Company Biographies
(Max's new book Taking Stock is available at an exclusive rate from our shop, as his earlier Letters to George)
Founded Joint Stock Theatre group in 1974 following his Artistic Directorship of The Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. From 1979 to 1993 he was Artistic Director of The Royal Court Theatre. In 1993 he founded the touring company, Out of Joint.
His work as a Director has overwhelmingly been with new writing, and he has commissioned and directed first productions by many of the country's leading writers. For Out of Joint these have been The Queen and I by Sue Townsend, The Libertine by Stephen Jeffreys, The Break of Day by Timberlake Wertenbaker, The Steward of Christendom by Sebastian Barry, The Positive Hour by April de Angelis, Shopping and Fucking by Mark Ravenhill, Blue Heart by Caryl Churchill, Our Lady of Sligo by Sebastian Barry, Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker, Drummers by Simon Bennett, Some Explicit Polaroids by Mark Ravenhill, a double bill of Rita, Sue and Bob Too by Andrea Dunbar and A State Affair by Robin Soans, Feelgood by Alistair Beaton, Sliding with Suzanne by Judy Upton, Hinterland by Sebastian Barry, A Laughing Matter by April De Angelis, Duck by Stella Feehily, The Permanent Way by David Hare, a site-specific, Africa-set production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Talking to Terrorists by Robin Soans, O go my Man by Stella Feehily, The Overwhelming by JT Rogers (National Theatre in association with Out of Joint), and King of Hearts by Alistair Beaton.
New writing directed for Joint Stock includes Fanshen, The Speakers (both with William Gaskill), Light Shining In Buckinghamshire and Cloud Nine. For The Royal Court: The Arbor, Operation Bad Apple, Top Girls, Rita Sue And Bob Too, Falkland Sound, Tom And Viv, Rat In The Skull, Aunt Dan And Lemon, Serious Money, Our Country's Good, Icecream, My Heart's A Suitcase, Hush and Three Birds Alighting On A Field.
In addition he has directed The Seagull, The Pope's Wedding, The Recruiting Officer and King Lear for the Royal Court; A Jovial Crew;The Wives' Excuse and The Country Wife for The Royal Shakespeare Company; and Road, The Man of Mode, She Stoops to Conquer, Three Sisters and Macbeth for Out of Joint. He directed David Hare’s The Breath of Life for Sydney Theatre Company in 2003. He has also directed for The Abbey Theatre, Dublin and Joseph Papp's Public Theatre, New York.
Academic credits include an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes University and a Visiting Professorship at the University of Hertfordshire. His book Letters to George was published in 1989.
Out of Joint’s Producer since 1998. His long collaboration with Max Stafford-Clark began as Joint Stock Theatre Group’s first General Manager for seven years in the 1970s. He was General Manager of the Royal Court for eight years, and on their behalf transferred a string of hit plays to the West End. His career has spanned the full range of theatre production, from small fringe companies to major West End shows and large scale commercial tours. In addition to Out of Joint, he is Producer with Two’s Company. Productions in recent years include his own translation of Véronique Olmi’s End of Story at the Chelsea Theatre and the Forgotten Voices from the Great War series of plays about the First World War written during the War or soon after. The initial season at the Pleasance Theatre was followed by What the Women Did at Southwark Playhouse, Red Night by James Lansdale Hodson at the Finborough Theatre and an adaptation by Tricia Thorns of Lieut Havilland Le Mesurier’s letters from the Western Front, My Real War 1914-? which toured twice in 2007.
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