Barker’s writing evolved in this unique context of praxis, and in tandem with multiple design roles under multiple aliases: Tomas Leipzig, Billie Kaiser and Eduardo Houth among them. His invigoration of tragic form widened its scope beyond Catastrophe with continuous invention. A pinnacle in his directing came in 2002 with Gertrude – the Cry, an intensely poetic reimagining of Hamlet, centring his mother, and freeing her from shame.

The Wrestling School thus occupies a unique position in theatre history, not only in its dedication to the work of an individual dramatist, but also as a dynamic engine facilitating the mutual development and intensification of both a writer’s voice, and a style of theatrical performance.

Arts Council funding for Artistic Excellence enabled The Wrestling School to produce at least one new play annually for 19 years, touring nationally and internationally, and visiting Adelaide, Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Elsinore, Gothenburg, Lille, Limoges, Luxembourg, Paris, Rouen, Riga, Siena and Stockholm. Philanthropic investment later helped maintain The Wrestling School’s momentum into another decade. Work from Barker’s twelve volumes of published plays is staged around the world; several unpublished and unperformed works await debut.

Barker’s work with The Wrestling School also infuses his seminal books of theatre theory; Arguments for a Theatre (1989), Death, the One, and the Art of Theatre (2004) and A Style and its Origins (2007). His writing continues to influence theatre makers around the world.

Barker’s Wrestling School productions, plays and theoretical works stand as a vital reminders of theatre’s intrinsic power, lying beyond representations of the rational and real, in the territories of eroticism and death, and their expression through refined, poetic language – wherein also lies the deepest expressive power of the actor, and of the art of theatre.

By the 1980s, Howard Barker had outgrown political theatre and its didactic naïveté and had begun to write new kinds of dramatic texts. Tired also of British theatre’s timid institutions, and knowing his plays needed a new context of performance, Barker, Kenny Ireland and Hugh Fraser formed The Wrestling School, in 1987. It would be dedicated to bold productions of Barker's new plays, never a collective, nor an actor's company, but devoted to the pursuit of his vision of a tragic theatre. Only company manager, Chris Corner, has worked on every production since 1988.

The Wrestling School launched that year with The Last Supper, directed by Kenny Ireland. Early productions presented plays representative of Barker’s Theatre of Catastrophe; dramas which reinvigorated tragic form by taking the peak of suffering in tragedy as a point of departure, rather than as a concluding climax. Ace McCarron joined in 1989 as company lighting designer.

The Wrestling School quickly earned a reputation as ‘the most important buildingless company in Britain’ (Independent). Barker first directed his own work in 1991 with Ego in Arcadia and took the reins as artistic director shortly after.

history of

With sincere thanks to our photographers: 1. The Last Supper John Haynes, 4. Victory Stephen Vaughn, 5. Ego in Arcadia Leslie Black, 6. The Europeans Leslie Black, 7. Hated Nightfall Stephen Vaughn, 8. The Castle Stephen Vaughn, 12. Wounds to the Face Stephen Vaughn, 14. Und James Mountford, 23. The Fence Robert Workman, 24. The Seduction of Almighty God Robert Workman, 27Found In The Ground Robert Workman. Other photographs; Howard Barker; Melanie Jessop; James Reynolds.

(This list is incomplete and in development)