Zadek, Peter (1926–2009), German director. From 1933 to 1958, Zadek lived in England, where he studied Shakespeare at Oxford and directed extensively. Returning to Germany, he joined with designer Wilfried Minks to develop the Bremen style of theatre. Untraditional, anti-intellectual, and deliberately shocking, Zadek’s productions emphasize non-verbal communication over speech, a priority exemplified by his visceral production of Measure for Measure (1967). Although Jewish himself, Zadek directed The Merchant of Venice (1973) with Hans Mahnke as an extremely unsympathetic Shylock. His famous ‘clown show’ King Lear (1974) was developed through improvisation and intensive ensemble work, a technique he also used for Othello (1976) and Hamlet (1977). His later Hamlet, with Angela Winkler in the title role, was highly acclaimed at the Edinburgh Festival in 2000.
Bradley Ryner
Zeffirelli, Franco (b. 1923), prolific Italian theatre and film director. Zeffirelli directed a visually stylish Romeo and Juliet at the Old Vic in 1960 (with Judi *Dench as Juliet), and his subsequent film version (1968), in which he used young actors and employed a rapid-paced cinematographic style for the fight sequences, was an immediate box-office success. Less widely admired, but no less effective as accessible Shakespeare, was his The Taming of the Shrew (1966), with Richard *Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. His equally mainstream Hamlet (1990), with Mel Gibson, attracted interest and generally favourable response rather than acclaim.
Anthony Davies
Zhu Shenghao (1912–44), a major Chinese translator of Shakespeare, who began his *translation in 1935. Although poverty-stricken and constantly haunted by illness, Zhu managed to render 31 plays before his death: 27 of them were published in 1947. His translation was used as the basis for The Complete Works published in 1978 in Beijing.
Qixin He
Zoffany, Johann (1735–1810), German painter. Zoffany painted numerous portraits of David *Garrick and his contemporaries. Garrick appeared almost annually in Zoffany’s submissions to exhibitions held by the Society of Artists between 1762 and 1766. These portraits, depicting Garrick ‘in character’, were central to the actor’s self-styling as a stage hero. Later portraits such as Mr and Mrs Garrick before the Temple of Shakespeare, 1763 (depicting the couple at their estate in Hampton, Middlesex), characterize the actor as a gentleman of taste and refinement. As upwardly mobile as Garrick, Zoffany went on to win several commissions from the royal family. Many of Zoffany’s ‘stage’ portraits from productions of Shakespeare were engraved and entered mass circulation: these include Garrick and Mrs Pritchard in Macbeth (made into a mezzotint, 1776) and Mr Powell as Posthumus (mezzotint, 1770).
Catherine Tite
Zuccaro, Federico (1543–1609), Italian painter. Zuccaro was active in England in 1573–4, where he painted *Elizabeth and a number of her courtiers: the fact that Shakespeare was a child at the time did not deter certain 19th-century critics from identifying one of Zuccaro’s English portraits as a likeness of the playwright.
Catherine Tite