Michael Abbensetts

Born in Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana), the son of Neville John (a doctor) and Elaine Abbensetts,[http://www.filmreference.com/film/41/Michael-Abbensetts.html "Michael Abbensetts Biography (1938–)", filmreference.com] Michael Abbensetts attended Queen's College from 1952 to 1956, then Stanstead College, Quebec, Canada, and Sir George Williams University, in Montreal (1960–61), before moving to England "around 1963".{{Cite web|title=Abbensetts, Michael John (1938–2016), playwright and television screenwriter|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-112173|access-date=2021-06-23|website=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|year=2020|language=en|doi=10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.112173|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8|last1=Bourne|first1=Stephen}}Stoby, Michelle, "Black British Drama After Empire Road: An interview with Michael Abbensetts", Wasafiri, Issue 35, Spring 2002, pp. 3–8. He became a British citizen in 1974.[http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsA/abbensetts-michael.html "Michael Abbensetts (1938 – )", Dollee.com]

Although he began his writing career with short stories, Abbensetts had been attracted to playwriting after seeing a performance of John Osborne's Look Back In Anger in Montreal, while studying at university there, thereafter deciding to move to London to become a writer.{{cite web|url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/obituaries--archive/obituaries/obituary-michael-abbensetts|title=Obituary: Michael Abbensetts|first=Michael|last=Quinn|website=The Stage|date=14 December 2016|access-date=29 July 2023}} Abbensetts's work in stage drama debuted in 1973 at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs with his play Sweet Talk, which had a cast including Mona Hammond and Don Warrington, and was directed by Stephen Frears.Bourne, Stephenn, [http://www.talawa.com/downloads/resourcepacks/retrace/retrace_general_resources.pdf "The Black Presence on the London Stage, 1825–1965: Some Key Players and a Timeline"]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140814110534/http://www.talawa.com/downloads/resourcepacks/retrace/retrace_general_resources.pdf |date=14 August 2014 }} Abbensetts became the Royal Court's resident dramatist, and Sweet Talk won the George Devine Award,{{cite web|url=https://www.rlf.org.uk/fellowships/michael-abbensetts/|title=Michael Abbensetts 1938-2016|website=Royal Literary Fund|access-date=27 July 2023}} shared with Mustafa Matura. Soon afterwards, Abbensetts's first television play, The Museum Attendant, inspired by his own experience of having worked as a security guard at the Tower of London in the mid-1960s, was broadcast on BBC2, His next television play for the BBC, Black Christmas, aired in 1977 and was also directed by Frears, being described in The Stage as "totally mature… beautifully constructed". Stephen Bourne has called it "one of the best television dramas of the 1970s".Bourne, Stephen (2005), [https://books.google.com/books?id=YYaryaqLfd4C&dq=michael+abbensetts&pg=PA132 Black in the British Frame: The Black Experience in British Film and Television], Continuum, p. 200. From the 1970s to 1990s, Abbensetts continued his theatre career throughout London. His works during this time period included Alterations (premiered in 1978 at the New End Theatre in Hampstead, featuring Don Warrington), Samba (at the Tricycle Theatre in 1980, with Norman Beaton), The Outlaw (1983), and The Lion (1993). [http://www.blackplaysarchive.org.uk/explore/playwrights/abbensetts-michael "Michael Abbensetts"], National Theatre, Black Plays Archive.

Later Abbensetts won the 2004 Alfred Fagon Award for his play The Good Doctor's Son.[https://www.alfredfagonaward.co.uk/awards/2004-award/ "2004 Award | The Good Doctor's Son by Michael Abbensetts wins the Award"], Alfred Fagon Award.

In 2025, a production of Alterations (with additional material by Trish Cooke) was staged at the Royal National Theatre.https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/alterations/

Apart from plays, Abbensetts was a screenwriter for Empire Road (BBC, 1978–79), produced by Peter Ansorge,{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0196242/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm|title=Empire Road (1978–1979) {{!}} Full Cast & Crew|website=IMDb|access-date=27 July 2023}} and considered British television's first Black soap opera, although Abbensetts said: "I never really liked it being called a Soap. It was The Daily Mail that called it that. I always thought of it as a drama series, where each episode had a separate story." The second series was directed by Horace Ové, "establishing a production unit with a Black director, Black writer and Black actors." The cast featured Norman Beaton, Corinne Skinner-Carter, Joseph Marcell, Rudolph Walker and Wayne Laryea.{{cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/535304/index.html|title=Empire Road (1978-79)|website=Screenonline|first=Onyekachi|last=Wambu|author-link=Onyekachi Wambu|publisher=British Film Institute|access-date=29 July 2023}} In the early 1980s, Abbensetts was a member of independent production company Penumbra Productions, together with Horace Ové, H. O. Nazareth, and a number of other black creatives among whom were Lindsay Barrett, Margaret Busby, Farrukh Dhondy and Mustapha Matura.{{cite journal|title=2015: The Year of Being Connected, Exhibition-wise|first=Margaret|last=Busby|journal=Wasafiri|volume=31|issue=4|date=November 2016}} Other television projects by Abbensetts include Easy Money (with Norman Beaton again in the lead, 1982)), Big George Is Dead (Channel 4, 1987), starring Beaton, Linzi Drew and Ram John Holder,[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419503/ "Big George Is Dead"] at IMDb. and the mini-series Little Napoleons (1994, Channel 4, the cast including Beaton, Saeed Jaffrey, Lesley Manville and Simon Callow).[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0180368/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 "Little Napoleons"] at IMDb. The last television script Abbensetts wrote was for an episode of the television series Doctors, entitled "Vanessa's World", aired on 16 October 2001.{{cite web|url=https://www.pebblemill.org/blog/michael-abbensetts-1938-2016/|title=Michael Abbensetts 1938-2016|website=What Was Pebble Mill?|date=29 November 2016|access-date=27 July 2023}}{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0563778/|title=Doctors S3.E32 {{!}} Vanessa's World|website=IMDb|access-date=27 July 2023}}

In 1983–84, Abbensetts was Visiting Professor of Drama at Carnegie-Mellon University. From September 2002, he was a Project Fellow in the Caribbean Studies Department of the University of North London (now London Metropolitan University). He was a Fellow at City and Guilds of London Art School, 2006–09.

With Abbensetts' health declining in his latter years as a result of Alzheimer's disease,Walters, Max (4 July 2012), [http://www.kilburntimes.co.uk/news/cricklewood_pensioner_missing_after_visiting_northwick_park_hospital_1_1432342 "Cricklewood pensioner missing after visiting Northwick Park Hospital"], Brent and Kilburn Times. a tribute was organised for his benefit by Anton Phillips on Sunday, 9 December 2012: a rehearsed reading of Sweet Talk, directed by Phillips and attended by Abbensetts himself, was held at the Tricycle Theatre, with many well known figures in Black theatre and arts in the audience, including Yvonne Brewster, Don Warrington, Rudolph Walker, Oscar James, Allister Bain, and Errol Lloyd.Gulliver, John (13 December 2012), [http://www.camdennewjournal.com/playwright-who-gave-black-actors-dramatic-entrance "Playwright who gave black actors a dramatic entrance"], Camden New Journal. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141111070337/http://www.camdennewjournal.com/playwright-who-gave-black-actors-dramatic-entrance |date=11 November 2014 }}.

Abbensetts died aged 78 on 24 November 2016, survived by his daughter, Justine, from his relationship with Anne Stewart, and by two grandchildren, Sean and Danielle, as well as a sister Elizabeth. His first wife Connie, a lawyer, had died of cancer towards the end of the 1980s, and in 2005 he was married to Liz Bluett, although they later separated.

A portrait of Michael Abbensetts by Horace Ové is in the Photographs Collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.[https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw79463/Michael-Abbensetts?LinkID=mp68713&search=sas&sText=Michael%20Abbensetts&OConly=true&role=sit&rNo=0 "Michael Abbensetts"] by Horace Ové, National Portrait Gallery.

A property that Abbensetts bought in 1990 in Kilburn, London, where he lived for 16 years and wrote the series Little Napoleons for Channel 4, was chosen as the location for a Nubian Jak Community Trust blue plaque honouring him.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/jul/26/groundbreaking-black-british-playwright-michael-abbensetts-to-be-honoured-with-blue-plaque|title=Groundbreaking black British playwright to be honoured with blue plaque|newspaper=The Guardian|first=Aamna|last=Mohdin|date=26 July 2023}}

• Sweet Talk (two acts), produced at the Theatre at New End, 1973.
• Alterations, produced at the New End Theatre, 1978.
• Samba (two acts), produced at the Tricycle Theatre, 1980.
• In the Mood (two acts), produced at the Hampstead Theatre, 1981.
• The Outlaw, produced at the Arts Theatre, 1983.
• El Dorado, produced at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, 1984.
• The Lion, produced at the Cochrane Theatre, 1993.
• The Good Doctor's Son, 2003/4.

• The Museum Attendant, BBC2, 1973
• Inner City Blues, 1974;
• Crime and Passion, 1975;
• Roadrunner, 1977;
• Black Christmas, BBC, 1977.
• Empire Road, series, BBC, 1978–79.
• Easy Money, BBC2 Playhouse, 1982.
• Big George Is Dead, Channel 4, 1987.
• Little Napoleons, mini-series, Channel 4, 1994.

• Sweet Talk, BBC Radio, 1974.
• Home Again, BBC Radio, 1975.
• The Sunny Side of the Street, BBC Radio, 1977.
• Brothers of the Sword, BBC Radio, 1978.
• Alterations, BBC World Service, 1980.
• The Fast Lane, Capital Radio, 1980.
• The Dark Horse, BBC Radio, 1981.

• Sweet Talk, London: Methuen, 1974.
• Empire Road (novelisation of TV series), London: Grenada, 1979.
• Four Plays (Sweet Talk; Alterations; In the Mood; El Dorado), London: Oberon Books, 2001. {{ISBN|9781840021790}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• Leavy, Suzan. "Abbensetts an Example". Television Today (London, England), 19 May 1994.
• Walters, Margaret. "Taking Race for Granted". New Society (London, England), 16 November 1978.

• {{Screenonline name|id=535662|name=Michael Abbensetts biography and credits}}
• {{imdb name|1313505|Michael Abbensetts}}
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Category:1938 births

Category:2016 deaths

Category:20th-century British dramatists and playwrights

Category:20th-century British male writers

Category:20th-century British writers

Category:20th-century Guyanese writers

Category:Academics of the University of North London

Category:Alumni of Queen's College, Guyana

Category:Black British writers

Category:British male dramatists and playwrights

Category:Guyanese dramatists and playwrights

Category:Guyanese emigrants to England

Category:People from Georgetown, Guyana

Category:Sir George Williams University alumni