Peter Hall (director)

Peter Hall (director)
Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall CBE (22 November 1930 11 September 2017) was an English theatre, opera and film director. His obituary in The Times declared him "the most important figure in British theatre for half a century" and on his death, a Royal National Theatre statement declared that Hall's "influence on the artistic life of Britain in the 20th century was unparalleled". In 2018, the Laurence Olivier Awards, recognizing achievements in London theatre, changed the award for Best Director to the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director.
In 1955, Hall introduced London audiences to the work of Samuel Beckett with the UK premiere of Waiting for Godot. Hall founded the Royal Shakespeare Company (1960–68) and went on to build an international reputation in theatre, opera, film and television. He was director of the National Theatre (1973–88) and artistic director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera (19841990). He formed the Peter Hall Company (19982011) and became founding director of the Rose Theatre Kingston in 2003. Throughout his career, he was a tenacious champion of public funding for the arts.
Early life and career
Peter Reginald Frederick Hall was born in Suffolk at Bury St Edmunds, the only son of Grace Florence (née Pamment) and Reginald Edward Arthur Hall. His father was a stationmaster and the family lived for some time at Great Shelford Station. He won a scholarship to The Perse School in Cambridge. Before taking up a further scholarship to read English at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, Hall did his National Service in Germany at the RAF Headquarters for Education in Bückeburg. Whilst studying at Cambridge he produced and acted in a number of plays, directing five in his final year and a further three for The Marlowe Society Summer Festival. He served on the University Amateur Dramatic Club (ADC) committee before graduating in 1953. In the same year, Hall staged his first professional play, The Letter by W. Somerset Maugham, at The Theatre Royal Windsor. In 1954 and 1955, Hall was the director of the Oxford Playhouse where he directed several later prominent young actors including Ronnie Barker and Billie Whitelaw. Eileen Atkins and Maggie Smith were also part of the company as acting Assistants Stage Managers.
From 1955 to 1957, Hall ran the Arts Theatre in London where he directed the English-language premiere of Waiting for Godot in 1955. The production's success transformed his career overnight and attracted the attention, among others, of Tennessee Williams, for whom he would direct the London premieres of Camino Real (1957) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and Harold Pinter. Other productions at The Arts included the English language premiere of The Waltz of the Toreadors by Jean Anouilh.
Royal Shakespeare Company
Hall made his debut at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1956 with Love's Labour's Lost: his productions there in the 19571959 seasons included Cymbeline with Peggy Ashcroft as Imogen, Coriolanus with Laurence Olivier and A Midsummer Night's Dream with Charles Laughton. In 1960, aged 29, Hall succeeded Glen Byam Shaw as director of the theatre, expanded operations to be all-year, and founded the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) to realise his vision of a resident ensemble of actors, directors and designers producing both modern and classic texts, with a distinctive house style. The company not only played in Stratford but expanded into the Aldwych Theatre, its first London home.
Hall's many productions for the RSC included Hamlet (1965, with David Warner), The Government Inspector (1966, with Paul Scofield), the world premiere of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming (1965) and The Wars of the Roses (1963) adapted with John Barton from Shakespeare's history plays. The latter was described as "the greatest Shakespearian event in living memory which also laid down the doctrine of Shakespearian relevance to the modern world". Hall left the RSC in 1968 after almost ten years as its director.
At the National Theatre
Hall was appointed director of the National Theatre (NT) in 1973 and led the organisation for fifteen years until 1988. He supervised the move from the Old Vic to the new purpose-built complex on London's South Bank "in the face of wide-spread scepticism and violent union unrest, turning a potential catastrophe into the great success story it remains today." Frustrated by construction delays, Hall decided to move the company into the still-unfinished building and to open it theatre by theatre as each neared completion. Extracts from his production of Tamburlaine the Great with Albert Finney were performed out on the terraces, free to passers-by.
Hall directed thirty-three productions for the NT including the world premieres of Harold Pinter's No Man's Land (1975, with John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson) and Betrayal (1978), Peter Shaffer's Amadeus (1979, with Paul Scofield and Simon Callow), and the London and Broadway premieres of Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce. Other landmark productions included The Oresteia (in a version by Tony Harrison with music by Harrison Birtwistle, 1981) which became the first Greek play to be performed by a foreign company at the ancient theatre of Epidaurus, Animal Farm (in his own adaptation, 1984) and Antony and Cleopatra with Judi Dench and Anthony Hopkins (1987).
Hall returned to the NT for the last time in 2011 with a production of Twelfth Night mounted by the company to celebrate his eightieth birthday. His daughter, Rebecca Hall, played Viola alongside Simon Callow as Sir Toby Belch in the Cottesloe Theatre.
Later theatre career
Upon leaving the NT in 1988, Hall launched his own commercial company with productions in the West End and on Broadway of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending (with Vanessa Redgrave) and The Merchant of Venice (with Dustin Hoffman). The Peter Hall Company went on to stage more than sixty plays in association with a number of producing partners including Bill Kenwright and Thelma Holt. In addition to an ensemble repertory season at the Old Vic (1997), the company enjoyed a long collaboration with the Theatre Royal, Bath where a series of summer festivals were staged from 20032011: many productions were subsequently performed on domestic and international tours and in the West End. The plays produced included Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband (1992), Pam Gems' Piaf (with Elaine Paige, 1993), Hamlet (with Stephen Dillane, 1994), Henrik Ibsen's The Master Builder (with Alan Bates, 1995), A Streetcar Named Desire (with Jessica Lange, 1996), Julian Barry's Lenny (with Eddie Izzard, 1999), As You Like It (with Rebecca Hall and Dan Stevens, 2003), Brian Clark's Whose Life is it Anyway? (with Kim Cattrall, 2005), the fiftieth anniversary production of Waiting for Godot, Coward's Hay Fever (with Judi Dench, 2006) and Shaw's Pygmalion (with Tim Pigott-Smith and Michelle Dockery, 2007). Hall's final productions for his company were Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2 (2011), staged at the Theatre Royal Bath.
Hall directed extensively in the United States including the world premiere of John Guare's Four Baboons Adoring the Sun (Lincoln Center, 1992), three Shakespeare plays with Center Theater Group, Los Angeles (1999 and 2001) and John Barton's nine-hour epic Tantalus (2000), an RSC co-production with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
In 2003, Hall became the founding director of The Rose Theatre a new venue to be constructed in Kingston upon Thames whose design was inspired by the Elizabethan original. He directed a number of productions there including Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, which opened the building in 2008, and A Midsummer Night's Dream (with Judi Dench as Titania, 2010). Hall was also appointed "Director Emeritus" of The Rose Kingston.
Opera
Peter Hall was also an internationally celebrated opera director. His first experience was in 1957, directing The Moon and Sixpence by John Gardner at Sadler's Wells. He was able to play the piano well enough to read opera scores. His first major project was Schoenberg's Moses und Aron at Covent Garden, which led on to further productions at that house.
Hall worked at many of the world's leading houses as well as Royal Opera House, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Houston Grand Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Bayreuth Festival where he, with conductor Georg Solti, directed Wagner's Ring Cycle (Der Ring des Nibelungen) in 1983 to honour the centenary of the composer's death. The production was played until 1986. Hall staged the world premieres of Michael Tippett's The Knot Garden (1970) and New Year (1989). He had a close relationship with the Glyndebourne Festival where he was artistic director from 1984 to 1990, directing more than twenty productions including the Mozart/Da Ponte operas. His production of Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1981) was revived nine times, most recently 35 years after its premiere, in August 2016. Hall also directed Albert Herring by Benjamin Britten, Cavalli's La Calisto, Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria and Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice (all with Janet Baker); L'incoronazione di Poppea and Carmen – both with his then wife, Maria Ewing, with whom he also staged a celebrated Salome (The Royal Opera London and L.A. Opera) in 1986. Opera magazine noted Hall's characteristics as (in relation to La Cenerentola at Glyndebourne) "dignity and emotional veracity", recalling that "he would always insist that 'the singers, like actors, played off each other'".
Film and TV
Hall's films for cinema and TV include Akenfield (1974), a fictionalisation based on Ronald Blythe's oral history and filmed in Blythe's native Suffolk with a cast of local people. It was restored and relaunched in 2016 by the BFI. Hall's film She's Been Away was written by Stephen Poliakoff and starred Peggy Ashcroft and Geraldine James who both won awards for their performances at the Venice Film Festival. Hall also directed The Camomile Lawn and The Final Passage for Channel 4 television, as well as a number of his opera and stage productions. His only American studio movie, the 1995 erotic thriller Never Talk to Strangers, "proved to me that I have no aptitude whatever for surviving the Hollywood rat race," as Hall wrote in the updated edition of his memoir Making an Exhibition of Myself. For several years during the 1970s he presented the arts programme Aquarius for London Weekend Television. In 2005 he was the subject of a two-hour documentary for The South Bank Show, Peter Hall, Fifty Years in Theatre.
Acting
Hall began acting as a student at Cambridge University, where Dadie Rylands taught him to speak Shakespearean verse. He was also influenced in his understanding of Shakespeare by the literary critic and teacher F. R. Leavis. He subsequently acted in three German films in the 1970s: Der Fußgänger (The Pedestrian, directed by Maximilian Schell, 1973), Als Mutter streikte (When Mother Went on Strike, 1974) and Der letzte Schrei (The Last Word, 1974).
Books
His books on theatre include The Necessary Theatre (Nick Hern, 1999), Exposed by the Mask (Oberon, 2000) and Shakespeare's Advice to the Players (Oberon, 2003). The Peter Hall Diaries the Story of a Dramatic Battle, edited by John Goodwin (Hamish Hamilton) were first published in 1983 and documented his struggle to establish the National Theatre on the South Bank. His autobiography, Making an Exhibition of Myself (Sinclair-Stevenson), was published in 1993.
Awards
Peter Hall was appointed a CBE in 1963 and knighted in 1977 for his services to the theatre. He was awarded the Chevalier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1965), received the Hamburg University Shakespeare Prize (1967) and was elected Member of the Athens Academy for Services to Greek Drama (2004). His professional awards and nominations included two Tony Awards (The Homecoming and Amadeus) and four awards for lifetime achievement in the arts. In 2005 Hall was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. He was Chancellor of Kingston University (20002013), held the Wortham Chair in Performing Arts at the University of Houston (19992002) and was awarded honorary doctorates from a number of universities including Cambridge, York, Liverpool, Bath and London.
Personal life
Hall was married four times. He had six children and nine grandchildren. His first wife was French actress Leslie Caron, with whom he had a son, Christopher (b. 1957), and a daughter, Jennifer (b. 1958). With his second wife, Jacqueline Taylor, he had a son, Edward (b. 1966), and a daughter, Lucy (b. 1969). Hall married American opera singer Maria Ewing in 1982 with whom he had one daughter, Rebecca (b. 1982). He was finally married to Nicki Frei; the couple had one daughter, Emma (b. 1992).
Hall worked with all his children: for the National Theatre, Jennifer played Miranda in The Tempest (1988); Rebecca, aged nine, played young Sophie in the Channel 4 adaptation of The Camomile Lawn, for The Peter Hall Company she played Vivie in Mrs Warren's Profession (2002), Rosalind in As You Like It (2003), Maria in Gallileo's Daughter (2004) and, for the NT, Viola in Twelfth Night (2011); Emma, aged two, played Joseph in Jacob (2004, TV Movie); for the Peter Hall Company, Lucy designed Hamlet (1994), Cuckoos (2003) and Whose Life is it Anyway? (2005); Christopher produced the Channel 4 television drama The Final Passage (1996); Edward co-directed the stage epic Tantalus (2000).
Hall was diagnosed with dementia in 2011 and retired from public life.
Hall was described by Guardian contributor Mark Lawson as a "committed atheist, from as early as his 20s", leading "to a punishing work rate in his hurry to get everything done".
Death and legacy
On 11 September 2017, Hall died from pneumonia at University College Hospital, London, surrounded by family. He was 86 years old.
His obituary in The Times declared him "the most important figure in British theatre for half a century" and a Royal National Theatre statement declared that Hall's "influence on the artistic life of Britain in the 20th century was unparalleled".
Many luminaries of British theatre paid tribute to Hall. Nicholas Hytner said: "Without him there would have been no Royal Shakespeare Company."<ref name="auto">"Sir Peter Hall, Royal Shakespeare Company founder, dies aged 86". Daily Telegraph', 12 September 2017.</ref> Trevor Nunn said: "Not only a thrilling director, he was the great impresario of the age." Richard Eyre called Hall the "godfather" of British theatre: "Peter created the template of the modern director – part-magus, part-impresario, part-politician, part celebrity." Impresario Cameron Mackintosh said: "It's thanks to Peter Hall that people like Trevor Nunn, Nicholas Hytner and Sam Mendes transformed musical theatre around the world." Theatre critic Michael Coveney said that he believed Hall's production of The Wars of the Roses "recast the [Shakespeare] history plays and put them at the centre of our culture".
Peter Brook said: "Peter was a man for all seasons – he could play any part that was needed". Elaine Paige said: "Peter Hall had absolute authority and, as a heavyweight of the theatre, real presence." Griff Rhys Jones said: "Peter was an absolute smoothie, the most charming and diplomatic man" and Samuel West said "Peter was an extraordinarily energetic, imaginative director – if you left him in the corner of a room he'd direct a play – but he was also a great campaigner. He never stopped arguing for the role of subsidised art in a civilised society and its ability to change people's lives."
In April 2018, the Society of London Theatre, which presents the annual Laurence Olivier Awards recognizing achievements in London theatre, changed the award for Best Director to the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director.
Selected works
Stage productions
Hall published a complete list of his productions in his autobiography:
The Letter (W. Somerset Maugham, Theatre Royal Windsor) 1953
Blood Wedding (Lorca, London debut, Arts Theatre) 1954
The Impresario from Smyrna (Goldoni, Arts Theatre) 1954
The Immoralist (Gide, Arts Theatre) 1954
Listen to the Wind (Angela Jeans, music by Vivian Ellis, Arts Theatre) 1954
The Lesson (Ionesco, Arts Theatre) 1955
South (Julian Green, Arts Theatre) 1955
Mourning Becomes Electra (O'Neill, Arts Theatre) 1955
Waiting for Godot (Beckett, English-language world premiere, Arts Theatre) 1955
The Burnt Flower-Bed (Ugo Betti, Arts Theatre) 1955
Summertime (Ugo Betti, Arts Theatre) 1955
The Waltz of the Toreadors (Jean Anouilh, English-language premiere, Arts Theatre) 1956
Gigi (Colette, New Theatre) 1956
Love's Labours Lost (Shakespeare, Stratford-on-Avon) 1956
The Gates of Summer (John Whiting, New Theatre Oxford) 1956
Camino Real (Tennessee Williams, Phoenix Theatre, London) 1957
The Moon and Sixpence (John Gardner, opera debut, Sadlers Wells) 1957
Cymbeline (Shakespeare, Stratford-on-Avon) 1957
The Rope Dancers (Morton Wishengard, New York debut, Cort Theatre) 1957
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Tennessee Williams, Comedy Theatre) 1958
Twelfth Night (Shakespeare, Stratford-on-Avon) 1958
Brouhaha (George Tabori, Aldwych) 1958
Shadow of Heroes (Robert Ardrey, Piccadilly Theatre) 1958
Madame de… (Anouilh, Arts Theatre) 1959
Traveller Without Luggage (Anouilh, Arts Theatre) 1959
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare, Stratford-on-Avon) 1959
Coriolanus (Shakespeare, Stratford-on-Avon) 1959
The Wrong Side of the Park (John Mortimer, Cambridge Theatre) 1959
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare, Royal Shakespeare Company) 1960
Twelfth Night (Shakespeare, RSC) 1960
Troilus and Cressida (Shakespeare, RSC) 1960
Ondine (Giradoux, RSC, Aldwych) 1961
Becket (Anouilh, RSC, Aldwych) 1961
Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare, RSC) 1961
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare, RSC) 1962
The Collection (Pinter, RSC) 1962
Troilus and Cressida (Shakespeare, RSC) 1962
The Wars of the Roses (adapted with John Barton from Shakespeare's Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3 and Richard III, RSC) 1963
Edward IV (Shakespeare, RSC) 1963
Richard II (Shakespeare, RSC) 1964
Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 (Shakespeare, RSC) 1964
Henry V (Shakespeare, RSC) 1964
Eh? (Henry Livings, RSC, Aldwych) 1964
The Homecoming (Pinter, world premiere, RSC) 1965
Moses and Aaron (Schoenberg, UK premiere, Royal Opera House) 1965
Hamlet (Shakespeare, RSC) 1965
The Government Inspector (Gogol, RSC, Aldwych) 1966
The Magic Flute (Mozart, Royal Opera House) 1966
Staircase (Charles Wood, RSC, Aldwych) 1966
Macbeth (Shakespeare, RSC) 1967
A Delicate Balance (Edward Albee, RSC, Aldwych) 1969
Dutch Uncle (Simon Gray, RSC, Aldwych) 1969
Landscape and Silence (Pinter, world premieres, RSC, Aldwych) 1969
The Knot Garden (Tippett, world premiere, Royal Opera House) 1970
La Calisto (Cavalli, Glyndebourne debut, Glyndebourne Festival Opera) 1970
The Battle of Shrivings (Shaffer, Lyric Theatre) 1970
Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky, Royal Opera House) 1971
Old Times (Harold Pinter, world premiere, RSC Aldwych) 1971
Tristan und Isolde (Wagner, Royal Opera House) 1971
All Over (Edward Albee, RSC, Aldwych) 1972
Il Ritorno d'Ulisse (Monteverdi, Glyndebourne Festival Opera) 1972
Via Galactica (lyrics by Christopher Gore, music by Galt MacDermot, New York) 1972
Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart, Glyndebourne Festival Opera) 1973
The Tempest (Shakespeare, National Theatre) 1973
John Gabriel Borkman (Ibsen, NT) 1974
Happy Days (Beckett, NT) 1974
No Man's Land (Pinter, world premiere, NT) 1975
Hamlet (Shakespeare, official opening of the Lyttelton, NT) 1975
Judgement (Barry Collins, NT) 1975
Tamburlaine the Great (Christopher Marlowe, official opening of the Olivier, NT) 1976
Bedroom Farce (Ayckbourn, also co-director, London and US premieres, NT and Broadway) 1977
Don Giovanni (Mozart, Glyndebourne Festival Opera) 1977
Volpone (Ben Jonson, NT) 1977
The Country Wife (Wycherley, NT) 1977
Cosi fan Tutte (Mozart, Glyndebourne Festival Opera) 1978
The Cherry Orchard (Chekhov, NT) 1978
Macbeth (Shakespeare, NT) 1978
Betrayal (Pinter, world premiere, NT) 1978
Fidelio (Beethoven, Glyndebourne Festival Opera) 1979
Amadeus (Peter Shaffer, world premiere, NT) 1979
Othello (Shakespeare, NT) 1980
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Britten, Glyndebourne Festival Opera) 1981
The Oresteia (Aeschylus, trans. Harrison, NT and Epidaurus) 1981
Orfeo et Eurydice (Gluck, Glyndebourne Festival Opera) 1982
The Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde, NT) 1982
Macbeth (Verdi, Metropolitan Opera, New York) 1982
Other Places (Pinter, world premiere, NT) 1982
Der Ring des Nibelungen (Wagner, Bayreuth Festival Opera) 1983
Jean Seberg (lyrics by Christopher Adler, book by Julian Barry, music by Marvin Hamlisch, NT) 1983
Animal Farm (George Orwell, adapted by Hall, NT) 1984
Coriolanus (Shakespeare, NT and Athens) 1984
L'Incoronazione di Poppea (Monteverdi, Glyndebourne Festival Opera) 1984
Yonadab (Shaffer, world premiere, NT) 1985
Carmen (Bizet, Glyndebourne) 1985
Albert Herring (Britten, Glyndebourne) 1985
The Petition (Brian Clark, NT) 1986
Simon Boccanegra (Verdi, Glyndebourne) 1986
Salome (Strauss, LA Opera) 1986
Coming in to Land (Poliakoff, world premiere, NT) 1986
Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare, NT) 1987
La Traviata (Verdi, Glyndebourne) 1987
Entertaining Strangers (David Edgar, NT) 1987
Cymbeline (Shakespeare, NT, Moscow and Epidaurus) 1988
The Winter's Tale (Shakespeare, NT, Moscow and Epidaurus) 1988
The Tempest (Shakespeare, NT, Moscow and Epidaurus) 1988
Falstaff (Verdi, Glyndebourne) 1988
Orpheus Descending (Tennessee Williams, Peter Hall Company, Haymarket and Broadway) 1988/9
The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare, PHCo, Phoenix Theatre and Broadway) 1989/90
New Year (Tippett, world premiere, Houston Opera) 1989
Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart, Glyndebourne) 1989
The Wild Duck (Ibsen, trans. Hall/Ewbank, PHCo, Phoenix Theatre) 1990
Born Again (after Ionesco's Rhinoceros, lyrics by Julian Barry, music by Jason Carr, PHCo/Chichester Festival Theatre) 1990
The Homecoming (Pinter, PHCo Comedy Theatre) 1990
Twelfth Night (Shakespeare, PHCo, Playhouse Theatre) 1991
Tartuffe (Moliere, trans. Bolt, PHCo, Playhouse Theatre) 1991
The Rose Tattoo (Tennessee Williams, PHCo, Playhouse Theatre) 1991
Four Baboons Adoring the Sun (John Guare, world premiere, Lincoln Center) 1992
Sienna Red (Poliakoff, PHCo, Liverpool Playhouse) 1992
All's Well That Ends Well (Shakespeare, RSC, Swan) 1992
The Gift of the Gorgon (Shaffer, world premiere, RSC, Barbican and Wyndham's Theatre) 1992
An Ideal Husband (Wilde, PHCo/Bill Kenwright Ltd, Globe Theatre and Broadway) 1992
The Magic Flute (Mozart, LA Opera) 1993
Separate Tables (Rattigan, PHCo/BKL, Albery Theatre) 1993
Lysistrata (Aristophanes, trans. Bolt, PHCo/BKL, Old Vic, Wyndham's and Epidaurus) 1993
She Stoops to Conquer (Goldsmith, PHCo/BKL, Queen's Theatre) 1993
Piaf (Pam Gems, PHCo/BKL, Piccadilly Theatre) 1993
An Absolute Turkey (Feydeau, trans. Hall/Frei, PHCo/BKL, Thorndike Theatre) 1993
On Approval (Lonsdale, PHCo/BKL, Playhouse Theatre) 1994
Hamlet (Shakespeare, PHCo/BKL, Gielgud Theatre) 1994
The Master Builder (Ibsen, trans. Hall/Ewbank, PHCo/BKL, Haymarket) 1995
Julius Caesar (Shakespeare, RSC) 1995
Mind Millie for Me (Feydeau, trans. Hall/Frei, PHCo/BKL, Haymarket) 1996
The Oedipus Plays (Sophocles, trans. Bolt, NT, Athens and Epidaurus) 1996
The School for Wives (Moliere, trans. Bolt, PHCo/BKL, Picadilly Theatre) 1996
A Streetcar Named Desire (Tennessee Williams, PHCo/BKL, Haymarket) 1996
Waste (Granville Barker, PHCo, Old Vic) 1997
The Seagull (Chekhov, trans. Stoppard, PHCo, Old Vic) 1997
Waiting for Godot (Beckett, PHCo, Old Vic) 1997
King Lear (Shakespeare, PHCo, Old Vic) 1997
Just the Three of Us (Simon Gray, PHCo/BKL, Theatre Royal, Windsor)
The Misanthrope (Moliere, trans. Bolt, PHCo/BKL, Piccadilly Theatre) 1998
Major Barbara (George Bernard Shaw, PHCo/BKL, Piccadilly) 1998
Filumena (de Fillipo, PHCo/BKL, Piccadilly) 1998
Amadeus (Shaffer, PHCo, Old Vic and Broadway) 1998/9
Kafka's Dick (Alan Bennett, PHCo/BKL Piccadilly) 1998
Measure for Measure (Shakespeare, Center Theater Group, Los Angeles) 1999
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare, Center Theater Group, LA) 1999
Lenny (Julian Barry, PHCo, Queen's Theatre) 1999
Cuckoos (Manfredi, trans. Teevan, PHCo, Gate Theatre) 2000
Tantalus (John Barton, world premiere, RSC/Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Denver, UK tour and Barbican) 2000/1
Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare, Center Theater Group, LA) 2001
Japes (Simon Gray, world premiere, PHCo, Haymarket) 2001
Troilus and Cressida (Shakespeare, Theatre for a New Audience, off-Broadway) 2001
Otello (Verdi, Glyndebourne and Lyric Opera, Chicago) 2001
The Royal Family (Ferber, PHCo, Haymarket) 2001
Lady Windermere's Fan (Wilde, PHCo, Haymarket) 2002
The Bacchai (Euripides, trans. Teevan, NT and Epidaurus) 2002
Albert Herring (Britten, Glyndebourne) 2002
Mrs Warren's Profession (Shaw, PHCo, Strand Theatre) 2002
Where There's a Will (Feydeau, trans. Frei, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath) 2003
Betrayal (Pinter, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath, UK tour and West End) 2003
Design for Living (Coward, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath and UK tour) 2003
As You Like It (Shakespeare, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath, UK and US tour) 2003/4
Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart, Lyric Opera Chicago) 2003
Happy Days (Beckett, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath and Arts Theatre) 2003
Man and Superman (Shaw, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath) 2004
Gallileo's Daughter (Timberlake Wertenbaker, world premiere, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath) 2004
The Dresser (Harwood, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath, UK tour and West End) 2004
Whose Life is it Anyway? (Brian Clark, PHCo/Sonia Friedman Productions, Duke of York's) 2005
La Cenerentola (Rossini, Glyndebourne) 2005
Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath) 2005
You Never Can Tell (Shaw, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath and West End) 2005
Waiting for Godot (Beckett, 50th anniversary production, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath, UK tour and West End) 2005/6
A Midsummer Marriage (Tippett, Lyric Opera Chicago) 2005
The Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde, Los Angeles and New York) 2006
Hay Fever (Coward, PHCo/Bill Kenwright Ltd, Haymarket) 2006
Measure for Measure (Shakespeare, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath) 2006
Habeas Corpus (Alan Bennett, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath and UK tour) 2006
Amy's View (David Hare, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath, UK tour and West End) 2006
Old Times (Pinter, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath and UK tour) 2007
Little Nell (Simon Gray, world premiere, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath) 2007
Pygmalion (Shaw, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath and Old Vic) 2007/8
The Vortex (Coward, PHCo/BKL, Windsor, UK tour and West End) 2007/8
Uncle Vanya (Chekhov, trans. Mulrine, English Touring Theatre, Rose Kingston and UK tour) 2008
The Portrait of a Lady (Henry James, adapted by Frei, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath and Rose Kingston) 2008
A Doll's House (Ibsen, trans. Mulrine, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath and Rose Kingston) 2008
Love's Labours Lost (Shakespeare, Rose Kingston) 2008
The Browning Version (Rattigan, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath and UK tour) 2009
The Apple Cart (Shaw, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath) 2009
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare, PHCo, Rose Kingston) 2010
Bedroom Farce (Ayckbourn, PHCo/BKL, Rose Kingston and West End) 2010
The Rivals (Sheridan, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath, UK tour and West End) 2010
Twelfth Night (Shakespeare, NT) 2011
Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 (Shakespeare, PHCo/Theatre Royal Bath) 2011
Film and television
Hall published a complete list of his films in his autobiography:
Work Is a Four-Letter Word (1968)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968)
Three into Two Won't Go (1969)
Perfect Friday (1970)
The Homecoming (1973)
Akenfield (1974)
When Mother Went on Strike (1974)
Aquarius TV (presenter: 1975–1976)
She's Been Away (BBC Films, 1989: wins two awards at the Venice Film Festival)
The Camomile Lawn (Channel 4 TV mini-series, 1992)
Jacob (TV movie, 1994)
Never Talk to Strangers (1995)
The Final Passage (Channel 4 TV, 1996)
Books
The Wars of the Roses (with John Barton: BBC Books) 1970
John Gabriel Borkman (Ibsen, trans. with Inga-Stina Ewbank: Athlone Press) 1975
Peter Hall's Diaries: the Story of a Dramatic Battle (ed. John Goodwin: Hamish Hamilton) 1983; reissued (Oberon Books) 2000
Animal Farm (stage adaptation of George Orwell's novel: Heinemann Press/Methuen) 1986
The Wild Duck (Henrik Ibsen, trans. with Inga-Stina Ewbank: Absolute Classics) 1990
Making An Exhibition of Myself (autobiography: Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd) 1993; updated (Oberon Books) 2000
An Absolute Turkey (Georges Feydeau, trans. with Nicki Frei: Oberon Books) 1994
The Master Builder (Ibsen, trans. with Inga-Stina Ewbank) 1995
The Necessary Theatre (Nick Hern Books) 1990
Exposed by the Mask: Form and Language in Drama (Oberon Books) 2000
Shakespeare's Advice to the Players'' (Oberon Books) 2003
References
Further reading
External links
The Company: A Biographical Dictionary of the RSC: Online database
Peter Hall at the British Film Institute
Peter Hall video at Web of Stories
Fathom biography
Interview with Peter Hall, 5 November 1987 (about opera)
Parliament & the Sixties- Peter Hall- 1967 Theatre Censorship – UK Parliament Living Heritage
1930 births
2017 deaths
Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge
British opera directors
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Drama Desk Award winners
English atheists
English film directors
English television directors
English theatre directors
Knights Bachelor
Laurence Olivier Award winners
Opera managers
People associated with Kingston University
People educated at The Perse School
People from Bury St Edmunds
Tony Award winners
People from Great Shelford
Deaths from pneumonia in England