Trevor Nunn

Sir Trevor Robert Nunn (born 14 January 1940) is an English theatre director.

He has been the artistic director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal Haymarket.

In 1962, he directed Macbeth for The Marlowe Society and he directed that year's Footlights.

He also won a director's scholarship, becoming a trainee director at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry.

In 1964, Nunn joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and in 1968 he was appointed artistic director of the RSC, a position he held until 1986 (latterly with Terry Hands from 1978).

His first wife, Janet Suzman, appeared in many of his productions, such as the 1974 televised version of his Antony and Cleopatra.

Nunn directed the RSC production of Macbeth starring Ian McKellen in the title role and Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth in 1976.

Nunn staged the action of the drama with not only the paying audience, but also the audience of all of the actors in the production not in the ongoing scene—they sat on wooden crates just beyond the main playing space.

Nunn became a leading figure in theatrical circles, and was responsible for many significant productions, such as the RSC's version of Dickens's The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, co-directed with John Caird, and a 1976 musical adaptation of the Shakespeare play The Comedy of Errors.

He has directed dramas for the stage, like Macbeth, as well as opera and musicals, such as Cats (1981) and Les Misérables (1985).

Nunn has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play, the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director, and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical, winning Tonys for Cats, Les Misérables, and Nicholas Nickleby and the Olivier Awards for productions of Summerfolk, The Merchant of Venice, Troilus and Cressida, and Nicholas Nickleby.

A director of musicals in the non-subsidised sector, Nunn directed Cats (1981), formerly the longest running musical in Broadway's history, and the first English production of Les Misérables in 1985, also with John Caird, which ran in London until the summer of 2019.

Nunn also directed the little-known 1986 Webber–Rice musical Cricket, at Windsor Castle.

Besides Cats and Les Misérables, Nunn's other musical credits include Starlight Express and Sunset Boulevard.

Stubbs often appears in his productions, including the 1996 Twelfth Night film.

He became artistic director of the Royal National Theatre in September 1997, a position he retained until 2003.

He directed We Happy Few, a play by his second wife Imogen Stubbs, in 2004.

Nunn directed a modern production of Shakespeare's Hamlet in 2004, which starred Ben Whishaw in the title role, and Imogen Stubbs as Gertrude, and was staged at The Old Vic theatre in London.

Later London credits include My Fair Lady, South Pacific (at the Royal National Theatre), The Woman in White, Othello and Acorn Antiques: The Musical! (2005), The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Rock 'n' Roll and Porgy and Bess in 2006 at the Savoy Theatre (an abridged version with dialogue instead of recitatives, unlike Nunn's first production of the opera).

In 2007, he directed the RSC productions of King Lear and The Seagull, which played at Stratford before embarking on a world tour (including the Brooklyn Academy of Music) and then playing at the New London Theatre from November 2007.

The two plays both starred Ian McKellen, Romola Garai, Frances Barber, Sylvester McCoy, and William Gaunt.

In 2008 The Telegraph named him among the most influential people in British culture.

He has also directed works for film and television.

Nunn was born in Ipswich, England, to Dorothy May Piper and Robert Alexander Nunn, a cabinetmaker.

As a small boy he loved reading but his parents had little money for books.

However an aunt had more books, including the complete works of Shakespeare which he read whenever the family visited her.

In the end his aunt gave it to him.

He was educated at Northgate Grammar School, Ipswich, and Downing College, Cambridge.

At Northgate, he had an inspiring English teacher, Peter Hewett, who also directed the school plays.

Hewett encouraged him to sit the scholarship exam in Cambridge in the hope of studying under F. R. Leavis at Downing.

Hewett also persuaded the headmaster to help with the cost of Nunn staying in Cambridge to take the exam.

Nunn's father could not afford it and the headmaster had refused at first so Nunn was close to giving up.

At Downing, Nunn began his stage career and first met contemporaries Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi.

Nunn's television production of King Lear was screened on Boxing Day, 2008 with McKellen in the title role.

In 2008, he returned to the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry (the theatre where he started his career) to direct Joanna Murray-Smith's adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's film Scenes from a Marriage starring Imogen Stubbs and Iain Glen.

His musical adaptation of Gone with the Wind opened at the New London Theatre in April 2008 and, after poor reviews, closed on 14 June 2008 after 79 performances.

In December 2008, he directed a revival of A Little Night Music at the Menier Chocolate Factory, which transferred to the West End at the Garrick Theatre in 2009.

The production transferred to Broadway, opening in November 2009, with Catherine Zeta-Jones as Desiree Armfeldt and Angela Lansbury as Madame Armfeldt.

Other members of the original London cast also transferred with the production.

The production closed in January 2011 after 425 performances.