Peter Hall was born in Suffolk in England in 1930. After completing his National Service in Germany (teaching current affairs to serviceman about to be demobbed) he studied English at Cambridge University where he came under the influence of literary critics F.R Leavis and George ‘Dadie’ Rylands. In 1955 he became Artistic Director of the Arts Theatre in London where he directed the British premiere of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. In 1960 he became Managing Director of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, and persuaded the board to create the government-subsidised Royal Shakespeare Company in 1961. Having successfully expanded the company to incorporate a London base and produce new plays alongside those of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, Hall departed in 1968. In 1972 he became co-director of the National Theatre alongside Sir Laurence Olivier, and assumed the role of Artistic Director’s on Olivier’s retirement in 1973. He left the NT in 1988 to pursue his freelance career, and has directed opera and film as well as theatre. Notable productions include: The War of the Roses (1963), Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land (1975), Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus (1979), and The Oresteia(1981).

Hall’s work is characterised by attention to detail, meticulous verse speaking, and a strong design aesthetic. He has written and spoken at length about mask work, classical theatre and verse speaking. He has also been influential in the design and build of several notable theatre spaces: the Barbican, National Theatre and the Rose Theatre, Kingston where he was Artistic Director from 2003-8. Kate Dorney