Trevor Nunn Biography

Trevor Nunn was educated at Downing College, Cambridge, and in 1962 he won an ABC Director’s Scholarship to the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, where, as resident director, his productions included The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Peer Gynt and a musical version of Around the World in Eighty Days.
He recently returned to the Belgrade to direct a production of Scenes from a Marriage.

In 1964, Trevor joined the RSC, and was made the company’s youngest-ever artistic director in 1968. He was responsible for running the RSC until he retired from his post in 1986. Productions for the RSC included: The Revenger’s Tragedy, The Relapse, The Alchemist, Henry V, The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, The Winter’s Tale, Henry VIII, Hamlet, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, The Comedy of Errors, As You Like It, All’s Well That Ends Well, Once in a Lifetime, Three Sisters, Juno and the Paycock, Othello (the final production at The Other Place Theatre) and The Blue Angel and Measure for Measure (the first two productions in the new Other Place Theatre).

With his colleague John Caird, he co-directed Nicholas Nickleby (winner of five Tony Awards), J M Barrie’s Peter Pan and Les Misérables which won eight Tony Awards and has become the most performed musical in the world. In 1982, he opened the RSC’s new London home, the Barbican Theatre, with his production of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Parts I and II.
1986 saw the opening of the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon which he conceived and for which he directed one of the first productions, The Fair Maid of the West. In 2007, he returned to the RSC to direct King Lear and The Seagull.

From 1997 to 2003 he was director of the NT, where his productions included: Enemy of the People, Not About Nightingales, Oklahoma!, Betrayal, Troilus and Cressida, The Merchant of Venice, Summerfolk, Albert Speer, The Cherry Orchard, My Fair Lady, The Relapse, South Pacific, A Streetcar Named Desire, Anything Goes and Love’s Labour’s Lost.

He directed the Tony Award-winning Cats, Starlight Express, Aspects of Love, Sunset Boulevard and The Woman in White for Andrew Lloyd Webber, and the world premieres of The Coast of Utopia and Rock ’n’ Roll for Tom Stoppard.

Other theatre includes: Chess, The Baker’s Wife, Timon of Athens, Heartbreak House, The Lady from the Sea (Almeida), Skellig (Young Vic), Acorn Antiques – The Musical!, Hamlet and Richard II (Old Vic), a new musical version of Porgy and Bess (Savoy), Gone with the Wind (New London) and A Little Night Music (Menier, Garrick).

Glyndebourne: Idomeneo, Porgy and Bess, Così fan Tutte and Peter Grimes. Royal Opera House: Porgy and Bess (revival), Katya Kabanova and Sophie’s Choice. Television includes: Antony and Cleopatra (BAFTA Award), The Comedy of Errors, Macbeth, Three Sisters, Nicholas Nickleby (Emmy Award), Othello, Porgy and Bess, Oklahoma! (Emmy Award) and The Merchant of Venice. He has directed three films – Hedda, Lady Jane and Twelfth Night.
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