Sean Mathias
Encyclopedia
Sean Gerard Mathias is a British theatre director, film director
, writer and actor.
Mathias was born in Swansea
, south Wales
. He is known for directing the film, Bent
, and for directing highly acclaimed theatre productions in London, New York
, Cape Town
, Los Angeles and Sydney
. He has also had a notable professional and personal partnership with the actor, Sir Ian McKellen
, since the late 1970s. He was named one of the 101 most influential gay and lesbian people in Britain by the Independent on Sunday in 2006.
Sean Mathias became proud co-owner of The Grapes
pub in September 2011 with business partners Ian McKellen
and Evgeny Lebedev
, in 1977. In the same year, he played an Irish Guards lieutenant in the film, A Bridge Too Far.
In 1978, Mathias appeared in a production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, during which time he met the actor, Ian McKellen
, who subsequently became his partner of about nine years.
His acting career continued into the 1980s, with minor appearances on TV and in films such as Priest of Love
, which starred McKellen as D. H. Lawrence
, and The Scarlet Pimpernel, starring Anthony Andrews
, Jane Seymour
and McKellen. Although he made one notable appearance in the film, White Mischief
, in 1988 as Gerald Portman, his greatest achievements have come in directing and writing.
Another notable TV appearance by Sean was on the show Minder (TV series)
in 1982. The episode was entitled Broken Arrow, in which Sean played the part of a young darts player named Dafydd.
and Nigel Davenport
. Despite poor reviews, he was undeterred and followed it with Infidelities, which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1985 before transferring to London's Donmar Warehouse
. A Prayer For Wings, directed by Joan Plowright
, was produced in Edinburgh in 1987 and, after winning a Fringe First awards, transferred to the Bush Theatre
in London. Later plays include Poor Nanny in 1989, Swansea Boys in 1990.
His writing also includes a novel, Manhattan Mourning, published in 1988, and the BBC TV film, The Lost Language of Cranes
, broadcast in 1992.
A friend of Ian Charleson
, whom he also directed in Bent
, Mathias contributed a chapter to the 1990 book, For Ian Charleson: A Tribute.
, the award-winning play by Martin Sherman
that had opened on Broadway in 1979 starring McKellen. Performed as a benefit, this performance featured McKellen, Richard E Grant, Ian Charleson
and Ralph Fiennes
. After receiving critical acclaim, Mathias directed a full run in 1990 with McKellen alongside Paul Rhys
and Christopher Eccleston
, winning the City Limits Award for Revival of the Year.
Buoyed by this success, Mathias went on to direct hit shows in both London and on Broadway, including Pam Gems
' adaptation of Chekhov
's Uncle Vanya with McKellen and Antony Sher
, Alan Bennett
's Talking Heads
(again with McKellen), and Noel and Gertie starring Patricia Hodge
and Edward Petherbridge
.
In 1994, Mathias won the London Critics Circle Theatre Award for Best Director for Noel Coward
's Design for Living
(with Rachel Weisz
, Clive Owen
, Paul Rhys
and Rupert Graves
) and Jean Cocteau
's Les Parents terribles
, starring Sheila Gish
, Frances de la Tour
, Alan Howard
and Jude Law
. This transferred to the Ethel Barrymore Theatre
on Broadway in 1995 as Indiscretions, with Law joined by Kathleen Turner
, Eileen Atkins
, Roger Rees
and Cynthia Nixon
. It earned nine Tony Award
nominations including Best Director of a Play.
Mathias directed his first Stephen Sondheim
musical, A Little Night Music
, at the National Theatre
in London in 1995, with Judi Dench
and Siân Phillips
. He had worked with Phillips before, directing her in another Pam Gems
adaptation, Henrik Ibsen
's Ghosts at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff in 1993. He worked with her again in 1997, directing her as Marlene Dietrich
in Marlene, which transferred to Broadway two years later and gained two Tony Award nominations.
Other London directorial credits include Antony and Cleopatra
, starring Alan Rickman
and Helen Mirren
, in 1998, and Tennessee Williams
' Suddenly Last Summer with Sheila Gish
in 1999. His career moved across the Atlantic to New York, where, in 2001, he directed McKellen and Helen Mirren
in August Strindberg
's Dance of Death
. He went on to direct this in London and Sydney in 2003. Also in 2001, he directed an off-Broadway production of Servicemen by Evan Smith. He followed this with a Broadway revival of The Elephant Man
starring Billy Crudup
the following year at the Royale Theatre.
In 2002, he returned to Sondheim to direct Company
at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater in Washington, D.C. as part of its Sondheim Celebration, with a cast including John Barrowman
and Lynn Redgrave
. Speaking to the Stephen Sondheim Society at the time, he said: "I always wanted to do Company; it's the first musical I ever fell in love with." As a youngster in South Wales, Mathias said, he used to listen to the original Broadway recording of the show and sing The Ladies Who Lunch with friends. "I couldn't believe the songs, the cynicism, the sexuality."
Mathias gave into the lure of panto, and for Christmas 2004 he directed Aladdin
at the Old Vic
in London, with McKellen as Widow Twankey
alongside Maureen Lipman
, Roger Allam
and Joe McFadden
. Due to its huge success, Mathias reunited with McKellen and Allam for a second run the following Christmas, with Frances Barber
in the cast.
In 2005, Mathias directed Rebecca Lenkiewicz
's Shoreditch Madonna at the Soho Theatre
in London, starring Francesca Annis
and Leigh Lawson
. He returned to the US to direct Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard
with Annette Bening
, Alfred Molina
and Lothaire Bluteau
, which opened at the Mark Taper Forum
in Los Angeles in 2006.
Mathias has been based in South Africa since 1997 after visiting the country with the National Theatre in 1994 for a series of workshops. He made his South African directing debut in 2004 with Jean Anouilh
's Antigone
, starring the South African actor John Kani
. "I had fallen out of love with London," he told the Financial Times in October 2004. "I felt I had exhausted my life in London. I couldn't invent myself any more. My life was frenetic and there was never time to absorb experiences. Then I had a series of deaths of people close to me, my mother died and a long-term relationship broke up. After that, right then, I felt I had failed." In 2007, he directed novelist Edna O'Brien
's only play, Triptych, in Johannesburg, starring leading South African actor Dorothy-Anne Gould.
He began 2008 by directing a revival of Ring Round the Moon, Christopher Fry
's adaption of Jean Anouilh
's comedy, L'Invitation au Château
, starring Angela Thorne
at London's Playhouse Theatre. He followed this with the UK production of Triptych at the Southwark Playhouse
in London.
He directed McKellen and Patrick Stewart
in Samuel Beckett
's Waiting for Godot
, which toured the UK in early 2009 before opening at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London in May 2009.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1022972/BAZ-BAMIGBOYE-Rebecca-Hall-Cate-Blanchette-.html It was his first production as 2009 artistic director of the Theatre Royal Haymarkethttp://www.broadwayworld.com/printcolumn.cfm?id=35246. His second play at the Theatre Royal Haymarket is due to be a stage version of Truman Capote
's Breakfast at Tiffany's
by Samuel Adamson
, starring Anna Friel
, opening in September 2009.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8052020.stm
, based on the play that propelled him to success. Released in 1997, it starred Clive Owen
alongside a host of leading actors including McKellen, Mick Jagger
, Rupert Graves
, Jude Law
and Lothaire Bluteau
. It won the Prix de la Jeunesse at the Cannes film festival. Since 2004, Mathias has been planning to direct a new film set in South Africa, called The Colossus, which he has adapted from the novel, Manly Pursuits, by Ann Harries. Actors lined up for roles have included Rachel Weisz
, Susan Sarandon
, Colin Firth
and Sir Ian McKellen
.
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, writer and actor.
Mathias was born in Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
, south Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. He is known for directing the film, Bent
Bent (play)
Bent is a 1979 play by Martin Sherman. It revolves around the persecution of gays in Nazi Germany, and takes place during and after the Night of the Long Knives....
, and for directing highly acclaimed theatre productions in London, New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, Los Angeles and Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. He has also had a notable professional and personal partnership with the actor, Sir Ian McKellen
Ian McKellen
Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction...
, since the late 1970s. He was named one of the 101 most influential gay and lesbian people in Britain by the Independent on Sunday in 2006.
Sean Mathias became proud co-owner of The Grapes
The Grapes
The Grapes is a public house backing onto the Thames waterfront, located at 76 Narrow Street, London E14 8BP . It is owned in partnership by Evgeny Lebedev, Sean Mathias and Ian McKellen, and managed by Paul Mathias.- History :...
pub in September 2011 with business partners Ian McKellen
Ian McKellen
Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction...
and Evgeny Lebedev
Evgeny Lebedev
Evgeny Alexandrovich Lebedev is the chairman of both Evening Standard Ltd, which owns the Evening Standard and also Independent Print Ltd which owns the Independent newspapers, which he bought in January 2009 and March 2010...
Acting career
Mathias began his career as an actor, making his first appearance on screen in a small role on an episode of the cult BBC TV series, SurvivorsSurvivors
Survivors is a British post-apocalyptic fiction television series devised by Terry Nation and produced by Terence Dudley at the BBC from 1975 to 1977...
, in 1977. In the same year, he played an Irish Guards lieutenant in the film, A Bridge Too Far.
In 1978, Mathias appeared in a production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, during which time he met the actor, Ian McKellen
Ian McKellen
Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction...
, who subsequently became his partner of about nine years.
His acting career continued into the 1980s, with minor appearances on TV and in films such as Priest of Love
Priest of Love
Priest of Love is a 1981 British biographical film about D. H. Lawrence, released by Filmways Pictures. It was produced and directed by Christopher Miles and co-produced by Andrew Donally. The screenplay was by Alan Plater from the biography A Priest of Love by Harry T. Moore...
, which starred McKellen as D. H. Lawrence
D. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...
, and The Scarlet Pimpernel, starring Anthony Andrews
Anthony Andrews
-Life and career:Andrews was born in London, the son of Geraldine Agnes , a dancer, and Stanley Thomas Andrews, a musical arranger and musical conductor. He grew up in the North Finchley district of London...
, Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour was Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII. She succeeded Anne Boleyn as queen consort following the latter's execution for trumped up charges of high treason, incest and adultery in May 1536. She died of postnatal complications less than two weeks after the birth of...
and McKellen. Although he made one notable appearance in the film, White Mischief
White Mischief
White Mischief is a 1987 film dramatising the events of the Happy Valley murder case in Kenya in 1941, when Sir Henry "Jock" Delves Broughton was tried for the murder of Josslyn Hay, Earl of Erroll....
, in 1988 as Gerald Portman, his greatest achievements have come in directing and writing.
Another notable TV appearance by Sean was on the show Minder (TV series)
Minder (TV series)
Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV...
in 1982. The episode was entitled Broken Arrow, in which Sean played the part of a young darts player named Dafydd.
Writing career
Mathias's play, Cowardice, was produced at the Ambassadors Theatre in London in 1983, starring McKellen, Janet SuzmanJanet Suzman
Dame Janet Suzman, DBE is a South African-born-British actress and director.-Early life:Janet Suzman was born in Johannesburg to a Jewish family, the daughter of Betty and Saul Suzman, a wealthy importer of tobacco....
and Nigel Davenport
Nigel Davenport
Nigel Davenport is an English stage, television and film actor.- Early life :Davenport was born Arthur Nigel Davenport, however he goes by the first name of Nigel. Davenport was born in Shelford, Cambridgeshire, the son of Katherine Lucy and Arthur Henry Davenport. Davenport's father was a bursar...
. Despite poor reviews, he was undeterred and followed it with Infidelities, which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1985 before transferring to London's Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in the Covent Garden area of London, with a capacity of 251.-About:Under the artistic leadership of Michael Grandage, the theatre has presented some of London’s most memorable award-winning theatrical experiences, as well as garnered critical...
. A Prayer For Wings, directed by Joan Plowright
Joan Plowright
Joan Ann Plowright, Baroness Olivier, DBE , better known as Dame Joan Plowright, is an English actress, whose career has spanned over sixty years. Throughout her career she has won two Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award and has been nominated for an Academy Award, an Emmy, and two BAFTA Awards...
, was produced in Edinburgh in 1987 and, after winning a Fringe First awards, transferred to the Bush Theatre
Bush Theatre
The Bush Theatre is based in Shepherd's Bush, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It was established in 1972 above The Bush public house by Brian McDermott, and has since become one of the most celebrated new writing theatres in the world. An intimate venue renowned for its close-up...
in London. Later plays include Poor Nanny in 1989, Swansea Boys in 1990.
His writing also includes a novel, Manhattan Mourning, published in 1988, and the BBC TV film, The Lost Language of Cranes
The Lost Language of Cranes
The Lost Language of Cranes is a novel by David Leavitt, first published in 1986. A British TV movie of the novel was made in 1991. The movie was released on dvd in 2009.-Plot introduction:...
, broadcast in 1992.
A friend of Ian Charleson
Ian Charleson
Ian Charleson was a Scottish stage and film actor. He is best known internationally for his starring role as Olympic athlete and missionary Eric Liddell, in the Oscar-winning 1981 film Chariots of Fire. He is also well known for his portrayal of Rev...
, whom he also directed in Bent
Bent (play)
Bent is a 1979 play by Martin Sherman. It revolves around the persecution of gays in Nazi Germany, and takes place during and after the Night of the Long Knives....
, Mathias contributed a chapter to the 1990 book, For Ian Charleson: A Tribute.
Career as theatre director
Mathias' career as a theatre director took off in 1988 with Exceptions. The following year, he directed a revival of BentBent (play)
Bent is a 1979 play by Martin Sherman. It revolves around the persecution of gays in Nazi Germany, and takes place during and after the Night of the Long Knives....
, the award-winning play by Martin Sherman
Martin Sherman
Martin Sherman is an American dramatist and screenwriter, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-nominated play Bent , which explores the persecution of homosexuals during the Holocaust...
that had opened on Broadway in 1979 starring McKellen. Performed as a benefit, this performance featured McKellen, Richard E Grant, Ian Charleson
Ian Charleson
Ian Charleson was a Scottish stage and film actor. He is best known internationally for his starring role as Olympic athlete and missionary Eric Liddell, in the Oscar-winning 1981 film Chariots of Fire. He is also well known for his portrayal of Rev...
and Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English actor and film director. He has appeared in such films as The English Patient, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Strange Days, The Duchess and Schindler's List....
. After receiving critical acclaim, Mathias directed a full run in 1990 with McKellen alongside Paul Rhys
Paul Rhys
Paul Rhys is a British television, film and theatre actor.Rhys was born in Wales and studied at RADA, leaving with the Bancroft Gold Medal in 1987. While there, he obtained his first major screen role, in Absolute Beginners . Since then he has seldom been off the stage and screen...
and Christopher Eccleston
Christopher Eccleston
Christopher Eccleston is an English stage, film and television actor. His films include Let Him Have It, Shallow Grave, Elizabeth, 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Others, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra...
, winning the City Limits Award for Revival of the Year.
Buoyed by this success, Mathias went on to direct hit shows in both London and on Broadway, including Pam Gems
Pam Gems
Pam Gems was a British playwright. The author of numerous original plays, as well as of adaptations of works by major European playwrights of the past, Gems is best known for the 1978 musical play Piaf.-Personal life:...
' adaptation of Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
's Uncle Vanya with McKellen and Antony Sher
Antony Sher
Sir Antony Sher, KBE is a double Olivier Award winning South African-born British actor, writer, theatre director and painter.- Early years :...
, Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...
's Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
(again with McKellen), and Noel and Gertie starring Patricia Hodge
Patricia Hodge
Patricia Ann Hodge is an English actor.-Early life:The daughter of the Royal Hotel owner/manager Eric and his wife Marion , Hodge attended Wintringham Girls' Grammar School on Weelsby Avenue in Grimsby and then St...
and Edward Petherbridge
Edward Petherbridge
Edward Petherbridge is a British actor. Among his many roles, he portrayed Lord Peter Wimsey in several screen adaptations of Dorothy L...
.
In 1994, Mathias won the London Critics Circle Theatre Award for Best Director for Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
's Design for Living
Design for Living
Design for Living is a comedy play written by Noël Coward in 1932. It concerns a trio of artistic characters, Gilda, Otto and Leo, and their complicated three-way relationship. Originally written to star Lynn Fontanne, Alfred Lunt and Coward, it was premiered on Broadway, partly because its risqué...
(with Rachel Weisz
Rachel Weisz
Rachel Hannah Weisz born 7 March 1970)is an English-American film and theatre actress and former fashion model. She started her acting career at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where she co-founded the theatrical group Cambridge Talking Tongues...
, Clive Owen
Clive Owen
Clive Owen is an English actor, who has worked on television, stage and film. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for portraying the lead in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991...
, Paul Rhys
Paul Rhys
Paul Rhys is a British television, film and theatre actor.Rhys was born in Wales and studied at RADA, leaving with the Bancroft Gold Medal in 1987. While there, he obtained his first major screen role, in Absolute Beginners . Since then he has seldom been off the stage and screen...
and Rupert Graves
Rupert Graves
Rupert Graves is an English film, television and theatre actor. He is best known for his role as DI Lestrade in the critically acclaimed television series Sherlock.-Early life:...
) and Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
's Les Parents terribles
Les parents terribles
Les Parents terribles is a 1938 French play written by Jean Cocteau. Despite initial problems with censorship, it was revived on the French stage several times after its original production, and in 1948 a film adaptation directed by Cocteau himself was released...
, starring Sheila Gish
Sheila Gish
Sheila Gish was a British stage and television actress.She was born Sheila Anne Gash in Lincoln, studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and made her stage debut with a repertory company....
, Frances de la Tour
Frances de la Tour
Frances de la Tour is an English actress perhaps best known for her role as Miss Ruth Jones in the British sitcom Rising Damp, and as Madame Olympe Maxime in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.-Early life and family:De la...
, Alan Howard
Alan Howard
Alan MacKenzie Howard, CBE, is an English actor known for his roles on stage, television and film.He was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1966 to 1983, and played leading roles at the Royal National Theatre between 1992 and 2000.-Personal life:Howard is the only son of the actor...
and Jude Law
Jude Law
David Jude Heyworth Law , known professionally as Jude Law, is an English actor, film producer and director.He began acting with the National Youth Music Theatre in 1987, and had his first television role in 1989...
. This transferred to the Ethel Barrymore Theatre
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
The Ethel Barrymore Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 243 West 47th Street in midtown-Manhattan, named for actress Ethel Barrymore....
on Broadway in 1995 as Indiscretions, with Law joined by Kathleen Turner
Kathleen Turner
Mary Kathleen Turner is an American actress. She came to fame during the 1980s, after roles in the Hollywood films Body Heat, Peggy Sue Got Married, Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Prizzi's Honor...
, Eileen Atkins
Eileen Atkins
Dame Eileen June Atkins, DBE is an English actress and occasional screenwriter.- Early life :Atkins was born in the Mothers' Hospital in Clapton, a Salvation Army women's hostel in East London...
, Roger Rees
Roger Rees
Roger Rees is a Welsh actor. He is best known to American audiences for playing the characters Robin Colcord on the American television sitcom show Cheers and Lord John Marbury on the American television drama The West Wing...
and Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City . She has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award....
. It earned nine Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
nominations including Best Director of a Play.
Mathias directed his first Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
musical, A Little Night Music
A Little Night Music
A Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a literal English translation of the German name for Mozart's Serenade...
, at the National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
in London in 1995, with Judi Dench
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...
and Siân Phillips
Siân Phillips
Jane Elizabeth Ailwên "Siân" Phillips, CBE, is a Welsh actress.-Early life:Phillips was born in Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, Neath Port Talbot, Wales, the daughter of Sally , a teacher, and David Phillips, a steelworker-turned-policeman...
. He had worked with Phillips before, directing her in another Pam Gems
Pam Gems
Pam Gems was a British playwright. The author of numerous original plays, as well as of adaptations of works by major European playwrights of the past, Gems is best known for the 1978 musical play Piaf.-Personal life:...
adaptation, Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
's Ghosts at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff in 1993. He worked with her again in 1997, directing her as Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
in Marlene, which transferred to Broadway two years later and gained two Tony Award nominations.
Other London directorial credits include Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony...
, starring Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
and Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
, in 1998, and Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
' Suddenly Last Summer with Sheila Gish
Sheila Gish
Sheila Gish was a British stage and television actress.She was born Sheila Anne Gash in Lincoln, studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and made her stage debut with a repertory company....
in 1999. His career moved across the Atlantic to New York, where, in 2001, he directed McKellen and Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
in August Strindberg
August Strindberg
Johan August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg's career spanned four decades, during which time he wrote over 60 plays and more than 30 works of fiction, autobiography,...
's Dance of Death
The Dance of Death (play)
The Dance of Death is a play in two parts written by August Strindberg in 1900.-Plot:In Part I, Edgar and his wife Alice live in a granite fortress on a desolate island. Bored and embittered, they torment each other with petty intrigues and well-worn accusations...
. He went on to direct this in London and Sydney in 2003. Also in 2001, he directed an off-Broadway production of Servicemen by Evan Smith. He followed this with a Broadway revival of The Elephant Man
The Elephant Man (play)
The Elephant Man is a 1977 play by Bernard Pomerance. The production's Broadway debut in 1979 was produced by Richmond Crinkley and Nelle Nugent, and directed by Jack Hofsiss...
starring Billy Crudup
Billy Crudup
William Gaither "Billy" Crudup is an American actor of film and stage. He is well known for his roles as guitarist Russell Hammond in Almost Famous, Will Bloom in Big Fish, and Ashitaka in Princess Mononoke. He also starred in the 2007 romantic comedy film Dedication, alongside Mandy Moore...
the following year at the Royale Theatre.
In 2002, he returned to Sondheim to direct Company
Company (musical)
Company is a musical with a book by George Furth and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The original production was nominated for a record-setting fourteen Tony Awards and won six....
at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater in Washington, D.C. as part of its Sondheim Celebration, with a cast including John Barrowman
John Barrowman
John Scot Barrowman is a Scottish-American singer, actor, dancer, musical theatre performer and media personality. Born in Glasgow yet growing up in Illinois after his family emigrated to the United States when he was eight years old, Barrowman was encouraged to further his love for music and...
and Lynn Redgrave
Lynn Redgrave
Lynn Rachel Redgrave, OBE was an English actress.A member of the well-known British family of actors, Redgrave trained in London before making her theatrical debut in 1962...
. Speaking to the Stephen Sondheim Society at the time, he said: "I always wanted to do Company; it's the first musical I ever fell in love with." As a youngster in South Wales, Mathias said, he used to listen to the original Broadway recording of the show and sing The Ladies Who Lunch with friends. "I couldn't believe the songs, the cynicism, the sexuality."
Mathias gave into the lure of panto, and for Christmas 2004 he directed Aladdin
Aladdin
Aladdin is a Middle Eastern folk tale. It is one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights , and one of the most famous, although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine Galland ....
at the Old Vic
Old Vic
The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
in London, with McKellen as Widow Twankey
Widow Twankey
Widow Twankey is a female character in the pantomime Aladdin. The character is a pantomime dame, portrayed by a man; and is a comic foil to the principal boy, Aladdin – played by an actress.-History:...
alongside Maureen Lipman
Maureen Lipman
Maureen Diane Lipman CBE is a British film, theatre and television actress, columnist and comedienne.-Early life:Lipman was born in Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, the daughter of Maurice Julius Lipman and Zelma Pearlman. Her father was a tailor; he used to have a shop between the...
, Roger Allam
Roger Allam
Roger Allam is an English actor, known primarily for his stage career, although he has performed in film and television. He played Inspector Javert in the original London production of the stage musical Les Misérables....
and Joe McFadden
Joseph McFadden
Joseph 'Joe' McFadden is a television actor...
. Due to its huge success, Mathias reunited with McKellen and Allam for a second run the following Christmas, with Frances Barber
Frances Barber
Frances Barber is an Olivier Award-nominated English actress with a long and distinguished stage career. She has also appeared in numerous television productions...
in the cast.
In 2005, Mathias directed Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Rebecca Lenkiewicz is a British playwright. She attended Plymouth High School for Girls, then progressed to a BA in Film and English at the University of Kent from 1985 to 1989 and then to a BA Acting Course at the Central School of Speech and Drama from 1996 to 1999.-Career:As a writer, her plays...
's Shoreditch Madonna at the Soho Theatre
Soho Theatre
Soho Theatre is a theatre in the eponymous Soho district of the City of Westminster. It presents new works of theatre, together with comedy and cabaret....
in London, starring Francesca Annis
Francesca Annis
Francesca Annis is an English actress, known for her film and television appearances, most recently in the BBC series Wives and Daughters, Cranford, and Deceit.-Early life and education:...
and Leigh Lawson
Leigh Lawson
Leigh Lawson is a film and stage actor, director, and writer.-Career:Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Lawson has acted in film and television since the early 1970s, directed plays in the West End and on Broadway...
. He returned to the US to direct Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
with Annette Bening
Annette Bening
Annette Carol Bening is an American actress. Bening is a four-time Oscar nominee for her roles in The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia and The Kids Are All Right, winning Golden Globe Awards for the latter two films...
, Alfred Molina
Alfred Molina
Alfred Molina is a British-born American actor. He first came to public attention in the UK for his supporting role in the 1987 film Prick Up Your Ears...
and Lothaire Bluteau
Lothaire Bluteau
Lothaire Bluteau is a French-Canadian actor. He was born in Montreal, Quebec and performs in both French and English. He had a recurring role in the third season of the television series 24 as the character Marcus Alvers.-Biography:...
, which opened at the Mark Taper Forum
Mark Taper Forum
The Mark Taper Forum is a 739 seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center built by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of downtown Los Angeles...
in Los Angeles in 2006.
Mathias has been based in South Africa since 1997 after visiting the country with the National Theatre in 1994 for a series of workshops. He made his South African directing debut in 2004 with Jean Anouilh
Jean Anouilh
Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1943 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' Classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain's...
's Antigone
Antigone (Anouilh play)
Jean Anouilh's play Antigone is a tragedy inspired by Greek mythology and the play of the same name from the fifth century B.C...
, starring the South African actor John Kani
John Kani
Bonsile John Kani is a South African actor, director and playwright.He was born in New Brighton, South Africa.Kani joined The Serpent Players in Port Elizabeth in 1965 and helped to create many plays that went unpublished but were performed to a resounding reception.These...
. "I had fallen out of love with London," he told the Financial Times in October 2004. "I felt I had exhausted my life in London. I couldn't invent myself any more. My life was frenetic and there was never time to absorb experiences. Then I had a series of deaths of people close to me, my mother died and a long-term relationship broke up. After that, right then, I felt I had failed." In 2007, he directed novelist Edna O'Brien
Edna O'Brien
Edna O'Brien is an Irish novelist and short story writer whose works often revolve around the inner feelings of women, and their problems in relating to men and to society as a whole.-Life and career:...
's only play, Triptych, in Johannesburg, starring leading South African actor Dorothy-Anne Gould.
He began 2008 by directing a revival of Ring Round the Moon, Christopher Fry
Christopher Fry
Christopher Fry was an English playwright. He is best known for his verse dramas, notably The Lady's Not for Burning, which made him a major force in theatre in the 1940s and 1950s.-Early life:...
's adaption of Jean Anouilh
Jean Anouilh
Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1943 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' Classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain's...
's comedy, L'Invitation au Château
L'Invitation au Château
Invitation to the Castle is a 1947 satirical play by the French playwright Jean Anouilh. It was adapted in 1950 by Christopher Fry as Ring Round the Moon. The play concerns two twins, a cold, manipulative playboy Hugo, and his sensitive brother Frédéric. Frédéric is madly in love with Diana, the...
, starring Angela Thorne
Angela Thorne
Angela Thorne is an English actress who is best known for her roles in To the Manor Born and Anyone for Denis?-Early life:Angela Thorne was born in Karachi, British India, , in 1939...
at London's Playhouse Theatre. He followed this with the UK production of Triptych at the Southwark Playhouse
Southwark Playhouse
-History:Southwark Playhouse Theatre Company was founded in 1993 by Juliet Alderdice, Tom Wilson & Mehmet Ergen. They identified the need for a high quality accessible theatre which would also act as a major resource for the community...
in London.
He directed McKellen and Patrick Stewart
Patrick Stewart
Sir Patrick Hewes Stewart, OBE is an English film, television and stage actor, who has had a distinguished career in theatre and television for around half a century...
in Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
's Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...
, which toured the UK in early 2009 before opening at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London in May 2009.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1022972/BAZ-BAMIGBOYE-Rebecca-Hall-Cate-Blanchette-.html It was his first production as 2009 artistic director of the Theatre Royal Haymarkethttp://www.broadwayworld.com/printcolumn.cfm?id=35246. His second play at the Theatre Royal Haymarket is due to be a stage version of Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
's Breakfast at Tiffany's
Breakfast at Tiffany's (novella)
Breakfast at Tiffany's is a novella by Truman Capote published in 1958. The main character, Holly Golightly, is one of Capote's best-known creations and an American cultural icon.-Plot:...
by Samuel Adamson
Samuel Adamson
Samuel Adamson is an Australian playwright and screenwriter who has lived and worked in the UK since 1991. He was born in Adelaide and lives in London.-Career:...
, starring Anna Friel
Anna Friel
Anna Louise Friel is an English actress. She rose to fame in the UK as Beth Jordache on the Channel 4 soap Brookside.-Early life:...
, opening in September 2009.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8052020.stm
Career as film director
Despite his focus on theatre direction, Mathias is also known as a film director because of his first - and currently only - feature film, BentBent (film)
Bent is a 1997 British/Japanese drama film directed by Sean Mathias, based on the 1979 play of the same name by Martin Sherman, who also wrote the screenplay. It revolves around the persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany after the murder of Sturmabteilung leader Ernst Röhm on the Night of the...
, based on the play that propelled him to success. Released in 1997, it starred Clive Owen
Clive Owen
Clive Owen is an English actor, who has worked on television, stage and film. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for portraying the lead in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991...
alongside a host of leading actors including McKellen, Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
, Rupert Graves
Rupert Graves
Rupert Graves is an English film, television and theatre actor. He is best known for his role as DI Lestrade in the critically acclaimed television series Sherlock.-Early life:...
, Jude Law
Jude Law
David Jude Heyworth Law , known professionally as Jude Law, is an English actor, film producer and director.He began acting with the National Youth Music Theatre in 1987, and had his first television role in 1989...
and Lothaire Bluteau
Lothaire Bluteau
Lothaire Bluteau is a French-Canadian actor. He was born in Montreal, Quebec and performs in both French and English. He had a recurring role in the third season of the television series 24 as the character Marcus Alvers.-Biography:...
. It won the Prix de la Jeunesse at the Cannes film festival. Since 2004, Mathias has been planning to direct a new film set in South Africa, called The Colossus, which he has adapted from the novel, Manly Pursuits, by Ann Harries. Actors lined up for roles have included Rachel Weisz
Rachel Weisz
Rachel Hannah Weisz born 7 March 1970)is an English-American film and theatre actress and former fashion model. She started her acting career at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where she co-founded the theatrical group Cambridge Talking Tongues...
, Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
, Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
and Sir Ian McKellen
Ian McKellen
Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction...
.
Directing
- Exceptions (1988)
- BentBent (play)Bent is a 1979 play by Martin Sherman. It revolves around the persecution of gays in Nazi Germany, and takes place during and after the Night of the Long Knives....
(1989), Adelphi Theatre, London - BentBent (play)Bent is a 1979 play by Martin Sherman. It revolves around the persecution of gays in Nazi Germany, and takes place during and after the Night of the Long Knives....
(1990), Lyttelton, National Theatre, London and Garrick Theatre, London - Talking HeadsTalking Heads (plays)Talking Heads is a series of dramatic monologues written for BBC television by British playwright Alan Bennett. The two series were first broadcast in 1988 and 1998, and have since been broadcast on BBC Radio and included on the A-level and GCSE English Literature syllabus.A West End theatre...
(1990), Haymarket Theatre, London - Noel and Gertie (1991), Duke of York's Theatre, London
- Uncle VanyaUncle VanyaUncle Vanya is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1897 and received its Moscow première in 1899 in a production by the Moscow Art Theatre, under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski....
(1992), Cottesloe, National Theatre, London - GhostsGhosts (play)Ghosts is a play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was written in 1881 and first staged in 1882.Like many of Ibsen's better-known plays, Ghosts is a scathing commentary on 19th century morality....
(1993), Sherman TheatreSherman TheatreSherman Cymru, also known by its previous name Sherman Theatre, is a performing arts venue in the Cathays district of Cardiff. It was built as a twin-auditorium venue in 1973 with financial support from University College, Cardiff....
, Cardiff - Design for LivingDesign for LivingDesign for Living is a comedy play written by Noël Coward in 1932. It concerns a trio of artistic characters, Gilda, Otto and Leo, and their complicated three-way relationship. Originally written to star Lynn Fontanne, Alfred Lunt and Coward, it was premiered on Broadway, partly because its risqué...
(1994), Donmar WarehouseDonmar WarehouseDonmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in the Covent Garden area of London, with a capacity of 251.-About:Under the artistic leadership of Michael Grandage, the theatre has presented some of London’s most memorable award-winning theatrical experiences, as well as garnered critical...
, London and Gielgud Theatre, London - Les Parents terriblesLes parents terriblesLes Parents terribles is a 1938 French play written by Jean Cocteau. Despite initial problems with censorship, it was revived on the French stage several times after its original production, and in 1948 a film adaptation directed by Cocteau himself was released...
(1994), Lyttelton, National Theatre, London - A Little Night MusicA Little Night MusicA Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a literal English translation of the German name for Mozart's Serenade...
(1995), Olivier, National Theatre, London - Indiscretions (formerly Les Parents terriblesLes parents terriblesLes Parents terribles is a 1938 French play written by Jean Cocteau. Despite initial problems with censorship, it was revived on the French stage several times after its original production, and in 1948 a film adaptation directed by Cocteau himself was released...
) (1996), Ethel Barrymore TheatreEthel Barrymore TheatreThe Ethel Barrymore Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 243 West 47th Street in midtown-Manhattan, named for actress Ethel Barrymore....
, New York City - Marlene (1997), London
- Antony and CleopatraAntony and CleopatraAntony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony...
(1998), Olivier, National Theatre, London - Suddenly Last Summer (1999), Comedy Theatre, London
- Marlene (1999), Cort TheatreCort TheatreThe Cort Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 138 West 48th Street in the Theatre District of midtown Manhattan in New York City...
, New York City - Dance of DeathThe Dance of Death (play)The Dance of Death is a play in two parts written by August Strindberg in 1900.-Plot:In Part I, Edgar and his wife Alice live in a granite fortress on a desolate island. Bored and embittered, they torment each other with petty intrigues and well-worn accusations...
(2001), Broadhurst TheatreBroadhurst TheatreThe Broadhurst Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 235 West 44th Street in midtown Manhattan.It was designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp, a well-known theatre designer who had been working directly with the Shubert brothers; the Broadhurst opened 27 September 1917...
, New York City - Servicemen (2001), Theater at St Clement's, New York City
- The Elephant ManThe Elephant Man (play)The Elephant Man is a 1977 play by Bernard Pomerance. The production's Broadway debut in 1979 was produced by Richmond Crinkley and Nelle Nugent, and directed by Jack Hofsiss...
(2002), Royale Theatre, New York City - CompanyCompany (musical)Company is a musical with a book by George Furth and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The original production was nominated for a record-setting fourteen Tony Awards and won six....
(2002), Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater, Washington, D.C. - Dance of DeathThe Dance of Death (play)The Dance of Death is a play in two parts written by August Strindberg in 1900.-Plot:In Part I, Edgar and his wife Alice live in a granite fortress on a desolate island. Bored and embittered, they torment each other with petty intrigues and well-worn accusations...
(2003), Lyric Theatre, London and Theatre Royal, Sydney - AntigoneAntigone (Anouilh play)Jean Anouilh's play Antigone is a tragedy inspired by Greek mythology and the play of the same name from the fifth century B.C...
(2004), Baxter Theatre CentreBaxter Theatre CentreThe Baxter Theatre Centre is a performing arts complex in Rondebosch, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. The Baxter, as it is often known, is part of the University of Cape Town; it is also the second largest performing arts complex in Cape Town, after the Artscape Theatre Centre.The Baxter...
, Cape Town - AladdinAladdinAladdin is a Middle Eastern folk tale. It is one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights , and one of the most famous, although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine Galland ....
(2004), Old VicOld VicThe Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
, London - Shoreditch Madonna (2005), Soho TheatreSoho TheatreSoho Theatre is a theatre in the eponymous Soho district of the City of Westminster. It presents new works of theatre, together with comedy and cabaret....
, London - AladdinAladdinAladdin is a Middle Eastern folk tale. It is one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights , and one of the most famous, although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine Galland ....
(2005), Old VicOld VicThe Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
, London - The Cherry OrchardThe Cherry OrchardThe Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
(2006), Mark Taper ForumMark Taper ForumThe Mark Taper Forum is a 739 seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center built by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of downtown Los Angeles...
, Los Angeles - Triptych (2007), Market TheatreMarket TheatreThe Market Theatre, based in the vibrant inner-city suburb of Newtown in Johannesburg, South Africa, was opened in 1976, operating as an independent, non-racial theatre during the country’s apartheid regime...
, Johannesburg - Ring Round the Moon (L'Invitation au ChâteauL'Invitation au ChâteauInvitation to the Castle is a 1947 satirical play by the French playwright Jean Anouilh. It was adapted in 1950 by Christopher Fry as Ring Round the Moon. The play concerns two twins, a cold, manipulative playboy Hugo, and his sensitive brother Frédéric. Frédéric is madly in love with Diana, the...
) (2008), Playhouse TheatrePlayhouse TheatreThe Playhouse Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, located in Northumberland Avenue, near Trafalgar Square. The Theatre was built by F. H. Fowler and Hill with a seating capacity of 1,200. It was rebuilt in 1907 and still retains its original substage machinery...
, London - Triptych (2008), Southwark PlayhouseSouthwark Playhouse-History:Southwark Playhouse Theatre Company was founded in 1993 by Juliet Alderdice, Tom Wilson & Mehmet Ergen. They identified the need for a high quality accessible theatre which would also act as a major resource for the community...
, London - Waiting for GodotWaiting for GodotWaiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...
(2009), Theatre Royal Haymarket, London - Breakfast at Tiffany'sBreakfast at Tiffany's (novella)Breakfast at Tiffany's is a novella by Truman Capote published in 1958. The main character, Holly Golightly, is one of Capote's best-known creations and an American cultural icon.-Plot:...
(2009), Theatre Royal Haymarket, London
Writing
- Cowardice (1983), Ambassadors Theatre, London
- Infidelities (1985), Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Donmar WarehouseDonmar WarehouseDonmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in the Covent Garden area of London, with a capacity of 251.-About:Under the artistic leadership of Michael Grandage, the theatre has presented some of London’s most memorable award-winning theatrical experiences, as well as garnered critical...
, London - A Prayer For Wings (1987), Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Bush TheatreBush TheatreThe Bush Theatre is based in Shepherd's Bush, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It was established in 1972 above The Bush public house by Brian McDermott, and has since become one of the most celebrated new writing theatres in the world. An intimate venue renowned for its close-up...
, London - Poor Nanny (1989), King's Head Theatre, London
- Swansea Boys (1990). National TheatreRoyal National TheatreThe Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
Studio, London
Acting
- SurvivorsSurvivorsSurvivors is a British post-apocalyptic fiction television series devised by Terry Nation and produced by Terence Dudley at the BBC from 1975 to 1977...
(1977) – Mike - A Bridge Too Far (1977) – Irish Guards lieutenant
- Priest of LovePriest of LovePriest of Love is a 1981 British biographical film about D. H. Lawrence, released by Filmways Pictures. It was produced and directed by Christopher Miles and co-produced by Andrew Donally. The screenplay was by Alan Plater from the biography A Priest of Love by Harry T. Moore...
(1981) – secretary - Minder (TV series)Minder (TV series)Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV...
(1982) – Dafydd - The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982) - Dispatcher
- One Summer (1983) – Owen
- White MischiefWhite MischiefWhite Mischief is a 1987 film dramatising the events of the Happy Valley murder case in Kenya in 1941, when Sir Henry "Jock" Delves Broughton was tried for the murder of Josslyn Hay, Earl of Erroll....
(1987) – Gerald Portman
Writing
- The Lost Language of CranesThe Lost Language of Cranes (film)The Lost Language of Cranes is a 1991 British television film. Made by the BBC for their Screen Two series; it is an adaptation of the 1986 novel of the same name by David Leavitt....
(1991), BBC TV