Dieter Reible

Dieter Reible (1929-2014) was an influential German director.

Biography

Born in Berlin on 24 June, 1929, he lived there through the horrors of World War 2 and at 15 was forced into the army, was a British prisoner of war at 16 and after his release he did manual labour, clearing rubble from the bombed towns and cities. He never got a high school diploma or went to university. His only formal qualification was as a locksmith.

He became involved with theatre when he joined a theatre group as an actor, later taking up directing.

In 1969 Pieter Fourie, the artistic director for drama at the Cape Performing Arts Board at the time, saw Reible's production of Richard II in Frankfurt and liked it so much that he invited the director to South Africa to direct a Shakespeare of his choice. It ended up being a bloody production of Titus Andronicus (in Afrikaans, translated by Breyten Breytenbach), followed by an equally debated Afrikaans production of King Lear in 1971.

He was married four times, one of the wives being South African actress Mitzi Booysen (between 1982 and 1994). They had a daughter, Antonia.

Reible passed away in Czernichow, Poland, on 4 December, 2014.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

He was brought out once more in 1980 to do Faust for CAPAB]], this was followed by a series of remarkable productions of classical works from the European canon, including the Oresteia trilogy, Medea, The Women of Troy, The Lion in Winter, Jean Genet's The Blacks, Waiting for Godot, Die Storm (The Tempest), Macbeth, Cymbeline, Strindberg's Playing with Fire and many more.

Brought out to South Africa in 1970 by CAPAB to direct a play, controversially chose to do Titus Andronicus in an Afrikaans translation by Breyten Breytenbach. Did more work for CAPAB and other companies in the 1970s, doing controversial and experimental work which influenced a range of theatre practitioners over the years. **

He directed Die Emigrante for PACT in 1986. He directed his adaptation of Euripides’s Medea (1981); Euripides’s The Women of Troy for the opening production of the Adcock-Ingram Auditorium in 1987. He revived The Lion in Winter for PACT in 1988. He directed Die Storm (The Tempest) for PACT at the Alexander Theatre in 1989. He directed Jean Genet’s The Blacks for PACT in 1989. He directed Macbeth for PACT in 1990. He directed Bartho Smit’s Die Keiser which was staged in 1992; Moleste met die Magistraat (PACT 1993); Playing With Fire (Strindberg) Dieter Reible.

Awards, etc

He won a National Vita Award as director of the year for Die Keiser.

Sources

Tucker, 1997.

Die Burger 5 March 2011; 13 December 2014.

Chris Barron. 2014. Obituary: Dieter Reible, theatre director who shocked SA Sunday Times, 13 December 2014[1]

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