Livings, Henry

Livings, Henry (1929– ), English dramatist and actor, who appeared in Theatre Workshop's production of Brendan Behan's The Quare Fellow (1956). His first plays, Stop It, Whoever You Are, about a lavatory attendant in a factory, and Big Soft Nellie, about a ‘mother's boy’, were both seen in London in 1961. Nil Carborundum (1962), set in the kitchen of an RAF station, and Eh? (1964; NY, 1966) were presented by the RSC. His other plays include Kelly's Eye (1963), This Jockey Drives Late Nights (1972), an adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's play The Power of Darkness, and Jug (1975), an adaptation of Kleist. A revised version of Jug was produced at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East (1986), which in 1987 staged This is My Dream, Livings's play about Josephine Baker. He uses comedy, farce, and fantasy to depict the trials of people who appear to be underdogs but are not necessarily so, and though he was born and lives in Lancashire and his plays have a Lancashire ‘tone’, they are hardly ever specifically set there.