Claire Dowie
Claire Dowie (* 1956 in Birmingham ) is an English writer , director and actress . In England she is considered a pioneer of the stand-up theater .
Originally she wanted to be a dancer, toured Europe for a short time with a group, but then appeared with a solo program in the alternative comedy scene around London and switched to stand-up comedy . The real breakthrough came when she started writing. Her plays, which she often played and staged herself, have been translated into German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. Her first novel Chaos was recently published .
Claire Dowie lives in London.
theatre
Claire Dowie has been writing, staging and playing plays since the late 1980s, dealing with ideas about gender roles and sexuality, among other things. Her best-known plays include Adult Child / Dead Child (won the “Time Out Theater Award 1988”), Why is John Lennon wearing a skirt? (awarded the "London Fringe Award 1991"), Drag Act , Easy Access (for the boys) and H to He - I'm turning into a man .
The German translations available so far are: “Why is John Lennon wearing a skirt?”, “The invisible girlfriend” and “Michaels Tape”.
The performance rights in Germany are held by Merlin Verlag .
Why is John Lennon wearing a skirt?
(Why is John Lennon wearing a skirt?)
At the center of Claire Dowie's most successful play is a 14-year-old girl who would rather wear pants and play soccer than share the interests of her friends who suddenly awoke. The mechanisms of growing up are traced without denouncing them. Claire Dowie says about her piece:
“It's about growing up in the late 60s and early 70s. It's my time, but not necessarily my story. It was the beginning of the women's movement - burn bras etc., it was just beginning. Mentally they were torn between “Man from UNCLE” and “Batman”: Everything the girls had as a role model was Barbie. ” The play was premiered in 1990 at the Traverse Theater in Edinburgh and performed on numerous German theaters. The German-language premiere took place in 2000 at the theater playground of the Braunschweig State Theater .
The invisible friend
(Adult child / dead child)
The difficult child: it strikes and does not speak. It neither plays with others nor has friends. It starts with the teacher and one's own father. Broke windows and pulls back behind them. What goes on in him is a mystery to everyone. In "The Invisible Friend" Claire Dowie enters the world of this child, a world of hurt, loneliness and dangerous friends.
World premiere: Finborough Theater Club, London 1987 German-language premiere: Zwinger Heidelberg, 2004
The man in her
(H to He - I'm turning into a man)
At first Helen thinks it's just a strange dream: Suddenly hair grows on her face ... her foot swells by five shoe sizes ... the right hand begins to lead a life of its own and takes hold of her breasts. But soon Helen has to face the truth: she is turning into a man! Her reflection has mutated into a stranger. She used to be slim and well built and sexy. And young! - Is that the age? The visit of her best friend Tina confuses her even more. Helen doesn't need any consolation from her, she wants to let her manliness play, she wants to seduce Tina. But then five enigmatic tea drinkers appear in Helen's living room and tell her the real reason for her transformation: she is supposed to become the new messiah. Claire Dowie outrageously sabotages stereotypical gender concepts and describes the equalization of masculine and feminine in old age on her own body.
World premiere: The Drill Hall, London 2004
Chaos (novel)
In 2008 Claire Dowie's first novel “Chaos” was published in Germany (original: Creating Chaos , published in England in 2004). In it, Claire Dowie explores the question of what happens to the revolutionaries when the establishment gets involved with them. The protagonist is Chaos, the son of a wild hippie commune that moved to the country in the 1970s to improve the world with rock 'n' roll, free love, drugs, political discussions and the cultivation of organic vegetables. Chaos grows with his band, the "Frogs", into a cult figure. For his fans he is a guru who can successfully defend himself against the sell-off of his ideals. Until one day Tony Blair appears next to him on stage ...
German-language publications
- Chaos , Merlin Verlag 2008, ISBN 978-3-87536-255-8
Web links
Sources, evidence
- ↑ The quote is taken from a newspaper article by Terry Grimley (2004).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Dowie, Claire |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English writer, director and actress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1956 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Birmingham |