Sean Foley

Sean Foley trained in clowning under Philippe Gaulier at École Philippe Gaulier, where he met Hamish McColl. In 1988, Foley and McColl formed The Right Size, creating and performing in productions with regular collaborators including director Jozef Houben, designer Alice Power and songwriter Chris Larner. The company’s work combined clowning, physical comedy, mime, slapstick, vaudeville and variety. Its major successes included Do You Come Here Often?, about two strangers trapped in a bathroom for 25 years, and The Play What I Wrote, a tribute to Morecambe and Wise. The Right Size remained active until 2006.

Foley acted at Oxford Youth Theatre before studying history at the University of Oxford. His traditional acting roles included Freud in Terry Johnson’s Hysteria at Birmingham Rep in 2007, and the single role in a film adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s Act Without Words I, directed by Karel Reisz. He also appeared alongside Mark Rylance in I Am Shakespeare at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester in 2007. On television, Foley played pub owner Jeff in all 12 episodes of the BBC One sitcom Wild West from 2002 to 2004, appearing opposite Dawn French and Catherine Tate. He later starred alongside Tate in the episode “The Patter of Tiny Feet” from the BBC Three comedy horror anthology series Twisted Tales in 2005. In 2016, he directed The Catherine Tate Show Live tour.

Foley made his stage directorial debut with Pinter’s People in 2007. He subsequently directed stage productions featuring comedians including Joan Rivers, Nina Conti and Armstrong and Miller. His directing credits include The Ladykillers, for which he received a 2012 Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Director, and Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw. In collaboration with Patrick Barlow, he co-directed and co-wrote a four-actor stage adaptation of Ben Hur at the Watermill Theatre.

In 2013, Foley made his Royal Shakespeare Company debut directing Thomas Middleton’s A Mad World, My Masters. He also directed Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense, a theatrical adaptation of P. G. Wodehouse’s stories, which starred Matthew MacFadyen and Stephen Mangan at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London before touring the United Kingdom. In 2014, Foley directed I Can’t Sing! The X Factor Musical, written by Harry Hill and Steve Brown, at the London Palladium. The production starred Nigel Harman, Alan Morrissey and Cynthia Erivo.

In 2016, Foley adapted and directed The Painkiller, starring Kenneth Branagh and Rob Brydon, during the Kenneth Branagh season at the Garrick Theatre in London. He also directed The Dresser on a UK tour and The Catherine Tate Show Live on tour and at Wyndham’s Theatre. In 2017, Foley adapted Eugène Ionesco’s Amédée, or How to Get Rid of It, starring Josie Lawrence and Trevor Fox, at Birmingham Repertory Theatre. He also directed his and Phil Porter’s adaptation of Molière’s The Miser, starring Griff Rhys Jones, Lee Mack and Mathew Horne, at the Garrick Theatre. The production received a 2018 Olivier Award nomination for Best New Comedy.

Foley directed Noël Coward’s Present Laughter at Chichester Festival Theatre in April 2018, starring Rufus Hound as Garry Essendine, with Katherine Kingsley and Tracy-Ann Oberman. He adapted and directed The Man in the White Suit, starring Stephen Mangan and Kara Tointon, which began at Theatre Royal, Bath, before transferring to Wyndham’s Theatre in London from October 9 to December 7, 2019.

In February 2020, Foley directed The Upstart Crow by Ben Elton at the Gielgud Theatre in London. The production was based on the BBC television series and starred David Mitchell as William Shakespeare. It received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play but closed early because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The production was revived at the Apollo Theatre in London from September 23 to December 3, 2022.

In July 2023, Foley directed The Crown Jewels by Simon Nye at the Garrick Theatre in London before the production toured the United Kingdom. The cast included Al Murray, Carrie Hope Fletcher, Mel Giedroyc, Aidan McArdle, Neil Morrissey, Joe Thomas and Tanvi Virmani. In October 2024, Foley directed a stage adaptation of Dr. Strangelove, based on Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 film. Foley co-adapted the production with Armando Iannucci, and Steve Coogan starred as Dr. Strangelove, Captain Mandrake, President Muffley and T. J. “King” Kong. The production ran at the Noël Coward Theatre in London before transferring to the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in February 2025.

Foley was appointed artistic director of Birmingham Repertory Theatre in March 2019, succeeding Roxana Silbert. His inaugural season was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and began in autumn 2021. His first production as artistic director was a revival of The Play What I Wrote, which ran from November 27, 2021, to January 1, 2022. This was followed by The COVID-19 Variations: A Piano Drama, composed by Richard Thomas, created by Alison Jackson and performed by Philip Edward Fisher from February 8 to 9, 2022.

In February 2023, Foley directed and co-wrote Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image The Musical with Al Murray and Matt Forde. Based on the television series Spitting Image, the production ran at Birmingham Repertory Theatre before transferring to the Phoenix Theatre in London for a limited West End engagement. In May 2024, Foley directed the world premiere of Withnail and I at Birmingham Repertory Theatre. The production was based on the 1987 film and adapted for the stage by its creator, Bruce Robinson. Foley announced on April 18, 2024, that he would step down as artistic director after five years in the role.

Foley received Olivier Awards for Best Entertainment for Do You Come Here Often in 1999 and Best Comedy for The Play What I Wrote in 2002. He was nominated for Best Actor alongside Hamish McColl for The Play What I Wrote in 2002, Best Entertainment for Ducktastic in 2006 and Arturo Brachetti: Change in 2010, Best Director and Best New Play for The Ladykillers in 2012, and Best New Comedy for The Miser in 2018. He also received a 2003 Tony Award nomination for Best Special Theatrical Event for The Play What I Wrote.