Jump to content

Deborah Warner

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 79.79.29.112 (talk) at 11:30, 20 November 2017. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Deborah Warner
Born (1959-05-12) 12 May 1959 (age 65)
Oxfordshire, England
OccupationTheatre director
Years active1980–present

Deborah Warner CBE (born 12 May 1959) is a British director of theatre and opera known for her interpretations of the works of Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Georg Büchner, and Henrik Ibsen.

Early life

Warner was born in Oxfordshire, England, to antiquarians Roger Harold Metford Warner and Ruth Ernestine Hurcombe.[1] After attending Sidcot School and St. Clare's school in Oxford, she studied Stage Management at Central School of Speech and Drama.[2] In 1980 she founded the KICK theatre company when she was 21.[3]

Career

Deborah Warner's ENO production of Handel's Messiah (London Coliseum, 2009)

Theatre

In 1987 Warner joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she directed Titus Andronicus and where she also began her long-time collaboration with Fiona Shaw. Warner and Shaw have collaborated on plays including Electra (RSC); The Good Person of Sezuan (1989, National Theatre); Hedda Gabler (1991, The Abbey Theatre and BBC2); the controversial Richard II, with Shaw in the title role, also at the National Theatre (1995) and televised by BBC2; Footfalls, whose radical staging so enraged the Beckett estate that the production was pulled during its run; The PowerBook, at the National Theatre, a dramatisation of Jeanette Winterson's novel; Medea (2000–2001, Queen's Theatre and Broadway); and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, in which Shaw played the small part of Portia. The production starred Ralph Fiennes and Simon Russell Beale; first staged at the Barbican Centre, it later toured Europe. Shaw and Warner toured the world with T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, which began in Wilton's Music Hall in London's East End. Her work began to focus on the link of drama to places, a theme which was expanded upon in her Angel Project. In 2007, following negotiations with the Beckett estate, Warner directed Shaw in Happy Days at the National Theatre, followed in 2009 by Mother Courage and Her Children (with Shaw in the title role) at the same venue. She returned to the Barbican Centre in 2011 to direct The School for Scandal. She also directed the 1999 film The Last September with Michael Gambon and Maggie Smith

Opera and classical music

Warner has also worked extensively in field of opera and classical music, including a production of The Diary of One Who Disappeared by Janáček starring Ian Bostridge; a staging of the St. John Passion at English National Opera; a controversial staging of Mozart's Don Giovanni at Glyndebourne;[2][4] Wozzeck for Opera North; Death in Venice and Between Worlds at English National Opera; and Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with Les Arts Florissants in Vienna, Paris and Amsterdam. Other notable productions include opening the 2015/15 season at La Scala, Milan with Fidelio conducted by Daniel Barenboim and Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at the Metropolitan Opera New York in the 2013/2014 season.

She frequently collaborates with Irish actress Fiona Shaw[5] and with Canadian set designer Michael Levine.[6]

Film

Warner directed the 1999 film The Last September.

Personal life

Warner was made a commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) on 17 June 2006, "for services to drama".[7]

Awards and nominations

Awards

Nominations

References

  1. ^ "Deborah Warner Biography". filmreference. 2008. Retrieved 5 December 2008.
  2. ^ a b "Profile: Disturbing the picnic: Deborah Warner: The director who shocked Glyndebourne is bold, emotional but no iconoclast, says Geraldine Bedell" by Geraldine Bedell, The Independent, 17 July 1994
  3. ^ "Deborah Warner". Hollywood.com. 2008. Retrieved 4 December 2008.
  4. ^ "A catalogue of unspeakable acts: In Deborah Warner's staging, Don Giovanni's sexual conquests only just stop short of sacrilege. No wonder it upset a few of the Glyndebourne faithful. Edward Seckerson heard the catcalls" by Edward Seckerson, The Independent, 12 July 1994
  5. ^ "Deborah Warner (1959-), Theatre and film director". National Portrait Gallery, London. 2008. Retrieved 4 December 2008.
  6. ^ Bach Track: Billy Budd in Madrid, retrieved on November 1, 2016
  7. ^ "No. 58014". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 June 2006. p. 8.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deborah_Warner&oldid=811242837"