Cain
John Caird
Jonathan Cake
David Calder
Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Michael Calf
Camille
Camino Real
Cheryl Campbell
Il Candelaio
Can Opener
The Canterbury Tales
Captain Swing
John Carlisle
Jason Carr
Carrie
Nancy Carroll
Elaine Cassidy
The Castle
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
The Changeling
Jan Chappell
Ian Charleson
Ian Charleson Awards
Geoffrey Chaucer
Paddy Chayefsky
Anton Chekhov
Nick Chelton
The Cherry Orchard
Children of the Sun
Alison Chitty
A Christmas Carol
Christopher Columbus
Tony Church
Caryl Churchill
The Churchill Play
Clay
Dennis Clinton
A Clockwork Orange
The Collection
Patience Collier
Columbus and the Discovery of Japan
The Comedy of Errors
Complete Works Festival
Comrades
Kerry Condon
William Congreve
Shelley Conn
Paule Constable
The Constant Couple
Nina Conti
Kandis Cook
Ron Cook
Dominic Cooke
Nigel Cooke
Richard Cordery
Coriolanus
Charlotte Cornwell
Oliver Cotton
Yvonne Coulette
Country Dancing
The Country Wife
Courtyard Theatre
Cousin Vladimir
Andrea J. Cox
Brian Cox
Claire Cox
Cries from the Casement
Crimes in Hot Countries
The Criminals
Derbhle Crotty
Bob Crowley
The Crucible
Frances Cuka
Paddy Cunneen
Liam Cunningham
Julian Curry
Curse of the Starving Class
Curtmantle
Cyril Cusack
Niamh Cusack
Sinéad Cusack
The Custom of the Country
Cymbeline
Cyrano de Bergerac
John Caird's early childhood was spent in Montreal, where his father, a congregational minister and scholar, was teaching at McGill University. The family returned to England and to Oxford in 1959. Caird went to Magdalen College School and trained to be an actor in Bristol.
From 1974 to 76 he was an associate director at the Contact Theatre, Manchester, responsible for productions of Look Back in Anger, Downright Hooligan and Twelfth Night. He joined the RSC in 1977 to assist Ron Daniels ('Tis Pity She's a Whore; The Lorenzaccio Story) and Trevor Nunn. His contribution to Nunn's As You Like It (1977-79) was such that Nunn made him his co-director. During the next few years he became best known as Nunn's junior partner, co-directing The Merry Wives of Windsor (RST, 1979), Nicholas Nickleby (Aldwych, 1980), Peter Pan (Barbican, 1982) and Les Misérables (Barbican, 1985).
At the same time, in the studios, he directed Emrys James in Strindberg's The Dance of Death (1978), the young David Threlfall and Leslie Manville in Peter Flannery's Savage Amusement (1978), Alun Armstrong in The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1979), Mike Gwilym and Harriet Walter in Farquhar's The Twin Rivals (1981), and Flannery's Our Friends in the North (1982). In the main house he was responsible for an autumnal production of Twelfth Night (1983), beautifully acted by Emyrs James, John Thaw, Daniel Massey, Miles Anderson, Zoë Wanamaker, Sarah Berger and Gemma Jones, and an exuberant, deliciously satirical production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1989)—the forest was a junk yard, the fairies wore doc martins, tutus and pretend wings, and Mendelssohn's famous score was parodied by a rock band. In the Swan he led the Ben Jonson revival with robust productions of Every Man in His Humour (1986) and The New Inn (1987), and staged Gay's The Beggar's Opera (1992) as though it was Les Misérables.
Since the early 1990s he has worked most prominently at the National (from 1997 to 2000 he was Nunn's deputy in all but name): Trelawny of the Wells (Olivier, 1993); The Seagull (Olivier, 1994); Stanley (Cottesloe, 1996, New York, 1997); Peter Pan (Olivier, 1997); Candide (Olivier, 1999); Money (Olivier, 1999); the Simon Russell Beale Hamlet (Lyttelton, 2000); and Charlotte Jones's Humble Boy (Cottesloe, 2001).
Elsewhere he has directed Siegfried and Roy at the Mirage (Las Vegas, 1989); Children of Eden (West End, 1991); Mozart's Zaïdé (Battignano, 1991); Life Sentences (New York, 1993); Shaw's The Millionairess (UK Tour, 1995); Jane Eyre (Toronto, 1996, New York, 2000); Michael Weller's What the Night is For (Comedy, 2002); Anouilh's Becket (Theatre Royal Haymarket, 2004); and the Simon Russell Beale Macbeth (Almeida, 2005).
Education: Selwyn House School, Montreal; Magdalen College School, Oxford; Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
RSC: Joined 1977; Assistant Director, 1977-78; Resident Director, 1978-1983; Associate Director, 1983-1991; Member of the Directorate, 1987-90; Honorary Associate Director (since 1991)
Productions: As You Like It, co-directed with Trevor Nunn (RST, 1977/Aldwych, 1978-79); The Dance of Death, August Strindberg (Warehouse, 1978/Aldwych, 1978); Savage Amusement, Peter Flannery (Warehouse, 1978); Look Out… Here Comes Trouble, Mary O'Malley (Warehouse, 1978-79); The Adventures of Awful Knawful, Peter Flannery, Mick Ford (Warehouse, 1978-79); The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Bertolt Brecht (Small-scale Tour, 1979/Warehouse, 1980); The Merry Wives of Windsor, co-directed with Trevor Nunn (RST, 1979/Aldwych, 1980); Nicholas Nickleby, David Edgar, codirected with Trevor Nunn (Aldwych, 1980/Aldwych, 1981/New York, 1981/RST, 1986/US Tour, 1986); Naked Robots, Jonathan Gems (Warehouse, 1981); The Twin Rivals, George Farquhar (TOP, 1981/Pit, 1982); Our Friends in the North, Peter Flannery (TOP, 1982/Pit, 1982); Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie, codirected with Trevor Nunn (Barbican, 1982/1983/1984); Twelfth Night (RST, 1983/Barbican, 1984); Romeo and Juliet (Small-scale Tour, 1983/TOP, 1984); The Merchant of Venice (RST, 1984); Red Star, Charles Wood (Pit, 1984); Philistines, Maxim Gorky (TOP, 1985/Pit, 1986); Les Misérables, codirected with Trevor Nunn (Barbican, 1985/West End, 1985); Every Man in his Humour, Ben Jonson (Swan, 1986/Mermaid, 1987); Misalliance, George Bernard Shaw (Barbican, 1986); A Question of Geography, John Berger (TOP, 1987/Pit, 1988); The New Inn, Ben Jonson (Swan, 1987); As You Like It (RST, 1989/Barbican, 1990); A Midsummer Night's Dream (RST, 1989/UK Tour, 1989/Barbican, 1989); The Beggar's Opera (Swan, 1992/Pit, 1993); Columbus and the Discovery of Japan, Richard Nelson (Barbican, 1992); Antony and Cleopatra (RST, 1992/Barbican, 1993)
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