ZADEK, PETER

Zadek, Peter: translation

(1926- )

Director. Zadek became well known in the 1970s for his iconoclastic productions ofShakespearein regional theaters, some of which provoked controversy. He is one of the few German directors (he was born inBerlin) to have grown up in England. He studied directing at the Old Vic School and staged English-language productions in London before working full-time in Germany. Zadek's first productions took place in London: Oscar Wilde'sSalomeand an adaptation of T. S. Eliot'sSweeney Agonistesin 1947.

He thereafter staged several productions in provincial Welsh and English theaters.

In 1958 Zadek got a directing job inCologne, his first sojourn in Germany since emigrating with his parents in 1933.He worked throughout the 1960s in Ulm andBremen, often with designer and painter Wilfried Minks as his collaborator. In Bremen he worked extensively under Kurt Hübner, who hiredPeter SteinandKlaus-Michael Grüberas well to conceive new renderings of German stage "classics." Zadek was not interested in classics alone, however; he staged several Alan Ayckbourn German-language premieres, both in Bremen and in Bochum when he becameintendantof the city's Schauspielhaus. In Bochum he also staged a series of controversial Shakespeare productions starring Ulrich Wildgruber, among themThe Merchant of Venice. Zadek has staged five productions ofMerchant, efforts he considers important in an effort to force Germans to confront their anti-Semitism. Zadek regards German anti-Semitism as crucial to understanding German culture; when he adapted Christopher Marlowe'sThe Jew of Maltaand titled itThe Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew from Malta, he stated that Germans needed to acknowledge the bad side of Jews in order to fathom their antipathy toward Jews in general.

In 1999 Zadek stagedHamletwith Angela Winkler in the title role, though with little fanfare. His 2004 production ofMutter Courage und ihre Kinder(MotherCourage and HerChildren) at theDeutsches Theater(whereBertolt Brechtstaged his Berlin premiere production in 1949) likewise aroused little nationwide attention, unlike his Bochum and Bremen productions had once done. He remains nonetheless a significant figure in the German theater—a director with 21 productions invited to the BerlinerTheatertreffen. Zadek has been awarded the Kortner Prize, the Piscator Prize, and the Kainz Medal.