Brian Astbury (14 November 1941 – 5 March 2020) was a South African photographer, theatre director, acting and writing teacher, and founder of The Space Theatre in Cape Town, South Africa.

Early life

Brian Astbury was born on 14 November 1941 and grew up in the South African town of

Paarl Paarl (; Afrikaans: ; derived from ''Parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a town with 112,045 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the third-oldest city and European settlement in the Republic of South Africa (after ...

. He attended Paarl Boys' High and played first team cricket for the school before matriculating in 1959. He briefly studied librarianship at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

before abandoning the course. He met his future wife, at the ''Cape Argus'' where she worked as a librarian and journalist, when he did vacation work after completing his matric. He then worked as a photographer for Capab, the Cape Province's performing arts organisation. He would follow Bryceland and Athol Fugard when the latters play ''

Boesman and Lena ''Boesman and Lena'' is a small-cast play by South African playwright Athol Fugard, set in the Swartkops mudflats outside of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, that shows the effect of apartheid on a few individuals, featuring as characte ...

'' toured England in 1971. He worked closely with his wife

Yvonne Bryceland Yvonne Bryceland (18 November 1925 – 13 January 1992) was a South African stage actress. Some of her best-known work was in the plays of Athol Fugard. Early life She was born Yvonne Heilbuth in Cape Town, South Africa, the daughter of Adolphus ...

and playwright

Athol Fugard Athol Fugard, Hon. , (born 11 June 1932), is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director widely regarded as South Africa's greatest playwright. He is best known for his political and penetrating plays opposing the system of apart ...

when they formed an independent non-racial theatre called The Space in May 1972 opening with the play ''Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act''. Based in an old workshop, the theatre was able to operate with a non-racial audience because a membership was required to watch the performances at the ''club''. This was closely followed by other Fugard plays ''

Sizwe Banzi is Dead ''Sizwe Banzi Is Dead'' (originally produced and published as: ''Sizwe Bansi is Dead'') is a play by Athol Fugard, written collaboratively with two South African actors, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, both of whom appeared in the original produ ...

'' in 1972 and ''The Island'' in 1973. A recent documentary about the founding and the running of The Space Theatre highlighted his key role in creating South Africa's first non-racial, commercial arts venue during the apartheid regime. Other playwrights whose careers started at The Space, included

Fatima Dike Fatima Dike, also known as Fatts Dike (born 13 September 1948) is a South African playwright and theatre director. After writing ''The Sacrifice of Kreli'' in 1976, she became the first black South African woman to have a play published. Life Roy ...

Geraldine Aron Geraldine Aron (born 1951) is an Irish playwright. She was born in Galway, Ireland, has lived in Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, and now lives in London. Aron's first play ''Bar and Ger'' was performed at the Space Theatre in Cape Town in ...

and

Paul Slabolepszy Paul Slabolepszy (born 1948), or Paul "Slab", is a South African actor and playwright. Overview Slabolepszy was born in Bolton, England. His mother was English and his father was a Polish refugee. The family then emigrated to South Africa. He ...

. The theatre helped to start a number of actors and directors careers that spanned both the South African and the international entertainment arenas and include names such as

John Kani Bonisile John Kani (born 30 August 1943) is a South African actor, author, director and playwright. He is known for portraying T'Chaka in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films '' Captain America: Civil War'' (2016) and ''Black Panther'' (2018), Ra ...

Winston Ntshona Winston Ntshona (6 October 1941 – 2 August 2018) was a South African playwright and actor. He won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1975. Biography Born in Port Elizabeth, Zola Winston Ntshona worked alongside fellow South African Ath ...

Bill Flynn William Flynn (13 December 1948 – 11 July 2007) was a South African actor and comedian, perhaps best known for playing Tjokkie. Early life Flynn was born William Frederick Flynn in Cape Town and matriculated from Plumstead High School. He ...

Richard E Grant Richard E. Grant (born Richard Grant Esterhuysen; 5 May 1957) is a Swazi-English actor and presenter. He made his film debut as Withnail in the comedy ''Withnail and I'' (1987). Grant received critical acclaim for his role as Jack Hock in Marie ...

Pieter Dirk Uys Pieter-Dirk Uys (; born 28 September 1945) is a South African performer, author, satirist, and social activist. One of his best known roles is as Evita Bezuidenhout, an Afrikaner socialite. Background and early life Uys was born in Cape Town o ...

and

Barney Simon Barney Simon (13 April 1932 – 30 June 1995, Johannesburg) was a South African writer, playwright and director. Early life The son of working-class Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, Simon discovered a love of theatre while working under director ...

. At The Space he was the director of ''The Sun King'', ''A Thousand Clowns'', ''The Tiger'', ''Treats'', '' What the Butler Saw'', ''Children of the Wolf'', ''Dracula'', ''Going to Pot'', ''Old King Cole'', ''Play It Again, Sam'' and other plays. By 1979, with The Space struggling financially it was renamed The Peoples Space after it was taken over by Moyra Fine and Rob Amato. It would fold in 1984. He moving to London in 1979 with Bryceland he became an influential theatre teacher at

Lamda LaMDA, which stands for Language Model for Dialogue Applications, is a family of conversational neural language models developed by Google. The first generation was announced during the 2021 Google I/O keynote, while the second generation was a ...

Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, formerly Mountview Theatre School, is a drama school in Peckham, south London, England, founded in 1945. The Academy provides specialist vocational training in acting and musical theatre, as well as production ...

and East 15 acting schools. After his retirement he wrote several books on the arts of acting and writing.

Death

He died age 78 in London on 5 March 2020 after a heart attack on the London Tube. Yvonne Bryceland died in 1992; the couple had two daughters.

Bibliography

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Astbury, Brian 2020 deaths 1941 births White South African anti-apartheid activists South African theatre directors South African photographers