Charles Dyer

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Charles Raymond Dyer (born July 17, 1928 in Shrewsbury , Shropshire in Great Britain ) is a British playwright, screenwriter and actor. His most famous piece Under the stairs ( Staircase ) was published by Dyer as a novel; He also wrote the script for the film adaptation with Rex Harrison and Richard Burton in the leading roles.

Life

Charles Dyer was born in England in 1928 to the actor James Sidney. After serving as a flight navigator in the Royal Air Force for four years from 1943, he began his artistic career as an actor. He made his theatrical debut as Lord Harpenden in the play While the Sun Shines by Terence Rattigan in the New Theater in Crewe in 1947. From 1948 to 1960 he toured the whole of Great Britain with various theater companies. He appeared in a supporting role in the satirical anti-war film How I Won the War by Richard Lester . Charles Dyer wrote screenplays and novels at an early age and directed both theater, film and television productions.

His first play, Clubs Are Sometimes Trumps , premiered in 1948. While Charles Dyer's early pieces were often satirical and experimental, in later works he turned to the solitude of the individual. Charles Dyer had his first success as a playwright with the psychogram Die Rassel , which premiered in 1962 at the Garrick Theater in London , in which a 14-year-old teenager has his first sexual experience with a prostitute.

His 13th play became Charles Dyer's international breakthrough. Under the stairs from 1966 there is a two-act dialogue between an aging homosexual couple. Charles "Charlie" Dyer, an unsuccessful actor whose career culminated in a commercial appearance and who has a child from a failed marriage, helps Harry C. Leeds out in his barbershop. The hairdresser Harry also has problems because his hair fell out overnight and he hides his bald head under a turban because of the business.

The play was premiered in 1966 by the Royal Shakespeare Company with Patrick Magee and Paul Scofield in the leading roles in London. In the German-language premiere at the Renaissance Theater in Berlin, directed by Harry Meyen , Will Quadflieg and Leonard Steckel took on the roles of Charlie and Harry. Because of its sexual content, Unter der Staircase, like Die Rassel, caused a scandal and only just escaped major encroachments by British censors. "The frowned upon, the sexually offensive is ripe for the boulevard, the unsavory is part of its new clothing," wrote the magazine Theater heute on the occasion of the German premiere, and Friedrich Luft stated: "It all depends on where the moral hat string is and what goes under or over it. This marriage comedy is not written for pastors' daughters. "

Under the stairs has been translated into more than 20 languages ​​and was published as a novel in 1969. In the same year Charles Dyer wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of his work, which was directed by Stanley Donen with Rex Harrison and Richard Burton and was released on August 20, 1969. In the 1960s and 70s, Charles Dyer was considered one of the most played young English playwrights. His play The Rattle was also made into a film.

Charles Dyer has been married to actress Fiona Susan Thomson since 1959 and had three sons with her.

Works

Plays

  • 1948: Clubs Are Sometimes Trumps (as C. Raymond Dyer)
  • 1951: Who on Earth! (as C. Raymond Dyer)
  • 1953: The Turtle in the Soup (as C. Raymond Dyer)
  • 1954: The Jovial Parasite
  • 1955: Single Ticket to Mars
  • 1956: Time, Murderer, Please
  • 1956: Wanted - One Body!
  • 1957: Poison in Jest
  • 1959: Prelude to Fury (also wrote the music under the pseudonym Charles Stretton)
  • 1960: Red Cabbages and Kings (as R. Kraselchik, wrote the music under the pseudonym Charles Stretton)
  • 1962: Die Rassel ( Rattle of a Simple Man ), published as a novel in 1964
  • 1964: Gorillas Drink Milk (adaptation)
  • 1966: Under the stairs ( Staircase ), published in 1969 as a novel under the title Under the stairs or: Charlie tells Harry almost everything ( Staircase; or Charlie Always Told Harry Almost Everything )
  • 1972: Mother Adam
  • 1975: A Hot Godly Wind
  • 1978: Loving Allelujah
  • 1979: Roundabout
  • 1980: Futility Rites
  • 1983: Couple Skating ( Lovers Dancing )

Scripts

  • 1958: Wanted - One Body! (BBC)
  • 1964: The rattle ( Rattle of a Simple Man )
  • 1967: Insurance, Italian Style
  • 1969: Under the stairs ( Staircase )

Filmography

literature

  • Friedrich Luft: Gay doesn't have to be muggy. In: Theater Today. 11, 1968, p. 57f. (contains the imprint of the entire piece Under the stairs in the translation by Wolf Pfarr).
  • Charles (Raymond) Dyer. In: Dictionary of Literary Biography. Volume 13: British Dramatists Since World War II. Thomson Gale, Pennsylvania 1982.
  • Friedrich Luft: The warm snake pit. Charles Dyer's “Under the Staircase”, Renaissance theater. In: Friedrich Luft: Voice of Criticism II: Theater events since 1965. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main 1982, pp. 94–96.
  • Frank Strebel: Charles Dyer. In: Harenberg's actor guide. Harenberg, Dortmund 1997, p. 246f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The name Charles Dyer can be formed from all the names of the piece by anagram .
  2. ↑ Theater heute , 11, 1968, p. 5.
  3. ↑ Friedrich Luft: The warm snake pit. Charles Dyer's “Under the Staircase”, Renaissance theater . In: Friedrich Luft: Voice of Criticism II: Theater Events since 1965 . Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main 1982, p. 94.
  4. ↑ Cf. Charles Dyer: Under the stairs or: Charlie tells Harry almost everything . Preface. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1973, p. 2.
personal data
SURNAME Dyer, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dyer, Charles Raymond (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British playwright, screenwriter and actor
DATE OF BIRTH July 17, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Shrewsbury , Shropshire , UK