Comedy performer After working for a few years as a
stand-up comedian, primarily as part of a comedy double act with author
Guy Browning, Marber became a writer and cast member on the radio shows
On the Hour and
Knowing Me, Knowing You, and their television spinoffs
The Day Today and
Knowing Me, Knowing You... with Alan Partridge. Amongst other roles, Marber portrayed hapless reporter Peter O'Hanraha-hanrahan in both
On the Hour and
The Day Today, and was involved in a dispute with the comedians
Stewart Lee and Richard Herring, who had written for
On the Hour, about who had invented the character.
Lee and Herring's TV show
Fist of Fun would later make several references to their feud with Marber, calling him a "Cornish curmudgeon". In
Stewart Lee's 2010 book,
How I Escaped My Certain Fate, Marber is referred to as a "new Shakespeare". Marber reunited with the
Knowing Me, Knowing You team in 2003 to record
commentaries for the DVD release of the show. He also contributed some new in-character audio material to the DVD release of
The Day Today in 2004. He co-writes
Bunk Bed for BBC Radio 4, which he created with
Peter Curran. It was first broadcast during April 2014, with the fifth series broadcast in 2018, with special guest
Jane Horrocks.
Plays and direction Marber's first play was ''
Dealer's Choice, which he also directed. Set in a restaurant and based around a game of poker (and partly inspired by his own experiences with gambling addiction), it opened at the National Theatre in February 1995, and won the 1995 Evening Standard Theatre Award'' for Best Comedy.
After Miss Julie, a version of the
Strindberg play
Miss Julie, was broadcast on BBC television in the same year. In this, Marber moves the action to Britain in 1945, at the time of the
Labour Party's victory in the general election, with Miss Julie as the daughter of a Labour peer. A stage version, directed by
Michael Grandage, was first performed 2003 at the
Donmar Warehouse,
London by
Kelly Reilly,
Richard Coyle and
Helen Baxendale. It later had a production at the
American Airlines Theatre on
Broadway in 2009. His play
Closer, a comedy of sex, dishonesty, and betrayal, opened at the National Theatre in 1997, again directed by Marber. This too won the
Evening Standard award for Best Comedy, as well as the
Critics' Circle Theatre Awards and
Laurence Olivier awards for Best New Play. It has proved to be an international success, having been translated into thirty languages. A
film adaptation, written by Marber, was released in 2004, directed by
Mike Nichols and starring
Julia Roberts,
Jude Law,
Natalie Portman, and
Clive Owen. In
Howard Katz, his next play, Marber presented very different subject matter: a middle-aged man struggling with life, death and religion. This was first performed in 2001, again at the National Theatre, but was less favourably received by the critics and has been less of a commercial success than some of his other work. A new production by the
Roundabout Theatre Company opened
Off-Broadway in March 2007, with
Alfred Molina in the title role. A play for young people,
The Musicians, about a school orchestra's visit to Russia, was performed for the National Theatre's Shell Connections programme in 2004, its first production being at the
Sydney Opera House.
Don Juan in Soho, his contemporary rendering of Molière's comedy
Dom Juan, opened at the
Donmar Warehouse in 2006, directed by
Michael Grandage and with
Rhys Ifans in the lead role. He also co-wrote the screenplay for
Asylum (2005), directed by David Mackenzie, and was sole screenwriter for the film
Notes on a Scandal (2006), for which he was nominated for an
Oscar at the
79th Academy Awards. In June 2015, his play,
The Red Lion, opened at the National Theatre. In 2016 he directed a revival of
Tom Stoppard's play
Travesties at the
Menier Chocolate Factory in London which, after a sell-out run, transferred with the same cast to the Apollo Theatre in the West End. The revival was nominated for
five Olivier Awards and in spring 2018 it transferred to Broadway with Marber directing at the
American Airlines Theatre. Marber's theatre directing credits include
Blue Remembered Hills by
Dennis Potter, (National Theatre),
The Old Neighbourhood by
David Mamet, (
Royal Court Theatre, London) and
The Caretaker by
Harold Pinter, (Comedy Theatre, London). In 2004, Marber was Cameron Mackintosh Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Oxford University. He directed
Tom Stoppard's play
Leopoldstadt, set in the Jewish community of early 20th-century Vienna, which premiered at
Wyndham's Theatre in 2020. The play closed during the pandemic and re-opened on 7 August 2021 for a 12 week run, ending on 30 October 2021.
Leopoldstadt had its North American premiere at the
Longacre Theatre on
Broadway on 2 October 2022, with Marber directing, for which he won the
Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play. He directed
Alan Bennett's
Habeas Corpus from 3 December 2021 to 26 February 2022 at the
Menier Chocolate Factory; the run was also delayed because of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Other activities Marber was a director of
Lewes FC, driving forward a scheme for the club to be community owned from July 2010. ==Personal life==