Phelim McDermott
Phelim McDermott[1] (born 21 August 1963)[2] is an English actor and stage director. He has directed plays and operas in Britain, Germany, Spain, the United States, and Australia. McDermott was a co-founder of the theatre company Improbable in 1996.[3]
Career
McDermott was born in Manchester, England. His screen debut was as Jester in the 1991 film Robin Hood, followed by further minor roles in The Baby of Mâcon (1993) and other films. He has appeared on stage in 1996 in his own play 70 Hill Lane, based on a reported experience with a poltergeist when he was 15[4][5] and a 2017 production of Lost Without Words at the Royal National Theatre.[6] He also appeared in the BBC Radio 4 improvisational show The Masterson Inheritance (1993 to 1995).
He was made an Honorary Doctor of Middlesex University in 2007.[7]
McDermott received the 2023 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director for My Neighbour Totoro.[8]
Notable productions
- 1996: 70 Hill Lane by McDermott, Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal[4][9]
- 1997: A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed with Julian Crouch for the Royal Shakespeare Company[10]
- 1998: Shockheaded Peter for the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, and the Lyric Hammersmith, London
- 2002: A Midsummer Night's Dream for Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Hamburg[11]
- 2007: Satyagraha by Philip Glass for English National Opera (ENO),[12] and in 2008 for the Metropolitan Opera (MET), New York; restaged at the ENO in 2009 and 2013, and in 2011 at the MET[13]
- 2009: The Addams Family with Bebe Neuwirth and Nathan Lane, Oriental Theatre, Chicago, and in 2010 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, Broadway
- 2011: The Enchanted Island for the Metropolitan Opera, New York[14]
- 2013: The Perfect American by Philip Glass for Teatro Real, Madrid, English National Opera, and in 2014 for Opera Queensland and Brisbane Festival
- 2014: Così fan tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for English National Opera
- 2016: Akhnaten by Philip Glass for English National Opera
- 2017: Aida by Giuseppe Verdi for English National Opera
- 2018: Così fan tutte by Mozart, a new production for the Metropolitan Opera[15]
- 2019: Tao of Glass by Philip Glass, a new production for the Manchester International Festival[16]
- 2019: Akhnaten by Philip Glass for the Metropolitan Opera
- 2022: The Hours by Kevin Puts for the Metropolitan Opera
- 2022: My Neighbour Totoro by Tom Morton-Smith at the Barbican Centre
- 2026: Tao of Glass, West End premiere @sohoplace[17]
References
- ↑ Often misspelled as "MacDermott"
- ↑ Phelim McDermott at the Internet Broadway Database
- ↑ "Improbable Team". Archived from the original on 2014-11-22.
- 1 2 "70 Hill Lane, work details", Improbable
- ↑ Juli Mahr (Spring 1997). "Improbable Theatre, 70 Hill Lane". Total Theatre Magazine. No. 9-1. Retrieved 2026-07-26.
- ↑ Bowie-Sell, Daisy (14 March 2017). "We ignore older actors at our absolute peril". WhatsOnStage.com. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
- ↑ Profile Archived 2014-09-07 at the Wayback Machine, Opera Queensland
- ↑ "Olivier awards 2023: full list of winners". The Guardian. 3 April 2023. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
- ↑ Killian Fox (2 October 2022). "On my radar: Phelim McDermott's cultural highlights". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 July 2026.
- ↑ "A Midsummer Night's Dream and Beowulf". Theatre Royal, Nottingham. 14 April 1997. Retrieved 20 July 2026.
- ↑ "Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg: Saisonstart mit Schiller", 4 June 2001, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German)
- ↑ Satyagraha performance details, English National Opera
- ↑ "Operatic Pageantry With Gandhi, Dr. King and a Message of Pacifism" by James R. Oestreich, The New York Times, 6 November 2011
- ↑ "Shiny Bibelot From Shakespeare, Handel & Co." by Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, 1 January 2012
- ↑ "A New Vision for Mozart's Così fan tutte, at the Met", The New Yorker, 12 March 2018
- ↑ "Tao of Glass review – golden odyssey through Philip Glass's music". The Guardian. 2019-07-15. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
- ↑ "Tao of Glass to run in the West End this summer". 2026-02-11. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
External links
- Profile, Amanda Howard Associates
- Phelim McDermott at the Internet Broadway Database
- Phelim McDermott on X
- Phelim McDermott on Facebook