Nicholas de Jongh

Nicholas de Jongh
Nicholas de Jongh with Evening Standard theatre critic Fiona Mountford, November 2010
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	British
Genre	Criticism

Nicholas de Jongh (born 2 March 1944) is a British theatre critic and playwright. He was born into a secular Jewish household. De Jongh served as the senior drama critic of the Evening Standard from 1991 to 2009. Prior to that, he worked for the Guardian newspaper for almost 20 years. At the Evening Standard, de Jongh established a reputation for his acerbic reviews; nonetheless he is regarded as a fixture of the London theatrical establishment.

In 2008, he successfully made the transition from critic to playwright when his play Plague Over England was staged at the Finborough Theatre in Earl's Court. Set in 1950s England, the play takes a look back at the arrest of the actor John Gielgud for homosexual soliciting at the height of his fame. Plague Over England was an instant hit and sold out for its run at the Finborough. In 2009, the play transferred to the West End.

Following the success of his first play, de Jongh then resigned from his post at the Evening Standard in order to pursue a full-time writing career.

He has also written two books: Not in Front of the Audience (1992), a study of the depiction of homosexuality in English drama, and Politics, Pruderies and Perversions (2000), a history of British theatrical censorship.