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Director’s obsessions on writers

Intriguing article in the Guardian about certain directors and their obsession with writers.

Joe Orton, Ibsen, David Mamet, Charlotte Jones and August Wilson provide the obsessions for

David Grindley, Stephen Unwin, Lindsay Posner, Anna Mackmin and Paulette Randall.

Good quotes include:

when you are working on any play, all you need to realise is that which is absolutely essential to the action. Any embellishment is a mistake. Whether it is Mamet, Wesker or Shakespeare, it is about doing the bare bones.

[Wilson] has made me realise how few playwrights allow the characters to really tell the story, but he does.

Orton has taught me that whatever you are directing – even if it’s essentially a conversation piece – you mustn’t be afraid of invigorating every moment.

That’s the hard thing as a director – not just to show the tip of the iceberg but also to create the great seething mass underneath, to show the hidden present in everyday actions.

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  • About me

    I'm a playwright and investment analyst. I have a broad range of interests: food, gardening, innovation & intellectual property, sustainability, architecture & design, writing and the arts. I sit on the board of Talawa Theatre Company and advise a CIS investment trust on socially responsible investments.

  • Recent Work

    Recent plays include, for theatre: Nakamitsu, Yellow Gentlemen, Lost in Peru, Lemon Love. For radio: Places in Between (R4), Patent Breaking Life Saving (WS).

  • Nakamitsu

  • Yellow Gentlemen