Max Stafford-Clark

Abstract

Max Stafford-Clark has worked as a theatre director since he left Trinity College Dublin in 1966. In 1974, following his Artistic Directorship of the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, he founded Joint Stock Theatre Company. Stafford-Clark is the longest-serving Royal Court Theatre Artistic Director (1979–93). In 1993, he formed the national and international touring theatre company Out of Joint, dedicated to the production of new writing. His work as a director has overwhelmingly been with new writing, and he has commissioned and directed first productions by many leading contemporary playwrights, including Sebastian Barry, Caryl Churchill, David Hare, Mark Ravenhill and Timberlake Wertenbaker. His most recent productions include Hinterland (2002) by Sebastian Barry, Duck (2003), a first-time play by Stella Feehily, and The Permanent Way (2003) by David Hare. After a national tour, his production of Talking to Terrorists by Robert Soans opened at the Royal Court Theatre in June 2005. In 2006, Stafford-Clark directed a second play by Stella Feehilly, O Go My Man, and J. T. Rogers’s The Overwhelming, produced by the National Theatre in association with Out of Joint. In 2000, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes University. The interview that follows was conducted in London on 1 July 2003.