John McGrath

John McGrath was born in Merseyside, 1935, of an Irish immigrant family and brought up in North Wales. His first plays were performed when he was at Oxford. After THE TENT was presented at the Royal Court, John spent several years in television, writing and directing. He directed the first episode of Z-CARS, which ran for seventeen years. Much of his writing and directing in television was experimental and he has made many documentaries on film and video. He has written over forty stage plays and in 1971 he founded the 7:84 Theatre Company (so called because John had read that 84% of Britain’s wealth was owned by just 7% of the population), and was involved in writing and directing plays with them for seventeen years.