Stephen Sinclair is a popular successful playwright, and a screenwriter and poet. He was born in Auckland and educated at Westlake BHS and Auckland and Victoria universities (BA in Maori studies 1979). He worked as a researcher for the Maori studies department for two years, and subsequently as a translator of Maori manuscripts for National Archives. His plays are often concerned with the tensions of race and culture, as in LE MATOU (‘The Fishhook’; jointly written with Samson Samasoni, first performed 1984), the first play to dramatise the experience of Samoan immigrants to New Zealand. In CARAMEL CREAM (first performed in 1991) he explores the tensions between Maori and Pakeha racism and sexism. Other plays, such as THE HOUZIE SHOW, a community-based political show written with Simon Wilson (first performed 1981), and the musical BIG BICKIES (first performed 1988), are satirical attacks on aggressive capitalism. Many of his plays have been written in collaboration, most notably the huge box office success LADIES’ NIGHT and its sequel LADIES’ NIGHT 2: RAGING ON, both written with Anthony McCarten. A similar determination to flout political correctness lay behind THE SEX FIEND (written with Danny Mulheron, first performed 1989), and the violently bad taste comedy splatter movies MEET THE FEEBLES (1990) and BRAINDEAD (1992), both co-written with Fran Walsh and director Peter Jackson.
