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Silvion Oscar Lewenstein

Lewenstein, Silvion Oscar (1917-1997), Theatre Director

Silvion Oscar Lewenstein was born in Hackney, London on 18 January 1917 to Arthur Lewenstein and Mary Convisser. His father was Jewish and emigrated to Britain from Russia in 1907 to escape Russian antisemitism. During Lewenstein’s childhood his family lived in Brighton and the Isle of Wight. They moved back to London in 1932 and Lewenstein studied at the Central School, Hackney. He left school early in order to support his family financially and was employed doing clerical work.

In 1936 Lewenstein became an assistant at the Worker's Bookshop. He was a member of the Young Communist League where he organised national relief projects, such as supplying food to Spanish republicans. On 19 February 1938 Lewenstein and Clara Peissel (1918/19–1953), a member of the Young Communist League, were married.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Lewenstein joined the Pioneer Corps, a subdivision of the British Army responsible for logistical operations and engineering. In 1943 he became an instructor at an army school where he taught illiterate soldiers to read and write. By the end of the war he has achieved the position of sergeant-instructor. 

Post war, Lewenstein took a job working for Glasgow Unity Theatre. This was a co-operative of theatre groups promoting socialist dramas. Over the next five years Lewenstein gained theatre experience at Unity as a manager. In 1951 he moved on to be a manager of the Embassy Theatre in London. In 1952 Lewenstein took the role of Artistic Director at the Royal Court Theatre owned by Alfred Esdaile and became the General Manager in 1953. Meanwhile, Lewenstein and Clara had divorced in 1946 and Lewenstein remarried in June 1952 to Eileen Mawson (1925-2005). They had two sons together.

In 1954 Ronald Duncan, a playwright and friend of Lewenstein, contacted Lewenstein. Duncan wanted to create a theatre company dedicated to the showing of non-commercial plays. Lewenstein and Duncan shared extensive correspondence concerning this endeavour. Later that year, Lewenstein and Duncan, along with the organisers of the Taw and Torridge Festival of the Arts in Devon, founded the English Stage Company (ESC).

In the early days of the ESC, Lewenstein successfully secured George Devine as the ESC’s first Artistic Director by approaching him at Westminster Theatre, where Devine was acting in ‘Hedda Gabler’. Lewenstein was also active in the ESC’s leasing of the Royal Court, where the company was based from 1956. The ESC established itself as a theatre for writers, often showing challenging and serious plays. From the ESC’s start, Lewenstein was a prominent figure, being on the council and a member of the artistic and finance committees.

From 1955-6 Lewenstein negotiated the rights to Bretolt Brecht’s ‘The Threepenny Opera’ for the ESC. He staged the play’s British premiere at the Royal Court in 1956 and oversaw its transfer to the West End. Outside of the ESC, Lewenstein also worked at Joan’s Littlewood Theatre Workshop. On behalf of Littlewood, Lewenstein met Brecht in Berlin in 1955 to obtain rights to stage the first British production of ‘Mother Courage and her Children’. This was staged in London and at the 1955 Torridge and Taw Festival. 

The 1960s saw Lewenstein begin working in the film industry. He helped produce
‘Tom Jones’ (1963), ‘The Girl with Green Eyes’ (1964) and ‘The Knack’ (1965). He then enjoyed a partnership with director, Tony Richardson, and they made together ‘Mademoiselle’ (1967), ‘The Sailor from Gibraltar’ (1967), and ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ (1968).

In 1970 Lewenstein became Chairman of the ESC. He often played peacemaker between his colleagues’ clashing personalities. Lewenstein became the ESC’s Artistic Director in 1972 and he sought to expand the range of plays being shown. He wanted to show plays which addressed broader themes and social issues. In his role Lewenstein staged work by playwrights including Arnold Wesker, Edward Bond, Caryl Churchill and Athol Fugard.

Lewenstein held a ‘Joe Orton season’ at the Royal Court in 1975. ‘Entertaining Mr Sloane’ was staged and Lewenstein oversaw its successful transfer to the West End. Lewenstein and Orton were friends and the pair had been in discussions about working together on a film in 1967 before Orton was murdered. 

In the summer of 1975 Lewenstien’s three year contract as Artistic Director came to an end. He had recently tried to instigate moving the company’s base from the Royal Court to the Old Vic but he had been out voted by the artistic committee. Richard Kidd and Nicholas Wright took over as Co-Artistic Directors and Lewenstein remained on the council. In 1977 Lewenstein expressed his desire for the ESC council to elect its members as a co-operative. Again, Lewenstein’s idea was unpopular and he resigned. Nonetheless, he continued to occasionally produce plays at the ESC in the following years.

Lewenstein’s most recent work was producing Alan Clarke's film adaptation of ‘Rita, Sue and Bob Too’ (1987). In 1994 he published his memoirs ‘Kicking Against the Pricks: a Theatre Producer Looks Back’. He died in his own home in Brighton on 23 February 1997, aged 80.