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Michael Frayn

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Playwright

The Resume

    (September 8, 1933- )
    Born in London, United Kingdom
    Playwright and novelist
    Plays include 'The Two of Us' (1970), 'Noises Off' (1982), 'First and Last' (1989), 'Audience' (1991), 'Copenhagen' (1998), 'Democracy' (2003) and 'Afterlife' (2008)
    Novels include 'The Tin Men' (1965), 'Towards the End of the Morning' (1967), 'A Very Private Life' (1968), 'Sweet Dreams' (1973), 'Landing on the Sun' (1991), 'Headlong' (1999), 'Spies' (2002) and 'Skios' (2012)

Why he might be annoying:

    He said of his days as a theater reviewer for the Manchester Guardian, 'I was a terrible critic, very sarcastic and impatient.'
    He said he began writing novels because his first attempt at theater, a Footlights Revue at Cambridge, was a complete flop.
    He has spent the last couple of decades declaring his latest novel or play will be his last.
    He said, 'At this stage in my career, self-plagiarism is a terrible danger. I realized recently that Skios is slightly similar to a film I wrote, Clockwise.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He has had success as both a novelist and a playwright, and with both drama and comedy.
    The Guardian wrote, 'It is hard to think of another writer, apart from Stoppard, capable of both the theatrical slapstick of Noises Off and the cerbral psychodrama of Copenhagen.'
    He won the Tony for Best Play for Copenhagen.
    Frank Rich claimed that Noises Off 'was, is, and probably always will be the funniest play written in my lifetime.'
    He and his wife, biographer Claire Tomalin, were the first couple to both be finalists for the Whitbread Book of the Year (2002); ultimately, her bio of Samuel Pepys won, with his novel 'Spies' as runner-up.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 7 Votes: 85.71% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 8 Votes: 62.50% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying