical figures. Playhouse Creatures and A Laughing Matter are set in the London theatrical milieu of the 17th and 18th centuries respectively. Wanderlust examines Victorian colonialism and Ironmistress is a verse play exploring Lady Charlotte Guest's factory ownership.

As a librettist, De Angelis contributed to the opera The Silent Twins (2007), composed by Errollyn Wallen, which is based on the case of June and Jennifer Gibbons.^[3]

De Angelis tends to write to commission and several of her plays have been produced by Max Stafford-Clark's Out of Joint theatre company.

Plays

Breathless (1987)
Women in Law (1988)
Wanderlust (1988, Oval House Theatre Women's Workshop)
Visitants (1988)
Ironmistress (1989, Young Vic Theatre)
Crux (1989, Paines Plough)
Frankenstein (1989)
The Life and Times of Fanny Hill (1991, Red Shift Theatre Company)
Hush (1992, Royal Court Theatre)
Greed (1993)
Soft Vengeance (1993)^[a]
Playhouse Creatures (Haymarket Theatre, 1993)
The Positive Hour (1997, Out of Joint theatre company / Hampstead Theatre)
A Warwickshire Testimony (1999, Royal Shakespeare Company)
A Laughing Matter (2002, Out of Joint theatre company)
Headstrong (2004, Royal National Theatre Shell Connections)
Wild East (2005, Royal Court Theatre)
Catch^[b] (2007, Royal Court Theatre)
Wuthering Heights (2008)^[c]
Jumpy (2011)
After Electra (2015)
My Brilliant Friend (2017)^[d]
The Village (2018, Theatre Royal Stratford East)^[e]
Wilderness (2019)
Kerry Jackson (2020)
Infamous (2023)
The Divine Mrs S. (2024)

Libretti

Pig
Flight
Silent Twins (2007)

Notes

^ From the book by Albie Sachs.
^ With Stella Feehily, Tanika Gupta, Chloe Moss and Laura Wade
^ From the book by Emily Brontë
^ From the Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante
^ After Fuenteovejuna by Lope de Vega.

References

^ Jones, Eamonn; Marlow, Jean (2004). More duologues for all accents and ages. Psychology Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-87830-179-9. Retrieved 10 April 2011.
^ Chris Arnot "No bed of roses", The Guardian, 25 August 1999
^ April de Angelis "'Have I the strength to kill her?'", The Guardian, 28 June 2007