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George Devine, a highly influential theatrical manager, was born on November 20, 1910, in London to Georgios Devine, of half-Greek and half-Irish descent, and Ruth Eleanor Cassady, who was Irish-Canadian. While studying history at Oxford University, he joined the renowned Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), becoming its president in 1932. During a production of "Romeo and Juliet" directed by John Gielgud, sponsored by OUDS, he met his future wife, Sophie Devine (also known as "Sophie Harris"), whose sister Margaret was part of "The Motley," a London design team responsible for the costumes. George and Sophie married on October 27, 1939, after several years of living together.
After graduating, George joined Sophie in London and pursued acting, appearing in several of Gielgud’s productions and managing The Motley’s business affairs. In 1936, he co-founded the London Theatre Studio, and by 1939, he was directing, including an adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations (1946) featuring Alec Guinness. He also acted in an early BBC television production of Shakespeare’s "Twelfth Night" as Sir Toby Belch.
During World War II, Devine served in the Royal Artillery, stationed in India and Burma. After the war, he returned to London and co-founded the Old Vic Theatre School and the Young Vic Company, though he resigned in 1948, halting the Young Vic until 1970. Despite this setback, Devine’s reputation as a leading theater and opera director remained strong. He directed and acted at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, later known as the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Tony Richardson, another Oxford alumnus, began collaborating with Devine after casting him in a TV adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s "Curtain Down." Sharing Devine’s vision to transform English theater, they co-founded the English Stage Company, aiming to create a theater that prioritized writers. In his unfinished autobiography, Devine described his mission: "I was not strictly after a popular theater... but a theater that would be part of the intellectual life of the country... I was convinced the way to achieve my objective was to get writers, writers of serious pretensions, back into the theater. This I set out to do. I wanted to change the attitude of the public towards the theater..."
The English Stage Company launched its first season in 1956 at the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square, starting with Angus Wilson's "The Mulberry Bush," which, along with the next two productions, failed. However, the fourth play, John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger" (1959), directed by Richardson, was a groundbreaking success that revolutionized English theater as Devine and Richardson had intended. The Royal Court quickly became the leading English-language theater for a decade, nurturing top writers and directors.
"Look Back in Anger" propelled the careers of Richardson and Osborne. When Richardson later directed the Oscar-winning film adaptation of Henry Fielding's "Tom Jones" (1963), with a screenplay by Osborne, he cast Devine as Squire Allworthy, Tom’s benefactor. Osborne’s 1965 play, "A Patriot for Me," significantly impacted the English Stage Company and Devine. The play, addressing the blackmail of Austro-Hungarian officer Colonel Redl—a homosexual and possibly Jewish man in a pre-World War I society rife with homophobia and anti-Semitism—faced censorship from The Lord Chamberlain, Britain’s theatrical censor. To obtain a license, the Royal Court was required to make extensive cuts that would have removed half the play, according to actor Alan Bates during a 1983 BBC interview about the play’s revival. Osborne and the English Stage Company refused.
Denied a public exhibition license, the Royal Court Theatre converted into a private club to stage the play, as presenting it publicly with the required cuts was impossible. "A Patriot for Me" won The Evening Standard Best Play of the Year award (as did Devine’s later play, "The Hotel in Amsterdam," in 1968), though it was a critical success that resulted in financial losses for the English Stage Company.
George Devine was performing in "A Patriot for Me" when he suffered a heart attack that caused his death on January 20, 1966, at age 55.
