Roy Kift read French and Romance studies at the University of Wales in Aberystwyth, graduating with a BA in 1964. Between 1965 and 1968 he followed an acting course at the Drama Centre London. This was followed by acting seasons in Sheffield, Newcastle, London and Amsterdam. Since 1970 he has devoted his life mainly to writing and translating theatre plays and other texts, with a few excursions in directing and acting. His works include theatre plays, travel guides and children's books. He translates from French, German and Italian into English. Amongst the best-known authors he has translated are Molière, Goldoni, Patrick Süskind and Heinar Kipphardt. Roy Kift contributes regular articles and criticism to the New York theatre magazine "Western European Stages". Roy Kift was married to the social historian Dagmar Kift and has two daughters. He currently lives in the state of North Rhine Westphalia, Germany.
1978: Land of Hope and Glory. Theatre Royal Stratford East
1980: Stärker als Superman. World Premiere: GRIPS Theatre, Berlin
1981: Stronger than Superman. Unicorn Theatre, London
1984: Joy, Opera libretto. Composer: Susanne Erding. World premiere. Kiel Opera House, Germany
1992: Dreams of Beating Time. Holocaust play on Wilhelm Furtwängler and his former colleagues in the Theresienstadt concentration camp
1999: Camp Comedy. The production was invited to the prestigious Warsaw Theatre Meeting in April 2013 and was later awarded the Grand Prix at the XXIV "Bez Granic" International Theatre Festival in Cieszyn.
2005: Cathedral of Heresies. S. Fischer Verlag
2010: Nothing. Stage adaptation of Janne Teller’s novel for young people.
2011: The True Story of Adam and Eve as personally dictated by God Almighty, the Creator of Heaven and Earth to his prophet Moses between 2.41 pm on the 28th May and 9.27 am on 3 June 1423 BC and later published in a condensed version in the Book of Genesis for the salvation of humanity.
2011: The Day God went on Facebook, a satirical comedy in 2 Acts.
2013: One, Two, Free, a play for two persons about the performance of Verdi's Requiem in the Theresienstadt Ghetto in 1944.
Franz, Anna und die Zechengeister. Klartext Verlag, Essen 1997,
Travel guides
Tour the Ruhr. 4th edition, Klartext Verlag, Essen 2011,
The Wupper Valley. Wuppertal, Solingen, Remscheid and the Bergisch Land. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2005,
Düsseldorf, Aachen and the Lower Rhine. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2008,
The Complete Ruhrgebiet Klartext Verlag, Essen,2018.
Teaching activities
Roy Kift has lectured and taught at institutions like Tel-Aviv University, Glasgow University, the City University of New York in Geneseo, the Institut Francaise in London, Drama Centre London, the Fritz-Kirchhoff Theaterschule in Berlin, and the University of Cambridge.
Articles and lectures on theatre
"Getting to Grips with children’s theatre". In: Theatre Quarterly, Vol X, no 39. 1981
Hoping for the Unexpected: The Theatre of Peter Zadek. In: New Theatre Quarterly, Vol. 1, 1985
Reality and Illusion in the Theresienstadt Cabaret. In: Claude Schumacher : Staging the Holocaust. The Shoah in drama and performance.Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1998,, pp. 147–168
Singing in the Face of Death. A Study of Jewish Cabaret and Opera during the Holocaust. In: Rebecca Rovit/Alvin Goldberg : Theatrical Performance in the Holocaust. Texts, Documents, Memoirs. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore et al. 1999,, pp. 125–132
Film work
1984: ARD. Director: Unter deutschen Dächern. Teure Freunde 2006: Narrator in Ilona Ziok's documentary film Kurt Gerrons Karussell 2015: "The Cabaret of Death", Gold Medal New York Arts Festival 2015. Prix Italia, 2015
