Rodney Ackland was born in 1908 in Westcliffe-on-Sea, Essex and studied at London's Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art. He started his theatrical career as an actor in THE LOWER DEPTHS (1924). His career as a writer began when his play, IMPROPER PEOPLE, was produced at the Arts Theatre. A leading newspaper found it “nearly as boring as Chekhov ". In 1932, STRANGE ORCHESTRA was produced at St Martin’s Theatre, and with it came recognition. This was followed by an adaptation of Hugh Walpole’s: THE LADIES and AFTER OCTOBER at the Criterion Theatre in 1936. By then other dramatists were beginning to use a similar technique, and by the end of the war there were so many rival English Chekhov that Ackland retired from the struggle and wrote an adaptation from Dostoievsky. This was the memorable New Theatre production of CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, with Sir John Gielgud and Dame Edith Evans. As the basis of his next play, BEFORE THE PARTY, Ackland took a Maugham short story. This play prompted Alan Dent to write that Rodney Ackland’s dialogue was truer and wittier than that of any other living British playwright. He has been described as 'the English Chekhov', the only playwright of his generation to see how Chekhov's revolutionary dramatic technique might be joined to the robust native tradition of mixing tragedy with comedy.
