Adele Änggård (née Hankey; 31 July 1933 – 3 November 2023) was a Swedish-British stage and costume designer whose career spanned some of the most significant major stages across Europe and Scandinavia. In parallel she actively pursued archeology and writing, and in later life contributed new interpretations on early European civilizations.
Änggård had a long and prolific career in theatre, contributing to some 80 productions between 1957 and 2000. Her designs were often noted for an essential simplicity, which integrated the visual part of a performance with the drama and acting as a whole.[1]
In parallel to her theatre career she developed a lifetime interest in ancient Greece and archaeology, starting in childhood with archaeologist Vronwy Hankey, a Minoan and Mycenae specialist and included visits to the caves of Altamira and Lascaux. Later, as an extension of her theatrical career – so as to better understand Greek play scripts – she studied archaeology at Södertörn University, receiving a bachelor's degree.
Following extensive research, she published A Humanitarian Past[12] in 2016. The book adds a sophisticated social dimension to early European history, and challenges modern conceptualizations of the earliest European ancestors as being underdeveloped and prehistoric art as primitive.[13]
Death
Adele Änggård died on 3 November 2023, at the age of 90.[14]
