Frank Ulrich Marcus (30 June 1928 – 5 August 1996) was a British playwright, best known for ''

The Killing of Sister George ''The Killing of Sister George'' is a 1964 play by Frank Marcus that was later adapted into a 1968 film directed by Robert Aldrich. Stage version Sister George is a beloved character in the popular radio series ''Applehurst'', a district nurse ...

''.

Life and career

Marcus was born 30 June 1928 into a Jewish family in Breslau (then in Germany). They came to England as refugees in 1939. Until 1943, he attended

Bunce Court School The Bunce Court School was an independent, private boarding school in the village of Otterden, in Kent, England. It was founded in 1933 by Anna Essinger, who had previously founded a boarding school, Landschulheim Herrlingen in the south of Germa ...

Otterden Otterden is a civil parish and village on the Kent Downs in the borough of Maidstone in Kent, England. History Otterden is mentioned in the Domesday Book under Kent in the lands belonging to Adam FitzHubert. The book which was written in 1086 sai ...

, near

Faversham Faversham is a market town in Kent, England, from London and from Canterbury, next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2, which follows an ancient Briti ...

in Kent, (a school founded by Anna Essinger, a German Jewish-Quaker who had started Landschulheim

Herrlingen Blaustein () is a town in the district of Alb-Donau Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is situated on the Blau River, 6 km west of Ulm and has about 15,000 inhabitants. Before 1968, Blaustein was known as Herrlingen. It was created in 19 ...

, a private school in southern Germany, which was relocated to England in 1933). He then spent a year at

Saint Martin's School of Art Saint Martin's School of Art was an art college in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1854, initially under the aegis of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Saint Martin's became part of ...

. He started as an actor and playwright with the International Theatre Group and the Unity Theatre. In 1951, he married actress Jacqueline Sylvester, who collaborated with him on some of his plays. His plays were known for their strong parts for female actors, such as in his best known play, ''

'', starring

Beryl Reid Beryl Elizabeth Reid, (17 June 1919 – 13 October 1996), was a British actress of stage and screen. She won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for ''The Killing of Sister George'', the 1980 Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performan ...

, which was later adapted into the 1968 film of the same name. When a theatre company in apartheid South Africa asked to put on a production of ''

'', Marcus’s immediate instinct was to simply refuse. However, after much consideration, he decided instead that he could do more good and make more of a stance by allowing it to be seen there - under the strict proviso that the audiences would be mixed and non-segregated. Every penny this production earned was divided between Amnesty International (specifically for the freeing of South African political prisoners) and a black theatre group in

Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...

. As well as his own plays he made several translations and adaptations from his native German. He worked as Theatre Critic for ''

The Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', kn ...

'' between 1968 and 1978. After a long struggle with

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

, he died in London, 5 August 1996.

Works

Original plays

* 1950 ''Minuet For Stuffed Birds'' * 1964 ''The Formation Dancers'' * 1965 ''Cleo'' (one-act) * 1964 ''

'' * 1967 ''Studies of The Nude'' * 1968 ''Mrs Mouse, Are You Within?'' * 1969 ''The Window'' * 1972 ''Blank Pages'' * 1973 ''Keyholes'' * 1972 ''Christmas Carol'' (one-act) * 1972 ''Notes on a Love Affair'' * 1975 ''Beauty and The Beast'' (for children) * 1976 ''Portrait of The Artist'' * 1977 ''Blind Date'' (one-act) * 1978 ''Ballad of Wilfred II'' (one-act) * 1978 ''The Merman of Orford''

Adaptations and translations

* 1952 ''Merry-Go-Round'' (''

La Ronde La Ronde may refer to: Geography * La Ronde, Charente-Maritime, a commune in the Charente-Maritime ''département'', France * La Ronde River, on the Caribbean island of Dominica *La Ronde (amusement park), Montreal, Quebec, Canada * A La Ronde, an ...

'') by

Arthur Schnitzler Arthur Schnitzler (15 May 1862 – 21 October 1931) was an Austrian author and dramatist. Biography Arthur Schnitzler was born at Praterstrasse 16, Leopoldstadt, Vienna, capital of the Austrian Empire (as of 1867, part of the dual monarchy ...

* 1969 ''

The Guardsman ''The Guardsman'' is a 1931 American pre-Code film based on the play '' Testőr'' by Ferenc Molnár. It stars Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Roland Young and ZaSu Pitts. It opens with a stage re-enactment of the final scene of Maxwell Anderson's ' ...

'' by

Ferenc Molnár Ferenc Molnár ( , ; born Ferenc Neumann; 12 January 18781 April 1952), often anglicized as Franz Molnar, was a Hungarian-born author, stage-director, dramatist, and poet, widely regarded as Hungary’s most celebrated and controversial play ...

* 1976 ''Anatol'' by

* 1980 ''The Weavers'' by

Gerhart Hauptmann Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann (; 15 November 1862 – 6 June 1946) was a German dramatist and novelist. He is counted among the most important promoters of literary naturalism, though he integrated other styles into his work as well. He rece ...

* 1987 ''From Morning To Midnight'' by

Georg Kaiser Friedrich Carl Georg Kaiser, called Georg Kaiser, (25 November 1878 – 4 June 1945) was a German dramatist. Biography Kaiser was born in Magdeburg. He was highly prolific and wrote in a number of different styles. An Expressionist dramatist, ...

* 1991 ''

'' by

References

External links

*
Obituary
from ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

''
doollee.com playwrights databaseBookRags biography
1928 births 1996 deaths Alumni of Saint Martin's School of Art People educated at Bunce Court School English writers British theatre critics People from the Province of Lower Silesia Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom Silesian Jews {{UK-writer-stub