Amy's view

Playwright Amy Rosenthal’s work is wise beyond her years. Beatrix Clark had better not ask her about writer’s block, though

Above: ‘I’m never quite sure, from one day to the next, whether the creativity will be there’

When your parents are Maureen Lipman and Jack Rosenthal there’s a lot to live up to. There’s also a good chance you’ll follow in their footsteps and Amy Rosenthal has always known she’d be an actress or a writer.
‘They were the only two things I was any good at. With my genes I was never going to end up an astro-physicist,’ she says with her special brand of self-deprecating humour.
We’ve met in the café at the Hampstead Theatre and I quickly learn that as well as being funny, she’s friendly and forthcoming. She grew up in a ‘very happy household’ in Muswell Hill and was educated at Queen’s College, Harley Street. Three years studying drama at Manchester University convinced her she ‘wasn’t really cut out to be an actress’ and an MA in playwriting studies at Birmingham University followed.
‘It was a fantastic course run by a great playwright, David Edgar. I don’t know if I’d be writing without it.’
As part of her MA Amy wrote her first full-length play, Sitting Pretty, which she’s proud to tell me has been performed, to great acclaim, in London, New York and several of the UK’s regional theatres.
‘The main character is a woman who loses her job and becomes a model in a life-drawing class. It’s about someone coming late to life and feeling beautiful for the first time. Some people thought it unusual that at 25 I was writing about characters in their fifties but I identified with it – I don’t think your feelings change as you get older.’
Amy describes this, and her subsequent plays – she’s written five so far – as ‘slightly sad comedies’ – a genre she learned from her late father.
‘My dad taught me that comedy often stems from pain and anger and can be a powerful way to convey a serious message. I do want my plays to be funny. I wouldn’t want the audience to leave without having a laugh.’
Relationships are a key theme in her work and she admits that having her heart broken (she doesn’t go into details) has been a source of inspiration. It is the relationships between two couples – platonic as well as sexual – that dominate her latest play, On The Rocks, which will be performed at Hampstead Theatre for a month from 26 June.
‘I first had the idea to write about DH Lawrence, his German wife Frieda and their attempt at cohabiting with close friends Katherine Mansfield (whose stories I was obsessed with as a girl) and John Middleton Murry in Cornwall during the World War I 15 years ago,’ she says eagerly. ‘The way friendship works between two couples – how it often gets more and more intense then falls apart – is a theme I think many people can relate to.’
Amy is particularly excited about the play – her second for Hampstead Theatre – because it marks the end of a long and frustrating period of writers’ block.
‘It’s like coming out of the fog. Creativity was a normal part of everyday life growing up with two such successful parents. You think it will always be there but sometimes it isn’t,’ she tells me with refreshing honesty.
When writing proved difficult she returned to her old school to teach, which provided the diversion she needed.
‘My dad was ill at the time and I wanted to be able to tell him funny stories about my day. The kids were hilarious and gave me plenty of material.’
The boost that re-kindled her career was a chance meeting at a wedding with the arts editor of the Daily Telegraph, who, several glasses of wine later, offered Amy a job as a columnist.
‘I did it for eight months. It was a great discipline. That, and recording my father’s autobiography which I’d adapted for Radio 4, prompted me to return to writing full- time.’
She works in her flat in South End Green, an area she loves for its village atmosphere and proximity to Hampstead Heath. ‘The Heath has magical powers – you can’t walk there without feeling better.’ Single for the past 10 years – ‘I am that cliché, single woman with a cat” – Amy admits she’s pretty choosy about men and would like to settle down eventually with someone who’s involved in entertainment. ‘Saying that, I could fall in love with the postman. I won’t be doing any speed-dating – the thought terrifies me.’
Not for the first time I find myself smiling. When it comes to humour this woman is a natural. Her ambition, she tells me, is to be able to churn out work. ‘I’m never quite sure, from one day to the next, whether the creativity will be there. I’d like to discipline that.’
It’s a tough call, being a playwright and it seems Amy Rosenthal is definitely on the right track.

Five places Amy loves
Hampstead Heath
The Magdala Pub, South End Green
Polly’s Café, South End Green
Hampstead Theatre
Everyman Cinema

On The Rocks runs from 26 June to 26 July at Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, NW3 3EU; 020 7722 9301; www.hampsteadtheatre.com