Jonathan Holloway (born 1955 in

Dulwich Dulwich (; ) is an area in south London, England. The settlement is mostly in the London Borough of Southwark, with parts in the London Borough of Lambeth, and consists of Dulwich Village, East Dulwich, West Dulwich, and the Southwark half of H ...

, South London) is an English theatre director and playwright. He founded and directed two professional companies in British

fringe Fringe may refer to: Arts and music * "The Fringe", or Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival * Adelaide Fringe, the world's second-largest annual arts festival * Fringe theatre, a name for alternative theatre * Purple fri ...

and touring theatre in the 1980s and 1990s, notably Red Shift Theatre Company. His work has won three Edinburgh Fringe First awards (1987, 1988, 1989), the Shakespeare Prize at Chile's World Festival of Theatre in 1993, and in 2013 his BBC version of

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...

's ''

Nineteen Eighty-Four ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also published as ''1984'') is a dystopian novel and cautionary tale by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final completed book. Thematically ...

'' won a First Prize at the

Prix Italia The Prix Italia is an international television, radio-broadcasting and web award. It was established in 1948 by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (in 1948, RAI had the denomination RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane) in Capri and is honoured with th ...

. He is a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a learned society that champions innovation and progress across a multitude of sectors by fostering creativity, s ...

and in 2005 he was made an Honorary Fellow of

St Mary's University, Twickenham St Mary's University, Twickenham is a public university in Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its stated commitment is to the mission of the Catholic Church in higher education. History Originally foun ...

Education and early career

Holloway left school at the age of 16 and gained experience as an actor in the Oxford University Players at the

Edinburgh Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

. In Edinburgh he saw performances given by Steven Berkoff, Lindsay Kemp and Jerzy Grotowski, then studied at St Mary's University Twickenham, at the Laban Centre, at the International Centre for Theatre Creations (Paris) while resident at the Almeida Theatre London, and completed an MA at North London Poly. He worked at London's

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a West End theatre#London's non-commercial theatres, non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, London, England, opene ...

in 1977–78, initially as technical manager of its studio space, The Theatre Upstairs. He then became an Assistant Director working in the Main House, and directed his own production in the Theatre Upstairs. In 1978–79 Holloway toured as a performer with the community arts outfit, Free form Arts Trust. In 1979, he co-founded The East End Theatre group, a theatre company based at Chat's Palace Arts Centre in Homerton, East London, with writer Dave Fox and others.Red Shift Theatre Company
Archives Hub,

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(accessed 28 October 2022)

Red Shift

In 1982 Holloway, in collaboration with the designer Charlotte Humpston, founded a group called Red Shift Theatre Company, which grew into a medium-sized national touring company.Dorothea Kehler (2001). Review: ''Hamlet: First Cut'' by Red Shift Theatre Company, Jonathan Holloway. ''

Shakespeare Bulletin ''Shakespeare Bulletin'' is an academic journal founded in 1982. The journal focuses exclusively on performance studies and scholarly treatment of Shakespearean and early modern drama on stage and screen. Each issue contains original articles as ...

'' 19 (1): 17–18 Holloway directed nearly all of Red Shift's over 50 shows and also wrote plays performed by the company. Red Shift gave around 175 performances annually, mainly in the UK but also in Egypt, Santiago de Chile and Hong Kong. Holloway wrote in 1994 that "everyone enjoys a good story and provided they are convinced that that's what they're getting they will sit down and concentrate regardless of whether they're an audience of redundant mineworkers in Mansfield or a sophisticated Home Counties crowd." ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''s Lynn Gardner observed in 2003 that under Holloway's artistic direction, Red Shift was one of the very few theatre companies to have survived more than twenty years, describing it as "tireless". The company became known for "reworking classic tales into fun theatre shows",Ann Fotheringham (27 February 2002). Pick of the Day ''Nicholas Nickleby''; Dickens tale gets the Red Shift treatment. ''

Evening Times The ''Glasgow Times'' is an evening tabloid newspaper published Monday to Saturday in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. Called ''The Evening Times'' from 1876, it was rebranded as the ''Glasgow Times'' on 4 December 2019.Liam Rudden (26 January 2007). Red Shift theatre company are heading for the heights. ''

Edinburgh Evening News The ''Edinburgh Evening News'' is a daily newspaper and website based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded by John Wilson (1844–1909) and first published in 1873. It is printed daily, except on Sundays. It is owned by National World, whic ...

'', p. 5 Robert Shaughnessy wrote in 2013 that the company in the 1980s had an "appealingly original, innovative and occasionally iconoclastic way with classic texts". Red Shift first appeared at the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of Arts festival, arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the ...

in 1983, and was described by Gardner in 2009 as "raising the tone of theatre" at the Festival. Lynn Gardner (1 August 2009). The Guide: Theatre: ''The Fall Of Man'', Edinburgh. ''

'', p. 35 An early production was the successful ''

The Duchess of Malfi ''The Duchess of Malfi'' (originally published as ''The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy'') is a Jacobean revenge tragedy written by English dramatist John Webster in 1612–1613. It was first performed privately at the Blackfriars Theat ...

'' (1982–84), at the Edinburgh Festival and then on tour, which used a 1950s setting and referenced films.Susan Bennett. ''Performing Nostalgia: Shifting Shakespeare and the Contemporary Past'', pp. 84–88 (Routledge; 2013) This was followed by a "disastrous" version of George Orwell's ''

'' with students of the University of Surrey. Holloway's successful 1986 adaptation of ''Romeo and Juliet'' at the YWCA, Edinburgh, focused on the play's violence rather than its romance. It used six actors, with the part of Romeo being divided among the three men, and Juliet among the three women; it also reordered scenes, repeating some, and redistributed lines from the Shakespeare version. It was described in a review for ''

'' as a "daring revisioning" that might have "trashed Shakespeare" but "provocatively invited a fresh, if peculiar, look" at the original. In 1989, its production of ''Timon of Athens'' was the subject of a ''

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'' special on BBC2. It cast a woman in the title role, a first in English professional theatre,Robert Shaughnessy.
The Routledge Guide to William Shakespeare
', pp. 234–35 (Routledge; 2013) and like ''Romeo and Juliet'', used repeated scenes "to destabilize both textual and production authority". Robert Shaughnessy wrote in 2013 that the performance was a "montage of mannered tableaux in which chunks of the play were ponderously interwoven with extracts from contemporary feminist writings about self-image and self-esteem". Susan Bennett, also in 2013, described it as a "quite tantalizing revision" of one of those so-called 'problem plays'". Holloway stated that the hostile reception by the London critics – the production received, for example, a highly critical contemporary review from Jeremy Kingston in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' – was not mirrored in most audiences outside the capital. A 1999–2000 production of ''Hamlet: First Cut'' toured 19 locations including the

Bloomsbury Theatre The Bloomsbury Theatre is a theatre located on Gordon Street in Bloomsbury, within the London Borough of Camden. It is owned by University College London. The Theatre has a seating capacity of 541 and offers a professional programme of innovati ...

, London. Dorothea Kehler, in a review for ''Shakespeare Bulletin'', described it as "an engrossing show"; she praised Holloway's "intelligent direction", the spare, "abstract" staging, based around four metal tetrahedra, which "created an atmosphere of wartime shabbiness and neglect", and the costumes, especially Gertred's vampire-like outfits. She commented on the use of even major characters to double as stage hands, which underlined the play's "appearance-versus-reality concerns", as well as the fact that dead characters remained upright on stage and then were recycled as stage hands. Peter J. Smith, in a review for '' Cahiers Elisabethains'', describes the production as "effective" and "economical", with twenty-three parts taken by eight actors; he also praises the use of metal tetrahedra in the staging, as "both simple and extremely adaptable" and describes Holloway as creating "some ingenious stage moments". A 2002 reworking of ''Nicholas Nickleby'' (at the

Gulbenkian Theatre The University of Kent (formerly the University of Kent at Canterbury, abbreviated as UKC) is a collegiate public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom. The university was granted its royal charter on 4 January 1965 and the follo ...

, Canterbury) reset Dickens' tale in the 1950s, described as a "potentially very clever wheeze" by Lyn Gardner in ''The Guardian''. The play focused on the conflict between the idealism of the young and the corruption of their elders. In the 2000s, Holloway also reworked classic films for the company including ''

Get Carter ''Get Carter'' is a 1971 British gangster film, gangster thriller film, written and directed by Mike Hodges in his directorial debut and starring Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, John Osborne, Britt Ekland and Bryan Mosley. Based on Ted Lewis (write ...

'' and ''

Vertigo Vertigo is a condition in which a person has the sensation that they are moving, or that objects around them are moving, when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. It may be associated with nausea, vomiting, perspira ...

''. In 2009, he adapted Milton's ''

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an Epic poetry, epic poem in blank verse by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The poem concerns the Bible, biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their ex ...

'' for the Edinburgh Festival, with Graeme Rose. In 2015, he adapted Robert Louis Stevenson's ''

Jekyll and Hyde ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' is an 1886 Gothic horror novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series of strange occurrences between ...

'' for a coproduction with the Hong Kong company Chung Ying, re-envisaging the titular doubled character as a traumatised woman. In addition to ''The Late Show'', the company was featured on ''Edinburgh Nights'' (BBC2) and ''

Kaleidoscope A kaleidoscope () is an optical instrument with two or more reflecting surfaces (or mirrors) tilted to each other at an angle, so that one or more (parts of) objects on one end of these mirrors are shown as a symmetrical pattern when viewed fro ...

'' (Radio 4). Red Shift first gained Arts Council funding in 1986, and the Arts Council funded the company between 1991 and 1997. In 2007 Holloway withdrew Red Shift from Arts Council RFO status. The limited company was dissolved in 2015.

Other directing and later career

Holloway directed ''

The Playboy of the Western World ''The Playboy of the Western World'' is a three-act play written by Irish playwright John Millington Synge, first performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on 26 January 1907. The work is considered a centerpiece of the Irish Literary Revival mo ...

'' in Ireland and ''

Le Misanthrope ''The Misanthrope, or the Cantankerous Lover'' (; ) is a 17th-century comedy of manners in verse written by Molière. It was first performed on 4 June 1666 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal, Paris by the King's Players. The play satirizes the ...

''Jeremy Kingston (9 February 1989). ''Timon of Athens''; Theatre. ''

'' in Boston, USA, and he advised on the 2008 Gifford's Circus show ''Caravan''. He has developed a series of open-air performances at festivals, under the title ''The Invisible Show''. In 2017 he began writing and directing a series of shows for Oxford's Creation Theatre Company including ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' at the Mathematics Institute, ''Brave New World'' using projection screens and wi-fi headphones in the Westgate Shopping Centre,Tim Hughes (11 July 2018). ''Brave New World'': Creation's brave new vision of futuristic classic packs a punch. ''

Oxford Times ''The Oxford Times'' is a weekly newspaper, published each Thursday in Oxford, England. The paper is published from a large production facility at Osney Mead, west Oxford, and is owned by Newsquest, the UK subsidiary of US-based Gannett Compan ...

'' and in 2019 a re-imagining of ''Don Quixote'' in the Covered Market. He was briefly Head of Performing Arts at

Middlesex University Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated to MDX) is a public research university based in Hendon, northwest London, England. The university also has campuses in Dubai and Mauritius. The name of the university is ...

and has taught at Brooklands Technical College (Weybridge), St Mary's University College and

Royal Holloway University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. It ...

, and was Artist in Residence at

Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, commonly shortened to Central, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for ...

and Artistic Associate at

Kingston University Kingston University London is a Public university, public research university located within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, in South London, South West London, England. Its roots go back to the Kingston Technical Institute, founded ...

. Holloway served two years (2012–2014) on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Participants' Council. He was an elected member of the Board of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Advisory Panel of the National Campaign for the Arts.Jonathan Holloway CV
(accessed 29 October 2022) He has made guest appearances on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

's ''

A Good Read ''A Good Read'' is one of BBC Radio 4's longest-running programmes in which two guests join the main presenter to choose and discuss their favourite books. The programme grew out of an occasional slot on '' Weekend Woman's Hour'', initiated in 1 ...

'' and appeared on a feature about the

Arthur Mee Arthur Henry Mee (21 July 187527 May 1943) was an English writer, journalist and educator. He is best known for ''The Harmsworth Self-Educator'', ''The Children's Encyclopædia'', ''The Children's Newspaper'', and ''The King's England''. Ea ...

Children's Encyclopaedia A child () is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking countries, the legal definition of ''child ...

'' with the artist

Grayson Perry Sir Grayson Perry (born 24 March 1960) is an English artist. He is known for his ceramic vases, tapestries, and cross-dressing, as well as his observations of the contemporary arts scene, and for dissecting British "prejudices, fashions and foib ...

As a playwright

Scripts for Red Shift include ''The Double'', ''In The Image of the Beast'' (Edinburgh Fringe First, 1987), ''The Hammer'' (also recorded for BBC Radio 3), ''

Death in Venice ''Death in Venice ''() is a novella by German author Thomas Mann, published in 1912. It presents an ennobled writer who visits Venice and is liberated, uplifted, and then increasingly obsessed by the sight of a boy in a family of Polish tourist ...

'', ''

Crime And Punishment ''Crime and Punishment'' is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published in the literary journal '' The Russian Messenger'' in twelve monthly installments during 1866.

'' (also produced in Chile), ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' (, ) is a 19th-century French literature, French Epic (genre), epic historical fiction, historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published on 31 March 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. '' ...

'' (pub. Samuel French, also in rep in Hong Kong), ''

The Aspern Papers ''The Aspern Papers'' is a novella by American writer Henry James, originally published in ''The Atlantic Monthly'' in 1888, with its first book publication later in the same year. One of James's best-known and most acclaimed longer tales, ' ...

'', ''Nosferatu The Visitor'', ''

Nicholas Nickleby ''Nicholas Nickleby'', or ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby'', is the third novel by English author Charles Dickens, originally published as a serial from 1838 to 1839. The character of Nickleby is a young man who must support his ...

'', ''

The Man Who Was Thursday ''The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare'' is a 1908 novel by G. K. Chesterton. The book has been described as a metaphysical thriller. Plot summary Chesterton prefixed the novel with a poem written to Edmund Clerihew Bentley, revisiting the ...

'', the first stage versions of ''

The Third Man ''The Third Man'' is a 1949 film noir directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene, and starring Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins, Alida Valli as Anna Schmidt, Orson Welles as Harry Lime and Trevor Howard as Major Calloway. Set in post-Worl ...

'', ''

'', and ''

''. His other theatre writing includes ''Darkness Falls'' for the Palace Theatre Watford, and ''Because It's There'' (2000), ''Angels Among The Trees'' (2004), and ''Vertigo'' (2008), all for

Nottingham Playhouse Nottingham Playhouse is a theatre in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. It was first established as a repertory theatre in 1948 when it operated from a former cinema in Goldsmith Street. Directors during this period included Val May and F ...

. Holloway has also written and directed many plays for BBC Radio, including adaptations of

Citizen Kane ''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American Drama (film and television), drama film directed by, produced by and starring Orson Welles and co-written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz. It was Welles's List of directorial debuts, first feature film. ...

Strangers and Brothers ''Strangers and Brothers'' is a series of novels by C. P. Snow, published between 1940 and 1970. They deal with – among other things – questions of political and personal integrity, and the mechanics of exercising power. Plot All eleve ...

, and

Brave New World ''Brave New World'' is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931, and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hier ...

, the TV series ''

The Man From Uncle ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' is an American spy fiction television series produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television and first broadcast on NBC. The series follows secret agents Napoleon Solo, played by Robert Vaughn, and Illya Kuryakin, play ...

'', stories by

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

Willa Cather Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including ''O Pioneers!'', ''The Song of the Lark (novel), The Song of the Lark'', a ...

Walter de la Mare Walter John de la Mare (; 25 April 1873 – 22 June 1956) was an English poet, short story writer and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners", and for his psychological horror short fi ...

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decli ...

, Heinrich Boll,

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

and

Andrew Motion Sir Andrew Peter Motion (born 26 October 1952) is an English poet, novelist, and biographer, who was Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009. During the period of his laureateship, Motion founded the Poetry Archive, an online resource of poems and a ...

, as well as

's ''

The Loved One Loved Ones, Loved One, The Loved Ones, or The Loved One may refer to: Films *The Loved One (film), ''The Loved One'' (film), a 1965 American satire based on the Evelyn Waugh novel *The Loved Ones (film), ''The Loved Ones'' (film), a 2009 Australia ...

'',

Olivia Manning Olivia Mary Manning (2 March 1908 – 23 July 1980) was a British novelist, poet, writer, and reviewer. Her fiction and non-fiction, frequently detailing journeys and personal odysseys, were principally set in the United Kingdom, Euro ...

's '' Levant Trilogy'',

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

's ''

Faust Faust ( , ) is the protagonist of a classic German folklore, German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a deal with the Devil at a ...

'' and

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson ( – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

's ''

The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia ''The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia'', originally titled ''The Prince of Abissinia: A Tale'', though often abbreviated to ''Rasselas'', is an apologue about bliss and ignorance by Samuel Johnson. The book's original working title was ...

''. He has written radio plays celebrating the George Orwell centenary, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death and the Arthur Miller Centenary.

References

External links

Holloway's personal web siteGuardian Review of Holloway’s HAMLET: FIRST CUTScotsman Review of Holloway’s NICHOLAS NICKLEBY
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holloway, Jonathan Living people 1955 births Alumni of London Metropolitan University Alumni of St Mary's University, Twickenham English theatre directors People from Dulwich Writers from the London Borough of Southwark