Roland Rees, who has died aged 73, was a key fringe and touring theatre director of the 1970s and 80s, whose company, Foco Novo, presented important new work, including The Elephant Man (1977). Written by Foco Novo’s co-founder Bernard Pomerance, the play was acclaimed for the performance of David Schofield as the Victorian fairground exhibit Joseph “John” Merrick, and entered the repertoire of the National Theatre in 1980, while another, simultaneous, production ran on Broadway.
The Elephant Man is now performed all over the world – David Lynch’s 1980 film starring John Hurt is a very different kettle of kippers – and every revival honours the bare-bones, Brechtian style of the structure and composition, its economy of language and Foco Novo stagecraft; it’s all written in.
Continue reading...