Michael Abbensetts
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Fellow at University of North London (now London Metropolitan University), 2000/01
Associate Fellow, 2001/02
Project Fellow, 2002/03
Advisory Fellow, 2003-05
Advisory Fellow, 2005-08
Fellow at City & Guilds of London School of Art, 2006-09
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Michael Abbensetts was born in Guyana in 1938. He began his writing career with short stories, but decided to turn to playwriting after seeing a performance of John Osborne's Look Back In Anger. Later, he came to England, and his first play, Sweet Talk, was put on at the Royal Court Theatre. He was appointed Resident Dramatist at the Royal Court. The play won The George Devine Award. That same week, The Museum Attendant, his first television play was broadcast on BBC2. Next, he wrote Black Christmas, a TV film directed by Stephen Frears.
During the late 70s, early 80s, a number of his plays were produced for the London theatre: Alterations, Samba, In The Mood, Outlaw and El Dorado. Inner City Blues, Crime and Passion, and Roadrunner were produced on television.
He wrote British television's first Black drama series, Empire Road. Horace Ove was brought in to direct the second series, establishing a production unit with a Black director, Black writer and Black actors. Not only was it the first drama series to be conceived and written by a Black writer for a Black cast, but it was specifically about the British-Caribbean experience. Set in Handsworth, Birmingham, it featured Norman Beaton as Everton Bennett and Corinne Skinner-Carter as his long-suffering screen wife.
Norman Beaton continued to star in many of Abbensett's television productions including Easy Money (1981) and Big George Is Dead and Little Napoleons (Channel 4, 1994). Little Napoleons is a four-part comic-drama depicting the rivalry between two solicitors, played by Saeed Jaffrey and Norman Beaton, who become Labour councillors. The work focuses on a number of themes including the price of power, the relationship between West Indian and Asian communities in Britain and the internal workings of political institutions.
Michael Abbensetts was the Visiting Professor of Drama at Carnegie-Mellon University, 1983/84.
Project Fellowship
From September 2002, Michael Abensetts worked as a Project Fellow with the Caribbean Studies Department at the then University of North London. He taught a course entitled 'An Introduction to Caribbean Film and Literature'.
Aim of the Course:
1. To examine, critically, representations of the Caribbean in film, television (Michael's speciality) and literature.
2. To consider how cinematic and literary representation might assist with an understanding of economic, social and political process in the different regions.
3. To focus on the development of skills for "critical appreciation of the artistic representation of experience".
Teaching and Learning Methods:
Videos of Michael's TV play, Black Christmas, and episodes of his TV series, Empire Road.
Also, the class read his novel, Empire Road, based on the series.
Television Series
Little Napoleons Channel 4 TV, 1994. Repeated July '99
Empire Road BBC 2 TV, 1978-79.
Television Plays and Films
Vanessa's World (Doctors) BBC 1 (2001)
The Record Collection BBC 2
Big George Is Dead Channel 4 TV
Easy Money BBC 2
Black Christmas BBC 2 Director: Stephen Frears
Roadrunner ITV
Crime And Punishment ITV
Inner City Blues ITV
The Museum Attendant BBC 2
Theatre
The Lion Cochrane Theatre, U.K.; Ward Theatre, Jamaica.
Alterations 2 Theatre Royal, Stratford East
El Dorado Theatre Royal, Stratford East
Outlaw Arts Theatre, U.K.
In The Mood Hampstead Theatre
Samba Tricycle Theatre
Alterations Theatre At New End; Crossroads Theatre, U.S.A.
Sweet Talk Royal Court Theatre; Public Theatre, U.S.A.; Jamaica; Nigeria, Canada, Guyana.
Radio Plays
Sweet Talk BBC, World Service, 2001
Summer Passions
The Dark Horse
The Fast Lane
Brothers Of The Sword
The Sunny Side Of The Street
Home Again
Books
Four Plays Oberon Books, Oct 2001
Samba Methuen Press
Empire Road A novel, panther Books
Sweet Talk Methuen Press
Critical Studies
Contemporary Dramatists Macmillan Publishers
Abbensetts An Example, Suzan Leavy, Television Today, 1994.
Museum Of Broadcast Communications Chicago
Black and White in Colour
Taking Race for Granted, Margaret Walters, New Society, 1978
