Richard Eyre

Eyre has received numerous accolades including three Laurence Olivier Awards as well as nominations for six BAFTA Awards and two Tony Awards. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1992 News Year Honours, and knighted in the 1997 New Year Honours.

Eyre started his career as the associate director at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh from 1967 to 1972 before becoming the artistic director of the Royal National Theatre from 1987 to 1999. He has directed numerous West End productions earning received three Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Director for Guys and Dolls (1982), King Lear (1998), and Hedda Gabler (2006). He was also Olivier-nominated for Racing Demon (1989), Skylight (1995), John Gabriel Borkman (1997), Vincent in Brixton (2003), Mary Poppins (2005), and Ghosts (2014). For his work on Broadway he received Tony Award for Best Director nominations for The Judas Kiss (1998) and The Crucible (2002).

He made his directorial film debut with The Ploughman's Lunch (1983). He went on to direct the dramas Iris (2001) and Notes on a Scandal (2005) earning nominations for the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film. On television directed and produced numerous episodes of Play for Today (1979–1981). He also directed The Cherry Orchard (1981), Tumbledown (1988), The Dresser (2015), and King Lear (2018).

Eyre was born in Barnstaple, Devon, England, the son of Richard Galfridus Hastings Giles Eyre and his wife, Minna Mary Jessica Royds.

He was educated at Sherborne School, an independent school for boys in the market town of Sherborne in northwest Dorset in southwest England, followed by Peterhouse at the University of Cambridge. Eyre became the first president of Rose Bruford College in July 2010. He gives "President's Lectures" at this drama school; his 2012 talk was entitled "Directing Shakespeare for BBC Television". He lives in Brook Green, West London.

1967–1986: Early theatre work

 

Eyre was Associate Director at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh from 1967 to 1972. He won STV Awards for the Best Production in Scotland in 1969, 1970 and 1971. His productions at the Lyceum included Jack Ronder's adaptation of James Hogg's novel, Confessions of a Justified Sinner in August 1971. He was artistic director of Nottingham Playhouse from 1973–78 where he commissioned and directed many new plays, including the Trevor Griffiths play Comedians starring Jonathan Pryce, Stephen Rea, and Tom Wilkinson which was first performed in 1975.

Eyre worked as both a director and one of the producers of BBC's Play for Today between 1978 and 1980. He directed The Ploughman's Lunch (written by Ian McEwan) in 1983, which won the Evening Standard Award for Best Film. He returned to the BBC in 1988 to direct the Falklands War story Tumbledown (starring Colin Firth), which won him the BAFTA Award for Best Director and the Prix Italia. He has been the recipient of numerous directing awards including five Olivier Awards. In 1982 he won the Evening Standard Award for Best Director, for Guys and Dolls, and in 1997 for King Lear and Tom Stoppard's The Invention of Love. In 1997 he won an Olivier Lifetime Achievement Award, and awards from The Directors' Guild of Great Britain, the South Bank Show, the Evening Standard and the Critics' Circle.

1987–1999: Royal National Theatre

 

Eyre was artistic director of the UK's National Theatre (which gained the now little-used prefix Royal as outgoing director Peter Hall handed over to him) between 1987 and 1997. He had previously directed a well received revival of Guys and Dolls for the venue in 1982, with Olivier Award-winner Julia McKenzie and Bob Hoskins. He repeated this production in 1996 with Imelda Staunton and Joanna Riding. His diaries from his time at the National have been published as National Service, winning the 2003 Theatre Book Prize.

Other than Guys and Dolls, his theatre productions include Hamlet (twice), with Jonathan Pryce at the Royal Court in 1980 and Daniel Day-Lewis in 1989; Richard III with Ian McKellen; King Lear with Ian Holm; Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana and Sweet Bird of Youth; Eduardo De Filippo's Napoli Milionaria and Le Grande Magia; Henrik Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman with Paul Scofield, Vanessa Redgrave and Eileen Atkins; Ibsen's Hedda Gabler with Eve Best; and numerous new plays by David Hare, Tom Stoppard, Trevor Griffiths, Howard Brenton, Alan Bennett, Christopher Hampton and Nicholas Wright. He made his Broadway debut directing the David Hare play Racing Demon earning a Tony Award for Best Play nomination. The following year he directed the Broadway transfer of Hare's play Skylight (1996). He directed Hare's play The Judas Kiss (1998) starring Liam Neeson and Tom Hollander on the West End and Broadway. The next year he directed Judi Dench in Hare's play Amy's View at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway which earned her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

Eyre has also directed operas. His debut was the 1994 production of La traviata at the Royal Opera House which starred Angela Gheorghiu and was conducted by Sir Georg Solti. This production was televised and has subsequently been released on video and DVD. Eyre was appointed to the Board of Governors of the BBC in November 1995, and in October 2000 was appointed for a second term of office, though he resigned early (with effect from 31 May 2003) due to theatre and film directing commitments. Eyre has written adaptations of Hedda Gabler and of Sartre's Les mains sales (Dirty Hands) as The Novice for the Almeida Theatre. A friend of Ian Charleson, whom he directed in acclaimed performances of Guys and Dolls and Hamlet, Eyre contributed a chapter to the 1990 book, For Ian Charleson: A Tribute.

2000–2009: Film director

 

In 2001 he directed the biographical drama Iris about writer and philosopher Iris Murdoch. The film covers her early life to her later years dealing with Alzheimers. Critics praised the film specifically citing the powerful performances from its four stars Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent, Kate Winslet and Hugh Bonneville. Broadbent won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Iris, and Dench and Winslet were nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively. The following year he directed the Broadway revival of the Arthur Miller play The Crucible starring Liam Neeson and Laura Linney. Charles Isherwood of Variety wrote, "Eyre’s production has an earnest integrity to the text that firmly accentuates the play’s powerful aspects".

In 2006, he directed Notes on a Scandal, the film adaptation of the Man Booker Prize-nominated novel by Zoë Heller. The film starred Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, and Bill Nighy. James Christopher of The Times praised the film writing, "Eyre directs the film like a chamber play...his natural gift for framing scenes is terrifically assured. A potent and evil pleasure." The film was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film as well as two Academy Awards for Best Actress for Dench and Best Supporting Actress for Blanchett. He then directed the 2005 stage musical Mary Poppins for West End and Broadway. For his work on the former production he received a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director nomination. On 14 February 2007, Eyre's production of Nicholas Wright's The Reporter premiered at the National Theatre, London. The play explores the social climate in the years before James Mossman's death as well as the reasons for the death itself. He directed The Other Man (2008), an adaptation of a short story by Bernhard Schlink, starring Liam Neeson, Antonio Banderas, and Laura Linney.

Eyre directed a new production of Bizet's opera Carmen for the Metropolitan Opera's 2009–10 season, starring Latvian mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča and Roberto Alagna. He returned to the Met for the 2013–14 season where he created and directed a new production of Jules Massenet's Werther with Jonas Kaufmann and Sophie Koch and returned to create and direct the 2014–15 season opening production, Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. Eyre was planning to direct Jon Robin Baitz's stage adaptation of Hollywood legend Robert Evans' memoirs The Kid Stays in the Picture and its sequel, The Fat Lady Sang, but the project was cancelled by the producer.

2010–present

His production of Noël Coward's Private Lives starring Kim Cattrall and Paul Gross opened at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway in November 2011 following a run in Toronto. He directed The Dark Earth and The Light Sky for the Almeida Theatre, and The Pajama Game for the Chichester Festival Theatre. In 2012, he directed Henry IV, Part I and Part II as part of the BBC's The Hollow Crown series. In November 2013, he once again won the Evening Standard Award for Best Director for Ibsen's Ghosts at the Almeida Theatre. This production moved to the West End.

In the late 2010s, Eyre directed numerous projects for the screen. In 2015 he directed the television film The Dresser starring Anthony Hopkins and Ian McKellen based off the 1980 play of the same name by Ronald Harwood. It received positive reviews as well as a Golden Globe Award for Best Limited or Anthology Series or Television Film nomination. He also directed the drama film The Children Act (2017), based on the novel of the same name by Ian McEwan and starring Emma Thompson. The following year he directed the BBC Two television film King Lear (2018) which starred Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Florence Pugh, and Jim Broadbent. It earned a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie.

In 2021, Eyre directed Allelujah, a film adaptation of Allan Bennet's play of the same name which starred Jennifer Saunders, Bally Gill, Russell Tovey, David Bradley, Derek Jacobi, and Judi Dench. His play 'The Snail House' was premiered at Hampstead Theatre in 2022.

Eyre's archive is part of the performing arts collections at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas alongside friends and collaborators like David Hare, Ian McEwan, and Tom Stoppard. His papers include his personal journals, production scripts, annotated opera libretti, correspondence, photographs, posters, and theatre ephemera.

He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1992 New Year Honours, and knighted in the 1997 New Year Honours, receiving the honour on 4 March 1997. He became a Patron of the Alzheimer's Research Trust in 2001. He was made an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1998, and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of Nottingham on 10 July 2008. He was appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to drama.

Film

Television

Theatre

As a director