PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
After marrying and having her first two children, she and her husband moved to Wandsworth in South London, where she wrote radio plays, beginning an extraordinarily prolific writing career that produced over seventy plays and adaptations. Pam Gems is, without doubt, Britain's greatest woman dramatist, with only Agatha Christie having had more West End productions. Agatha Christie had ten plays presented in the West End, at a time when the economics of West End plays weren't as prohibitive as they later became. Pam Gems had six, arguably seven, West End plays. The first was DUSA FISH STAS and VI, at the Mayfair, presented by Michael Codron, followed by PIAF, at the Piccadilly, presented by the RSC, which also later produced CAMILLE at the Comedy, and THE BLUE ANGEL at the Globe. LOVING WOMEN was presented at the Arts Theatre, and MARLENE had a successful run at the Lyric. STANLEY, which played to full houses at the National Theatre, was offered a West-End transfer by three managements, but the company turned down these offers in favour of a transfer to the Circle in the Square, off-Broadway, in New York, where it ran for six months. One thing that especially fascinates in Pam Gems' writing is the prophetic element. She perceived, well in advance, the dangers facing the pampered and decadent West, which we now see unfolding. As Victor Hugo said: 'Adversity makes men and prosperity makes monsters. ' Her approach is always positive, however. Like the Beatles' song, all you need is love.
"""Betty's Wonderful Christmas, by Pam Gems, is offered to ""older children and adults."" Irving Wardle. The Times. 6/1/1972 ""I've got to know the dark side of the moon"" is a song at the beginning of the play... Time Out. 17/1/1972 Pam Gems's new play inventively harnesses the legend and has Guinevere pouring out her feelings... Richard Mowe. Scottish Evening News. August 27, 1976 ...Pam Gems's play exhibits such operatic magnificence as is not to be missed. Jim Hiley. THE LISTENER 24 July 1986 As playwright Pam Gems and most women know, Hell Hath No Fury Like A Man Scorned. Ann McFerran. Time Out. October 15, 1976 The play is informative and entertaining... Suzanne Lowry. The Guardian. June 7th 1974 Feminists will love Pam Gems's 'The Treat'... KEITH NURSE. Daily Telegraph. 18/2/1982 PAM GEMS proved with Piaf that she is not the kind of dramatist to pull any punches... CHARLES SPENCER. Evening Standard 17/2/1982 Pam Gems shows considerable dramatic skill in instructing us in the principles of Gestalt Therapy... TED WHITEHEAD. The Spectator. 24/12/1977 ""You must do it for yourself; there are no gurus."" That is the philosophy that informs the new Pam Gems play. BERNARD LEVIN. Sunday Times.11/12/1977 Pam Gems's adaptation of Ibsen's century-old masterpiece (from a literal translation) does much to restore some of the thunder and lightning of its early salvoes in the cause of women's emancipation. RICHARD KELLY. The Guardian. 12/01/1980. In this towering adaptation by Pam Gems, Nora Helmer sloughs off the wraps of respectability to become her own person. PHIL PENFOLD. The Evening Chronicle. 11/01/1980. All I can do here is praise, with all the authority I can muster... DAVID DURMAN. The Journal. 11/01/1980. It is rare that one goes to a lunchtime and is confronted with a combination of equally high standard of writing... YORI KOHUT. The Stage 03/05/1979 The play has a thriller-like suspense as the Westerners are caught up in a coup . . . MICHAEL BILLINGTON. The Guardian. 06/03/1994 One of the great voices of contemporary theatre... NICK AHAD. Yorkshire Evening Post. 17/03/2006 It should tickle most people's fancy, theatre buffs or no... BENEDICT NIGHTINGALE. The Daily Telegraph. 20/03/2006 The result, however, is much more savage than the movie. MICHAEL BILLINGTON. The Guardian. 28/08/1991 That is a complex and estimable addition to the Pam Gems roster of legendary pin-ups: Piaf, Camille and Queen Christina . . . ' MICHAEL COVENEY. Financial Times. 01/09/1991 Actually, 'adapted' is not quite the right word. JOHN PETERS. The Sunday Times. 01/09/1991 The portrait of a disenchanted middle-class career leftie yearning for a child is one of the most poignant images of our recent theatre. MICHAEL COVENEY Financial Times. 02/02/1984 It is a long time since I saw a new comedy which delighted me as much. Pam Gems's LOVING WOMEN... JOHN BARBER. The Daily Telegraph. 02/02/1984 No one can accuse Pam Gems of short-changing her audience... CHARLES SPENCER. The Evening Standard. 02/02/1984"
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