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Heathcote Williams (born 15 November 1941) is an English poet, actor and dramatist. He has written a number of best-selling book-length polemical poems including ''Autogeddon'', ''Falling for a Dolphin'' and ''Whale Nation'', which in 1988 became, according to Philip Hoare "the most powerful argument for the newly instigated worldwide ban on whaling.". Williams invented his idiosyncratic 'documentary/investigative poetry' style which he continues to put to good purpose bringing a diverse range of environmental and political matters to public attention. In June 2015, he published a book-length investigative poem about the 'Muslim Gandhi', Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, 'Badshah Khan' As well as being a prolific playwright and screen writer, Williams has appeared in a number of well-known Independent and Hollywood films and was among the celebrity guests in the final 'Friends' episode, 'The One Where Ross Gets Married'. He played Prospero in Derek Jarman’s The Tempest and has appeared in several ‘arthouse’ films, including Orlando, as well as Hollywood blockbusters such as Basic Instinct 2.Al Pacino played the part of a Williams fan in a spoof arts documentary, ''Every Time I Cross the Tamar I Get Into Trouble''. Williams also writes lyrics, collaborating with Marianne Faithfull among others. Williams is a keen naturalist and discovered a new species of honey-producing wasp in the Amazon jungle, an event he recorded in a book of poems called 'Forbidden Fruit' Williams is a member of the Magic Circle and a skilful magician. He wrote a TV play called ''What the Dickens!'' about Charles Dickens’s penchant for performing magic shows. Bob Hoskins taught him fire eating. When he went to demonstrate his new found talent to then girlfriend Jean Shrimpton, he accidentally set himself alight on her door step. Williams was a leading activist in the London squatting scene in the 1970s and ran a squatters 'estate agency' called the 'Rough Tough Cream Puff'. In 1977 he and a couple of hundred fellow squatters established the ‘state’ of Frestonia in Notting Hill and declared independence from Britain. Then Shadow Chancellor, Geoffrey Howe, wrote to express his support and Williams was appointed UK Ambassador. Frestonia lasted almost a decade and had its own institutions and postage stamps. Williams spray-painted graffiti on the walls of Buckingham Palace as a protest against the Queen signing Michael X's death warrant while there was no capital punishment in the UK. In the early 1970s, his agitational graffiti were a feature on the walls of the then low-rent end of London's Notting Hill district. == Early life and career == John Henley Jasper Heathcote-Williams was born in Helsby, Cheshire. After his schooldays at Eton, he changed his name to Heathcote Williams. His father, also named Heathcote Williams, was a lawyer. From his early twenties, Williams has enjoyed a minor cult following. His first book was ''The Speakers'' (1964), an account of life at Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park. In 1974, it was adapted for the stage by the Joint Stock Theatre Company. His first full-length play, ''AC/DC'' (1970), first staged at the Royal Court Theatre, is a critique of the burgeoning mental health industry, includes a thinly veiled attack on 1960s alternative society, and the proponent of the anti-psychiatry movement, R. D. Laing. Its production did not, however, appear to impede cordial relations between the two men in later years. ''AC/DC'' won the London ''Evening Standards Most Promising Play Award. It also received the 1972 John Whiting Award for being "a new and distinctive development in dramatic writing with particular relevance to contemporary society." It was described in the ''Times Literary Supplement'' in a front-page review by Charles Marowitz as 'the first play of the 21st century.' ''AC/DC'' was produced in New York in 1971 at the Chelsea Theater Center at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Other plays include the one-act monologue ''Hancock's Last Half Hour'', ''The Local Stigmatic'', ''The Immortalist'' and the impossible to categorise ''Remember The Truth Dentist''—an early effort, again at the Royal Court, directed by Ken Campbell. The inaugural issue of the ''London Review of Books'' included an effusive profile by fellow Etonian Francis Wyndham titled ''The Magic of Heathcote Williams''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Heathcote Williams」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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