Ruth Leon recommends: Moss – Bernard Kops

  Bernard Kops was one of the great post-war Jewish playwrights, poets and novelists, and he died a year ago this week at the age of 97.
His first play,The Hamlet of Stepney Green, was produced at the Oxford Playhouse in 1957, one of the keystones of the  ‘New Wave’ in British ‘kitchen sink’ drama

Born in the East End of London, the son of Dutch-Jewish immigrants,  Kops wrote extensively for radio and television as well as poetry, autobiography, several novels, and a memoir of the East End. He loved to travel and wrote fascinating travel articles about his trips to China and the United States.

Here is a full-length production of his touching 1975 play Moss, from the BBC Play For Today series, about a miser who only love is his grandson. Then tragedy strikes and Moss is “reborn”.

If you happen to be in London on Sunday there’s a whole evening devoted to Bernard Kops by the people who knew him best, the actors, writers and directors who worked with him and loved him. Several were in the original productions of his plays. One treat is the appearance of the great British actress, Thelma Ruby,  about to turn 100, which certainly won’t stop her.

The Bernard Kops celebration is on Sunday, 16 th February  at JW3, 341-345 Finchley Road, London NW3 6ET. Tickets from jw3.org.uk or 0207 433 8988    

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