Nationality British Name John Baker | Role Poet | |
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Occupation Poet, playwright, novelist Books Brighton Darkness, The Paris Syndrome, No Fixed Ground, The Sea and the City, The Vicious Age Similar People Anton Chekhov, August Strindberg, Henrik Ibsen, Jerzy Grotowski, Emily Bronte | ||
Gay documentary Feb 1976 Brighton "Coming Out" Southern Report John Roman Baker Tony Whitehead Kiss
John Roman Baker is a British poet, playwright and novelist. His work is characterised by a focus on contemporary issues presented from a homosexual point of view.
Contents
- Gay documentary Feb 1976 Brighton Coming Out Southern Report John Roman Baker Tony Whitehead Kiss
- Theatre
- Fiction
- Personal life
- References
Theatre
His first play 'Limitations' launched the first season of the Gay Sweatshop Theatre company. In 1989, his play 'Crying Celibate Tears' was presented at the Sussex Aids Centre) within the context of the Brighton Festival. This 'festival wirhin a festival' staged at the Sussex Aids Centre also included work by Philip Core, Peter Burton and Neil Bartlett. 'Crying Celibate Tears' received critical acclaim from the Brighton press, The Guardian and Plays and Players and was the launching pad for Aids Positive Underground Theatre, the company founded by John Roman Baker as a positive cultural response.
Performed plays include:
Adapted work by other writers:
Unperformed plays include:
His work has been produced in many countries. From 1990–1996 the Brighton and Edinburgh Festivals often saw the first performances of his new plays. He was the first dramatist to adapt the work of American artist David Wojnarowicz for the stage. 'Close to the Knives' was performed at the 1993 Brighton Festival with the role of David Wojnarowicz played by actor Simon Merrells. In 1994 the success in Edinburgh of 'In One Take' led to performances at Teatri di Vita, Bologna, Italy. Since then, his work has continued to be popular in Italy and has been seen in Firenze, Modena, Forlí, L'Aquila, Reggio Emilia, Roma and Milano. His most popular work 'The Ice Pick' has been staged on multiple occasions in the UK and Italy as well as in the US at the Celebration Theatre, Los Angeles in 1993.
He moved to Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 1997, where he continued the work of Aputheatre until 2008. During this period the focus of his work was mainly focused on the personal and social effects of pan-European migration following the collapse of communism.
In 1999 he updated and reworked 'The Ice Pick' for 2 characters under the title 'Heroes'. 'Heroes' was toured by Aputheatre around the Netherlands before being performed in Warsaw as part of the 1st Polish Gay Pride festival. 'The Prostitution Plays' was premiered for Warsaw Gay Pride in 2000 and in 2001 his play 'Sexually Speaking 1+1' was presented in Kiev, Ukraine.
Following its Amsterdam premiere, his play 'Prisoners of Sex' was translated into Italian by Antonio Serrano as 'Prigionieri del Sesso' and has been performed in Milan and Rome.
Fiction
Published works include:
Personal life
John Roman Baker spent his childhood and much of his adolescence in Brighton, England. At the age of 19 he moved to Paris, where for several years he worked at the British Institute. His poetry was encouraged by the then director of the British Institute, Francis Scarfe. Later, in 1974 a volume of his poetry "Poèmes à Tristan" was published in French by Gérard Oberlé. He has always considered himself foremost a poet and a vein of poetry continues in his plays.
In 1970 he moved from Paris back to Brighton. His poetic novel 'The Dark Antagonist' was published by the Unicorn Bookshop, Brighton in 1973.
Unwelcome notoriety was achieved when in 1976 he appeared with Tony Whitehead (later to become the first chairperson of the Terence Higgins Trust) in a Southern Television program about Gay Rights. They were pictured together kissing as one of them met the other off a train at Brighton station. As a result of this, Whitehead was immediately fired by his employer British Home Stores. A national outcry galvanised the gay rights movement led by CHE (The Campaign for Homosexual Equality) and GLF (Gay Liberation Front).
In 1997 he left Brighton for Amsterdam, where he was given the freedom to create and present new work at the theatre in the former COC Amsterdam building on Rozenstraat until its closure in 2007.
In 2014 he returned to England and now lives and works again in Brighton concentrating on fiction which along with poetry has been paramount all through his life.