Irving Wardle
John Irving Wardle is an English writer and theatre critic.Biography
Wardle was born on 20 July 1929 in Manchester, Lancashire, the son of John Wardle and his wife Nellie. His father was drama critic on the Bolton Evening News, and a regular performer at the Bolton Little Theatre. Wardle was educated at Bolton School, Wadham College Oxford and the Royal College of Music. While at Oxford, Wardle participated in theatre, performing in a production of The Tempest alongside the actors Nigel Davenport and Jack May, the future directors John Schlesinger and Bill Gaskill, and Mary Moore, the future principal of St Hilda's College, Oxford.
Wardle's early appointments included an anonymous fortnightly review spot on the Bolton Evening News, beginning in 1958. He worked as a sub-editor on The Times Literary Supplement, 1956–; as deputy theatre critic on The Observer, 1959–63; drama critic for The Times 1963–89; editor of Gambit 1973–75; theatre critic for The Independent on Sunday 1989–95. More recently he has written articles for magazines such as Prospect and The Oldie.
He has published two books; a biography The Theatres of George Devine and Theatre Criticism. His first play, The Houseboy, was performed at the Open Space Theatre in 1973. The play is semi-autobiographical, based on Wardle's experience from a part-time job washing dishes at a London guest house. The production was directed by Charles Marowitz and the cast included Timothy West. A television production was made for ITV's Playhouse season and screened on 3 July 1982, directed by Christopher Hodson. The cast was Stephen Garlick, Geoffrey Palmer, Richard Pasco and Earl Rhodes.
He was honoured in 2004 at the Cairo International Festival of Experimental Theatre. Wardle was a close friend of the writer Harold Pinter, for whose work he coined the phrase "comedies of menace". The two met after Wardle reviewed Pinter's "The Birthday Party" in 1958, and an impressed Pinter wrote to compliment him on his critical sensibility.
