Poliakoff, Stephen (1952-…), is a British dramatist and film director. His best-known plays explore the ills he sees in modern British life. He has especially attacked what he feels is the emptiness of modern society. Poliakoff won critical acclaim in his early twenties for two plays with linked themes. Hitting Town (1975) and City Sugar (1976) both focus on the plight of alienated young people in a suburban setting of concrete shopping malls and cynical consumerism. Hitting Town and City Sugar were followed by other plays with an undercurrent of violence that disturbed the well-ordered society of middle and upper class England—Strawberry Fields (1977) and Shout Across the River (1978).
In the 1980’s, Poliakoff chose an Eastern European setting for his play Breaking the Silence (1984), about the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Coming into Land (1987) tells the story of a Polish refugee who seeks to enter the United Kingdom. His other plays include Siena Red (1992), Sweet Panic (1996), and Remember This (1999).
Poliakoff was born in London on Dec. 1, 1952. He was educated at Cambridge University. Poliakoff has also written for television and wrote and directed the motion pictures Hidden City (1987), Close My Eyes (1991), and Century (1994).
