SHAFFER, SIR PETER

SHAFFER, SIR PETER
SHAFFER, SIR PETER (1926– ), English playwright. Born in Liverpool, Shaffer was educated at Cambridge, where he edited the university magazine Granta. He became a music and theater critic and wrote several plays for broadcasting but made his name with the stage play Five-Finger Exercise (1958). On the surface a conventional domestic comedy, this study of a middle-class English family vying for the affections of a young German tutor dealt with relationships which other playwrights of the time either ignored or evaded. In 1962 Shaffer scored another success with The Private Ear and the Public Eye, two one-act studies of the gap between reality and appearance, in which the apparently conventional situation was again treated in psychological depth. His later plays are more ambitious: The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964), a spectacular chronicle play, depicts the incursion of Cortez into the Peru of the Incas; Black Comedy (1965) attempted to extend the currently fashionable "sick joke" into a full-length theatrical performance. (Philip D. Hobsbaum) Shaffer achieved an outstanding success with his Equus which was first performed on Broadway in 1974. A psychological thriller about a boy who blinded six horses, based upon an actual incident which occurred in England in 1972, Shaffer worked on it for over two years. In it, he delves into the sexual and other motivations for this outrage which are revealed in long dialogues between the boy and a psychiatrist. His play Amadeus (1979), about the alleged murder of Mozart by Antonio Salieri, was made into a famous film (1984) which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. He was knighted in 2000. His twin brother, ANTHONY SHAFFER (1926–2001), was educated at Cambridge and became a barrister. He was also a noted playwright, especially of mysteries. He was the author of the long-running Sleuth (1970), made into a film in 1977, Frenzy (1973), one of Alfred Hitchcock's last films, and dramatizations of several of Agatha Christie's works. The two brothers sometimes collaborated, using the pseudonym "Peter Anthony." -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: ODNB online for Anthony Shaffer; G.A. Plunka, Peter Shaffer (1988); M.K. MacMurraugh-Kavanagh, Peter Shaffer: Theatre and Drama (1998).

Encyclopedia Judaica. 1971.

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  • Shaffer, Sir Peter — ▪ British writer in full  Sir Levin Peter Shaffer  born May 15, 1926, London, Eng.       British playwright of considerable range who moved easily from farce to the portrayal of human anguish.       Educated at St. Paul s and Trinity College,… …   Universalium

  • Hall, Sir Peter — ▪ English theatrical manager and director in full  Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall  born Nov. 22, 1930, Bury Saint Edmonds, Suffolk, Eng.       English theatrical manager and director who held notably successful tenures as director of the Royal …   Universalium

  • Peter Shaffer — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Shaffer. Sir Peter Levin Shaffer (15 mai 1926 à Angleterre/Liverpool [1]) est un écrivain, dramaturge et scénariste anglais. Sommaire …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Peter Shaffer — Sir Peter Shaffer (* 15. Mai 1926 in Liverpool) ist ein britischer Dramatiker des 20. Jahrhunderts. 1936 siedelte Shaffer mit seiner Familie nach London über. Später studierte er Geschichte, wofür er von der Universität Cambridge ein Stipendium… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Peter Hall (Regisseur) — Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall (* 22. November 1930 in Bury St. Edmunds, England) ist ein britischer Theater und Filmregisseur. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben und Wirken 2 Inszenierungen (Auswahl) 3 Publikationen (Auswahl) …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Peter Hall — Nombre real Peter Reginald Frederick Hall Nacimiento 22 de noviembre de 1930 (80 años) Bury St. Edmundus, Suffolk,  Inglaterra Año debut …   Wikipedia Español

  • Peter Shaffer — Infobox Writer name = Peter Shaffer bgcolour = silver caption = birthdate = May 15, 1926 birthplace = Liverpool, England deathdate = deathplace = occupation = Playwright Sir Peter Levin Shaffer (born May 15, 1926) is an English dramatist, author… …   Wikipedia

  • peter — peter1 /pee teuhr/, v.i. peter out 1. to diminish gradually and stop; dwindle to nothing: The hot water always peters out in the middle of my shower. 2. to tire; exhaust (usually used as a past participle): I m petered out after that walk. [1805… …   Universalium

  • Peter — /pee teuhr/, n. 1. Also called Simon Peter. died A.D. 67?, one of the 12 apostles and the reputed author of two of the Epistles. 2. either of these two Epistles in the New Testament, I Peter or II Peter. 3. a word formerly used in communications… …   Universalium

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