Jo Clifford (formerly known as John Clifford) is an award-winning playwright, translator, poet, and performer, who has also worked as a journalist and academic. She was instrumental in establishing the reputation of the Traverse Theatre Company in the 1980s. Jo Clifford is the author of over 70 works in every dramatic medium. Her work has been translated into many languages and has been performed all over the world. Her plays include THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE; SEX, CHIPS AND THE HOLY GHOST; EVERYONE; AN APPLE A DAY; LOSING VENICE; PLAYING WITH FIRE; INES DE CASTRO; LIGHT IN THE VILLAGE; TCHAIKOVSKY & THE QUEEN OF SPADES; and CHARLES DICKENS: THE HAUNTED MAN. Also for the stage, Jo has adapted FAUST PARTS 1 & 2 and ANNA KARENINA, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, LA VIE DE BOHEME and WUTHERING HEIGHTS and has translated SCHISM IN ENGLAND, LIFE IS A DREAM, CELESTINA, THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA, and BINTOU. For radio, Jo has written SPAM FRITTERS, WRITING HOME TO MOTHER, MADELEINE, and AIN'T IT GREAT TO BE BLOOMIN' WELL DEAD and has adapted BALTASAR & BLIMUNDA. Jo's adaptation of Charles Dickens's GREAT EXPECTATIONS has toured the UK. She lives in Edinburgh and is a former Professor of Theatre at Queen Margaret University.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born August 28, 1749, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, philosopher, Goethe was a brilliant polymath and is generally considered Germany's greatest man of letters. His most famous works are the epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) and the two-part drama FAUST (1808 – 1832). He died in 1832.