Trevor Nunn

Trevor Nunn (born January 14, 1940, Ipswich, Suffolk, England) is an English theatre director who, as artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC; 1968–86) and the Royal National Theatre (RNT; 1997–2003), was known for his innovative stagings of Shakespeare’s works and commercially successful productions of popular musicals.

Raised in a working-class family, Nunn received a scholarship to Downing College, Cambridge, where he studied under F.R. Leavis and dedicated himself to acting, directing, and writing for the theatre. After his graduation in 1962, he worked for the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, where he directed Peer Gynt, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and A View from the Bridge before leaving to join the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1964.

Nunn was made associate director at the RSC in 1965 and quickly found success with productions that included The Revenger’s Tragedy (1966) and The Taming of the Shrew (1967). In 1968 he was promoted to artistic director. The following year he directed Judi Dench in the roles of both Hermione and Perdita in The Winter’s Tale. Nunn’s decision to introduce the style and music of the 1960s to the play and focus inward on the characters’ psyches, rather than outward on politics, made this an influential production. For the RSC’s 1976 production of Macbeth, starring Dench and Ian McKellen (Nunn’s Cambridge classmate), Nunn set the action inside a tiny chalk circle and staged the play for an intimate audience of 200. In 1980 Nunn and John Caird directed the RSC’s lavish eight-and-a-half-hour production of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby in London’s West End; for their direction, the duo received a Laurence Olivier Award. The play opened on Broadway in 1981 and won four Tony Awards the next year, including those for best play and best director of a play.

Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors.

SIGN UP

By clicking “Sign Up”, you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Nunn was often criticized as being overly commercial for staging musicals during his time as head of the RSC and later the Royal National Theatre—both traditionally more staid companies. He defended these productions, saying that he had never seen a dividing line between musicals and classical plays and adding that he did not think that Shakespeare had seen one either. Despite these complaints, the musicals that he directed were met with much critical acclaim and commercial success. The London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats (1981) ran for 21 years, making it the longest-running British production of a musical until it was eclipsed by Les Misérables (1985), which was directed by Nunn and Caird. Along with Lloyd Webber and T.S. Eliot (Cats was based on the late poet’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats), Nunn shared credit for writing the musical’s hit song “Memory.” In addition to being commercially successful, both Cats and Les Misérables were the recipients of numerous Tony Awards in 1983 and 1987, respectively, including those for best director of a musical for Nunn with Cats and for Nunn and Caird with Les Misérables. After stepping down as artistic director in 1986, Nunn continued working with the RSC, directing productions of Othello (1989) and The Blue Angel (1991) while also directing the Lloyd Webber musical Sunset Boulevard (1993) and the opera Katya Kabanova (1994).

From 1997 to 2003, Nunn served as the artistic director of the Royal National Theatre. He continued to direct commercially successful productions, including the musical Oklahoma! (1998) and the play Not About Nightingales (1998), both of which won him nominations for Tony Awards for best director in their Broadway productions. In 2000 he won an Olivier Award for his direction of three RNT productions: Summerfolk, Merchant of Venice, and Troilus and Cressida. Two years later he received the Olivier Award for outstanding achievement.

After leaving the RNT, Nunn directed Lloyd Webber’s The Woman in White (2004), Tom Stoppard’s Rock ’n’ Roll (2006), and Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music (2008). He joined the Theatre Royal Haymarket as resident artistic director for the 2011–12 season and directed four plays, including Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and The Tempest, starring Ralph Fiennes. Nunn’s later productions for the Haymarket included Fatal Attraction (2014). In 2019 his revival of Fiddler on the Roof opened on the West End.

Nunn also directed several movies, including Lady Jane (1986), Twelfth Night or What You Will (1996), and Red Joan (2018). In 2002 he was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in recognition of his services to theatre.

Explore Britannica Premium!

The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.

SUBSCRIBE