Dusty Hughes's theatrical vocabulary is rooted in a realism that he distinguishes from surface-based naturalism and results in character-led dramas written from a left-wing perspective. His major stage works have been set not only in contemporary Britain but also in such locales as the Soviet Union after 1917, Eastern Europe before and after the fall of communism, and present-day Central America. His characters, while realistically drawn, also function as emblems of contrasting philosophical or political positions.

Richard Holland Hughes was born in Boston, Lincolnshire, on 16 September 1947 to Harold Henry and Winifred Elsie Hughes, née Holland. He was educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and became involved in amateur dramatics at an early age through his mother, who ran a youth theater and an operatic society that allowed miners and their wives to perform plays, musicals, and light opera. Hughes entered Cambridge University in...