Michael Cook (14 February 1933 – 2 July 1994) was an English-born Canadian professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland and playwright known for his plays set in Newfoundland.

Early life Cook was born in Fulham, London, England to Anglo-Irish parents. He attended boarding schools until age fifteen and joined the British Army in 1949.Lisa De Leon. Writers of Newfoundland and Labrador: Twentieth Century. Jesperson Press; 1 January 1985. . p. 267. He served for twelve years, mostly in Asia, including Japan. He married Muriel Horner in 1951 and had eight children. Between 1962 and 1966, he attended the University of Nottingham, earning teaching qualifications.Michael Cook entry at The Canadian Encyclopedia

Career After graduating in 1966, Cook left his family and moved to Newfoundland to work as a schoolteacher. In 1967, he began his career at Memorial University of Newfoundland, first as a drama specialist with the MUN Extension Service and later becoming an associate professor in the English department."Michael Cook". Heritage Newfoundland, www.heritage.nf.ca Soon after arriving in Newfoundland, he wrote scripts for several radio dramas which were produced in St. John's.Literary History of Canada: Canadian Literature in English, Volume IV (Second Edition). University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division; 15 December 1990. . p. 199–. He also reviewed plays and wrote articles about the importance of theatre in the St. John's Evening Telegram and the Canadian Theatrical Review.

In 1970, Cook formed the amateur theatre company The Open Group with Clyde Rose and Richard Buehler and began to write plays for this group. He wrote a number of plays set in Newfoundland, beginning with Tiln, written in 1971.María Jesús Hernáez Lerena. Pathways of Creativity in Contemporary Newfoundland and Labrador. Cambridge Scholars Publishing; 18 September 2015. . p. 193–. His best-known works are Jacob's Wake and The Head, Guts and Soundbone Dance, in which Newfoundland provides a sometimes realistic and sometimes symbolic backdrop for his poetic rendering of lives in continual conflict with natural elements.Craig Stewart Walker. The Buried Astrolabe: Canadian Dramatic Imagination and Western Tradition. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP; 2001. . p. 83–. Many of Cook's plays include dialogue written in Newfoundland English.Post-Colonial Drama: Theory, Practice, Politics. Routledge; 11 September 2002. . p. 179–.

In the mid-1970s, Cook began to spend time on Random Island and Fogo Island, marrying Madonna Decker in 1973.John Robert Colombo. Canadian Literary Landmarks. Dundurn; 1 January 1984. . p. 22–. In 1977, he was playwright-in-residence in the Banff Playwrights Lab at the Banff Centre for the Arts. From 1982, they lived in Stratford, Ontario, where he was playwright-in-residence in 1987. He would often spend his summers on Random Island.

In 1994, while making his way to his summer home on Random Island after visiting St. John's to see a staging of The Head, Guts and Soundbone Dance, Cook became ill and died back in St. John's.

His plays have been performed throughout North America, as well Poland, Sweden, Germany, Hungary, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Personal life Cook married three times, and fathered fourteen children, including actor Sebastian Spence by his second wife, Janis Spence, to whom he was married 1967–1973."Director, actor Janis Spence dead at 61". CBC News, Feb 07, 2008

Works

Stage plays The J. Alfred Prufrock Hour (performed 1968) Tiln (first broadcast 1971; performed 1972) Colour the Flesh the Colour of Dust (performed 1971; published by Simon and Pierre, 1974) The Head, Guts and Soundbone Dance (performed at Arts and Culture Centre, St. John's, 1973; published 1974) Jacob's Wake (performed at Arts and Culture Centre, St. John's, 1974; published by Talonbooks, 1975) Quiller (performed 1975) The Fisherman's Revenge (performed 1976; published by Playwrights Canada, 1985) Therese's Creed (performed at Centaur Theatre, Montreal, 1977). Title also variously spelled as "Terese" and "Theresa". Not as a Dream (performed at Dalhousie University, Halifax, 1976) On the Rim of the Curve (performed at Newfoundland Drama Festival, 1977) The Gayden Chronicles (performed 1978; published by Playwrights Canada, 1979) The Apocalypse Sonata (performed at Globe Theatre, Regina, 1980) The End of the Road (written 1981). Earlier drafts were titled All the Funny People Are Dead and The Deserts of Bohemia. The Great Harvest Excursion (written 1986; published 1994)

Compilations

Quiller / Tiln: Two One-Act Plays (Playwrights Co-op, 1975) Tiln & Other Plays (Talonbooks, 1976). Includes Tiln, Quiller and Therese's Creed. Three Plays (Breakwater Books, 1977). Includes The Head, Guts and Soundbone Dance; On the Rim of the Curve; and Therese's Creed.

Radio plays

No Man Can Serve Two Masters, first broadcast April 8, 1966 How to Catch a Pirate, first broadcast June 8, 1966 A Walk in the Rain, first broadcast January 18, 1967 Or the Wheel Broken, first broadcast June 18, 1967 A Time for Doors, first broadcast March 13, 1968 The Truck, first broadcast August 18, 1968 The Concubine, first broadcast February 16, 1969 To Inhabit the Earth Is Not Enough, first broadcast September 21, 1969 The Ballad of Patrick Docker, first broadcast November 25, 1970 Journey into the Unknown, 1970 There's a Seal in the Bottom of the Garden, first broadcast June 19, 1971 Love Is a Walnut, first broadcast August 20, 1972 Apostles for the Burning, first broadcast December 4, 1973 Travels with Aunt Jane, 12 episodes broadcast weekly starting July 10, 1974 starring Jane Mallett Knight of Sorrow, Lady of Darkness, first broadcast August 10, 1976 The Producer, the Director, 1976 Ireland's Eye, first broadcast April 19, 1977 The Gentleman Amateur, 1977 The Hunter, 1981 All a Pack o' Lies, 1981 The Terrible Journey of Frederick Dunglass, first broadcast January 22, 1982 The Preacher, first broadcast December 12, 1982 The Sweet Second Summer of Kitty Malone, first broadcast June 3, 1984 This Damned Inheritance, first broadcast November 11, 1984 The Bailiff and the Women, first broadcast November 16, 1984 The Ocean Ranger, first broadcast March 31, 1985 The Saddest Barn Dance Ever Held, first broadcast April 28, 1985 The Hanging Judge, first broadcast October 27, 1985 The Moribundian Memorandum, 1986

Other

In Search of Confederation, 1971, television play "The Island of Fire: Chapter One of a Novel in Progress". Aurora: New Canadian Writinq 1980. Ed. Morris Wolfe. Toronto: Doubleday, 1980, pp. 33–48.

Further reading Craig Walker, "Michael Cook: Elegy, Allegory and Eschatology," The Buried Astrolabe: Canadian Dramatic Imagination and Western Tradition. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001.

References