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Peter O'Shaughnessy OAM (5 October 1923 – 17 July 2013〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Peter O'Shaughnessy profile )〕) was an Australian actor, theatre director, producer and writer who presented the work of playwrights ranging from Shakespeare, Shaw, Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov to modern dramatists, such as Ionesco, Pinter and Beckett. He is best known as mentor to and collaborator with comedian Barry Humphries in his early career. O'Shaughnessy was a major exponent of Samuel Beckett, both in Australia and in Ireland. He produced the first ''Waiting for Godot'' in Australia in 1957. He played Krapp in the Australian premier of ''Krapp's Last Tape'' at the Arts Theatre in Melbourne in 1959. He also toured a second production of Godot in Sydney and Canberra in 1969, and later directed the Irish premières of ''Not I'' (1978), ''Footfalls'' (1978), and ''Rockaby'' (1984), and the unofficial world premiers of ''Theatre I'' and ''Theatre II'' (later published in modified form as ''Rough for Theatre I and II'') in Cambridge in 1977.〔Russell Smith and Chris Akerley,("Samuel Beckett's Reception in Australia and New Zealand" ), The International Reception of Samuel Beckett, London, Continuum 2009, pp 108–128 (Martin Feldman and Mark Dixon eds).〕 O'Shaughnessy was also noted for his one-act performances of ''Diary of a Madman'', adapted from Gogol. In 1968 he co-created an illustrated anthology, ''The Restless Years'', based on his award-winning television program of the same name (not to be confused with the 1977–81 soap opera ''The Restless Years''). After making significant inroads to bring Shakespeare to Australian audiences in the 1960s, his Australian career was cut short after a libelous review published in the ''The Australian'' by Katharine Brisbane. After a trial and an unsuccessful appeal, the case was ultimately determined in the High Court of Australia, where he was vindicated.〔("O'Shaughnessy v. Mirror Newspaper Ltd" ) (1970) 125 CLR 166, austlii.edu.au; at pages 172-77.〕 However, he could no longer work in Australia. In 1970 he left for London and continued to act in and direct Shakespeare in the UK and Ireland. For The British Council he has lectured on the plays of Shakespeare to universities in many countries of Europe, and in West Africa and South America. As a historian, his two books on General Joseph Holt and his book on John Mitchel are significant contributions to Australian/Irish history. ==Collaboration with Barry Humphries== One of O'Shaughnessy's lasting legacies was his mentoring of the young Barry Humphries who has acknowledged that, ''"without O'Shaughnessy's nurturing and promotion, the character of Edna Everage would have been nipped in the bud after 1956 and never come to flower, while the character of Sandy Stone would never have taken shape as a presence on the stage"''.〔Barry Humphries. ''More Please'' (1992) Viking, pp 176–77〕 With O'Shaughnessy's encouragement, the character (Everage) ... developed considerably.〔Richard Stone,("Bunyippy Traits" ), ''National Library of Australia News'' 2003, Vol XIII, No 4, p. 12.〕 In September 1957, he staged the first Australian production of Samuel Beckett's ''Waiting for Godot'' at the Arrow Theatre in Melbourne with himself as Vladimir and Humphries as Estragon. It proved a hit with both audiences and critics. The critic of the Melbourne ''Sun'' wrote "so engrossing and well-done is this extraordinary adventure by Samuel Beckett regimented by Peter O'Shaughnessy's tender care that for me the evening passed by on wings". Later in the same year, O'Shaughnessy planned a production of George Bernard Shaw's ''Pygmalion'' for December, in tandem with a children's play to be performed at matinees. Part of the idea for a bush story involving a bunyip came from Frank Dalby Davison's book ''Children of the Dark People'' in which Old Man Bunyip is a wise guardian of the bush. After rejecting various scripts, O'Shaughnessy, Humphries and two radio scriptwriters, Jeff Underhill and Don Whitelock, produced their own script, which became ''The Bunyip and the Satellite''.〔("Bunyippy Traits" ), pandora.nla.gov.au; accessed 16 April 2015.〕 The children's show was a hit, and Humphries' performance as the Bunyip widely praised. O'Shaughnessy himself wrote that ''"Barry's performance as The Bunyip was the finest and most touching he had ever given in the theatre, and the character very close to his secret heart."'' Humphries described his creation as a "prancing bird-like clown with a falsetto that inevitably got huskier after twelve performances a week". In an interview in the Australian magazine ''Theatre'' in 1960, Humphries went further by linking the bush creature with another of his recent creations, the suburban denizen Edna Everage: 'I notice Mrs Everage sometimes behaves in a slightly Bunyippy way ... she gives a spasmodic leap, which I subsequently recognise as a rather bunyippy trait.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Papers of Peter O'Shaughnessy, [manuscript] )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Peter O'Shaughnessy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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