Michael Cook (playwright)


Michael Cook was a Canadian playwright known for his plays set in Newfoundland.

Early life

Cook was born in Fulham, London, England. He attended boarding schools until age fifteen. He served a number of years in the British Army, mostly in Asia, and attended the University of Nottingham, earning teaching qualifications. He then settled in Newfoundland in 1965.

Career

Soon after arriving in Newfoundland, Cook wrote scripts for several radio dramas which were produced in St. John's; Cook taught theatre arts at Memorial University of Newfoundland; he reviewed plays and wrote articles about the importance of theatre in the St. John's Evening Telegram and in the Canadian Theatrical Review.
Cook wrote a number of plays set in Newfoundland, beginning with was Tiln, written in 1971. His best-known works were Jacob's Wake and The Head, Guts and Soundbone Dance, in which Newfoundland provides a sometimes realistic and sometimes symbolic backdrop for his poetic rendering of lives in continual conflict with natural elements.
Many of Cook's plays include dialogue written in the Newfoundland dialect; in spite of this, The Head, Guts and Soundbone Dance was restaged as far away as Regina, Saskatchewan in 1980.

Personal life

Cook married three times, and fathered twelve children, including actor Sebastian Spence by his wife, Janis.
Cook retained a residence in Stratford, Ontario. While passing through St Johns on a trip to his summer home on Random Island, Cook became ill and died.

Plays