REBECCA LENKIEWICZ

 

Lenkiewicz was born in 1968 in Plymouth, Devon. She is the daughter of Peter Quint, a playwright who has never been produced. Her last name is from her mother’s first marriage to Robert Lenkiewicz, a painter. She earned a BA in Film and English from the University of Kent and a BA Acting Course at Central School of Speech and Drama. She acted for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre before writing.

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In 2000, she debuted her play Soho: A Tale of Table Dancers for the Royal Shakespeare Company Fringe. In 2004, The Night Season was produced at the Royal National Theatre. Her next plays were Shoreditch Madonna (2005), Justitia (2006), Invisible Mountains (2006), The Soldier’s Tale (2006), and Blue Moon Over Poplar (2006).

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Her Naked Skin opened in 2008 at the National Theatre, making her the first woman to have an original show produced on the Olivier Stage. Lenkiewicz said that she was using force-feeding as a parallel to anorexia. She believes that women’s bodies are still trapped in abuse.

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Since then, her other plays are Faeries, The Lioness, Stars Over Kabul, and The Painter. She has also adapted The Turn of the Screw, Ghosts, and An Enemy of the People.

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She has said that she deals with depression. She is interested in social justice through her art. Lenkiewicz was a table dancer for two months before her first play was produced. She has four siblings, though they were not born to Quint. He was just 17 years old when she was born. Her mother’s name is Celia. (Note that Celia Cain also has five children.) She said that her father and stepfather are actually friends. Quint has supported her as an artist even when she was table dancing and Lenkiewicz passed on his care for social justice and love of literature to her.

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Her newest play is called The Invisible. It is about cuts to legal aid.