Barry Russell

Theatre historian who early spotted the internet's potential

Barry Russell, French theatre historian and website designer: born Halifax, Yorkshire 27 June 1943; Research Fellow, School of Languages, Oxford Brookes University 1997-2002, Reader in French and Theatre Studies 2002-2003, Director of Research Funding 2002-2003; married 1972 Nicola Anderson (one daughter; marriage dissolved 1983); died Oxford 10 February 2003.

Barry Russell combined his knowledge of French theatre and his innovative computing skills to create the first theatre-history websites, and in doing so influenced the future of academic research in this field.

Russell never felt he fitted into working-class Halifax where he was born in 1943. A bright child, he ran away from home at 16. Two years later, he joined the Army and was drafted into the Intelligence Corps. But after three weeks he was dismissed as a suspected subversive for receiving socialist and Marxist literature.

His love of theatre was kindled at the Oval House Arts Centre in London where he spent his spare time in the late 1960s. He left his primary-school teaching job to join the touring company Les Tréteaux Libres in Geneva as administrator. There he learned fluent French. He then started a French degree at Warwick University.

During the summer of 1972 he worked for Time Out magazine as Theatre Editor and met the theatre publicist Nicola Anderson. After their marriage they set off overland to India to research alternative travel guides. It was typical of Russell that he drove their VW van with no driving licence but took a trunk of books, and was convinced that their Italian sponsor was a CIA agent.

Back in England Russell finished his degree with a First, and began research in Paris on French fairground theatre, which led in 1980 to a lectureship in Theatre Studies at Warwick University. Hedda Beeby, now the general manager of Ambassador Theatre Group, was one of his students: "He taught with a mischievous glint in his eye that made you feel there was fun to be had in learning if you were up to the challenge."

In 1983 he left Warwick and set up a touring theatre company. When that folded, he roamed the Far East, joined by his daughter, Liberty, in school holidays. Returning to Britain after witnessing the 1992 student massacre in Bangkok, he lived on the dole and applied his phenomenal intelligence to creative use of information technology. One of the first individual subscribers to the web, he devised the enviable email address "br@inwave. demon". Rarely seen in daylight, he worked with energy and determination on a diet of black coffee and roll-ups.

In 1995 Oxford Brookes University appointed him Research Fellow in the School of Languages. Professor Jeffrey S. Ravel of Massachusetts Institute of Technology says: "Barry recognised the exciting possibilities of computing in the humanities, and the democratising potential of the internet." His 1996 "Théâtres de la Foire" website included a calendar of 17th-century spectacles, with unknown plays and documents. Nathalie Rizzoni of the Sorbonne in Paris recalls:

Russell was one of the first people to discover the importance of fairground theatre in 18th-century France. His lively curious spirit was enchanted by these "unrecognised" plays. A visionary humanist, he dreamed of an international academic community open to all.

The award in 1997 of a British Academy/Arts and Humanities Research Board Institutional Fellowship was the first major recognition of his pioneering IT achievements. This led in 1999 to funding for "Calendrier Electronique des Spectacles sous l'Ancien Régime et sous la Révolution" (césar), a database containing plays, people and places from the time of the first public playhouses in France to the French Revolution, performed, published, or merely described in contemporary documents. The free site was an immediate international success, provoking 3,500 separate requests and delivering 287 megabytes of data in the first week to four continents.

The "WWW Virtual Library for Theatre and Drama" is a comprehensive listing of theatre resources covering more than 50 countries, and includes links to more than 1,000 full-text plays.

Russell never lost his 1960s ideals and was proud that his websites were free, independent and without advertising; and presented with high standards of both grammar and design. In 2002 he was promoted to Director of Research Funding in the School of Languages at Oxford Brookes, collaborating with institutions in Europe and North America.

"He lit up a room with his sparkle, his charm and his intelligence," remembers his daughter Liberty. "He wasn't the kind of dad who sent me to bed but he took me round the world and we never stopped talking about putting the whole world to rights."

He lived life not just on but often over the edge, working even after his diagnosis of bone cancer, and was planning new web projects to the end.

Janie Hampton