Artistic Directors of the NT
The National Theatre had its first performance on 22 October 1963 at the Old Vic Theatre. Its first Director was Laurence Olivier. In 1973, Peter Hall was appointed Director to prepare for the proposed move to the National's new building on the South Bank, which finally took place in 1976. Richard Eyre succeeded Peter Hall in 1988; Trevor Nunn took over in 1997; and Nicholas Hytner in 2003.
Director 1963-1973
Born in 1907 and knighted in 1947, Olivier was considered by many to be the country's finest actor. He played many of Shakespeare's great roles, including Hamlet, Henry V and Richard III (all of which he also produced and directed as acclaimed films), as well as contemporary parts such as John Osborne's The Entertainer. He was the first Director of Chichester Festival Theatre before being appointed Director of the National Theatre. He appeared himself in many of the NT's most successful productions at the Old Vic, including Othello, Uncle Vanya, The Dance of Death, A Flea in Her Ear, Saturday Sunday Monday, and Long Day's Journey Into Night. He was made a life peer in 1970 and was awarded the Order of Merit in 1981. He died in 1989.
Director 1973-1988
Born in 1930, Peter Hall ran the Arts Theatre from 1956-59, where he directed the English language premiere of Beckett's Waiting for Godot. In the 1957-59 seasons at Stratford on Avon, his productions included Cymbeline with Peggy Ashcroft and Coriolanus with Olivier and Edith Evans. He created the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1960, opened its first London home at the Aldwych, and was its Director until 1968. As Director of the NT, his own productions included Pinter's No Man's Land with Gielgud and Richardson, Tamburlaine The Great, Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce, Shaffer's Amadeus, Aeschylus' Oresteia translated by Tony Harrison, and Antony and Cleopatra with Judi Dench and Anthony Hopkins. He returned in 1996 to direct Sophocles' Oedipus plays, and in 2002 with Euripides' Bacchai. He was knighted in 1977.
Director 1988-1997
Richard Eyre was born in 1943. He ran the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, and the Nottingham Playhouse, was Producer of the BBCTV Play for Today series from 1978-81, and an Associate Director of the NT from 1980-86, before being appointed Director in 1988. His own productions at the NT include Guys and Dolls, Richard III (with Ian McKellen), The Night of the Iguana, The David Hare Trilogy (Racing Demon, Murmurning Judges and The Absence of War), King Lear (with Ian Holm), Amy's View (with Judi Dench), and The Invention of Love. He returned in 2002 to direct Vincent in Brixton. He was knighted in 1997.
Director 1997-2003
Trevor Nunn was born in 1940. He was an Associate Director of the RSC from 1965, took over as Artistic Director in 1968 and ran the company until 1986, overseeing the opening of two new theatres in Stratford – The Other Place and The Swan – and the RSC's new London home at the Barbican. His West End productions include the musicals Cats, Starlight Express, Aspects of Love, Sunset Boulevard, Chess and Les Misérables, the most performed musical in the world. As Director of the NT, his productions included Anything Goes, A Streetcar Named Desire, Summerfolk, My Fair Lady, The Merchant of Venice, Not About Nightingales, and Love's Labour's Lost. He was knighted in 2002 and returned to the National to direct The Royal Hunt of the Sun in 2006.
Director from April 2003
Nicholas Hytner was born in 1957. He was as an Associate Director of Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre between 1985 and 1989, and of the National between 31 Jul 1989-1997. His work in the West End includes Alan Bennett's Lady in the Van, The Importance of Being Earnest, Miss Saigon, Cressida and Orpheus Descending. For the National: Ghetto, The Wind in the Willows, The Madness of George III (he also directed the film The Madness of King George), The Recruiting Officer, Carousel, The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Winter's Tale, Mother Clap's Molly House, Henry V, His Dark Materials, The History Boys and Southwark Fair.
