Lago Clifford

Lago Clifford (?-?) was a British actor, director and cartoonist.

Biography

Clifford came to South Africa in 1902.

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

For a time, Clifford as political cartoonist for The Transvaal Critic.

As an actor, he appeared in Her Love Against the World (1917). He was also a regular member of Stephen Black's repertory company. He was South Africa's first full-time radio announcer (on Radio JB, South Africa's first broadcast station) in 1924, and was widely known as "Uncle Joe".

As a director, he directed Sherlock Holmes for the Cape Town Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society at the Opera House, Cape Town, (1913).

He was imprisoned for twelve months in Pretoria Central Prison in 1928 for pederasty. On his release, he published writings about his experience in the colonial penal system, before changing his name and leaving South Africa. During his time in prison he encountered Herman Charles Bosman with whom he became friendly and about whom Clifford also wrote in 1929. Clifford also published work that Bosman had written in prison and passed on for publication without revealing Bosman's identity (as Bosman was prohibited from publishing as part of his prison conditions).

Sources

MacKenzie, Craig. 2014. Four Unknown Prison Poems by H. C. Bosman. English in Africa.

Greyvenstein, Walter 1988. The history and development of children's theatre in English in South Africa. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Johannesburg: Rand Afrikaans University.

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