“The most high-profile director you’ve never heard of.” That’s what the Stage newspaper called Adam Brace late last year, after an annus mirabilis in which he seemingly worked on every great performance I watched. Liz Kingsman’s breakout hit One-Woman Show – that pitch-perfect parody of the Fleabag phenomenon – was one. Haley McGee’s for-the-ages solo show about the shape of our lives, Age Is a Feeling, was another. Throw in Leo Reich’s blazing standup debut, Sh!t Theatre’s Evita Too – and the London revival of Alex Edelman’s off-Broadway hit Just for Us – and you’ve got a man who took the idea of the magic touch to stratospheric levels.
This, then, was a director-dramaturg with the world at his feet, and his death at the age of 43 is a colossal loss. In that Venn diagram where creative comedy meets compelling theatre – where, let’s face it, all the best work is made – his name on the credits was a gold standard. All the more remarkable to think that he came late to his twin passions, directing and dramaturgy, after a perfectly successful initial stint as a playwright. His play Stovepipe was co-produced by the Bush and the National Theatre; its follow-up (his last), They Drink It in the Congo, had a run at the Almeida.
