Playwright and Director Peter Gill Dies at Age 86
Gill is best known for his work with the Royal Court Theatre, Riverside Studios, and the National Theatre.
BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that Playwright and Director Peter Gill has died at age 86. Gill began his career as an actor between 1957 and 1965, including film appearances in H.M.S. Defiant (1962) and Zulu (1964). He turned to directing with his first production, D.H. Lawrence's A Collier's Friday Night, at The Royal Court Theatre in 1965.
Gill joined The Royal Court Theatre as assistant director in 1964 and became associate director in 1970. During his tenure, he earned acclaim for reviving three overlooked plays by D.H. Lawrence, including The Daughter-in-Law, The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd and A Collier's Friday Night. He directed notable productions including Joe Orton's The Ruffian on the Stair, Edward Bond's The Fool and Webster's The Duchess of Malfi. His own early plays, The Sleepers' Den and Over Gardens Out, premiered at the Royal Court in 1969.
In 1976, Gill became Artistic Director of Riverside Studios in London. He inaugurated the newly converted arts center with As You Like It before directing productions of his adaptation of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and Julius Caesar, as well as Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's The Changeling.
Gill joined The National Theatre as associate director in 1980, a position he held until 1997. In 1984, he founded The National Theatre Studio. At the National, he directed a wide-ranging repertoire that included Turgenev's A Month in the Country, Molière's Don Juan, Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Büchner's Danton's Death, Shaw's Major Barbara, Christopher Hampton's Tales from Hollywood, Sam Shepard's Fool for Love, Nicholas Wright's Mrs. Klein, Seán O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock and John Osborne's Luther, alongside premieres of several of his own plays.
As a playwright, Gill's major plays included Small Change, Kick for Touch, In the Blue, Mean Tears, Cardiff East, Certain Young Men, The York Realist, Original Sin, Lovely Evening, Another Door Closed, Versailles, As Good a Time as Any and Something in the Air. The York Realist was revived by The Donmar Warehouse and Sheffield Crucible in 2018. He also wrote adaptations of classics, including Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull and Uncle Vanya, William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and D.H. Lawrence's Touch and Go and The Merry-Go-Round.
Beyond the Royal Court, Riverside Studios and The National Theatre, Gill directed for other companies including the Royal Shakespeare Company, Almeida Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, Old Vic, Young Vic, Lyric Hammersmith, Theatre Royal Bath, English Touring Theatre and Sheffield Crucible. His productions ranged from Twelfth Night, The Way of the World, Uncle Vanya and Hedda Gabler to Speed-the-Plow, Gaslight and The Importance of Being Earnest.
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