TABORI, GEORGE

(1914- )

Playwright, director.Bertolt Brechtconvinced Tabori to try his hand at playwriting when the two met in Hollywood, where Tabori had been working on screenplays. HisFlight into Egyptpremiered on Broadway in 1952 under the direction of Elia Kazan (1909-2003). Prior to that he worked with Brecht on the English-language version ofDas Leben des Galilei(The Life of Galileo), which premiered in Los Angeles in 1947. Tabori had been a student inBerlinwhen forced into exile in 1934; he became a British subject in 1936 and began writing in English as a foreign correspondent in Bulgaria and Turkey; between 1941 and 1943 he worked as a secret agent for the British government in Palestine, returning to London in 1943 to work for the BBC.His American sojourn began in 1947, and his prolific career as a screenwriter includedI Confessfor Alfred Hitchcock in 1953. Tabori worked both in London and in New York during the 1950s, at one point becoming a member of the Actors Studio.

In 1958 Tabori'sBrou Ha Hapremiered in London, and in 1960 his collage of Brecht material titledBrechton Brechtpremiered OffBroadway.The Cannibalsfollowed in 1968,The Niggerloversin 1969, andPinkvillein 1970. He returned to live in Germany in 1971, and several plays he wrote in English were premiered in German translation during the 1970s and 1980s. They includedClowns, The Demonstration, Sigmund's Freude(based on material by Fritz Perls),Talk Show, The 25 Hours, The Voyeur, Peepshow, My Mother's Courage, and several adaptations of material for the stage by Franz Kafka. Tabori's most controversial play of the 1980s wasMein Kampf, subtitledA Farce, about the young Adolf Hitler's 1907 unsuccessful attempt to enter art school in Vienna. In the 1990s Tabori's directing career reached new heights, as seven of his productions were invited to the BerlinerTheatertreffen. One of them wasOleannaby David Mamet (1947- ). In 1992 Tabori received the Büchner Prize.