Howard Barker, the son of Sydney Charles and Georgina Irene Carter Barker, was born in Dulwich, London. Between 1958 and 1964 he attended Battersea Grammar School, before going to Sussex University where he took an M.A. in history in 1968. Four years later he married Sandra Mary Law.

Cheek (1970), Barker's first play, was performed when he was twenty-four. The work is set in suburbia and is concerned with the gap between reality and the adolescent fantasies of its hero, Laurie. Clearly derivative, the play is reminiscent of not only the works of Edward Bond, Donald Howarth, Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall but also of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Times critic Michael Billington noted, "The play is as full of echoes as a whispering gallery," taking Barker to task also for sentimentality when Laurie switches from fiercely berating his dying father to cradling him in his arms. Laurie's adolescent sexuality, mother fixation, and...