Directing Shakespeare’s Comedies: In Conversation with Peter Holland

Summary

Declan Donnellan is joint Artistic Director of Cheek by Jowl. He was born in England of Irish parents in 1953, read English and Law at Queens’ College, Cambridge and was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1978. With designer Nick Ormerod, he formed Cheek By Jowl in 1981; the group has since been described by Time magazine as ‘one of the ten great theatre companies in the world’. For Cheek by Jowl he has directed nine Shakespeare productions, including an all-male As You Like It (1991; revived 1994), Measure for Measure (1994), Much Ado About Nothing (1998), and, in collaboration with the Maly Theatre, St Petersburg, The Winter’s Tale (1999). He has won several awards in Paris, Moscow, New York and London including the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in 1991. His first book The Actor and the Target was published in 2002. He directed the inaugural production of King Lear for the RSC Academy in 2002.