'Neil Bartlett', O.B.E. (born [1958]) is one of Britain's most renowned and innovative theatre artists. He is a director, performer, translator, and writer. His novels include "Who Was That Man: A Present for Mr. Oscar Wilde" (1988), "Ready to Catch Him Should He Fall" (1992), and "Mr. Clive and Mr. Page " (1996). "Who Was That Man" shows how the gay history of London in the 1890s effects Bartlett's life as a gay man in London in the 1980s. His new novel will be published in London by Serpent's Tail publishing in 2007.
He also served as Artistic Director at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith from 1994 until 2004. At the Lyric he directed productions of classic plays, which he translated or adapted. The following are some of the plays he directed and translated:
1. The first English production of Jean Genet's "Splendid's" 2. Kleist's Prince of Homburg and Marivaux's La Dispute 3. And recently, his adaptation of Dickens' Oliver Twist
Many of his translations of classic plays have been performed throughout the world.
Bartlett may call his play, now receiving its US premiere at the American Repertory Theatre, "Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist," and he may, unlike many earlier adapters, hew closely to the actual words of Dickens's text.
Bartlett's vision is clear from the first moment, when a plain fl curtain rises to reveal the darkly ingenious box of a set.
Bartlett (who last visited the ART in 2005 with "Dido, Queen of Carthage") has said that he and his longtime collaborator, Rae Smith, developed the design after studying Victorian "penny dreadful" machines, small dioramas that displayed thrilling scenes of mayhem to anyone with a penny to spare.
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