Peter Shaffer

Life and career

Early years and education

Shaffer was born to a Jewish family in Liverpool, the son of Reka (née Fredman) and estate agent Jack Shaffer. He grew up in London and was the identical twin brother of fellow playwright Anthony Shaffer.

He was educated at the Hall School, Hampstead, and St Paul's School, London, and subsequently he gained a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, to study history. Shaffer was a Bevin Boy coal miner during World War II, and took a number of jobs including bookstore clerk, and assistant at the New York Public Library, before discovering his dramatic talents.

Theatre

Shaffer's first play, The Salt Land (1955), was presented on ITV on 8 November 1955. Encouraged by this success, Shaffer continued to write and established his reputation as a playwright in 1958, with the production of Five Finger Exercise,{{cite book

Shaffer's next piece was a double bill, The Private Ear and The Public Eye, two plays each containing three characters and concerning aspects of love. They were presented in May 1962 at the Globe Theatre, and both starred Maggie Smith and Kenneth Williams. Smith won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Leading Actress.

The National Theatre was established in 1963, and virtually all of Shaffer's subsequent work was done in its service. His canon contains a mix of philosophical dramas and satirical comedies. The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964) presents the conquest and killing of the Inca ruler Atahuallpa by the conquistador Francisco Pizarro in Peru, while Black Comedy (1965) takes a humorous look at the antics of a group of characters feeling their way around a pitch-black room – although the stage is actually flooded with light.

Equus (1973) won Shaffer the 1975 Tony Award for Best Play as well as the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. A journey into the mind of a seventeen-year-old stableboy who had plunged a spike into the eyes of six horses, Equus ran for more than 1,000 performances on Broadway. It was revived by Massachusetts' Berkshire Theatre Festival in the summers of 2005 and 2007, by director Thea Sharrock at London's Gielgud Theatre in February 2007, and on Broadway (in the Sharrock staging) in September 2008. The latter production, which ran in New York City until February 2009, required the stableboy to appear naked; its star, Daniel Radcliffe, was still associated with the Harry Potter film series intended for general audiences, and this led to mild controversy.

Shaffer followed this success with Amadeus (1979) which won the Evening Standard Drama Award and the Theatre Critics' Award for the London production. This tells the story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and court composer Antonio Salieri who, overcome with jealousy at hearing the "voice of God" coming from an "obscene child", sets out to destroy his rival. When the show moved to Broadway it won the 1981 Tony Award for Best Play and, like Equus, ran for more than a thousand performances.

After the success of Amadeus, Shaffer wrote the play Lettice and Lovage specifically for Dame Maggie Smith in 1986, for which he was nominated for another Tony Award and for which Smith eventually won the Tony Award for best actress after three nominations in 1990. Lettice and Lovage also enabled Margaret Tyzack to win the award for best featured actress, and the production was nominated for best direction of a play, at the 1990 Tony Awards.

Screen work

Several of Shaffer's plays have been adapted to film, including Five Finger Exercise (1962); The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969); The Public Eye (1962), from which he adapted the 1972 film Follow Me! (1972); Equus (1977); and Amadeus (1984), which won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

For writing the screenplay for Equus, Shaffer was nominated for an Academy Award for his adapted screenplay, but the award went to Alvin Sargent, who wrote the screenplay for Julia. For writing the screenplay for Amadeus, Shaffer was awarded a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award.

Personal life and death

Shaffer was gay. In the 1970s, he was in a relationship with Paul Giovanni, musician and composer of The Wicker Man. His later partner, New York-based voice teacher Robert Leonard, died in 1990 at the age of 49. Peter Shaffer's final relationship was with the drama and music teacher Kevin Shancady. Shaffer was given a Memorial Tribute on Broadway in 2017. He lived in Manhattan from the 1970s onward.

While on a trip to Ireland shortly after his 90th birthday, Shaffer died on 6 June 2016 at a hospice facility in Curraheen, County Cork. Leonard and Shaffer are buried together in the east side of Highgate Cemetery.

Selected works

• ** (Television, 1955)
• Five Finger Exercise (1958)
• ** (1962) The Private Ear / The Public Eye
• ** (1962)
• The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964 but completed by 1958), a theatre piece on Atahualpa, the last emperor of the Tahuantinsuyu.
• Black Comedy (1965)
• The White Liars (1967)
• Equus (1973)
• Amadeus (1979)
• ** (1985)
• Lettice and Lovage (1987)
• ** (1992)

Detective novels co-written as Peter Antony

Shaffer co-wrote three detective novels with his brother Anthony Shaffer under the pseudonym ****.

• ** (1951)
• How Doth the Little Crocodile? (1952)
• Withered Murder (1955)

Awards and honours

In 1989 the Hamburg-based Alfred Toepfer Foundation awarded Shaffer its annual Shakespeare Prize in recognition of his life's work. In 1993, he was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Letters) by the University of Bath.

Shaffer's play, Five Finger Exercise won the Evening Standard Drama Award when it premiered in London and then won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play when it moved to New York City.

Shaffer's play, Equus won the Tony Award for Best Play and the New York Drama Critics' Circle that year as well. His screenplay adaptation of the play was nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar in 1978.

Shaffer's play Amadeus won the Evening Standard Drama Award and the Theatre Critics' Award for its initial London production. Upon moving to Broadway, Amadeus won the 1981 Tony Award for Best Play. His screenplay adaptation of the play won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar as well as the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay in 1984.

Shaffer's play Lettice and Lovage was nominated for another Tony Award, and for her performance in it, Dame Maggie Smith won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress after three nominations in 1990. Lettice and Lovage also won Best Featured Actress for Margaret Tyzack and was nominated for Best Direction of a Play at the 1990's ceremony .

Shaffer was appointed a CBE in 1987 and named Knight Bachelor in the 2001 New Year's Honours. In 2007, he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

References

References

1. Benjamin Ivry. (2 October 2008). "Baring Body and Soul, Again, on Broadway". Forward.
2. (7 June 2016). "Peter Shaffer Dies at 90; Playwright Won Tonys for 'Equus' and 'Amadeus'". [[The New York Times]].
3. Gardner, Lyn. (6 June 2016). "Sir Peter Shaffer obituary". The Guardian.
4. (25 November 2014). "Profile: Maggie Smith".
5. "Black Comedy".
6. (28 July 2006). "Naked stage role for Potter star". BBC News.
7. Leo Barraclough. (Jun 6, 2016). "'Amadeus,' 'Equus' Writer Peter Shaffer Dies at 90".
8. "Lettice and Lovage".
9. Brown, Allan. (1 June 2010). "Inside The Wicker Man: How Not to Make a Cult Classic". Birlinn Ltd.
10. Lawson, Mark. (6 June 2016). "Peter Shaffer wanted to make elaborate theatre – and he succeeded". [[The Guardian]].
11. (3 April 2017). "Mark Shenton's week: Is gay theatre back on form?".
12. (17 October 1990). "Robert Leonard; Voice Teacher, 49". [[The New York Times]].
13. Humm, Andy. (April 13, 2017). "Gay City News".
14. Breen, Frank. (April 4, 2012). "Patch News".
15. (15 May 2013). "Birthdays today". [[The Daily Telegraph.
16. Kennedy, Maev. (6 June 2016). "Equus and Amadeus playwright Peter Shaffer dies aged 90". [[The Guardian]].
17. Room, Adrian. (2014). "Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins". McFarland.
18. "Honorary Graduates 1989 to present". [[University of Bath]].
19. "Five Finger Exercise Broadway @ Music Box Theatre".
20. "Search Past Tony Awards Winners and Nominees".
21. "Past Awards".
22. (5 October 2014). "The 50th Academy Awards {{!}} 1978".
23. "Search Past Tony Awards Winners and Nominees".
24. "1990 Tony Award Winners".
25. "Hall of Fame: theater veterans get a night in limelight". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.