|
|
||
|
News
|
||
|
News |
Dateline: 21st May, 2004
Robert David Macdonald Robert David Macdonald, one of the "triumvirate" which ran the Citizens' Theatre in Glasgow since 1971, died on Wednesday, 19th May, at the age of 74. Born in Elgin in 1929, he originally trained as a musician. He was educated at Wellington School, at Magdalen, Oxford, and the Royal College of Music. He spent some years as a translator for UNESCO before becoming Assistant Director at Glyndebourne and Covent Garden opera houses. In 1971 he joined Giles Havergal and Philip Prowse as a Co-Director of the Citizens' Company until his retirement in May 2003. During that time he wrote fourteen plays for the company including The De Sade Show (1975); Chinchilla (1977); Summit Conference (1978); A Waste of Time (1980); Don Juan (1980); Webster (1983); In Quest of Conscience (1994); Britannicus (2002) and Cheri (2003). As an actor with the Citizens' Company he played a number of leading roles in sixteen plays. His last acting role was Billy Rice in John Osborne's The Entertainer at the Derby Playhouse in March 2003. He directed fifty productions for the Citizens' including British and world premieres. The last Citizens' production under his directorship, Nothing by Henry Green in 2003, has recently been nominated for the Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) as best new play. MacDonald was also responsible for the adaptation of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, a hugely successful production that has been performed in Britain, Europe and the USA. Other directorial credits include Balzac's Vautrin; Dumas' Antony; Goethe's Faust parts I and II and Tasso; ten plays by Goldoni; Kraus' The Last Days of Mankind; Hochhuth's Judith; Lermontov's Maskerade; Musset's Hidden Fires; Alegria's Niagara; Dic Edward's Casanova Undone and Wittgenstein's Daughter. During his time at the "Citz", many of today's leading actors launched their careers at the theatre, including Pierce Brosnan, Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Helen Baxendale and Ciaran Hinds. During his theatrical career MacDonald has translated over sixty plays and operas from ten languages and his adaptation of War and Peace by his former teacher Erwin Piscator ran for two seasons on Broadway and received an Emmy award when shown on U.S television. Robert David MacDonald's final piece for the Citizens' Company was his adaptation of the Grimm Brothers' Snow White in November 2003. Jeremy Raison, Artistic Director of the Citizens¹ Theatre, said, "Robert David Macdonald died last night, and it is the end of an era. David, along with Giles Havergal and Philip Prowse, steered the Citizens Theatre to international renown during their thirty four year tenure, directing, acting, translating and writing plays with extraordinary skill. "When I took over at the Citizens' last November, I was hugely privileged to meet David as he was here directing his final production, an adaptation of Henry Green's novel, Nothing. I found it a masterclass in directing, a production which clearly displayed many of David¹s skills: it was erudite, witty, subtle, stylish, brilliant, classic and moving. Meeting him was also a humbling experience. He was a hugely impressive linguist, a man with a huge frame of reference, and he had had a dazzling career. Even as we talked, I was sounding him out about translating the only Schiller play he hadn't done. He went out on a high, but he will be sorely missed." Ian Ribbens, Production Director of the Citizens' Theatre, who has known and worked with Robert David MacDonald for 35 years said, "David was a man of extraordinary talents who, as one of the triumvirate that ran the Citizens' Theatre for over 30 years, played a pivotal role in ensuring the world wide reputation for excellence that the Theatre enjoys. Fluent in several languages, his translations and adaptations of European classics, always done meticulously, but with enormous wit and humour, ensured that the Citizens' was able to make accessible many neglected gems of European drama. He was also an accomplished author in his own right with several published plays to his credit, a mischievous director, and a great raconteur with an unflagging sense of humour. We are all going to miss him enormously." Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
|
|
|
|
