Raymond Cooney was born on 05/30/1932 in London. He graduated from Dulwich College - one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the UK. Married to Linda Dixon since 1962. They have two sons. The eldest, Danny, lives with his wife and two children in Australia, the youngest, Michael, is also a screenwriter. In 1995, Cooney released comments on his own plays.
Carier start
As a teenager, Cooney began a career in theater. At the age of 14, he went on the stage of the Palace Theater. We can safely say that he absorbed the smell of the wings from childhood. Since 1948, Ray Cooney has been playing in theater troupes from Worthing to Blackburn and is honing his theater skills.
In 1956, he graduated at the Whitehall Theater with Brian Ricks. In 1961 he wrote the first play, The Fortune Hunter, co-authored with Tony Hilton. He also wrote the script for the comedy “What a Section!”. The beginning of his career as a playwright brought West End Theater 17 premieres. In London, he staged over thirty performances as director and producer Ray Cooney. His plays are listed below:
- They're Playing Our Song.
- Bodies ("Bodies").
- Clouds.
- Whose Life is it Anyway? ("Whose life is this, anyway?").
- Chicago ("Chicago").
- Duet for One.
Comedy theater
Ray Cooney organized the Theater of Comedy in London, under his leadership the stars of the West End performed on stage, and the newly revived plays were a resounding success. Cooney often played on the stage himself and wrote more than twenty new plays, including:
- Funny Money.
- Out of Order ("No. 13").
- Passion Play ("Game of Passion").
Cooney's comedies are distinguished by a well-balanced plot and some frivolous language. Heroes often impersonate someone they are not, and more and more confuse the plot. And at some point the viewer has a feeling that the whole situation is about to become implausible. But Ray Cooney is a master of his craft and feels the viewer. He knows that you will press it slightly - and you will get clumsy work.
According to Ray, the viewer sometimes also wants to play fun games. When the viewer goes to a dramatic performance, nobody specifically promises him anything. But comedy is another matter. Here they promise you that at least twice, but you will smile. And indeed it is. Cooney doesn’t have comedies of the lungs where the viewer simply laughs, his comedies are “laughter through tears”.
Worldwide recognition
What can we say about the recognition of this great master of comedy, if his plays are translated into more than forty languages and play them in theaters around the world! The play written by Ray Cooney, “Too Married Taxi Driver,” was a huge success and recognition. In the London West End, she lasted more than nine years. The following are the adaptations of the Cooney comedies in Russian:
- "Too married taxi driver";
- "Funny money";
- "Clinical case";
- "Number 13".
Prizes and awards
The play “Number 13” was awarded the Laurence Olivier Prize in 1999, and in 2000 it was recognized as the best comedy in Europe. "Too Married Taxi Driver" (1983) received the title of the most "long-playing" comedy in England and entered the top hundred British plays. For his services in the field of drama Ray Cooney was awarded a high award - the Order of the British Empire in 2005.
He invented incredible ties and interchanges for his plays, and the action sometimes unfolds in such a fast pace that sometimes the spectator sometimes even has no time to catch his breath. No wonder he was nicknamed the master of farce in the theater world. The way it is. As an actor and playwright, Cooney has done a lot to make viewers laugh for decades.