Peter Oswald

This article is about the playwright. For the production designer, see Pete Oswald.

Peter Charles Patrick Oswald (born 1965)[1][2] is an English playwright specialising in verse drama, resident at Shakespeare's Globe from 1998 to 2009.[3]

Early life

Oswald was born the second of four children (eldest of three sons) of farmer and stockbroker Peter David Hamilton Oswald and Juliet (née McLaughlin), of Fliskmillan, Fife, Scotland. His uncle was Sir Julian Oswald, First Sea Lord from 1989 to 1993.[4][5] The Oswalds were landed gentry, of Cavens, Dumfries, and Auchincruive (now named "Oswald Hall"), South Ayrshire, Scotland, descending from merchant George Oswald, Rector of the University of Glasgow from 1797 to 1799,[6]

Career

Oswald was the first writer/playwright-in-residence at Shakespeare's Globe theatre, London, for which he wrote three new plays, from 1998 to 2009.[7] He was later playwright-in-residence at the Finborough Theatre. Oswald established his own company, Heart's Tongue, to produce some of his plays.[8]

In March 2022, Oswald was interviewed about his verse drama plays on the podcast Hamlet to Hamilton: Exploring Verse Drama, hosted by Emily C. A. Snyder and Colin Kovarik.[9]

Personal life

Oswald is married to the poet Alice Oswald, with whom he has three children.[10] They live in Devon, southwest England.[citation needed] His brother is the author James Oswald.[citation needed]

Books

  • Peter Oswald; Mary Stuart. Samuel French, London, 2006
  • Peter Oswald; The Golden Ass or the Curious Man. Comedy in three parts after the novel Metamorphoses by Lucius Apuleius. Oberon Books: London, GB. 2002. ISBN 1-84002-285-X.
  • Peter Oswald; Earth Has Not Any Thing to Shew More Fair: A Bicentennial Celebration of Wordsworth's Sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge (co-editor with Alice Oswald and Robert Woof) Shakespeare's Globe & The Wordsworth Trust, 2002 ISBN 1-870787-84-6
  • Peter Oswald; Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards. A drama in verses after an eighteenth-century Japanese puppet play by the kabuki playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon. Methuen Drama, London, GB. 1996 (USA: Heinemann, Portsmouth, New Hampshire). ISBN 0-413-71510-8.

References

  1. ^ Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, p. 1987
  2. ^ Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage, 146th edition, ed. Charles Kidd, David Williamson, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 2000, p. 852
  3. ^ "Rhyme and punishment". TheGuardian.com. 11 July 2005.
  4. ^ Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, p. 1987
  5. ^ Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage, 146th edition, ed. Charles Kidd, David Williamson, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 2000, p. 852
  6. ^ Burke's Landed Gentry, 16th edition, ed. L. G. Pine, Burke's Peerage Ltd, p. 1925
  7. ^ The plays of Peter Oswald: new writing at Shakespeare’s Globe 1998–2005, Catriona Fallow, in Studies in Theatre and Performance, Vol. 34, 2014, Issue 1, pp. 90-96
  8. ^ "Rhyme and punishment". TheGuardian.com. 11 July 2005.
  9. ^ "Interview: Peter Oswald". hamlettohamilton.com. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  10. ^ Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage, 146th edition, ed. Charles Kidd, David Williamson, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 2000, p. 852