Dieter Reible

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

Biography

Born Dieter Reinhold Reible 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 for stage, TV and film.

Among TV films directed in the 1960s are Liebesgeschichten (1967), Belvedere (1961) and Der Trauschein (1963).[1]

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.

In the wake of controversy surrounding the two productions and his struggle to obtain a work permit in South Africa, Reible returned to Germany for the next decade to build his career as director there, before returning again in the in 1980s to direct regularly in the country, while also continuing to do work for various theatres in Germany and Switzerland (e.g. the Städtischen Bühnen Frankfurt, Thalia Theater Hamburg, Theater am Goetheplatz Bremen, Staatstheater Kassel, and Theater am Neumarkt Zürich)

He also served as theatre director for venues such as the Wuppertaler Bühnen, Theater Kiel and Theater Bielefeld (1994-1998).

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, and his remains were interred in Wupperthal.

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

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 contentious and debated Afrikaans production of King Lear in 1971.

In the wake of the controversies surrounding the two productions and his struggle to obtain a work permit in South Africa, Reible returned to Germany for the next decade to build his career as director there, but was brought out once more in 1980, this time to do Faust for CAPAB. This led on to a growing series of remarkable productions of classical works from the European canon, initially for CAPAB and later for PACT and other companies. He also directed Hamletmachine and Woyzeck.

The works he directed included Strindberg's, Playing With Fire (1983), Die Emigrante (PACT, 1986), The Women of Troy (1987), The Lion in Winter (1988), Die Storm (The Tempest, 1989), Jean Genet's The Blacks (1989), Waiting for Godot, Die Storm (The Tempest), Macbeth (1990), Cymbeline, Strindberg's Playing with Fire, Demea (Guy Butler, 1990), Bartho Smit’s Die Keiser(1992), Moleste met die Magistraat (PACT 1993). 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).

He also wrote and adapted a number of works himself, including a German version of Euripides’s Medea, done as a solo piece for performance by his second wife at an avant-garde theatre in Poland. This version was translated into English and performed by Trix Pienaar at the Baxter Studio in 1981, directed by Reible. (The text is held by NELM: [Collection: LILENSTEIN, Mavis]: 2007. 9. 17. 2). The adaptation was later also translated into Afrikaans by Arnold Blumer and performed at the 2011 Afrikaanse Woordfees in Stellenbosch, directed by Marthinus Basson with Coba-Maryn Wilsenach.

Other adaptations include The Three Musketeers (translated into Afrikaans by Tjaart Potgieter).

Besides his legacy of memorably fine productions, Reible fundamentally also helped to change the way a new generation of young South African directors would make theatre and view and its potential role in society.

Awards, etc

in 1992 he won a National Vita Award for his production of Die Keiser.

Sources

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Reible

Beeld, 10 January 1985.

Percy Tucker 1997. Just the Ticket. My 50 Years in Show Business. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.

Die Burger 5 March 2011; 13 December 2014.

Chris Barron. 2014. Obituary: Dieter Reible, theatre director who shocked SA Sunday Times, 13 December 2014[2]

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2243847/

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