Robert David MacDonald

Robert David MacDonald (1929 - May 19 2004), was a Scottish playwright, translator and theatre director.

Work as a Theatre Director

Born in Elgin, Scotland, and originally trained as a musician, Robert David MacDonald spent some years as a translator for UNESCO before becoming assistant director at Glyndebourne and the Royal Opera at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Works as a Playwright

In 1971, he became a Co-Artistic Director of the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, until his retirement in May 2003. During that time, he directed fifty productions and wrote fifteen plays for the company including "The De Sade Show" (1975), "Chinchilla" (1977), "Summit Conference" (1978 – later seen in the West End with Glenda Jackson, Georgina Hale and Gary Oldman), "A Waste of Time"(1980), "Don Juan" (1980), "Webster" (1983), "In Quest of Conscience" (1994), "Britannicus" (2002) and "Cheri" (2003).

Works as a Translator

MacDonald translated over seventy plays and operas from ten different languages including "The Threepenny Opera", "Tamerlano", "The Flight From The Harem", "The Barber of Seville", "Aida", Beaumarchais' "Figaro", Cocteau's "Orpheus" and "The Human Voice", Dürrenmatt's "Conversation at Night", Fassbinder's "Shadow of Angels", Genet's "The Balcony", "The Blacks" and "The Screens", Gogol's "The Government Inspector", Goethe's "Tasso" and "Faust" I and II, twelve of Goldoni's plays, Ibsen's "Brand" and "Hedda Gabler", Lermontov's "Maskerade", Lorca's "The House of Bernarda Alba", Molière's "School for Wives" and "Don Juan", Pirandello's "Enrico Four", Racine's "Phedra", Schiller's "Mary Stuart", "Joan of Arc" and "Don Carlos", Chekhov's "The Seagull", Verne's "Round The World In Eighty Days", Wedekind's "Lulu" and Gœthe’s "Clavigo".

His adaptation of "War and Peace" by his former teacher Erwin Piscator ran for two seasons on Broadway and received an Emmy award when shown on U.S television.

His translations of Rolf Hochhuth include his works "The Representative", "Soldiers" and "Judith".

MacDonald also adapted Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice", a hugely successful production that has been performed in Britain, Europe and the USA.

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