Peter Zadek

Peter Zadek
Born	(1926-05-19)19 May 1926 Berlin,Germany
Died	30 July 2009(2009-07-30)(aged 83) Hamburg,Germany
Spouse	Brigitta Blumenthal

Peter Zadek(German:[ˈtsaːdɛk];19 May 1926 – 30 July 2009) was a German director of theatre, opera and film, a translator and a screenwriter. He is regarded as one of the greatest directors in German-speaking theater.

Biography

Peter Zadek was born on 19 May 1926to a Jewish family inBerlin.In 1934, he emigrated with his family to London where he later studied atOld Victheatre, after a year atOxford University. He began in weekly rep in Swansea and Pontypridd. He studied at the Old Vic, and his first productions includedOscar Wilde’sSalomeandT. S. Eliot’sSweeney Agonistes.Zadek caused a stir in London in the late 1950s with his productions of works byJean Genet.Indeed, Genet was so outraged by Zadek's world première ofThe Balconyat the Arts in 1957 that he apparently bought a gun with the intention of shooting its director.He also worked as a director for theBBCin this period.

Bremen years

Returning toGermanyin 1958, Zadek worked inTheater Bremenfrom 1962 to 1968. In 1969, he directed the filmI'm an Elephant, Madame.It was entered into the19th Berlin International Film Festival,where it won aSilver Bearaward.

Shakespeare as passion

Zadek and his partnerElisabeth Plessen,have translated many of Shakespeare's works into German for the theater as well as works ofPinterandChekhov,among others. Zadek was renowned for productions ofShakespeare's plays and for sparking a greater interest in English drama among German audiences. Almost three years, as the German critic and connoisseur of theater history, after his arrival in Germany was Zadek in to the German scene. 14 stagings in three years and four in the following six months: „Zadek was in a rush of making “(im Rausch des Machens), and his „Theatermut “(theater-courage) rejected the literary Shakespeare and took his absurdly grotesque side out.So Zadek's acclaimed staging ofDer Kaufmann von Venedig(The Merchant of Venice) atBurgtheaterin 1988 f. e. moved the story from the bankrupt businessman and the deadly pledge for the saving credit wisely and harmoniously into the modern every daylife.

Illness and death

Despite suffering from an illness, Zadek continued working in his later years. In 2008, he stagedPirandello'sNakedat theSt. Pauli Theaterin Hamburg. Zadek's last production wasShaw'sMajor Barbara,performed at theSchauspielhaus Zurichin February 2009. He died on 30 July 2009 in Hamburg,survived by his two children.

Head of theatres

He headed up such major German theatres as theSchauspiel Bochum,where he shaped theZadek-Era.from 1972 to 1979. Here he paved the career of performers,Herbert Grönemeyer,today one of the most popular singer-songwriters who was then his musical director in 1976 and also an actor in roles, such as Melchior in Wedekind'sFrühlings Erwachen,and secondlyNatias Neutert,who performed hisOne-Mensch-Theater.

In 1984, Zadek worked at the FreieVolksbühneBerlin and got a great success withJosua Sobol’s playwrightGhettowith his discovery of the actorUlrich Tukur(who later became staff actor within the ensemble ofDeutsches Schauspielhaus) 1985–1989 atDeutsches Schauspielhaus,Hamburg. From 1992 to 1996 Zadek was appointed as one head among others at theBerliner Ensemble,the theater founded byBertolt Brecht.After German reunification theSenate of Berlinappointed a "collective" of five stage directors to serve as Intendanten (General Administrators): Peter Zadek,Peter Palitzsch(1918–2004),Heiner Müller,Fritz Marquardt and Matthias Langhoff. In this former East German theater Zadek was a director who represented the West. Indeed, he brought with him an international team that formed a "Western invasion" which revived the Berliner Ensemble. In addition to bringing great actors such asGert VossandEva Mattes,Zadek brought in young protégé stage directors such as British director Rosee Riggs and also appointed renowned American Berlin-based conductorAlexander Freyas Music Director of the theater. Frey was the first American to hold any position at the Berliner Ensemble, as well as being the theatre's first non-German Music Director; his historic predecessors include the composersKurt Weill,Hanns Eisler,andPaul Dessau—all of them worked under Brecht.

Opera director

Zadek directed his first opera, Mozart'sThe Marriage of Figaro,in 1983. He also directed Kurt Weill'sAufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonnyat theSalzburg Festivalin 1998.

Acting

Zadek acted in a small role inRainer Werner Fassbinder's filmDie Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss(Veronika Voss,1982).

Awards

Burgtheater,Vienna, locus of his acclaimedThe Merchant of Venice

St. Pauli Theater Hamburg

Schauspielhaus Zurich

Besides being chosen as "Director of the year" numerous times by theTheater heutemagazine, he received the following awards:

• 1969Silver Bearfor the filmI'm an Elephant, Madameat the19th Berlin International Film Festival
• 1988 Kortner Award
• 1989Piscator Awardand Kainz Award
• 1991 Member of the German Academy of the Arts
• 1992Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres
• 1994 Critics' Prize of theEdinburgh International Festival(for his direction ofAnthony and Cleopatrawhich combined World War I England and ancient Egypt)
• 2001Nestroy Theatre Prize(Best director)
• 2002German Federal Cross of Merit
• 2007Europe Theatre Prize
• 2008Nestroy Theatre Prize(Lifetime achievement)

Europe Theatre Prize

In 2007, he was awarded the XIEurope Theatre Prize,inThessaloniki.The prize organization stated:

In giving the award to Peter Zadek, we wanted to salute the work of an artist who, in a long career beginning in England and continuing for more than forty years in Germany, has reinvented the art of the theatre director by working at the same time both directly on the text with his chosen actors, and in pursuit of a ‘conceptual’ method of directing. Thus he has found, and continues to find, his personal vision and create with it a lively impact in each production, while retaining the principles of his ‘guiding spirits’,Shakespeare,IbsenandChekhov.

Legacy

Following Zadek's death, British criticMichael Billingtonwrote inThe Guardian:

"Zadek was mercurial, intuitive, even populist in his approach – and the results were sometimes astonishing. Four of his shows came to the Edinburgh International festival and he always made you re-assess a play. I recall a modern-dressMerchant of Venicein which Gert Voss's assimilated Shylock, even after his humiliation in the trial scene, coolly strolled off stage as if preparing to phone his broker. In 2004, Zadek also brought us a brilliantly witty, ironicPeer Gynt:one that suggested Ibsen anticipated Strindbergian dream-drama, Brechtian expressionism, the madhouse world of the Marat/Sade and even modern physical theatre. "

Billington also wrote in the same article:

"Although Zadek made his name in Germany, he never forgot his British roots. When I went to see his Berlin production ofPinter'sMoonlight,he told me that he loved Pinter's work because of its origins in weekly rep and because, as he said, "it was like a combination ofAgatha ChristieandKafka".But Zadek also understood Pinter's play profoundly: rarely have I seen Pinter's idea that women possess an emotional awareness denied to men so vividly expressed."

In 1999 inVienna,when he directedHamletwith a woman in the title role, the Austrian newspaperWiener Zeitungcriticized him having too much of a "children belief in justice"(Kinderglaube an Gerechtigkeit).

In 2015, the city of Bochum designated a newly built street close to theSchauspielhaus BochumasPeter-Zadek-Straße.

Filmography

• Die Kurve(TV play, 1961, based on a play byTankred Dorst)
• Die Mondvögel(TV play, 1963, based on the playLes oiseaux de lunebyMarcel Aymé)
• I'm an Elephant, Madame(1969, based on the novelDie UnberatenenbyThomas Valentin)
• Rotmord(TV play, 1969, based on the playTollerbyTankred Dorst)
• Der Pott(TV play, 1971, based on the playThe Silver TassiebySeán O'Casey)
• Ice Age(1975, based on a play byTankred Dorst)
• The Roaring Fifties(1983, based on the novelHurra, wir leben nochbyJohannes Mario Simmel)

External links

• Peter ZadekatIMDb