"Wales, Provinztheater"

Name of traveller

Peter Zadek (1926-2009)

Reason for travel

• work as theatre director in local productions

Date of travel

1954-56

Ich lebte in Swansea und später in Pontypridd in einem kleinen Zimmer in einem Boarding-House, Bed and Breakfast, wo ich saß und arbeitete. Jeder Gang mußte vorher aufgeschrieben werden. Wenn ich Musik haben wollte, mußte ich auch noch die Platte bringen, ich hatte kein Privatleben, es war die Hölle. (Zadek 208-9)

Content

• art:
  • invited to Wales as theatre producer and actor while working in the UK
  • theatre scene in Wales described as provincial
  • produces and directs dramas with stock companies on local stages on almost weekly basis
  • chronicles theatre life and modes of production and his sense of displacement
  • describes problems of finding audiences in mining communities with his productions of French dramas
  • plays the role of the waiter in the drama "The Perfect Woman" by Wallace Godfrey and Basil Mitchell
  • describes a scandal due to the sexual relations of two members of the theatre company which upset the religious sensitivities in south Wales
• people: works with Maudie Evans and Kenneth Griffith (1921-2006)
• terrain:
  • south Wales as main industrial area
  • Swansea as capital of Wales

Nationality of traveller

German

Language of publication

German

Gender of traveller

Male

Type of publication

autobiography

Citation

Zadek, Peter. "Wales, Provinztheater." My Way: eine Autobiografie, 1926-1969. 1998. Köln: Kiepenheuer und Witsch, 2004. 205-9. Print.