Roy Kift

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Roy Kift is an English actor and playwright who is resident in Germany. He is best known for his 1980 play Stronger than Superman (German: Stärker als Superman).

Early life and education

After gaining a degree in French and Romance Studies at the Aberystwyth University in Wales in 1965, Kift completed a three-year acting course at the London Drama Centre. He started writing plays at university, where he won the Eisteddfod playwriting prize.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Kift's first engagement as a professional actor was at the Sheffield Playhouse. He performed for a season at the Newcastle Playhouse before moving to London to play in Mustapha Matura's Black Pieces.

His first breakthrough as a playwright was with Mary Mary, which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in London in a production by the Freehold Theatre Company, directed by Nancy Meckler. He was subsequently awarded the Thames Television Theatre Prize for his play Downers.

Kift moved to Berlin in 1979, the same year that he wrote the play Stronger than Superman (Stärker als Superman) for Grips-Theater. It was performed in Berlin in 1980/81.

His play Camp Comedy (published in The Theatre of the Holocaust, Volume 2, edited by Robert Skloot in 1999), was performed in New York in 2003. The play focuses on German actor and director Kurt Gerron, who was forced by the Nazis to make a propaganda film about Theresienstadt in order to deceive visiting Red Cross officials. He also featured in Kurt Gerrons Karussell (1999), a documentary film directed by Austrian Jewish documentary filmmaker Ilona Ziok starring Ute Lemper.

He has also written plays for television and radio.

Other activities

In addition to his theatre work, Kift has also written three travel guides and published a children's book.

He is the English translator of plays by Patrick Süskind, Heinar Kipphardt, and others.

Personal life

Kift moved to Berlin in 1979 to join his partner Dagmar, who was studying there. He was married to historian Dagmar Kift for over 25 years, before her death in 2020.

Works (selection)

References