Julia Pascal

Who is Julia Pascal?

Julia Pascal is a British atheist Jewish playwright and theatre director.

Her stage plays include Theresa, based on the true story of a Jewish woman in Guernsey during the German occupation in the Second World War. This is the first in The Holocaust Trilogy. It is followed by A Dead Woman on Holiday, which is set in the Nuremberg Trials, followed by her adaptation of Anski's The Dybbuk. Her next volume contains The Yiddish Queen Lear and Woman In The Moon. The final volume includes Crossing Jerusalem, which is about the conflict in the Middle East, The Golem, a version of the Prague myth of the Golem for young audiences, St Joan a satire based on a Jewish Black Londoner who dreams she is Joan of Arc and Year Zero which reveals World War II stories from Vichy France. In 2007 her adaptation of The Merchant of Venice was staged at the Arcola Theatre and printed as The Shylock Play in 2009. All her plays are published by Oberon Books. Her autobiographical essay Prima Ballerina Assoluta is published in Virago's collection Truth, Dare or Promise.

She was a NESTA Dreamtime Fellow in 2006 and Writer in Residence at the Wiener Library in 2007 with a Leverhulme Grant. Her archive is held by the University of York where she was Writer in Residence in 2003. Pascal's television drama documentary for the BBC, Charlotte and Jane won BAFTA and Royal Television Society prizes. Her journalism has been published in The Guardian, The Independent, The Financial Times and The Times.