Joan Littlewood

Joan Littlewood ( born October 6, 1914 in London, † 20 September 2002 in Paris) was an influential British theater and film director of the 1950s and 1960s. They coined the expression of political theater Britain's sustainable.

Life

Joan Maud Littlewood was born in 1914 in London. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, she founded in 1934 with her ​​husband, Jimmie Miller, who is better known by his later stage name Ewan McColl, "Theatre of Action ," a radical political theater group, which had its headquarters in Manchester. Littlewood did not think much of the " brave " socially adapted theater of its time, preferring a more experimental form, with contemporary social and political conflicts ( especially with those of the working class ) dealt. In 1936 she changed the name of the group in "Theatre Union " and participated in a very socialist embossed line. She was influenced mainly by the Russian director Vsevolod Meyerhold (1874-1940), who was one of the great theater reformer of the 20th century. In 1945 the name was changed again, the group now called itself " Theatre Workshop " and toured for eight years by the UK and Europe.

After they had separated in 1950 by her husband, theater in London was the " Theatre Workshop " in 1953 established the " Statford East " down. Littlewood directed and also appeared as an actress on in her pieces. Together with her partner Gerry Raffles she brought some of the most influential and most exciting pieces of their time on the stage, including Brendan Behan The Quare Fellow (1957) and The Hostage (1958) and Shelagh Delaney's A Taste Of Honey ( 1958). During this time she also directed at the first British premiere of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children ( 1955).

With Oh, What a Lovely War, a parody of the First World War, they had their greatest success in 1963. It represented their interspersed with songs, jokes and skits impressive style and became a classic of the modern theater. The piece was successfully filmed by Richard Attenborough in 1968.