Jack Henry Moore, who has died aged 73 of liver cancer, knocked on my door in Edinburgh in the early 60s and asked if he could have a job in my theatre, the Traverse. He had read an article in the Observer and decided that I was producing the kind of theatre that he wanted to be involved with. British labour laws prevented me from hiring him, but I said that he could participate in the activities of the theatre, so he left his job running a Dublin detective agency and moved to Edinburgh.
He directed a number of Traverse productions, the two most successful being The Fantasticks and A Child's Christmas in Wales. Jack was a voracious play-reader. One day, he announced that he had discovered a playwright who should become a Traverse writer. This turned out to be CP Taylor. The Traverse produced a half-dozen or more of Taylor's plays.
Continue reading...