Tess Berry-Hart

Tamasin Elizabeth Berry-Hart was born in Warwickshire, England, and writes for adults, young adults and children.^[1] Her novels and plays deal with themes such as the European migrant crisis, LGBT rights, mental illness, genetic engineering, and the sex-positive movement. She has also written some verbatim theatre pieces for stage to support human rights campaigns and to raise funds for the refugee crisis.^[2]

Early life

Tess Berry-Hart is the daughter of painter and sculptor David Berry-Hart. Her grandmother, Alice Berry-Hart, was a journalist and author of children’s books and her aunt Marian Lines was a playwright and children's author. Her great-grandfather, David Berry Hart was a noted gynaecologist and one of the first male practitioners in the UK.

Berry-Hart attended Weddington Primary and Weddington Secondary Schools, and from age 11 to 18, she studied at Howell’s School, Denbigh. After school she spent a year travelling and working in Turkey and Pakistan's North West Frontier as a teacher of English. She graduated magna cum laude with a first-class degree in law from King's College London.^[3]

Career

Berry-Hart studied at the Royal Court Theatre Young Writers’ Programme under the tutorship of Hanif Kureishi and Simon Stephens and was selected to be the Royal Court young writing representative at the Interplay Young European Playwrights Festival with her first play Legoland which dealt with post-traumatic stress and mental illness.

Young Adult Novels

In 2007 her first novel, Escape from Genopolis, was published. This was followed by her sequel, Fearless, in 2009.^[4]

Verbatim theatre

In 2012 Berry-Hart was commissioned to create a verbatim theatre piece, "Someone To Blame"^[5][6] based on the real-life case of Sam Hallam,^[7] a teenager wrongfully convicted of murder and imprisoned for 7 years.^[8] In 2014, she was commissioned by the King's Head Theatre in London to write a play about the lives of LGBT Russians following the passing of the anti-gay laws in Russia ahead of the Winter Olympics.^[9][10] "Sochi 2014" was performed at the King's Head's new writing venue, The Hope Theatre London, in 2014, with similar benefit performances in New York and Los Angeles.^[11] An updated version of Sochi 2014 was produced and won an NSDF commendation award at the Edinburgh Festival, during August 2014.^[12]

Refugee Crisis

In September 2015, during the European migrant crisis, Tess Berry-Hart visited the Calais Jungle refugee camp in France.^[13] Upon her return she became aid and advocacy co-ordinator for Calais Action, a restricted fund under the auspices of Prism The Gift Fund, part of the UK Grassroots Aid movement, sending aid to Calais. Athens, and the islands of Samos, Chios, and Lesvos.

In 2016 she produced a gala weekend of new writing at the Southwark Playhouse featuring short pieces of refugee-related writing by Timberlake Wertenbaker, Anders Lustgarten, Barney Norris, Mediah Ahmed, and a collection of refugee poetry performed by Denise Gough and Russell Tovey. The event was compered by comedians Robin Ince and Adam Riches.^[14]

In July 2016 her play CARGO (inspired by her experiences encountering child refugees in Calais) set in a cargo container following unaccompanied minors travelling to Europe, was produced by the Arcola Theatre.^[15]

Tess has also spoken at the UNHCR and ALNAP from a volunteer perspective, and appeared as commentator on refugee issues on the BBC, ITV, and various documentaries^[16] and continues to campaign for the rights of refugees and the need for safe and legal routes to asylum.^[17]

References