Peter Gill (born 7 September 1939) is a Welsh theatre director, playwright, and actor. He was born in Cardiff to George John and Margaret Mary (née Browne) Gill, and educated at St Illtyd's College, Cardiff.

Career

An actor from 1957–65, he directed his first production without décor, at the Royal Court Theatre in August 1965, ''A Collier's Friday Night'' by D. H. Lawrence. Having begun his career as an actor, he is now best known for his work as a director and playwright.

Royal Court

In 1964, he became Assistant Director at the Royal Court and Associate Director in 1970, best known there as the director of three hitherto under-rated plays by D. H. Lawrence, presented as a group in 1968. In 1969, the Royal Court also presented two of his own first plays, ''The Sleepers' Den'' and ''Over Gardens Out'', "which revealed that Gill could evoke with the economy of means and lyrical skill the circumstances of his Cardiff boyhood."

Riverside Studios

Gill was appointed artistic director of the Riverside Studios in 1976, and on 30 May 1976, his Nottingham/Edinburgh production of ''

As You Like It ''As You Like It'' is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has b ...

'' (starring Jane Lapotaire as Rosalind, John Price as Orlando and Zoë Wanamaker as Celia, with a stage design by William Dudley) marked the official opening of the

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

arts centre, formerly television studios. His first Riverside production was a staging of his own version of Chekhov's '' The Cherry Orchard'', which opened to press acclaim on 12 January 1978 (starring Judy Parfitt as Ranevskaya and Julie Covington as Varya, again with a setting designed by William Dudley). Writing for '' The Sunday Times'', theatre critic Bernard Levin said:

It is good to salute the opening of a new theatre; it is thrice good to be able to do so with almost unqualified praise for its first production. At the Riverside Studios, Peter Gill (who is in charge of the whole enterprise) has directed ''The Cherry Orchard'' with a cast so astonishingly suitable that I began, hallucinatorily, to believe that they had been assembled first, and that Chekhov had then written the play round them. What is more, they are achieving this effect on an impossible stage; it is seventy-five feet wide (the players have to sprint, never mind run, if they are to get off at all), absurdly shallow, and lacking even the most rudimentary trappings in the way of flies, a thrust or even wings.... Mr. Gill and his cast have sought success in the only place it can be found: inside themselves and the play. The effect is magical; ''The Cherry Orchard'' has almost never, in my experience, been at once so harrowing and so glittering; nor its fragile rhythms so finely, surely spun, its development so natural, human and real.

When Gill left Riverside in 1980 to be an Associate Director at the National Theatre, a West London theatre critic John Thaxter wrote:

It is no exaggeration to say that Gill's four years as director have taken Riverside to a leading position in British theatre; both with his own productions (notably ''The Cherry Orchard'' and this year's ''Julius Caesar'') and as a generous host to world theatre giants: Tadeusz Kantor and
Athol Fugard Athol Fugard, Hon. , (born 11 June 1932), is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director widely regarded as South Africa's greatest playwright. He is best known for his political and penetrating plays opposing the system of apart ...
among them....It would also be fair to say that the major portion of the subsidies making all this possible came from the Hammersmith Council, which this year alone provided £200,000 to Riverside, although its audience is drawn from far and wide.

National Theatre

As an Associate Director of the National Theatre from 1980 to 1997, Gill also founded the National Theatre Studio in 1984, which he ran until 1 October 1990. In his own words:

When I set up the National Theatre Studio the development and analysis of acting was a central part of the work, so that, along with commissioning writers, developing directors and designers, investigating non-text based work, and producing work for the main house, the practice and analysis of acting skills seemed an essential part of any programme of work that was in part concerned with process.

Filmography

Plays

Plays include: *''The Sleepers Den'', 1965; Royal Court, November 1969 *''Over Gardens Out'', Royal Court, November 1969 *''Small Change'', Royal Court, February 1976 *''Kick for Touch'', National Theatre, February 1983 *''In the Blue''. National Theatre, November 1985 *''Mean Tears'', National Theatre, July 1987 *''Cardiff East'', National Theatre, February 1997 *''The Look Across the Eyes'', published 1997 *''Certain Young Men'', Almeida Theatre, January 1999 *''Friendly Fire'', Crucible Youth Theatre, Sheffield, June 2002 *''Lovely Evening'', Theatre 503, March 2005 *'' The York Realist'', Royal Court, 2002; revived at the Donmar Warehouse and Sheffield Crucible, 2018 *''Original Sin'', Crucible Sheffield, 2002 *''Another Door Closed'', Theatre Royal, Bath, 2009 *'' Versailles'', Donmar Warehouse, 2014 *''As Good A Time As Any'', Print Room, 2015 Adaptations and versions: *''A Provincial Life'' ( Chekhov), Royal Court, 1966 *''The Merry-Go-Round'' ( D. H. Lawrence), Royal Court, 1973 *'' The Cherry Orchard'' ( Chekhov), Riverside Studios, 1978 *''Touch and Go'' ( D. H. Lawrence), Riverside Studios, 1980 *'' As I Lay Dying'' ( William Faulkner), National Theatre, 1985 *'' Uncle Vanya'' ( Chekhov), Theatr-Clwyd Mold & Crucible Studio Sheffield, 2017

As director

Royal Court

*''A Collier's Friday Night'' ( D. H. Lawrence), August 1965 *''The Local Stigmatic'' ( Heathcote Williams), March 1966 *'' The Ruffian on the Stair'' (

Joe Orton John Kingsley Orton (1 January 1933 – 9 August 1967), known by the pen name of Joe Orton, was an English playwright, author, and diarist. His public career, from 1964 until his death in 1967, was short but highly influential. During this brie ...

), August 1966 *''A Provincial Life'' ( Chekhov ad. Gill), October 1966 *''The Soldier's Fortune'' ( Thomas Otway), January 1967 *''The Daughter-in-Law'' (D. H. Lawrence), March 1967. First prize at the Belgrade International Theatre Festival, 1968 *''The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd'' (D. H. Lawrence), March 1968 *''Life Price'' ( Jeremy Seabrook and Michael O'Neill), January 1969 *''The Sleepers' Den'' (Gill), November 1969 *''Over Gardens Out'' (Gill), November 1969 *'' The Duchess of Malfi'' ( John Webster), May 1972 *''Crete and Sergeant Pepper'' ( John Antrobus), May 1972 *''The Merry-Go-Round'' (D. H. Lawrence ad. Gill), November 1973 *''The Fool'' (

Edward Bond Edward Bond (born 18 July 1934) is an English playwright, theatre director, poet, theorist and screenwriter. He is the author of some fifty plays, among them '' Saved'' (1965), the production of which was instrumental in the abolition of the ...

), November 1975 *''Small Change'' (Gill), July 1976
''The York Realist'' (Gill)
English Touring Theatre, January 2002

Riverside Studios

*''

'', Nottingham and Edinburgh production: opening production at Riverside Studios, 30 May 1976 *'' The Cherry Orchard'' ( Chekhov, ad. Gill), January 1978 *'' The Changeling'' ( Thomas Middleton and William Rowley), September 1978 *''

Measure for Measure ''Measure for Measure'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604 and first performed in 1604, according to available records. It was published in the ''First Folio'' of 1623. The play's plot features its ...

'' (Shakespeare), May 1979 *''

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...

'' (Shakespeare), May 1980 *''Scrape Off the Black'' (Tunde Ikoli), July 1980 *''Touch and Go'' (D. H. Lawrence), rehearsed reading October 1980, to mark the 50th anniversary of the author's death

National Theatre

*'' A Month in the Country'' ( Turgenev), Olivier, February 1981 *'' Don Juan'' by Molière, Cottesloe, April 1981 *'' Much Ado About Nothing'', Olivier, August 1981 *'' Danton's Death'' ( Georg Büchner), Olivier, July 1982 *'' Major Barbara'' ( G B Shaw), Lyttelton, October 1982 *''Kick for Touch'' (Gill), Cottesloe, February 1983 *''Small Change'' (Gill), Cottesloe, February 1983 *''Tales from Hollywood'' (

Christopher Hampton Sir Christopher James Hampton ( Horta, Azores, 26 January 1946) is a British playwright, screenwriter, translator and film director. He is best known for his play ''Les Liaisons Dangereuses'' based on the novel of the same name and the film ...

), Olivier, September 1983 *'' Antigone'' by Sophocles, Cottesloe, October 1983 *'' Venice Preserv'd'' by Thomas Otway, Lyttelton, April 1984 *'' Fool for Love'' by Sam Shepard, Cottesloe, October 1984 *'' As I Lay Dying'' by William Faulkner, adapted by Peter Gill, Cottesloe, October 1985 *Five Play Bill, Cottesloe, November 1985, including ''In the Blue'' (Gill) *''Mean Tears'' (Gill), Cottesloe, July 1987 *''Mrs Klein'' by Nicholas Wright, Cottesloe, August 1988 *''

Juno and the Paycock ''Juno and the Paycock'' is a play by Seán O'Casey. Highly regarded and often performed in Ireland, it was first staged at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1924. It is set in the working-class tenements of Dublin in the early 1920s, during the Ir ...

'' by Seán O'Casey, Lyttelton, February 1989 *''Cardiff East'' (Gill), February 1997 *'' Luther'' (

John Osborne John James Osborne (12 December 1929 – 24 December 1994) was an English playwright, screenwriter and actor, known for his prose that criticized established social and political norms. The success of his 1956 play ''Look Back in Anger'' tra ...

), Olivier, October 2001 *''Scenes from the Big Picture'' (

Owen McCafferty Owen McCafferty (born 1961) is a playwright from Northern Ireland. Early life Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, McCafferty in 1961 he was brought up in London from the age of 1 until aged 10 when his parents returned to Belfast. He was educat ...

), Cottesloe, April 200

*'' The Voysey Inheritance'' by Harley Granville-Barker, Lyttelton, April 200

Other venues

*''

O'Flaherty V.C. ''O'Flaherty V.C., A Recruiting Pamphlet'' (1915) is a comic one-act play written during World War I by George Bernard Shaw. The plot is about an Irish soldier in the British army returning home after winning the Victoria Cross. The play was writt ...

'' by Bernard Shaw, Mermaid Theatre, September 1966 *''Crimes of Passion'' and ''June Evening'' (tour), 1967 *''Life Price'' and '' Much Ado About Nothing'', Stratford, Connecticut, 1969 *''

Landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

'' and '' Silence'' by

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanne ...

, Lincoln Center's Forum Theater, 1970 *'' Hedda Gabler'' by

Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playw ...

, Stratford, Ontario, Canada 1970 *''Cato Street'',

Young Vic The Young Vic Theatre is a performing arts venue located on The Cut, near the South Bank, in the London Borough of Lambeth. The Young Vic was established by Frank Dunlop in 1970. Kwame Kwei-Armah has been Artistic Director since February 201 ...

,1971 *''Crete and Sergeant Pepper'' and '' Midsummer Night's Dream'', Zurich, 1972 *''The Daughter-in-Law'',

Bochum Bochum ( , also , ; wep, Baukem) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 364,920 (2016), is the sixth largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) of the most populous Germany, German federal state o ...

, 1972 *'' Twelfth Night'', RSC Stratford. August 1974, Aldwych Theatre, February 1975 *''

'',

Nottingham Playhouse Nottingham Playhouse is a theatre in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. It was first established as a repertory theatre in 1948 when it operated from a former cinema in Goldsmith Street. Directors during this period included Val May and Fr ...

, Edinburgh Festival 1975; and the opening of Riverside Studios, 30 May 1976 *'' The Way of the World'' by William Congreve, Lyric Hammersmith, October 1992 *''New England'' ( Richard Nelson), RSC

The Pit The Pit may refer to: Places * The Pit, a commonly used name for a mosh pit * The Pit (arena), the main indoor arena at the University of New Mexico * The Pit (memorial), "Яма" the Holocaust memorial in Minsk, Belarus * Elder 'The Pit' Stadiu ...

, November 1994 *'' Uncle Vanya'' ( Chekhov) for Field Day, Tricycle Theatre, April 1995 *'' A Patriot for Me'' (

), RSC Barbican Theatre, October 1995 *''Tongue of a Bird'' (

Ellen McLaughlin Ellen McLaughlin is an American playwright and actress. Early years McLaughlin attended Potomac School (McLean, Virginia), The Potomac School in McLean, Virginia for elementary school (through 9th grade). She subsequently attended Sidwell Fr ...

), Almeida Theatre, November 1997 *''Certain Young Men'' (Gill), Almeida Theatre. January 1999 *'' The Seagull'' by Chekhov, adapted by Gill, RSC

Swan Theatre The Swan was a theatre in Southwark, London, England, built in 1595 on top of a previously standing structure, during the first half of William Shakespeare's career. It was the fifth in the series of large public playhouses of London, aft ...

, Stratford, February 2000; Barbican Theatre, April 2000 *'' Speed-the-Plow'' by David Mamet, New Ambassadors Theatre, March 2000; Duke of York's Theatre, June 2000 *''The York Realist'' (Gill) for English Touring Theatre at the Royal Court, January 200

Strand Theatre (Novello), Strand Theatre, March 2002 *''Original Sin'' (Gill), Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, June 2002 *'' Days of Wine and Roses'' by

J P Miller J, or j, is the tenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its usual name in English is ''jay'' (pronounced ), with a now-uncommon varia ...

adapted by

, Donmar Warehouse, February 200

*'' Epitaph for George Dillon'' by

and

Anthony Creighton Anthony Creighton (1922, Swanage – 22 March 2005), a British actor and writer, is best known as the co-author of the play ''Epitaph for George Dillon'' with John Osborne. He served in the RAF during the war as a navigator on bomber aircra ...

, Comedy Theatre, September 200

*'' Gaslight (play), Gaslight'' by Patrick Hamilton, Old Vic, June 200

*'' The Importance of Being Earnest'' by

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

, Theatre Royal Bath and UK Tour 2007; followed by Vaudeville Theatre, 2008 *''Another Door Closed'' by Peter Gill, Theatre Royal, Bath, 2009

Private life

He lived from the 1960s until 2006 in a small flat in the Thameside house formerly belonging to George Devine and later bought by playwright

Donald Howarth Donald Howarth (5 November 1931 – 24 March 2020) was a playwright and theatre director. After training at Esme Church's Northern Theatre School in Bradford, he worked in various repertory theatres around England before writing his first play, ' ...

and his civil partner George Goetschuis. Gill gets several mentions in the diaries of

, for whom he directed a double bill of former television plays by Orton at the Royal Court called ''Crimes of Passion''. In 2007, the British Library acquired Peter Gill's papers and supplementary papers consisting of literary works, theatre administration and correspondence.Peter Gill Papers
archives and manuscripts catalogue, the British Library. Retrieved 21 May 2020

National Life Stories National Life Stories is an independent charitable trust and limited company (registered as the ‘National Life Story Collection’) based within the British Library Oral History section, whose key focus and expertise is oral history fieldwork. S ...

conducted an oral history interview (C1316/08) with Peter Gill in 2008-2009 for its The Legacy of the English Stage Company collection held by the British Library.National Life Stories, 'Jellicoe, Ann (1 of 14) National Life Stories Collection: The Legacy of the English Stage Company', The British Library Board, 2009
Retrieved 21 February 2018

Sources

*''To Bodies Gone: The Theatre of Peter Gill'', by Barney Norris, Seren Books (2014); *''Who's Who in the Theatre'', 17th Edition, Gale (1981); *''The National: The Theatre and its Work 1963–1997'' by Simon Callow, Nick Hern Books (1997); *''At the Royal Court: 25 Years of the English Stage Company'', ed. Richard Findlater, Amber Lane Press (1981); *''Actors Speaking'' with an introduction by Peter Gill, edited by Lyn Haill, Oberon Books (2007);

References

External links

Peter Gill's website

Recent publications by Peter Gill
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gill, Peter 1939 births Writers from Cardiff Living people Welsh dramatists and playwrights Welsh male actors Welsh theatre directors