ANTON BURGE Anton is a writer and actor whose third play Bette & Joan has just completed a successful run at The Park Theatre, London. The production, starring Greta Scacchi and Felicity Dean, was described by Lloyd Evans in The Spectator as “brutal and brilliant”.

Bette & Joan has also recently opened for a third season in Germany and will be produced for the first time in Holland this year. In 2023 it completed its fourth run in Poland and was on tour in the North of England over 2019. It has also enjoyed success in Spain, Estonia, Slovakia and Australia.

As a playwright Anton specialises in writing for women, focusing on celebrated women of the 19th and 20th centuries. Bette & Joan opened in the West End in 2011 starring Greta Scacchi and Anita Dobson, directed by Bill Alexander, before a national tour in 2012.

Anton’s other plays include: What Ever Happened to the Cotton Dress Girl?, starring Paula Wilcox, G & I {both New End Theatre, Hampstead}; Lady Mosley’s Suite, a study of Diana Mosley’s time in Holloway prison {read in 2010 at the Trafalgar Studios with a cast including Emilia Fox and Patricia Hodge} and Curtsy! {read in 2015 with a cast including Sylvestra le Touzel and Sophie Ward}. Storm in a Flower Vase, which explored the life of the florist Constance Spry, played in the West End in 2013, starring Penny Downie and was directed by Alan Strachan. Mrs. Pat, opened at the Chichester Festival Theatre starring Dame Penelope Keith in 2015.

Curtsy! goes into production in 2026, directed by Stephen Unwin. Fanny’s Burning!, about the cookery writer Fanny Cradock, will be produced this year at Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester.

His biography of Bette Davis, A Life Lived in Melodrama: Bette Davis in 134 Characters is recently published by Fantom Books. In 2020 he published a book of studies and interviews of interpretations of Queen Elizabeth I: Portraying Elizabeth: Elizabeth I on Stage & Screen, the interviewees including Anna Massey, Glenda Jackson, Dame Eileen Atkins, Miranda Richardson and Dame Harriet Walter. This year sees the publication of Turning into ‘The Lady’ a book of studies and interpretations of Margaret Thatcher. The interviewees include Patricia Hodge, Dame Maureen Lipman, Angela Thorne and Haydn Gwynne.

His first contemporary play: Year of the Virgin was read at The Charing Cross Theatre in 2019, with a cast including Sian Thomas.

Storm in a Flower Vase, Bette & Joan and Mrs. Pat are published by Samuel French Ltd.