‘Equus’ and ‘Amadeus’ playwright Peter Shaffer dies at 90
Tribute paid to a ‘wickedly funny man’ and sparkling raconteur whose passion for his own art was matched by his love for music, painting and architecture
British playwright Peter Shaffer, whose award-winning hits included Equus and Amadeus, has died. He was 90.
Shaffer’s agent, Rupert Lord, said the playwright died on Monday while on a visit to southwest Ireland with friends and family.
Born in Liverpool in 1926, Shaffer made his London and New York stage debut in 1958 with simmering domestic drama Five Finger Exercise, directed by John Gielgud. He had a huge hit in 1964 with The Royal Hunt of the Sun, a spectacular imagining of the Spanish conquest of Peru that was staged by Britain’s newly founded National Theatre.
Shaffer went on to write many of his plays for the National, from where they often moved on to commercial West End runs and Broadway.
For much of his long career Shaffer achieved the often-elusive goal of combining commercial and critical success, writing thoughtful, cleverly crafted plays that became box-office hits in London and New York.
In 1965, the National Theatre staged Shaffer’s farce Black Comedy with a cast including Maggie Smith and Derek Jacobi.
His 1973 play Equus, about a troubled stable boy who inexplicably blinds horses, won a Tony Award for best play and was filmed in 1977 by director Sidney Lumet with Peter Firth as the boy and Richard Burton as a psychiatrist who tries to help him.