Lives remembered: Theatre director Michael Bogdanov 1938-2017

MICHAEL Bogdanov was a distinguished theatre director who moved from the review section on to the front pages when his 1980 production of Howard Brenton’s The Romans In Britain resulted in a private prosecution.

Michael BogdanovGETTY

Michael Bogdanov was a distinguished theatre director

Morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse accused him of “procuring an act of gross indecency” for simulating a male rape on stage. 

The prosecution was later dropped with Whitehouse’s barrister saying: “The consequences of conviction, irrespective of penalty, would greatly damage Mr Bogdanov in his personal and professional life.” 

In fact it appeared Whitehouse’s main witness, her solicitor, had not seen the tip of a male member, as he said he had, but an actor’s thumb. 

Michael Bogdin was born in Neath, South Wales, to a Ukrainian father who was an expert in Aramaic languages and who helped to translate the Dead Sea Scrolls. 

His Welsh mother came from a Left-leaning mining family. He was educated at the John Lyon School, London, and Trinity College, Dublin and spent some time in Germany and France before joining the BBC, having changed his name because so many people mispronounced it. 

The Romans in BritainGETTY

His production of The Romans in Britain resulted in a private prosecution

Michael BogdanovGETTY

The prosecution was later dropped

He then worked for Irish broadcaster RTÉ and for BBC Wales, before moving into theatre. 

Bogdanov’s style of directing was contentious: he liked to shock his audience. 

He worked on eight productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company, including a performance of The Taming Of The Shrew which featured a motorcycle and military bands (it won him director of the year award in 1979) before moving to the National Theatre as associate director. 

The Romans In Britain was his first production at his new home. 

There was a political dimension behind the furore as Brenton had just written a vicious skit about Thatcherism for the Theatre Royal Stratford East which was so unpleasant that the arts minister Norman St John-Stevas apologised to the Commons that public funding had gone into it. 

Whatever Brenton did next was bound to cause a row. “At the time,” said Bogdanov, “it was like being plucked up in the steel jaws of some puritanical JCB. 

My family and I moved soon afterwards to escape the abusive phone calls, the illiterate, obscene, anonymous letters, threats to get me and get my family, burn my house down, put dog mess through the letter box.” 

The Romans in BritainGETTY

A scene from play

He survived and in 1988, with actor Michael Pennington, founded the English Shakespeare Company, which staged all the Bard’s Henry plays and the acclaimed sevenplay cycle The Wars Of The Roses, for which he secured the 1990 Laurence Olivier Award for best director. 

He went on to tour internationally, set up the Wales Theatre Company of which he became artistic director and continued to work extensively in Wales and Germany. 

He was married twice, to Patricia Ann Warwick and Ulrike Engelbrecht, who survives him, as do his five children. 

He died of a heart attack.

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