A hugely prominent personality of the 20th century in theater, Peter Hall, died at the age of 86 at a London hospital yesterday. He served as director of the National Theater (UK) for 15 years, and founded the Royal Shakespeare Company, being just 29 years old. In a career spanning over seven decades, he directed major theater and opera performances, occasionally cinematographic and television productions.
He was born in 1930 in Suffolk (GB), only child of a rural family, having a miner father, not in much contact with art. Since the age of 14 he had wanted to become a director, starting his career with amateur performances at the University of Cambridge.
He was fascinated by Greece, its history, heroes and tragedies, and feeling that he belonged to Epidaurus. There he presented “Oresteia”, “Lysistrata”, three shakespearean texts in a ten-hour performance ("Cymbeline", "The Winter's Tale" and "The Tempest"), “Tantalos” a 15-hour mammoth staging based on heroes and stories from Greek mythology, and others.
He retired in recent years due to health problems, diagnosed with dementia in 2011. He had six children and nine grandchildren.