Lindsay Posner

Lindsay Steven Posner (born 6 June 1959)^[1] is a British theatre director, known for his work in London's West End and at the Royal Court Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, particularly plays by David Mamet.

Career

Posner graduated from the acting course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1984. He was associate director of the Royal Court Theatre from 1987 to 1992 where his production of Death and the Maiden won two Laurence Olivier Awards.

He has directed five productions of David Mamet's plays, describing him as "America's greatest living playwright".^[2]

Theatre

Posner was an associate director of the Royal Court Theatre between 1987 and 1992. During this time, he directed a number of new plays. Additionally, from 1989 he was appointed artistic director of Royal Court Theatre Upstairs and deputy director (to artistic director Max Stafford-Clark) for the main house.^[3]

During the late 2000s and early 2010s, he has had success with revivals of modern British comedies such as Relatively Speaking, Abigail's Party and Noises Off.

Theatre directed by Lindsay Posner

Date	Play	Author	Theatre	Notes
1986	Ficky Stingers	Eve Lewis	Royal Court Upstairs	[3] Staged as part of the 1986 Royal Court Young Writers' Festival[4][5]
1987	Ambulance	Gregory Motton	Royal Court Upstairs	[3]
1987	Downfall	Gregory Motton	Royal Court Upstairs	[3]
1987	Built on Sand	Daniel Mornin	Royal Court Upstairs	[6]
1988	Blood	Harwant Bains	Royal Court Upstairs	[3]
1989	American Bagpipes	Iain Heggie	Royal Court	[3] Featuring Lesley Manville and Ken Stott
1990	No One Sees the Video	Martin Crimp	Royal Court Upstairs	[3]
1991	Death and the Maiden	Ariel Dorfman	Royal Court	[3] Winner, Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play
1992	Colquhoun and McBryde	John Byrne	Royal Court	[3]
1993	The Treatment	Martin Crimp	Royal Court	[3]
1995	The Robbers	Friedrich Schiller	Gate Theatre, Notting Hill	[3]
1995	The Seagull	Anton Chekhov	Gate Theatre, Dublin	[3]
1997	The Provok'd Wife	John Vanbrugh	The Old Vic	[3] Featuring Michael Pennington and Victoria Hamilton
1997	American Buffalo	David Mamet	Young Vic	[3] Featuring Douglas Henshall, Neil Stuke and Nicholas Woodeson
1998	After Darwin	Timberlake Wertenbaker	Hampstead Theatre	[3]
1999	Volpone	Ben Jonson	RSC at The Swan	[3]
1999	The Taming of the Shrew	William Shakespeare	RSC at The Pit	[3]
2000	The Rivals	Richard Brinsley Sheridan	RSC at Stratford and the Barbican Theatre	[3] Featuring Benjamin Whitrow and David Tennant
2001	Twelfth Night	William Shakespeare	RSC at Stratford and the Barbican Theatre	[3] Featuring Guy Henry
2002	Tartuffe	Molière	Royal National Theatre	[3]
2003	Power	Nick Dear	Royal National Theatre	[3]
2003	Sexual Perversity in Chicago	David Mamet	Comedy Theatre	[3] Featuring Matthew Perry, Hank Azaria and Minnie Driver
2003	The Lady from the Sea	Henrik Ibsen	Lyric Hammersmith and West Yorkshire Playhouse	[3] Featuring Natasha Richardson
2003	The Caretaker	Harold Pinter	Bristol Old Vic	[3]
2004	Oleanna	David Mamet	Garrick Theatre	[3] Featuring Aaron Eckhart and Julia Stiles
2005	A Life in the Theatre	David Mamet	Apollo Theatre	[3]
2005	The Birthday Party	Harold Pinter	Duchess Theatre	[3]
2005	Romance	David Mamet	Almeida Theatre	[3] Featuring John Mahoney
2005	The Hypochondriac	Molière	Almeida Theatre	[3] Featuring Henry Goodman
2006	Tom & Viv	Michael Hastings	Almeida Theatre	[3] Featuring Will Keen and Frances O'Connor
2006	Fool for Love	Sam Shepard	Apollo Theatre	[3] Featuring Juliette Lewis and Martin Henderson
2006	The Misanthrope	Molière, adapted by Martin Crimp	Young Vic	Featuring Elizabeth McGovern and Ken Stott
2007	Fiddler on the Roof	Music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, book by Joseph Stein	Sheffield Crucible and the Savoy Theatre	[3] Featuring Henry Goodman
2008	Carousel	Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II	Savoy Theatre	[3] Featuring Lesley Garrett
2008	Three Sisters on Hope Street	Diane Samuels and Tracy-Ann Oberman, based on Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters	Liverpool Everyman and Hampstead Theatre	[3]
2009	Butley	Simon Gray	Duchess Theatre	[3]
2009	An Ideal Husband	Oscar Wilde	Vaudeville Theatre	[3]
2009	House of Games	Adapted by Richard Bean from the screenplay (of the film of the same name) by David Mamet	Almeida Theatre	[3]
2009	A View from the Bridge	Arthur Miller	Duke of York's Theatre	[3] Featuring Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Ken Stott
2011	Noises Off	Michael Frayn	The Old Vic	[3]
2012	Richard III	William Shakespeare	Old Globe Theatre, San Diego	[3]
2012	Abigail's Party	Mike Leigh	Menier Chocolate Factory, Theatre Royal, Bath, and Wyndham's Theatre	[3]
2012	Relatively Speaking	Alan Ayckbourn	Theatre Royal, Bath	[3]
October 2012	Uncle Vanya	Anton Chekhov, in a version by Christopher Hampton	Vaudeville Theatre	[7]
January 2013	The Turn of the Screw	Adapted by Rebecca Lenkiewicz from Henry James' novella of the same name	Almeida Theatre	[8]
March 2013	The Winslow Boy	Terence Rattigan	The Old Vic	[9]
February 2016	The End of Longing	Matthew Perry	Playhouse Theatre	[10]
August 2018	God of Carnage	Yasmina Reza	Theatre Royal, Bath	[11]
November 2018	Flare Path	Terence Rattigan	Embassy Theatre (London)
November 2019	Clybourne Park	Bruce Norris	Embassy Theatre (London)	[12]
2021	Wicked	Winnie Holzman	Stage Theater Neue Flora (Hamburg)	[13]
2026	The Truth	Florian Zeller	Apollo Theatre	[3]

Opera

• Jenůfa by Leoš Janáček (1993) for the Opera Theatre Company in Dublin
• Giulio Cesare by George Frideric Handel (1998) for The Royal Opera at the Barbican Centre
• Man and Boy: Dada by Michael Nyman (2003) at the Almeida Theatre and in Jersey
• Love Counts by Michael Nyman (2006) at the Almeida Theatre

Television

Posner has directed two television plays:

• The Maitlands (part of TV series Performance) in 1993, with Eileen Atkins, Bill Nighy, Harriet Walter, Jennifer Ehle, Edward Fox and Samuel West
• Two Oranges and a Mango in 1994, with Paul Bhattacharjee and Saeed Jaffrey

References

1. "Lindsay Posner Authorised Biography", Debrett's People of Today. Retrieved 6 October 2012.^{[dead link]}
2. Lindsay Posner, "Salute Mamet the magnificent", The Observer, 28 August 2005. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
3. "Linsay Posner". The Agency. Archived from the original on 3 June 2011. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
4. Mary F. Brewer, "Race, Sex, and Gender in Contemporary Women's Theatre: The Construction of 'woman'", Sussex Academic Press, 1999.
5. "English Stage Company/Royal Court Theatre Archive Catalogue of records", V&A Department of Theatre and Performance. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
6. "Production management file for Built on Sand by Daniel Mornin, May 13, 1987", Archives Hub. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
7. "Uncle Vanya – Lindsay Posner"^{[link removed]}. Retrieved 16 October 2012.
8. "Hammer takes first steps on stage in Turn of the Screw", BBC News, 23 November 2012. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
9. "The Winslow Boy at The Old Vic", oldvictheatre.com
10. "Friends star Matthew Perry returns to the West End with his own play", londonboxoffice.co.uk
11. "God of Carnage", theatreroyal.org.uk
12. "Clybourne Park", cssd.ac.uk
13. "Wicked! Die Musical-Hexen im Anflug auf Hamburg" (in German). Stage Entertainment Deutschland. 12 December 2019. Retrieved 17 April 2026.

External links

• Lindsay Posner at IMDb