Denis Rhodes Granger

(1911-2001) Bilingual (English and Afrikaans) playwright and amateur director. Born 21st November 1911 in Gwelo, Southern Rhodesia. He died in a house fire in Harare, Zimbabwe, 13th April 2001, aged 89. He was also very much involved in theatre in Rhodesia, and later, Zimbabwe. He was the theatre critic for the Sunday Mail and The Citizen newspapers and judge for several years of the National Theatre Organisation High Schools Festival. He started and directed plays for Marlborough Players. He was married to Isabeau Granger (Isabeau Marguerite Luckhoff) and she acted in many of his plays in Worcester and in Rhodesia. They had three children. He worked in rep in England just after the war and had a very small part in the version of Great Expectations film made during or just after the war. His daughter Angela Cozens has carried on with acting and writing plays in England.

Author of the one-act plays The Cottage, A Playmate for our Little Lord, Festival, The Lady Anne gets her Bath (1951/4*), Die Lappieskombers (winner of the Afrikaans section of the 1957 FATSSA one-act playwrighting competition ). Also wrote the full length plays Dark Brown (1951) and Mr. Sleeman is Coming (1953) which he directed for the Worcester Dramatic Society.

Sources

Gosher, 1988, January, 1997;

Personal e-mail correspondence from his daughter, Angela Cozens, 22 September 2012.

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