Caspar Wrede
Baron Casper Gustaf Kenneth Wrede af Elimä, known as Caspar Wrede (8 February 1929 in Viipuri, Finland – 25 September 1998 in Helsinki, Finland), was a Finnish theatre and film director. Early life. Casper Wrede came from a noble Finnish family of Livonian origin, which owned large estates mainly in eastern Finland between the 17th and 19th centuries, and had been created barons in 1652 by Queen Christina. Career. In 1951 he left Finland and enrolled at the Old Vic Theatre School in London run by the French director Michel Saint-Denis. He was much influenced by Saint-Denis  and his ideas had a great effect on the theatre companies that Wrede helped establish. In 1956 he was involved with the setting up of the Piccolo Theatre company in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester (which only survived for a year) and in 1959 he founded the 59 Theatre Company, based at the Lyric Theatre (Hammersmith). Michael Elliott was appointed assistant artistic director and, although short-lived, the company achieved considerable success with productions of "Brand", "Little Eyolf" and "Danton's Death". During this time Wrede also directed both the stage debut of Alun Owen's play "The Rough and Ready  Lot" and its 1959 television adaptation. Wrede and Elliott went on to run a season of plays at the Old Vic in 1961. At the same time as his theatre work in the fifties, he directed a number of plays for television including episodes of "ITV Television Playhouse" and "ITV Play of the Week". He also started to direct films which he continued to do through the sixties, including a screen version of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" with Tom Courtenay. In 1967 Wrede and Michael Elliott agreed to direct productions for Braham Murray ’s Century Theatre at Manchester University and in 1968 the three of them set up the 69 Theatre Company also at the University where they produced plays until 1972. The group started to look for a permanent theatre in Manchester. They were joined by Richard Negri, a colleague and friend of Wrede's since the Old Vic School who was to design the new theatre, and the actor James Maxwell and in 1973 a temporary theatre, The Tent, was installed in the disused Royal Exchange in Manchester. The success of The Tent led to the decision being taken to build  the new theatre inside the Royal Exchange. Wrede directed one of the two opening productions in September 1976, "The Prince of Homburg". He went on to direct over 20 productions during the next 15 years. He resigned from the company in 1990 and eventually moved back to Finland with his second wife, Karen Bang, a friend since childhood. Theatre productions. His productions include: