Kicking Against the Pricks

The plays and films produced by Oscar Lewenstein have been major formative experiences for most people over forty and now constitute a vital legacy for younger generations. The British premieres of Brecht's Threepenny Opera and Ionesco's Rhinoceros with Laurence Olivier directed by Orson Welles; A Taste of Honey and The Hostage from Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop; Peter O'Toole in The Long and the Short and the Tall and Albert Finney in Billy Liar and Luther; the first sightings in Britain of the work of Jean Genet and Brian Friel; and the premieres of Joe Orton's Loot and What the Butler Saw - all were Oscar Lewenstein productions, while his films include The Knack and the Oscar-winning Tom Jones.
His autobiography, with its apt Ortonesque title, reveals a thoroughly unorthodox individual. Born into a middle-class Jewish family, he became an ardent Young Communist, which led him to Unity Theatre, which led in turn to the Royal Court. His story throws direct light on one of the least understood jobs in showbiz: the producer. Two examples of his behind-the-scenes influence stand for many more. It was Lewenstein who, as General Manager, suggested the appointment of George Devine to head up the Royal Court, thereby setting in train nothing less than the revolution in the theatre whose first shots were fired in 1956 by Look Back in Anger. And in 1967 it was Lewenstein's driver who discovered Joe Orton beaten to death when he arrived to pick him up for a meeting with Oscar to discuss the screenplay Orton wrote for the Beatles.