Peter Shaffer

“During the years of the so-called New Drama in Britain, critics became used, almost to the point of being blasй, to dramatists making sensational debuts” (Taylor 313). These dramatists (or playwrights) included John Osborne, Harold Pinter, Arnold Wesker, John Arden, and Peter Shaffer.

Peter Levin and his twin brother Anthony were born to Jake Reka and Fredman Shaffer in Liverpool, England on May 15, 1926. Anthony is also a playwright, who’s play Sleuth (1970), has had more performances than all of his brother’s plays combined. Nevertheless, Anthony, who has pursued law, advertising, and television, has not yet embraced the stage as his chief vocation (Smith 452).

In 1936 the Shaffer’s all moved to London. This is where Peter attended St. Paul’s School till he graduated in 1944. From 1944 to 1947, Peter worked in the Chrislet coalmine, having been enlisted as one of the “Bevin Boys,” essential workers in service to the country, organized by Ernest Bevin, Churchill’s Minister of Labor during the