David Ives (1950) is an American playwright, famous for his short comedies. In addition to those translated into Time Flies, we mention the collection All in the Timing, winner of the Outer Critic Circle Playwrighting Award. Roman Polanski's 2013 film of the same name was based on his play Venus in Fur, inspired by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's erotic novel. The Columbus Dispatch has called him one of the funniest American playwrights.
In the mid-1990s, The New York Times included him in the list of “100 Smartest New Yorkers.” When the newspaper asked him to comment on his inclusion, Ives’ response began as follows: “Shopping lists. Lists for correct pronunciation. Lists for laundry. The very idea of lists carries something inherently narrow, petty, unpoetic. ‘List, list, O list!’ exclaimed the ghost of Hamlet’s father in exasperation, and I could not have agreed more.”
