Julia Britton

Her other screenplays include adaptations of Henry Handel Richardson's Maurice Guest and Ann Bridge's Peking Picnic. The staged rehearsed reading of 'Maurice Guest', directed by Jackson Raine and produced by Chuter was presented at Chapel Off Chapel in January 2013.

Julia Britton was born Hilda Hartt in Romiley, Cheshire in 1914, the daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Hartt . She attended Withington Girls' School and later, the University of Manchester graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1930. She moved to South Africa six years later, where she worked as a journalist. It was during these years that she began to experiment with writing for the theatre, beginning with her un-produced play The Jacky Hangman. In 1939 she married musician/composer Philip Britton in Cape Town before they emigrated to Adelaide, South Australia with their three children in 1967 when he was appointed to the Elder Conservatorium, University of Adelaide, as the Lecturer in Music Education. She died in Adelaide on 5 November 2012.

In 2009 her stage play and original screenplay The Dream Children was adapted by Angus Brown. The feature film The Dream Children was produced by Fat Kid Films and is set for 2014 theatrical release. Britton served as the executive producer on the picture.

In 1995 they made national headlines with their notorious adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, produced as a site-specific adaption by Peter Holmes à Court (Back Row Productions), Foster Gracie and EHW Productions. The play became a succès de scandal thanks to its daring frankness and faithfulness to the source novels and was so popular that it received seven seasons across Australia in Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and eventually in Perth, where it was met with opposition when the Christian Democrats attempted to have the production closed down.

Britton collaborated with daughter, musician, Louise Woodcock, who initiated and directed Music of Milhaud (1995), Faith, Folk & Fun: A Music Theatre-Patchwork (1997), Lord Byron: Child of Scotland (1998) and Robert Burns: Lov'd at Home, Rever'd Abroad (1998).

In 1991 she was commissioned to write Loving Friends which was produced site-specific at the National Trust of Australia property Rippon Lea in Elsternwick, Melbourne. The play, that was based on the life of arts patron Lady Ottoline and the Bloomsbury set, was a sell out success and followed with a revival the following year. The sequel to Loving Friends was An Indian Summer, which proved equally as popular.

Through friend actor/director Malcolm Robertson, Britton was introduced to director Robert Chuter in 1988, with whom she would later form a long-lasting partnership.

In 1984 she was appointed Playwright-in-Residence at the Stage Company in Adelaide, where her acclaimed play, Miles Franklin and the Rainbow's End, was developed and produced at The Space. The play was a critical and commercial success and was later invited for a season at the San Antonio Festival in Texas. It was produced again in Melbourne at the Playbox Theatre and subsequently as part of "A Short Season of Women Writers at La Mama" (1992). It was again revived at Theatreworks by Fly-On-The-Wall Theatre in 2000 and transferred to Perth's The Blue Room as part of the inaugural WA Fringe Festival.

Julia Britton (27 June 1914 - 5 November 2012) was an Australian playwright. Britton was perhaps best known for her literary adaptations and biographical plays.