Andy Taylor is writing a biography of English playwright and screenwriter Anthony Shaffer,  to be published next year. 

Researching for a biography can often feel like finding your way through an endless maze of facts, dates and figures, with paths leading you in circles or dead ends on your quest to find the treasure.

The biography in question is a book I’m writing about the award-winning playwright Anthony Shaffer, and the treasure, in this instance, was production information about a film he had written called Absolution, a dark, psychological thriller starring Richard Burton, Dominic Guard, Dai Bradley and Billy Connolly (in his first feature film.)

Based on a stage play written by Shaffer in 1970, Absolution was eventually filmed in 1978, but due to financial and distribution problems, saw a minimal release and was soon forgotten about. It wasn’t released in the U.S until 1988 and went under the title Murder By Confession.

Anthony Shaffer is most famous for his stage and film versions of the twisting thriller Sleuth, as well as writing Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy and the original version of The Wicker Man, now regarded as a cult-classic. He also went on to adapt Agatha Christie’s Death On The Nile, Evil Under The Sun and Appointment With Death for the big screen, all of which feature Peter Ustinov as the Belgian sleuth, Hercule Poirot, and an all-star cast of suspects.

Anthony’s twin brother, Peter Shaffer, also an award-winning playwright, wrote many plays for stage and screen including The Royal Hunt Of The Sun, Equus and Amadeus.

While researching my way through this biographical maze, I found details of a collection of Natasha Kroll archives being held at the University Of Brighton – Design Archives. Natasha Kroll was the Production Designer on Absolution and has a long history in film and television, with an impressive list of production credits for many plays and dramas for the BBC and ITV.

The details about the collection on the Design Archives website were very informative, easy to navigate and arranging to visit the archive was also an easy and trouble-free process.

I was made welcome when I arrived at the University, and found the staff had already set up the collection ready for me to view. I must add that Jen Grasso, the Digital Content Systems Co-Ordinator, was happy to answer any questions I had and chat about the University and its work, which was both informative and interesting. I had no idea the University is the home to so many great collections of various artists, architects, graphic designers and painters whose work has now been made available for historians, researchers and students.

So, there I was, sat with this amazing collection of Natasha Kroll’s own original production documents for her work on Absolution. I had found the treasure!

Although I had seen some production and promotional material for Absolution, what makes this collection unique is it contains records that were only relevant to Natasha Kroll and her role as Production Designer. The collection contained original detailed plans and blue-prints of the film sets, handwritten notes, film schedules, original scripts, cast and crew call sheets and records of filming locations and dates. All this was a valuable source of information which enabled me to put together an accurate chronology of the film, from the pre-production stage to the final days of filming. In fact, the collection was able to clarify details I hadn’t been able to confirm and also provide new insights I hadn’t known before. Not only were the documents informative, but they made interesting reading and gave a real sense of what the production process for Absolution involved.

Viewing the collection at the Design Archives has been, without doubt, the most informative and important source of research for my project. I will forever be grateful to Jen Grasso for her invaluable help, and the staff and the University Of Brighton for generously sharing it and making it available for others. May their great work be ongoing for many years to come.

I would highly recommend using the University Of Brighton Design Archives to other researchers, biographers or students looking for their own treasure in their maze of research.