It is widely accepted that most writers, most playwrights, write about bits of themselves. But few go so far as Tom Kempinski. For some years, Kempinski, who has died aged 85, was a self-confessed overweight, depressed agoraphobic who adopted survival mode through writing about his condition.
In his best known play, Duet for One (1980), he disguised an argument with himself in the six fractious meetings between a renowned concert violinist, Stephanie Abrahams, suddenly struck down with multiple sclerosis, and a German Jewish psychiatrist, Dr Feldman, hoping to convince her that life is still worth living.
