Heathcote Williams

Playwright, poet and activist, the brilliant Heathcote Williams died in July 2017. His revolutionary AC/DC challenged the shape of theatre in 1970 at the Theatre Upstairs. His works for alternative theatre included The Local Stigmatic, (Traverse, 1966, recently revived at the Old Red Lion), The Immortalist at Oval House and on tour, Hancock’s Last Half Hour for the Almost Free in 1977, while his documentation of Speakers’ Corner was the inspiration for Joint Stock’s first show, The Speakers in 1974. His books Whale Nation, Sacred Elephant and Autogeddon were passionate celebrations of a natural world under attack. He was a wonderful Prospero in Derek Jarman’s film Tempest. Most recently he wrote excoriating denunciations of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump and an exuberant short play, with Sarah Woods, about the squatting movement in the 1970s for Cardboard Citizens’ Home Truths season: The Ruff Tuff Cream Puff Estate Agency. See The Guardian for full obituary