
Directing
Peter Hall
Born 1930-11-22 · Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England
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, recognising 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 (1984–1990). He formed the Peter Hall Company (1998–2011) 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.
Acting credits
NREdna O’Brien is interviewed by Russell Harty about her writing and her relationship with Ireland, as explored in her latest non-fiction book Mother Ireland.
Mother Ireland
1976
4.7Leo, the owner of the stocking product "Discrete", has driven his company into the wall; the company is virtually bankrupt.
The Last Word
1975
Major film and television stars re-enact famous scenes from the plays of William Shakespeare .
The Shakespeare Sessions
2003
Originally made for the TV program, Aquarius. The 1976 British Reggae episode explored the London reggae scene and the African Caribbean community. It featured Peter Hall, Delroy Washington, Aswad, and Cimarons. The documentary was filmed in Stoke Newington and Brixton.
British Reggae
1976
7.0When a German businessman causes a car accident with deadly consequences, the papers start digging into his past to find scandals. What they find causes him to reevaluate his own past during WW2 when he was in Greece.
The Pedestrian
1973
7.0When Clementine Kemper, the mother of three children, is once again prevented from playing the piano and singing by her husband Harry, she packs her things and leaves.
When Mother Went on Strike
1974
Behind the camera
7.5Live from Glyndebourne 1987.
La Traviata
1987
Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on 2 June 1992.
Salomé
1992
5.4Sarah Taylor, a police psychologist, meets a mysterious and seductive young man, Tony Ramirez, and falls in love with him. As a cause of this relationship, she changes her personality when she begins to receive anonymous telephone calls.
Never Talk to Strangers
1995
6.7Isaac's son Jacob deprives his brother Esau of his birthright and has to flee for his life. He finds shelter with his uncle Laban, but is himself deceived. Finally, Jacob has to face both his uncle and brother.
Jacob
1994
8.0Don José is a guard who begins an affair with the tempestuous Carmen. He is imprisoned and loses his job, then flees with her to the mountains. When the relationship starts to break down José refuses to acknowledge it and will not leave, even when he gets news that his mother is dying. Carmen, meanwhile, has taken up with the bullfighter Escamillo. Bizet's most famous opera is brought to the Glyndebourne Festival Opera by Sir Peter Hall, with Maria Ewing and Barry McCauley heading an international cast.
Carmen - Glyndebourne Festival Opera
1985
6.2The deputy manager of a London bank has worked out a way to rob the branch of £200,000. When he becomes involved with the attractive Lady Dorset he decides to go ahead with his plan. He needs her help and that of her philandering spendthrift husband. It all comes down to a matter of trust.
Perfect Friday
1970
4.6Val Xavier is a drifter in 1940's Mississippi who brings new life to an Italian immigrant woman trapped in a loveless marriage.
Orpheus Descending
1990
4.6Val Xavier is a drifter in 1940's Mississippi who brings new life to an Italian immigrant woman trapped in a loveless marriage.
Orpheus Descending
1990
7.0Since its debut in 1934 the Glyndebourne Festival has put a focus on Mozart operas and developed a great competence in staging them. Mozart s operas seem to be made for the small but fine opera house in Glyndebourne and it's not surprising that the 1977 Don Giovanni, one of Mozart's great masterpieces, was a huge success. This production is conducted by Bernard Haitink, who holds the opinion, that no other composer had more opera in his blood than Mozart. It has been proven, for example, that Mozart had no overture for Don Giovanni until the evening before the premiere in Prague and wrote it down in just one night. Like the premiere's success of the opera in Prague in 1787 the Glyndebourne's version staged by Peter Hall was praised by audience and critics alike: We witness a lively and wide-awake ensemble piece that has easily survived all these decades, and still manages to teach many directors the art of playing theatre.
Don Giovanni
1977
6.3Peter Hall's film adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy, filmed in and around an English country house and starring actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
1968
NRShrigley puts his personal spin on news stories and big events every day for a week by creating seven pieces of thought-provoking and entertaining artwork which offer an alternative, very personal interpretation on a topical news story. In the week-long public art project he expresses his idiosyncratic, wry humour in a variety of surprising media. Among his creations, there's been a cartoon on a building banner for Manchester about bullying, saying: "The bully has a brain the size of a pea"; a horde of people with sandwich boards about Tony Blair's current political issues which gathered outside the Guildhall in London, where the Prime Minister was making a speech; a giant mobile billboard parked at the Tory hustings in Leicester with the rallying cry "Legalise pottery"; and a giant wearing the slogan "Binge drinking is our heritage" visited bars in Nottingham.
Spin by David Shrigley
2005
6.2In a dreary North London flat, the site of perpetual psychological warfare, a philosophy professor visits his family after a nine-year absence and introduces the four men - father, uncle and two brothers - to his wife.
The Homecoming
1973
8.7A 1965 BBC adaptation of William Shakespeare's first historical tetralogy (1 Henry VI, 2 Henry VI, 3 Henry VI and Richard III), which deals with the conflict between the House of Lancaster and the House of York over the throne of England, a conflict known as the Wars of the Roses. It was based on the 1963 theatre adaptation by John Barton, and directed by Peter Hall for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
The Wars of the Roses
1965
5.7A woman who has been institutionalized for 60 years for the "crime" of not conforming to the 1920s image of what a proper young woman should be (in other words, she did what she wanted and didn't care what anyone else thought about it) is finally released to the custody of her family, consisting of her grand-nephew and his family. At first she keeps a self-imposed distance from the relatives, but she soon finds herself coming around to her nephew's wife, a free spirit who is under the thumb of her cold and controlling husband.
She's Been Away
1989
10.0Agamemnon returns home from the Trojan war and is murdered by his wife, setting off a chain of revenge that stretches across this trilogy of play. Directed by Peter Brook for the National Theatre, this is an all-male performance with masks.
The Oresteia
1983
7.6As a young man, Tom, prepares to leave the Suffolk village of his birth, voices and experiences from his family's past crowd in on his mind, weaving a poetic tapestry of the love of home and the longing to get away from it.
Akenfield
1974
7.6As a young man, Tom, prepares to leave the Suffolk village of his birth, voices and experiences from his family's past crowd in on his mind, weaving a poetic tapestry of the love of home and the longing to get away from it.
Akenfield
1974
9.0In 1958, a Caribbean couple make the journey to a new life by moving to England.
The Final Passage
1996
NRThis is a finely tuned opera with music by the Italian composer, Claudio Monteverdi, libretto by G. E. Busenello, and the fine voices of contralto Maria Ewing, baritone Dennis Bailey, and several other sub-leads is not to be missed and will be fully enjoyed. No lead tenor here and none needed. No soprano here as a lead and none needed. One of the joys of my watching and listening outside the opera hall. The story line is strong and the tale well carried out.
Monteverdi - L'Incoronazione Di Poppea
1984
5.0Steve Howard, a British sales executive living in Manchester, England, begins an affair with a young hitchhiker, Elle Patterson, to emotionally get away from his marriage to his wife Francis. But when Elle moves into a room in Steve and Francis's house, he must keep the true nature of his relationship with Elle under wraps at all costs.
3 Into 2 Won't Go
1969
6.0Dreamlike satire about a young man who resists getting a job at the lone employing conglomerate in his dreary industrial town, but changes his mind when he discovers the plant's boiler room has the perfect climate to assist him with his pet horticultural (fungal) project.
Work Is a 4-Letter Word
1968
4.5Two sisters have been driving all night when they come across a dilapidated roadside park and bathroom. Horrific events follow when one of them stumbles upon a strange message and a mischievous resident that wants to play a terrifying game.
Seek
2020
7.0Accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, composer Benjamin Britten's satirical look at life in an English market town delivers plenty of laughs. When Lady Billows (Patricia Johnson) realizes no girls in town are worthy of the May Queen title, she crowns virtuous Albert Herring (John Graham-Hall), the greengrocer's son, as the village's May King. The comic opera features a strong ensemble cast including Alan Opie and Felicity Palmer.
Albert Herring
1985
7.3The Glyndebourne Opera's 1981 production of the Benjamin Britten opera, based on Shakespeare's play.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
1981