Twelfth Night

Declan Donnellan was born in England in 1953 of Irish parents, he read English and Law at Cambridge and was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1979, With designer Nick Ormerod, Donnellan founded Cheek By Jowl in 1981, now widely regarded as one of the world’s most influential theatre companies, and has directed the majority of their productions. He introduced British audiences to unperformed European classics including Racine's "Andromache", Ostrovsky’s "A Family Affair”, Lessing’s "Sarah", and "The Cid" by Corneille. He wrote and directed "Lady Betty", adapted "Vanity Fair", and staged "The Duchess of Malfi”. His productions of Shakespeare include "Twelfth Night", "A Midsummer Night’s Dream", "Macbeth", "Much Ado About Nothing”, "Measure For Measure", and "As You Like It". Fr om 1989 - 1997 he was Associate Director of the Royal National Theatre, where his productions included "Puente Ovejuna" by Lope de Vega, "Peer Gynt”, "Sweeney Todd", and both parts of "Angels in America” by Tony Kushner. His freelance theatre productions include "Macbeth" and "Philoctetes" for the National Theatre of Finland, "Romeo and Juliet” for the New Shakespeare Company, "The School for Scandal" for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and in the West End "Hay Fever" at the Savoy Theatre, and his own version of "Antigone” by Sophocles at the Old Vic. In 1997 he became the only British director to stage a work with the Maly Theatre Company in St. Petersburg, when he directed “The Winter’s Tale" in Russian and the following year he directed for The Avignon Festival, wh ere he formed a company of French actors to play “Le Cid" by Corneille. Also in Russia he has directed "Boris Godunov" by Pushkin on the stage of the Moscow Arts Theatre with the Chekhov International Theatre Festival. Opera productions include "Falstaff with Claudio Abbado at The Salzburg Festival in Spring and Summer 2001. He has recently directed "The homebody" Tony Kushner’s new play, in New York.

Nick Ormerod read law at Cambridge University and trained in theatre design at Wimbledon School of Art. With Declan Donnellan, he co-founded and if joint Artistic Director of Cheek by Jowl; the company has performed in spaces all over the world including the Bouffes du Nord in Paris and the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, and Nick has designed all but one of their productions. Nick's other work includes "Fuente Overjune”, "Peer Gynt"," Sweeney Todd" and "Angels in America" at the Royal National Theatres; "The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagomy" for the English National Opera; "Martin Guerre" at the Prince Edward Theatre, and "The Winter's Tale" for the Maly Drama Theatre, St. Petersburg; "Hayfever" at the Savoy Theatre, "There are Crimes and Crimes" at the Leicester Haymarket Theatre, and “The School for Scandal" for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford and at the Barbican, London. In 2000 he designed "Troilus and Cressida" for the Burgtheater, Vienna and "Boris Godunov", Pushkin's verse drama in Moscow. He has recently designed "Falstaff" for the Osterfestspiele in Salzburg. In 1992 he received an Olivier Award nomination for the Designer of the Year.