Partner George Goetschius
Queer Places:
9 Lower Mall, London W6 9DJ, UK
Tyn y Pant, Builth Wells, Powys, LD2 3PB, UK
Donald Howarth (5 November 1931 – 24 March 2020) was a playwright and theatre director. Howarth enjoyed a nearly fifty-year relationship with American LSE academic George Goetschius and entered into a civil partnership with him in February 2006 shortly after their introduction in the UK.
After training at Esme Church's Northern Theatre School in Bradford, he worked in various repertory theatres around England before writing his first play, Sugar in the Morning, which was selected by George Devine for performance at the Royal Court Theatre in 1959. Ian McKellen's first starring role in London's West End was in Howarth's third play, A Lily in Little India, and his fourth play, Three Months Gone starred Diana Dors.[1]
Goetschius's relationship with Tony Richardson ended in 1959, when Richardson moved out of Lower Mall to live with the actor Vanessa Redgrave, whom he would marry a few years later. Goetschius took on the tenancy of the top-floor flat, and was joined there a few months later by Donald Howarth. They lived for most of their life together in George Devine's old Thameside house in London, theatre director Peter Gill sharing part of the property for many years.
Donald Howarth is mentioned in the diary of Joe Orton when Orton visited Peter Gill. In 2004 Goetschius became a cherished resident at Galsworthy House, Richmond, Surrey, and in February 2006 his almost 50-year relationship with Howarth was legalised in a civil partnership, a joyful occasion enlivened by champagne and a wedding cake provided by Galsworthy House. Goetschius was buried in the garden at Tyn y Pant on November 5, 2006, Donald Howarth's birthday, where his warmth, generosity and concern was remembered by his closest friends with champagne, pumpkin pie, a bonfire and fireworks.
After Goetschius's death, Donald Howarth split his time between London and his countryside property in Wales, in the garden of which George Goetschius was buried.
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