Peter Gill, the acclaimed playwright and director, has died at the age of 86. He was known for completing DH Lawrence's revolution in theatre by bringing stories of working people to the forefront, showing that anywhere could be the centre of the world.
A Life Dedicated to Theatre
Gill, a docker's son from Cardiff, directed his last play for the National Theatre before moving from Harriet Devine's house in Hammersmith to a flat further down the river. For 20 years, he met with fellow theatre practitioners there or in a community centre for workshops to develop material. He once told an acolyte, "I introduced postmodernism to the theatre, darling."
His significance, as noted by those who knew him, may not yet be fully understood. In interviews, he often discussed the influence of Wordsworth and DH Lawrence, who sought to speak in "the real language of men." Lawrence couldn't break into the theatre, but Gill did, placing Lawrence's plays at the centre of the world.
Radical Compassion and Truth
Gill's approach was marked by a Keatsian beauty and unsparing honesty. When a stage direction required baking bread, he had his company bake it, no matter how long it took. He rejected theatrical tricks like dry ice, asking, "Who do you think I am, Franco Zeffirelli?" He used theatre to tell the truth.
He was considered by some to be the only great playwright who was also a great director, a distinction akin to Thomas Hardy's in literature. His time at the Royal Court was formative. He paraphrased Adorno, adding his own revolutionary thought: "Once we knew about Auschwitz we didn't know how to say anything that meant anything. The bind was that the only moral act in the light of that was to try to say something, you see?"
A Legacy of Hope
Gill's radical compassion and determination to speak and live again, even in the face of ruin, is the foundation of good plays written since. His legacy must not leave the world with him.
