Higham Ronald Hayman (4 May 1932 – 20 January 2019) was a British critic, dramatist, and writer who was best known as a biographer.
Biography
Early life
Ronald Hayman was born on May 4, 1932 in East Cliff Hotel in
Bournemouth,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, a Jewish hotel which had been founded by his grandmother, Anne Morris. His mother, Sadie, was an administrator at the hotel while his father, John, was in a partnership running an antiques and jewellery business. He was educated at
St Paul's School in London and at
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.
It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...
, where he earned a B.A. in 1954 and an M.A. in 1963. He served in the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
for a one-year duty, from 1950-1951.
After reading English at Cambridge in 1954, Hayman lived in Germany for two years, mainly to write. He became involved in professional theatre after playing the lead in ''
Love's Labour's Lost'' with English amateurs in Berlin. He then attended drama school and acted for three years in rep and on television.
Writing career
His first play, ''The End of an Uncle,'' was staged at
Wimbledon in 1959. He made his debut as a director with
Jean Genet's ''
Deathwatch'' at the
Arts Theatre
The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London.
History
It opened on 20 April 1927 as a members-only club for the performance of unlicensed plays, thus avoiding theatre censorship by the Lord Chamber ...
in 1960 and in 1961 was awarded an
ABC Television ABC Television most commonly refers to:
*ABC Television Network of the American Broadcasting Company, United States, or
*ABC Television (Australian TV network), a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia
ABC Television or ABC ...
traineeship, which took him to Northampton for a year as assistant producer. He also directed
Bertolt Brecht's ''
In the Jungle of Cities
''In the Jungle of Cities'' (''Im Dickicht der Städte'') is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. Written between 1921 and 1924, it received its first theatrical production under the title ''Im Dickicht'' ("In the jungle") a ...
'' and a stage adaptation of
Robin Maugham
Robert Cecil Romer Maugham, 2nd Viscount Maugham (17 May 1916 – 13 March 1981), known as Robin Maugham, was a British author.
Trained as a barrister, he served with distinction in the Second World War, and wrote a successful novella, ''The S ...
's ''The Servant''. Hayman directed at
Theatre Royal Stratford East
The Theatre Royal Stratford East is a 460 seat Victorian producing theatre in Stratford in the London Borough of Newham. Since 1953, it has been the home of the Theatre Workshop company, famously associated with director Joan Littlewood, whose ...
,
Farnham, the
Edinburgh Festival
__NOTOC__
This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...
,
Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre is a theatre located in Guildford, Surrey, England. Named after the actress Yvonne Arnaud, it presents a series of locally produced and national touring productions, including opera, ballet and pantomime. The theatre ...
, and
Guildford, and for
Open Space. His one-man show with
Max Adrian
Max Adrian (born Guy Thornton Bor; 1 November 1903 – 19 January 1973) was an Irish stage, film and television actor and singer. He was a founding member of both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre.
In addition to his succ ...
as
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
transferred to the
West End and went on a world tour.
He was a regular contributor to the Arts page of ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' and to the ''New Review.'' He broadcast on arts programmes and lectured for the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
Department of English Literature. In the 1970s, he lectured on Shakespeare and the traditions of English acting for the
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
of London program.
[''Concise Encyclopedia of Tufts History,'' Document ID tufts:central:dca:UA069:UA069.005.DO.00001, 2004.]
His 1995 play ''Playing the Wife'' is based on
August Strindberg
Johan August Strindberg (, ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than sixty p ...
's second marriage to the
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n
Frida Uhl
Maria Friederike Cornelia "Frida" Strindberg (née Uhl; 4 April 1872 – 28 June 1943) was an Austrian writer and translator, who was closely associated with many important figures in 20th-century literature.
Biography
Uhl was the daughter of F ...
.
Works
*''John Arden'' (1968)
*''John Osborne'' (1968)
*''Techniques of Acting'' (1969)
*''Robert Bolt'' (1969)
*''Arnold Wesker'' (1970)
*''Harold Pinter'' (1970)
*''Samuel Beckett'' (1970)
*''John Whiting'' (1970)
*''Tolstoy'' (1970)
*''John Gielgud'' (1971)
*''Edward Albee'' (1971)
*''Arguing with Walt Whitman: An Essay on His Influence on Twentieth-Century American Verse'' (1971)
*''Arthur Miller'' (1972)
*''Playback'' (1973)
*''The Set-up: An Anatomy of the English Theatre Today'' (1973)
*''Playback II'' (1973)
*''The First Thrust: the Chichester Festival Theatre'' (1975)
*''Leavis'' (1976)
*''Eugène Ionesco'' (1976)
*''The Novel Today, 1967-1975'' (1976)
*''Tom Stoppard'' (1977)
*''How to Read a Play'' (1977)
*''Artaud and After'' (1977)
*''De Sade: A Critical Biography'' (1978)
*''British Theatre since 1955: A Reassessment'' (1979)
*''Theatre and Anti-Theatre: New Movements Since Beckett '' (1979)
*''Nietzsche: A Critical Life'' (1980)
*''Franz Kafka'' (1982)
*''Brecht'' (1983)
*''Bertolt Brecht: The Plays'' (1984)
*''Fassbinder: Film Maker'' (1984)
*''Gunter Grass'' (1985)
*''Secrets: Boyhood in a Jewish Hotel, 1932-1954'' (1985)
*''Writing Against: A Biography Of Sartre'' (1986)
*''My Cambridge'' (1986) editor
* ''Sartre : A Life'' (1987)
*''Proust – A Biography'' (1990)
*''The Death and Life of Sylvia Plath'' (1992)
*''Tennessee Williams: Everyone Else is an Audience'' (1993)
*''Thomas Mann'' (1995)
*''Nietzsche'' (1997)
*''Hitler and Geli'' (1998)
*''A Life of Jung'' (2001)
*''Marquis De Sade: The Genius of Passion'' (2003)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayman, Ronald
1932 births
2019 deaths
Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
British biographers
British dramatists and playwrights
British male dramatists and playwrights
Male biographers