Glyn Hughes 1931 - 2014

271 Glyn stayed in Cyprus during the dreadful summer of 1974 and moved again, this time to a house on the Green Line in Nicosia, in the street where he had lived in the 1950s (now under the name of an EOKA hero, and scarred by burnt-out cars and roofless houses). It was Markos Drakos Street, where he stayed for the next twenty years, for seven of which he never once visited the UK. They were, however, very productive years for painting and theatrework. Nearby was the Cyprus National Theatre (THOC), the British Council and the Goethe Institute, and he designed productions for all three. He began a column for the English-language newspaper Cyprus Mail called The Cultural Landcape because he felt that a country with a strong arts scene would not go under. Up until shortly before his death, as arts editor at the Cyprus Weekly , the artist said his aim was to encourage, rather than knock, his fellow artists. Until 1975, his designs were mostly minimal for studio productions relying on essential props (Pinter’s The Birthday Party, Ionesco’s The Chairs and John Hopkins’ This Story of Yours , with an aluminum set), although the operetta Hansel and Gretel , by German composer Engelbert Humperdinck , performed at the Goethe Institute had a complete revolving set of embroidered batik. For the Silver Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II in 1977, he used batik and appliqué again for a room-wide curtain at the British Council offices in Nicosia, representing their London Spring Gardens’ headquarters and its immediate surroundings. This included Trafalgar Square and Nelsons’s Column (with Cypriot Syllabary on its base) and abstract zones based on the shapes of London architecture. In 1981, Glyn made shadow puppets for Moll , a play based on an etching by William Hogarth , The Harlot’s Progress (1731). In 1983, he designed and directed Olivia Courts , which was inspired during a workshop, where, as Glyn says, “he discovered contemporary nuance in a Cypriot- orientated adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. ” Both of these plays were for the British Council. In 1975, Glyn began a long working partnership with the then East German director, Heinz-Uwe Haus, which continued for many, many years. Haus was directing Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure for the Cypriot National Theatre and after visiting Glen’s studio and seeing his paintings and fabrics, immediately asked the artist to design both set and costumes. Glyn says “he was given remarkable freedom”; he painted a backcloth of a city in turmoil and made a huge muslin batik of Shakespeare’s London for the proscenium arch, through which, with different lighting, the audience could see the backcloth and Glyn Hughes: An amazing set designer