Casper Wrede

Baron Casper Gustaf Kenneth Wrede af Elimä, known as Caspar Wrede (8 February 1929 – 25 September 1998), was a Finnish theatre and film director. He was long active in the English theatre, co-founding the Royal Exchange theatre company in Manchester. 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. He was born in Viipuri, Finland, and was the nephew of actor Gerda Wrede. He died in Helsinki, Finland, in 1998. 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 ...