Juan Jose G. Levy (

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

, 29 June 1884 - 6 October 1936) was an English theatre practitioner who attempted to import the ghoulish and grisly

Grand Guignol The Théâtre du Grand-Guignol () was a theater in the Pigalle district of Paris (7, cité Chaptal). From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962, it specialized in horror shows. Its name is often used as a general term for graphic, amor ...

aesthetic for London audiences. Levy was born in

Portsmouth, England Portsmouth ( ) is a port city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in England not located primarily on the ...

and educated at the Ecole de Commerce,

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

. He wrote a number of plays between 1908 and 1925. In 1920, Levy opened the

theatre in the Little Theatre located in the London's Strand District. Levy's productions featured performances by the English stage actress

Sybil Thorndike Dame Agnes Sybil Thorndike, Lady Casson (24 October 18829 June 1976) was an English actress whose stage career lasted from 1904 to 1969. Trained in her youth as a concert pianist, Thorndike turned to the stage when a medical problem with her h ...

, who would eventually originate the role of

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc ( ; ; – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the Coronation of the French monarch, coronation of Charles VII o ...

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

's Saint Joan. During its inaugural season, Levy's company staged such notorious thrillers as Andre de Lorde's ''The Hand of Death''. The

experiment ended in 1922 when Levy met with interference from England's censorious

Lord Chamberlain The Lord Chamberlain of the Household is the most senior officer of the Royal Households of the United Kingdom, Royal Household of the United Kingdom, supervising the departments which support and provide advice to the Monarchy of the United Ki ...

's Department. Upon announcing its demise, Levy stated that "the reason I am finishing with

is the too rigid censorship... it is impossible to carry on while the Lord Chamberlain's Department raises so many difficulties." In March 1934 Levy received the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

for recognition of his contributions to French drama and theatre in England. In an obituary published on 10 October 1936 in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'',

James Agate James Evershed Agate (9 September 1877 – 6 June 1947) was an English diarist and theatre critic between the two world wars. He took up journalism in his late twenties and was on the staff of ''The Manchester Guardian'' in 1907–1914. He late ...

praised Levy’s passion for the theatre. He wrote that "unlike many theatre managers, (Levy) was intensely interested in theatre. The fact that managing a theatre was his business never destroyed his love for the drama as an art."

References

* Appleton Post-Crescent, Thursday 27 July 1922 * The Times, Friday 9 October 1936 * The Times, Saturday 10 October 1936 * Gordon, Mel. ''Grand Guignol''. New York: Amok Press, 1988.

External links

Plays by Jose Levy on Great War Theatre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levy, Jose People from Portsmouth English theatre directors British theatre directors 1936 deaths 1884 births