Bernard Pomerance

Bernard Kline Pomerance was born on September 23, 1940, in Brooklyn, New York. He studied at the University of Chicago before relocating to London in 1968, where he would launch his theatrical career.

His early dramatic work began with High in Vietnam, Hot Damn, performed at the Interaction Theatre under the direction of Roland Rees. In 1972, he co-founded the Foco Novo theatre company with Rees and producer David Aukin, naming it after his own play, which also served as the company’s inaugural production.

Pomerance achieved international acclaim with The Elephant Man, a play he wrote for Foco Novo that premiered in 1977. After its successful London run, including performances at the National Theatre, it transferred to New York, opening off-Broadway in early 1979 before moving to Broadway. The production ran for 916 performances and earned him the Tony Award for Best Play in 1979.

Beyond The Elephant Man, Pomerance authored politically charged works such as Quantrill in Lawrence (1981) at ICA London and Melons (1984) at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He also published a collection of plays through Grove Press in 2001 and a long-form poem, We Need to Dream All This Again, with Penguin in 1988.

He was first married to British writer Sally Belfrage; they had two children—Eve and Moby—before divorcing. In 2008, he married Evelyne Franceschi, who passed away in 2015. Pomerance died on August 26, 2017, in Galisteo, New Mexico, after a long battle with cancer. He was 76.