Peter Zadek dies
July 30, 2009
Zadek's death "is a great loss to the international theater world and the cultural life of his home city of Berlin," Klaus Wowereit, Berlin's mayor, said upon learning of the director's death.
Born to a Jewish family in the German capital in 1926, Zadek is widely regarded as one of the most significant directors in German-speaking theater.
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, his family fled to England, where he was raised. Zadek studied theater at the Old Vic Theater in London and first received public attention as a director there with a 1957 production of Jean Genet's "Der Balkon."
A year later, Zadek returned to Germany, where he first worked at theaters in Bremen, Bochum and Ulm. He quickly made a name for himself as a non-conventionalist and improviser, unafraid of challenging spectators with scenes of pain, nude actors or unusual castings.
Over the past half a century, Zadek has held posts at prestigious European theaters like the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg (1985-1989) and the Berliner Ensemble in Berlin (1992-1994) and also worked at Vienna's Burgtheater.
Shakespeare in Germany
He is particularly well known for his German-language interpretations of William Shakespeare's plays and for sparking a greater interest in English drama among German audiences.
In 1999 in Vienna, he directed Shakespeare's "Hamlet" with a woman, German actress Angela Winkler, in the title role.
Despite suffering from an illness, Zadek continued working in his later years. In 2008, he staged Luigi Pirandello's "Naked" at the St. Pauli Theater in Hamburg.
The theater's artistic director, Ulrich Waller, on Thursday told dpa news agency: "We're mourning a friend and one of the greatest directors of German theater. (…) We will miss his unerring eye and incessant curiosity."
Zadek's last production was Bernard Shaw's "Major Barbara," performed at the Schauspielhaus in Zurich in February.
Click on the link below to listen to a 1973 interview with Peter Zadek from Deutsche Welle's archives.
kjb/AP/dpa/AFP
Editor: Chuck Penfold