Andrea Dunbar

{{Short description|English playwright (1961–1990)}} {{Redirect|The Arbor||Arbor (disambiguation){{!}}Arbor}} {{Use British English|date=October 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}} {{Infobox writer  | name = Andrea Dunbar | image = Andrea_Dunbar_playwright.jpg | caption = | birth_date = 22 May 1961 | birth_place = Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1990|12|20|1961|05|22}} | death_place = Bradford, West Yorkshire, England | occupation = Playwright | movement = Realism | education = Buttershaw Comprehensive School }} '''Andrea Dunbar''' (22 May 1961 – 20 December 1990) was an English playwright. She wrote ''The Arbor'' (1980) and ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'' (1982), an autobiographical drama about the sexual adventures of teenage girls living in a run-down part of Bradford, West Yorkshire. She wrote most of the adaptation for the film ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'' (1987).<ref>{{cite news |last=Youngs |first=Ian |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-48348751 |title=The teenage Bradford 'genius' who told it like it was |work=BBC News |date=28 May 2019 |access-date=28 May 2019}}</ref>

{{external media | float = | width = | topic =  | caption =  | headerimage=  | title = Media | image1 = [https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/resources/images/11950368.jpg from ''Telegraph & Argus '', color]<ref name="telegraph-argus/18817850">{{cite news |title=Andrea Dunbar's legacy |url=https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/18817850.andrea-dunbar-remembered-30-years-death/ |access-date=19 July 2024 |work=Bradford Telegraph and Argus |date=24 October 2020 |language=en}}</ref> | image2 = [https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/resources/images/9551933.jpg from ''Telegraph & Argus '', monochrome]<ref name="telegraph-argus/dunbar-pub"/> | image3 =[https://www.unitedagents.co.uk/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/andrea-dunbar-cdon-mcphee_0.jpg Dunbar, on the Buttershaw public housing estate, in the early 1980]<ref name="theguardian/Bradford-Dunbar">{{cite news |last1=Hickling |first1=Alfred |title=Back to Bradford: Andrea Dunbar remembered on film |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/apr/12/theatre |access-date=19 July 2024 |work=The Guardian |date=12 April 2010}}</ref> | image4 =[https://images.thefacecdn.com/images/Andrea-Dunbar.jpg?auto=compress&q=25&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.4337&fp-y=0.4023&w=2360&h=2950 Andrea Dunbar, facial scars from going through a glass window]<ref name="theface/andrea-dunbar">{{cite news |title=Andrea Dunbar lives on through a contemporary adaptation |url=https://theface.com/culture/andrea-dunbar |access-date=19 July 2024 |work=The Face |date=18 June 2019 |language=en-gb}}</ref> | image5 = | image6 = | image7 = | image8 = | video1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__NGvqo9vKQ Lisa Holdsworth: bringing Andrea Dunbar's story back to Bradford] ''British Theatre Guide'' via YouTube }}

==Early life== Born on 22 May 1961,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.unitedagents.co.uk/andrea-dunbar-estate|title=Andrea Dunbar (Estate)|publisher=United Agents|access-date=6 February 2024}}</ref> Dunbar was raised on Brafferton Arbor on the Buttershaw council estate in Bradford, England,<ref name = "telegraph">{{cite web |url= http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/4582531.Life_of_playwright_will_hit_big_screen/ |title=Friends to star in Dunbar's years on Bradford's Buttershaw Estate |last=Clayton |first=Emma |date=4 September 2009 |access-date=18 May 2011 |work=The Bradford Telegraph & Argus}}</ref> with seven brothers and sisters. Both her parents had worked in the textile industry.<ref>{{cite news |last=Bunting |first=Madeleine |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/17/social-deprivation-in-britain-andrea-dunbar-arbor |title=Social deprivation in Britain: how a writer's life turned to tragedy |work=The Guardian |date=18 October 2010 |access-date=28 May 2019}}</ref> Dunbar attended Buttershaw Comprehensive School.

<blockquote>"When 15-year-old Andrea Dunbar failed to bring in the ingredients for a domestic science lesson, her punishment was to spend her lunchtime writing the words ‘Why I Don’t Like Cookery’. What Andrea wrote instead was a witty essay on how baking buns was a middle-class pursuit and joints of meat were more practical for big families on Buttershaw estate. 'When the essay was passed around the staffroom, to howls of laughter, head of drama Tony Priestley was astonished at what he saw,' wrote Adelle Stripe in her acclaimed novel ''Black Teeth And A Brilliant Smile''. 'It was obvious to him that she had a gift for saying the right thing. And she was funny. He asked if she’d like to join his class. What happened over coming months would change Andrea’s life forever.'"<ref name="telegraph-argus/dunbar-pub">{{cite news |last1=Clayton |first1=Emma |title=New drama "brings Andrea's legacy home" |url=https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/17629358.play-andrea-dunbars-life-performed-bradford-pub/ |access-date=19 July 2024 |work=Bradford Telegraph and Argus |date=12 May 2019 |language=en}}</ref></blockquote>

==Career== Dunbar began her first play, ''The Arbor'', in 1977 at the age of 15,<ref name="guardian-hickling">{{cite web |first1=Alfred |last1=Hickling |title=Back to Bradford: Andrea Dunbar remembered on film |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/apr/12/theatre |work=The Guardian |date=12 April 2010 |access-date=13 November 2018}}</ref> writing it as a classroom assignment for CSE English, "in green biro on pages torn from a school exercise book".<ref name="bbc/48348751">{{cite news |title=Andrea Dunbar: The teenage Bradford 'genius' who told it like it was |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-48348751 |access-date=19 July 2024 |work=BBC News |date=28 May 2019}}</ref> It is the story of "a Bradford schoolgirl who falls pregnant to her Pakistani boyfriend on a racist estate," and has an abusive drunken father.<ref name="guardian-hickling"/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Gardner |first1=Lyn |title=Theatre review: The Arbor |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2001/jun/07/artsfeatures |work=The Guardian|date=6 June 2001 |access-date=14 November 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Gilbey |first=Ryan |title=The Arbor (15) |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/film/2010/10/lorraine-dunbar-arbor-life |work=New Statesman |date=21 October 2010 |access-date=14 November 2018}}</ref> Encouraged by her teacher, she was helped to develop the play to performance standard.<ref>[http://www.ipv.pt/forumedia/5/11.htm Katherine Anne Limmer, "Investigating the Authority of the Literary Text in Critical Debate".] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061031235634/http://www.ipv.pt/forumedia/5/11.htm |date=31 October 2006 }}</ref> It received its première in 1980 at London's Royal Court Theatre, directed by Max Stafford-Clark.<ref name="guardian-hickling"/> At the age of 18, Dunbar was the youngest playwright to have her work performed there.<ref>{{cite news |title=Dying daughter calls for memorial to mum |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-41608470 |work=BBC News |date=16 October 2017 |access-date=14 November 2018}}</ref> Alongside a play entered by Lucy Anderson Jones, ''The Arbor'' jointly won at the Young Writers' Festival, and was later augmented and performed in New York City.<ref>{{cite news |last=Rich |first=Frank |title=Theater: 'The Arbor,' From Britain |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/21/theater/theater-the-arbor-from-britain.html |work=The New York Times |date=21 September 1983 |access-date=14 November 2018}}</ref> On 26 March 1980, she was featured in the BBC's ''Arena'' arts documentary series.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BBC Four - Arena, Andrea Dunbar and Victoria Wood |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0028x01 |access-date=2025-07-28 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}</ref>

Dunbar was quickly commissioned to write a follow-up play, ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'', first performed in 1982, with Tracey Ullman.<ref name="lennyletter/andrea-dunbar">{{cite web |author1=Grillo |title=Out of Print: Andrea Dunbar |url=https://www.lennyletter.com/story/out-of-print-andrea-dunbar |website=Lenny Letter |access-date=21 July 2024 |date=30 March 2018 |quote=Lena Dunham is very sad she wasn’t at the Royal Court in 1980.}}</ref> This explores similar themes to ''The Arbor'' through the lives of two teenage girls who are having affairs with the same married man. Dunbar's third and final play, ''Shirley'' (1986), places greater emphasis on a central character.<ref>Susan Carlson, ''Process and Product: Contemporary British Theatre and its Communities of Women'', Theatre Research International (1988), 13: pp 249–263.</ref> It depicts a girl's "tumultuous relationship" with her mother. As she explained, she meant to write "about Shirley and John but, you know, I wrote the mother in and she bloody took over the whole play."<ref>Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy: ''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present Day'' (London: Batsford, 1990), p. 315.</ref>

The film version of ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'' (1987) was adapted for the cinema by Dunbar, directed by Alan Clarke and filmed on the Buttershaw estate. Dunbar disowned the film when more writers were brought in to give it a happier ending.<ref name="guardian-hickling"/> However, it created considerable controversy on the estate because of its negative portrayal of the area.<ref name="guardian-hickling"/> Dunbar was threatened by several residents, but nevertheless continued to live there.<ref name="guardian-hickling"/>

In 2010 a commemorative blue plaque on Dunbar's former home on Brafferton Arbor was unveiled in the presence of her relatives.<ref>{{cite news |first=Marc |last=Meneaud |title=Film and plaque are tributes to playwright Andrea |work=Telegraph & Argus |date=17 October 2010 |url=https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/8457880.film-and-plaque-are-tributes-to-playwright-andrea/ |access-date=29 May 2021}}</ref>

==Personal life== [[File:Cap and Bells - Cooper Lane - geograph.org.uk - 725716.jpg|thumb|''Cap and Bells'' pub, Cooper Lane, Buttershaw, March 2008. It was demolished in 2013.<ref name="T-A/10446036">{{cite news |title=New care home in Buttershaw will create 20 jobs |url=https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/10446036.new-care-home-in-buttershaw-will-create-20-jobs/ |access-date=19 July 2024 |work=Bradford Telegraph and Argus |date=28 May 2013 |language=en}}</ref>]] [[File:The Beacon - Reevy Road West (geograph 2833630).jpg|thumb|''The Beacon'' pub, Reevy Road West, Buttershaw, March 2012<ref name="flickr/3462605720">{{cite web |author1=James W Bell (Good Honest Iago) - Leeds |title=Buttershaw Babes (Beacon Pub) Bradford |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesw-bell/3462605720 |website=flickr |access-date=19 July 2024 |date=20 April 2009}}</ref><ref name="youtube/k_omKlJM1Js">{{cite web |title=documentary spoof of the Beacon Pub, Buttershaw, Bradford area by resident teenagers |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_omKlJM1Js |via=YouTube |access-date=19 July 2024}}</ref><ref name="thisisbradford/174311">{{cite news |title=No hard feelings, Andrea |url=https://archive.thisisbradford.co.uk/1998/6/15/174311.html |access-date=19 July 2024 |work=Telegraph & Argus |publisher=Newsquest Media Group |date=15 June 1998 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071009075854/https://archive.thisisbradford.co.uk/1998/6/15/174311.html |archive-date=9 October 2007}}</ref>]]

Dunbar first became pregnant at the age of 15; the baby was stillborn at six months.<ref name="artangel">Gardner, Lyn (4 July 1998), [https://www.artangel.org.uk/the-arbor/born-to-write-and-die/ "Born to Write and Die"]. ''The Guardian''; via artangel.org.uk.</ref> She later had three children by three different fathers. The first, Lorraine Dunbar, was born in 1979, and had a Pakistani father.<ref>{{cite news |last=Johnston |first=Sheila |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/starsandstories/8066286/The-Arbor-examining-Andrea-Dunbars-legacy.html |title=The Arbor: examining Andrea Dunbar's legacy |journal=Daily Telegraph |date=18 October 2010 |access-date=18 April 2020 |issn=0307-1235}}</ref> A year later, in 1980, Lisa was born, again while Dunbar was still a teenager.<ref name="bbcfootsteps">Allen, Liam (22 October 2010), [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11581747 "The Arbor: In the footsteps of Rita, Sue and Bob"]. ''BBC News''.</ref> About three years later, she had a son, Andrew, with Jim Wheeler.<ref name="artangel" /><ref name="Northern Life interview">{{cite web |url=http://northernlifemagazine.co.uk/rita-sue-and-bob-too-30-years-on-andrea-dunbar/|website=Northern Life |title=Rita, Sue and Bob Too: 30 years on, we talk to Lisa Pearce, daughter of the acclaimed playwright Andrea Dunbar/ |last=Davis |first=Mark |date=17 August 2017 |access-date=18 April 2020}}</ref>

As a single mother, Dunbar, spent 18 months in a refuge for battered women,<ref name="guardian1"/> living in a Women's Aid refuge in Keighley and became an increasingly heavy drinker.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stripe |first=Adelle |title=Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile |publisher=Fleet |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-7088-9895-6 |location=London, United Kingdom |pages=76–96|oclc=1023843825}}</ref>

<blockquote>"One day she was sat on a bar stool in the ''Cap n' Bells''<ref name="flickr/3461207396">{{cite web |author1=jamesw-bell |title=Cap & Bells Pub - Buttershaw Estate, Bradford |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesw-bell/3461207396 |website=flickr |access-date=19 July 2024 |date=20 April 2009}}</ref><ref name="camra/125982">{{cite web |title=Cap & Bells, Bradford |url=https://www1.camra.org.uk/pubs/cap-bells-bradford-125982 |website=Campaign for Real Ale |access-date=19 July 2024 |language=en}}</ref> pub when someone she knew dragged her off the stool by her hair and threw her to the floor and then walked out."<ref name="johnhalley/Dunbar">{{cite web |last1=Halley |first1=John |title=Andrea Dunbar's home, Buttershaw (22nd May 1961 to 20th December 1990) |url=https://www.johnhalley.uk/BP%20-%20Andrea%20Dunbar.htm |website=johnhalley.uk |access-date=19 July 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230602044508/https://www.johnhalley.uk/BP%20-%20Andrea%20Dunbar.htm |archive-date=2 June 2023}}</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>"Having complained of headaches for weeks, she collapsed in her local pub and could not be revived."<ref name="anothergaze/rewriting-dunbar">{{cite web |last1=Coatman |first1=Anna |title="My View Not Their View": The Rewriting of Andrea Dunbar's Story |url=https://www.anothergaze.com/view-not-view-rewriting-andrea-dunbars-story-sexism-classism/ |website=Another Gaze: A Feminist Film Journal |access-date=19 July 2024 |date=29 August 2018}}</ref></blockquote>

In 1990, she died of a brain haemorrhage in Bradford Royal Infirmary at the age of 29, after falling ill in ''The Beacon'',<ref name="youtube/i9amFcVcvGw">{{cite web |last1=Halley |first1=John |title=The Beacon pub, Rita Sue and Bob Too |date=5 June 2022 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9amFcVcvGw |via=YouTube |access-date=19 July 2024}}</ref> a pub on the Buttershaw Estate, at the junction of Reevy Road West and The Crescent. It was closed in 2016 and demolished in 2019,<ref name="T-A/17492155">{{cite news |title=Demolition plan for pub made famous by Bradford playwright |url=https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/17492155.demolition-plan-beacon-hotel---pub-made-famous-bradford-playwright-andrea-dunbar/ |access-date=19 July 2024 |work=Bradford Telegraph and Argus |date=11 March 2019 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="T-A/20601040">{{cite news |title=New plan for site once home to the iconic Rita, Sue and Bob Too pub |url=https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/20601040.new-plan-empty-site-home-beacon-pub/ |access-date=19 July 2024 |work=Bradford Telegraph and Argus |date=6 August 2022 |language=en}}</ref> but appears in the opening shot of ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too''. Her cremated remains were buried at Scholemoor Cemetery and Crematorium (Section N, Grave 1219) in Bradford. Her headstone is a small black granite cross.<ref name="Northern Life interview" />

In 2007, her eldest daughter Lorraine Dunbar, a heroin addict at the time, was convicted of manslaughter and jailed for three years, for causing the death of her child by gross neglect after the child ingested a lethal dose of methadone.<ref name ="indie">[http://www.indiewire.com/article/tribeca_10_clio_barnards_the_arbor_defies_categorization/ "Tribeca '10 |Clio Barnard's 'The Arbor' Defies Categorization"], ''Indiewire'', 15 April 2010,</ref><ref name="guardian1">{{cite news|first=Martin |last=Wainwright|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/nov/24/theatrenews.theatre |title=Playwright's darkest visions return to consume her family|newspaper=The Guardian|date=24 November 2007}}</ref><ref name="T-A/death-learnt-harris">{{cite news |title='Lessons to be learnt over death of Harris' |url=https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/3641257.lessons-to-be-learnt-over-death-of-harris/ |access-date=19 July 2024 |work=Bradford Telegraph and Argus |date=2 September 2008 |language=en}}</ref>

In January 2018, her daughter Lisa Pearce<ref name="NLM/Lisa Pearce">{{cite news |last1=Davis |first1=Mark |title=Rita, Sue and Bob Too: we talk to the daughter of Andrea Dunbar |url=https://northernlifemagazine.co.uk/rita-sue-and-bob-too-30-years-on-andrea-dunbar/ |access-date=19 July 2024 |work=Northern Life Magazine |date=17 August 2017}}</ref> died of stomach cancer after having been diagnosed in December 2016.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/15810911.andrea-dunbars-daughter-lisa-pearce-dies/ |title=Andrea Dunbar's 'force of nature' daughter dies |first=Emma |last=Clayton |website=Bradford Telegraph and Argus |date=5 January 2018 |access-date=18 April 2020}}</ref>

<blockquote>"I grew up in Bradford in the 1980s, not much younger than Rita and Sue when the film came out and with pretty much the same dress sense. The three settings - manicured suburbia, the all-white Buttershaw estate, and the Victorian backstreets populated by Pakistani families - are familiar. (Bob’s street is very familiar: my schoolfriend Lucy lived on it, and if you look in the background of the scene where Fat Fucking Mavis pulls up in her Austin Metro, you can see her on her bike. God, I was jealous). I’ve watched it more times than I can count." — Anita Singh, The Telegraph<ref name="telegraph/thatchers-knickers">{{cite news |last1=Singh |first1=Anita |title='Thatcher's Britain with her knickers down': why the snobs were wrong about Rita, Sue and Bob Too |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/thatchers-britain-knickers-snobs-wrong-rita-sue-bob/ |access-date=19 July 2024 |work=The Telegraph |date=19 May 2017}}</ref></blockquote>

==Depictions== In 2000, Dunbar's life and her surroundings were revisited in the play ''A State Affair'' by Robin Soans.<ref>{{cite news|access-date=2 October 2022|title=Theatre: Rita, Sue.../A State Affair|first=Lyn|last=Gardner|url=http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2000/oct/26/theatre.artsfeatures1|date=25 October 2000|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|access-date=2 October 2022|title=Rita, Sue and Bob Too & A State Affair|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/rita-sue-and-bob-too-a-state-affair-7434806.html|date=10 April 2012|website=Evening Standard}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first1=Matt|last1=Wolf|access-date=2 October 2022|title=Rita, Sue and Bob Too/A State Affair|url=https://variety.com/2001/legit/reviews/rita-sue-and-bob-too-a-state-affair-1200466463/|date=8 January 2001|website=Variety}}</ref>

A film about her life, ''The Arbor'', directed by Clio Barnard, was released in 2010.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/andrea-dunbar-a-genius-from-the-slums-2105874.html|title=Andrea Dunbar: A genius from the slums|first=Jonathan|last=Romney|newspaper=The Independent|date=17 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101018172635/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/andrea-dunbar-a-genius-from-the-slums-2105874.html |archive-date=18 October 2010}}</ref><ref name="nytimes/arbor-biopic"/> The film uses actors lip-synching to interviews with Dunbar and her family, and concentrates on the strained relationship between Dunbar and her daughter Lorraine.<ref name="guardian-hickling"/><ref name = "telegraph"/><ref name="nytimes/arbor-revisits">{{cite news |last1=Lim |first1=Dennis |title=Lip-Syncing the Realities of a Tragic Life |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/24/movies/the-arbor-revisits-the-troubled-life-of-andrea-dunbar.html |access-date=19 July 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=22 April 2011}}</ref><ref name="nytimes/arbor-biopic">{{cite news|first1=Jeannette|last1=Catsoulis|access-date=30 September 2022|title=A Playwright's Legacy, Kindled by Addiction and Neglect|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/27/movies/the-arbor-a-biopic-of-andrea-dunbar-review.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=26 April 2011|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

A novel inspired by Dunbar's life and work, ''Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile'' by Adelle Stripe, was published in 2017 by Wrecking Ball Press.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-39973767 |title=Rita, Sue and Bob Too: A snapshot of 1980s Britain |date=29 May 2017 |work=BBC News |access-date=23 June 2017}}</ref> It was shortlisted for the Portico Prize for Literature and the Gordon Burn Prize.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thebookseller.com/news/denise-mina-makes-gordon-burn-prize-shortlist-595326|title=Denise Mina makes Gordon Burn Prize shortlist {{!}} The Bookseller |website=thebookseller.com|first=Lisa|last=Campbell|date=21 July 2017 |access-date=21 July 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Sethi |first=Anita |author-link=Anita Sethi |date=12 January 2020 |title=Northern writers on why a north-specific prize is more important than ever |work=The Observer |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/12/north-south-divide-portico-prize-2020-shortlist-interviews-myers-adelle-stripe-caveney-jessica-andre |access-date=29 June 2020 |issn=0029-7712}}</ref> A second edition came from Fleet Publishing in the same year.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/fleet-acquires-andrea-dunbar-inspired-kitchen-sink-noir-631081 |title=Andrea Dunbar-inspired debut novel to Fleet |website=bookseller.com |date=4 September 2017|first=Katherine|last=Cowdrey|access-date=10 September 2017}}</ref> In 2019, a stage adaptation by Freedom Studios and screenwriter Lisa Holdsworth was announced in ''The Guardian''. Dramatisation of Stripe's novel focused on women's relationships, with a cast of five sharing the roles. It portrayed a teenage Dunbar rising to national note with her autobiographical works ''The Arbor'' and ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'', and the challenges of life on the Buttershaw estate in Bradford.<ref>{{cite news |last=Wiegand |first=Chris |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/dec/10/andrea-dunbar-playwright-life-story-bradford-rita-sue-bob-too |title=Andrea Dunbar's life story to be staged in Bradford pub |date=10 December 2018 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=7 January 2019 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/andrea-dunbar-life-the-arbor-rita-sue-bob-black-teeth-brilliant-smile-a8945401.html|title=Andrea Dunbar: The short, troubled life of the prodigal Bradford playwright|first=Alexandra|last=Pollard|newspaper=The Independent|date=6 June 2019}}</ref>

A 2019, Woolyback<ref name="woolyback/about">{{cite web |title=About |url=https://www.woolybackproductions.com/about/ |website=Woolyback Productions |access-date=19 July 2024}}</ref> production for BBC Radio 4 written and directed by Sean Grundy – ''Rita, Sue and Andrea Too'' – dramatized the life and career of Dunbar, played by Natalie Gavin.<ref>{{cite press release |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2019/23/rita-sue-and-andrea-too |title=Rita Sue and Andrea too |website=bbc.co.uk/mediacentre |date=7 June 2019|access-date=13 July 2021}}</ref>

In April 2024, Bristol-based artist ''Stewy'' created a spray-painted stencil artwork of Andrea Dunbar, on the side of ''The Queen'' pub, on Bridge Street, in Bradford.<ref name="bbc/cx9wvx77rvjo">{{cite news |title=Andrea Dunbar: Mural to Bradford playwright appears in city |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx9wvx77rvjo |access-date=19 July 2024 |work=BBC News |date=25 April 2024}}</ref>

==Works== *''The Arbor'' (1977) *''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'' (1982) *''Shirley'' (1986) * {{cite book |last1=Dunbar |first1=Andrea |last2=Soans |first2=Robin |author1-link=Andrea Dunbar |author2-link=Robin Soans |title=Rita, Sue and Bob Too; A State Affair |date=2000 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-0-413-75700-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oUcgAQAAIAAJ  |language=en}}

==Further reading== *{{cite journal |last1=Limmer |first1=Katy (Katherine Anne) |title=Stage Play versus Screenplay: a challenge to the critique, by John Hill, of the film, 'Rita, Sue and Bob Too' (Investigating the Authority of the Text in Critical Debate)|journal=Forum Media - revista do curso de comunicação social da esev |date=November 2003 |issue=5 |url=http://www.ipv.pt/forumedia/5/11.htm  |publisher=Polytechnic Institute of Viseu |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200306100546/http://www.ipv.pt/forumedia/5/11.htm |archivedate=6 March 2020  |quote=Yeovil College}} *{{cite journal |last1=Peirse |first1=Alison |title=Speaking for herself: Andrea Dunbar and Bradford on film |journal=Journal for Cultural Research |date=2 January 2016 |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=60–72 |doi=10.1080/14797585.2015.1134060 |url=https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/127531/8/SpeakingforHerselfRevisedArticleSubmissionAlisonPeirse090915.pdf |access-date=19 July 2024}} *{{cite web |last1=Coatman |first1=Anna |title="My View Not Their View": The Rewriting of Andrea Dunbar's Story |url=https://www.anothergaze.com/view-not-view-rewriting-andrea-dunbars-story-sexism-classism/ |website=Another Gaze: A Feminist Film Journal  |date=29 August 2018}} *{{cite journal |last1=Johnson |first1=Beth |title=Art Cinema and The Arbor : Tape-recorded Testimony, Film Art and Feminism |journal=Journal of British Cinema and Television |date=April 2016 |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=278–291 |doi=10.3366/jbctv.2016.0313 |url=https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/94320/3/Art_Cinema_and_The_Arbor_FINAL_Jan_2016.pdf |access-date=19 July 2024 |issn=1755-1714}} *{{cite journal |last1=Mello |first1=Cecília |title=Art and Reality in The Arbor (2010) |journal=Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies |date=1 September 2016 |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=115–128 |doi=10.1515/ausfm-2016-0006 |url=https://acta.sapientia.ro/content/docs/art-and-reality-in-the-arbor-2010-.pdf|doi-access=free }} *{{cite journal |last1=Hill |first1=John |title=Working-Class Precarity and the Social-Realist Tradition in British Cinema |journal=Precarity in European Film |date=23 May 2022 |pages=325–346 |doi=10.1515/9783110707816-018 |isbn=978-3-11-070781-6 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360837853 |access-date=19 July 2024|doi-access=free }} * {{cite book |last1=Mulvey |first1=Laura |author1-link=Laura Mulvey |title=Afterimages: On Cinema, Women and Changing Times |date=2019 |publisher=Reaktion Books |location=London |isbn=978-1-78914-122-1 |page=155 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Qy1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA155 |chapter=Clio Barnard, The Arbor |oclc =1085221493}} *{{cite web |author1=Grillo |title=Out of Print: Andrea Dunbar |url=https://www.lennyletter.com/story/out-of-print-andrea-dunbar |website=Lenny Letter |date=30 March 2018}}

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

==External links== *{{IMDb name|0241816|Andrea Dunbar}} *[https://www.theguardian.com/stage/andrea-dunbar Andrea Dunbar] at theguardian.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunbar, Andrea}} Category:1961 births Category:1990 deaths Category:20th-century English dramatists and playwrights Category:English women dramatists and playwrights Category:Writers from Bradford

Andrea Dunbar

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