Biography Essay

John Mortimer has said that comedy "is the only thing worth writing about in this despairing world," which "is far too serious to be described in terms that give us no opportunity to laugh." Indeed, since his first play in 1958, he has written a succession of comedies of manners, sex farces, and Chekhovian one-acts that, as he intended, "chart the tottering course of British middle-class attitudes in decline." But within the "narrow seam" that he has chosen as his stage province, Mortimer has created some memorable moments in the theater. Whereas such farces as Marble Arch (1970) and Mill Hill (1970) are mere whimsies, at least four other plays are notable achievements: The Dock Brief (1958), The Judge (1967), A Voyage Round My Father (1970), and Collaborators (1973). He has gained his largest audience and earned his most widespread critical acclaim for television adaptations, including those he did of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead...