author
Harley Granville-Barker
1877–1946
A driving force in modern British theatre, this playwright, director, and critic helped reshape stage production in the early 20th century. He is especially remembered for sharp, intelligent plays and for influential writing on Shakespeare and performance.
3 Audiobooks
The Harlequinade: An Excursion
by Dion Clayton Calthrop, Harley Granville-Barker
Waste: A Tragedy, In Four Acts
by Harley Granville-Barker
Three Plays by Granville-Barker The Marrying of Ann Leete; The Voysey Inheritance; Waste
by Harley Granville-Barker
About the author
Born in London on November 25, 1877, Harley Granville-Barker built an unusually wide-ranging career as an actor, director, playwright, manager, critic, and theatre thinker. He first gained attention onstage, including in plays by George Bernard Shaw, before becoming one of the most important reforming voices in British theatre.
He was closely associated with innovative work at the Court Theatre in the early 1900s, where his productions helped champion serious modern drama and new staging ideas. Alongside his theatre work, he wrote notable plays such as The Voysey Inheritance and became widely respected for his criticism and his influential books on Shakespeare.
Granville-Barker died in Paris on August 31, 1946. His legacy lasts not only through his plays, but also through the way he changed how directors, actors, and readers approached the theatre.