Errol DURBACH

Errol Durbach died peacefully in his home on July 10, 2024. Born in 1941 in small-town South Africa, Errol left for Cambridge University on a scholarship to pursue graduate work in literature. He landed his first academic job at the University of Manitoba, but soon moved to the University of British Columbia where he spent a long career first in the English Department and then in the Department of Theatre and Film. A scholar of modern drama, and a self-described "tragedy guy," Errol was internationally renowned for his work on Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Errol was a riveting lecturer and a beloved teacher. He succeeded in engaging every student, even those, in fact especially those, who thought a theatre course would be an easy credit. Many theatre goers are in the theatres today because of his inspired teaching. To bring the plays alive for his students he took to the stage as an actor. This allowed him to gain and impart a fresh perspective on dramatic texts, as well as to have great fun playing characters as different as Karl Marx and Lady Bracknell. He was the recipient of the Dorothy Somerset Award for Excellence in Performance and Development in the Visual and Performing Arts and the Dean of Arts Award for excellence in teaching and administration. In the later part of his career and in his retirement, Errol turned his hand to adaptations, transforming novels into plays and reworking known dramas to make them relevant to new generations of audiences. Nothing was more real, nothing more truthful to him than the theatre, which he attended regularly even up through the last weeks of his life. His home life was equally rich. He loved to cook: almost no shirt in his closet was unstained by turmeric. He collected art: almost no blank space was left on his walls. He loved new fiction, old movies, the TLS, and spending time with his large circle of friends, both old and new. Even more than mango ice cream, sweet chili sauce, and sugar-free lollipops, he adored his family. He was married to his childhood sweetheart, Edna (known to friends as Oona), for 60 years. Having met at the age of six, they had a long and sweet life together. His children, Andrey and Nadja, will miss him terribly; as will his grandchildren, Miles and Finn; his sister, Miriam; and their extended families. In Errol's memory, please attend your local theatres as often as you can. Join us in celebrating Errol's life at The Frederic Wood Theatre on the UBC Campus at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 31st.