Actor, director and playwright Gary Abrahams left Johannesburg, South Africa, for Australia when he was 19. He enrolled in the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), Melbourne, in 1997. After graduating he moved to London, where he worked in theatre before returning to the VCA to enrol in a master's course in 2007. He also studied directing at the Lincolm Center in New York.
Abrahams created work for his company Dirty Pretty Theatre and was resident dramaturg for Red Stitch Theatre. His Acts of Deceit (Between Strangers in a Room), an adaptation of American writer James Baldwin's novel Giovanni's Room (1956), was first produced in London, and in Australia by Dirty Pretty Theatre at La Mama Courthouse Theatre, 21 January - 7 February, 2010. Abrahams also adapted stories by New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield for the stage.
Source: Robin Usher, 'Stage-Struck in a Strange Land', The Age (26 January 2010): 15
