Playwright and Drama Critic Charles Marowitz Dies at 80

Playwright, director, and drama critic Charles Marowitz has died at the age of 80 after battling Parkinson's disease, the Los Angeles Times reports.

A New York native, Marowitz was born on January 26, 1934, and was the son of Polish Jewish immigrants. Growing up in a Yiddish-speaking household, he caught the theater bug early on when he began writing plays in elementary school after being taught English by older siblings. In his late teens, he started reviewing plays for the Village Voice.

Working within the theater industry, Marowitz was the cofounder of London's experimental Open Space Theatre and frequently collaborated with Peter Brook and the Royal Shakespeare Company. He moved to Los Angeles in the 1980s, where he worked with the Los Angeles Actors' Theatre, and later founded the Malibu Stage Company. He became known for his subversive adaptations of classics including Ibsen's An Enemy of the People and many works of Shakespeare. Those adaptations were published in a book titled The Marowitz Shakespeare.

Marowitz saw one of his plays performed on Broadway, 1987's Sherlock's Last Case, which starred Frank Langella and played 124 performances. In 1972, his translation of Fernando Arrabal's And They Put Handcuffs on the Flowers played 48 performances at the Mercer Arts Center, a venue now known as The Kitchen.

He is survived by his wife, actress Jane Windsor-Marowitz, and their son, Kostya.