John Newport Caird (born 22 September 1948) is an English stage director and writer of plays, musicals and operas. He is an honorary associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, was for many years a regular director with the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain and the principal guest director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre,https://www.dramaten.se/medverkande/regissorer/Caird-John/ Stockholm (Dramaten).
Early years
Caird was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, to English parents George Bradford Caird, Oxford theologian and principal of Mansfield College, Oxford and Viola Mary Newport (born 1922 in Reigate, Surrey), poet and librarian.
He lived in Montreal and attended Selwyn House School. His family moved back to England in 1959 to Oxford, where he attended Magdalen College School from 1959 to 1967. He studied acting at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School from 1967 to 1969.
Caird worked as an actor and stage manager at various English repertory theatres and in London's West End before embarking on his directorial career at Contact Theatre, in Manchester in 1973.
Career
Theatre
Caird was an associate director of Contact Theatre for two years, from 1973 to 1975, where he directed plays by Shakespeare, Christopher Bond, John Osborne, James Saunders, Samuel Beckett, wrote and acted in Theatre in Education programmes for Manchester's schools and prisons, and was an actor and musician in plays by Brecht, Goldoni, and Jellicoe.
He then worked as a freelance director for various fringe theatre companies. For Sidewalk Theatre he directed Last Resort by Peter Flannery. For Avon Touring he directed Regina versus Stephens by the late David Illingworth.
Caird also taught for one semester at the University of Ottawa Drama Department, Canada, where he directed The Changeling by Middleton and Rowley. In 1975, he founded, with Stephen Barlow and others, Circle of Muses – a touring music theatre troupe that took musical entertainments around classical music clubs in England and Wales.
In 1977, Caird joined the Royal Shakespeare Company as assistant director, becoming a resident director in December 1977 and an associate director in 1980.
From 1977 to 1990, Caird directed over 20 productions for the RSC, including Shakespeare's Twelfth Night with Zoë Wanamaker, John Thaw, Daniel Massey, and Emrys James, Romeo and Juliet with Daniel Day-Lewis, Amanda Root, and Roger Allam, Midsummer Night's Dream with John Carlisle, Clare Higgins, and Richard McCabe, Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, and Antony and Cleopatra.
At the RSC's Swan Theatre he directed Ben Jonson's comedies Every Man in His Humour with Simon Russell Beale, Henry Goodman and Pete Postlethwaite and The New Inn with John Carlisle and Fiona Shaw, the first night of this play being the second-ever professional performance since it first appeared in 1629. His last production at the Swan was his own new version of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera with music composed by Ilona Sekacz.
Caird's other productions at the RSC included classic works by Farquhar, Shaw, Strindberg, Gorky and Brecht and world premières of plays by Peter Flannery, Jonathan Gems, Mary O'Malley, John Berger, Nella Bielski, Charles Wood, and Richard Nelson.
At the RSC Caird also co-directed four productions with Trevor Nunn. The first was Merry Wives of Windsor in 1978 with Ben Kingsley, David Threlfall, and Timothy Spall. Next was Nicholas Nickleby in 1980, a nine-hour adaption from Dickens by David Edgar that ran for three separate seasons at the Aldwych Theatre and then transferred to the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway. Caird and Nunn then collaborated on a new version of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, the first-ever production of the play to use a male actor in the title role. The production ran for three consecutive seasons at the Barbican Theatre from 1982 to 1984, with Miles Anderson, Mark Rylance and John McAndrew all playing Peter. Lastly Les Misérables in 1985, a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil that was a co-production between the RSC and Cameron Mackintosh. It ran for eight weeks at the Barbican Theatre before transferring to the Palace Theatre in the West End, moving to the Queen's Theatre in 2004, where it is still running. It opened at The Broadway Theatre in New York in 1987 and thereafter has played all over the world.
Caird started directing at London's Royal National Theatre in 1993 under the artistic directorship of Richard Eyre. His first production was Trelawney of the 'Wells' with Helen McCrory and Robin Bailey. Chekhov's The Seagull followed in 1994 in a new version by Pam Gems with Judi Dench, Helen McCrory and Bill Nighy. In 1996, he directed the world premiere of Pam Gems' play Stanley based on the life of the English painter Stanley Spencer, with Antony Sher in the title role. Stanley later transferred to the Circle in the Square Theatre on Broadway. He continued to direct plays at the National under the Artistic Directorship of Trevor Nunn with Peter Pan in 1997 starring Daniel Evans as Pan and Ian McKellen as Hook and, in the NT Ensemble season of 1999, Bulwer-Lytton's Money and his own new version of the Voltaire/Bernstein Candide, both with Simon Russell Beale and the late Denis Quilley. In 2000, he again directed Simon Russell Beale, this time in Hamlet, a production that toured the UK and Europe, going to Elsinore, Stockholm and Belgrade, before transferring to the Brooklyn Academy (BAM) in New York. Caird's last production at the National Theatre was the world première of Humble Boy by Charlotte Jones, with Diana Rigg and Simon Russell Beale. The play transferred to the Gielgud Theatre in the West End where Felicity Kendal joined the cast and it opened in New York in 2003 at Manhattan Theatre Club.
Caird's other productions in the West End have included Macbeth at the Almeida Theatre with Simon Russell Beale and Emma Fielding, Anouilh's Becket at the Theatre Royal Haymarket with Jasper Britton and Dougray Scott, Charles Dyer's Rattle of a Simple Man with Michelle Collins and Stephen Tompkinson and Michael Weller's What the Night Is For with Gillian Anderson and Roger Allam, both at the Comedy Theatre and his own musical Daddy Long Legs at the St James Theatre with Megan McGinnis and Rob Hancock.
In 2015, Caird directed James Phillips' new play McQueen, which opened in May at the St James’s Theatre in May starring Steve Wight and Dianna Agron and transferred to the Haymarket Theatre in the West End in August, starring Wight and Carly Bawden. McQueen was designed by David Farley, with lighting by David Howe, choreography by Chris Marney and sound by John Leonard.
Caird also directed two new Shakespeare productions in 2015: a Japanese language production of Twelfth Night in Tokyo for the Toho Company, opening in March at the Nissay Theatre – and Love's Labour's Lost for the Stratford Festival in Canada with a cast including Mike Shara and Juan Chioran, designs by Patrick Clark, lighting by Michael Walton and music by Josh Schmidt, opening in August and playing in repertoire for the rest of the season.
In the spring of 2017, Caird directed Hamlet at Geigeki Theatre in Tokyo with Seiyo Uchino in the title role.
In 2022, Caird directed and co-adapted, with Maoko Imai, a live theatre version of Hayao Miyazaki's animated film Spirited Away for Toho Company in Japan. The production transferred to the London Coliseum in the West End where it played for a sell-out 18 week run in the spring and summer of 2024.
Sweden
In 2009, Caird was made principal guest director at Sweden's national stage, the Royal Dramatic Theatre of Stockholm. His first production in Sweden was As You Like It (Som ni vill ha det) for Stadsteatern (Stockholm City Theatre) in 1984, with Stina Ekblad and Mats Bergman. Since then he has directed exclusively for the Royal Dramatic Theatre with A Midsummer Night's Dream (En midsommarnattsdröm) in 2000, Twelfth Night (Trettondagsafton) in 2002, Strindberg's Dödsdansen (The Dance of Death) in 2007 with Stina Ekblad and Örjan Ramberg and The Merry Wives of Windsor (Muntra fruarna i Windsor) with Börje Ahlstedt as Falstaff in 2009.
Caird's production of Shakespeare's The Tempest (Stormen) opened at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in October 2010 with Orjan Ramberg, Stina Ekblad and Jonas Karlsson. He returned to the Royal Dramatic Theatre in 2011 to direct Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (Romeo och Julia), starring and Sofia Pekkari.
In February 2014, Caird worked for the first time in the Royal Dramatic Theatre's intimate stage, Målarsalen, where he directed Hjalmar Söderberg's classic Swedish drama Gertrud with Anna Björk, Jonas Malmsjö, Otto Hargne, Magnus Ehrner, and Mia Benson. The play was designed by Jan Lundberg, costumes by Ann-Margret Fyregård, lighting by Hans-Åke Sjöquist and music by William Stenhammer.
Japan
Caird's Japanese productions started with Les Misérables, which opened at the Imperial Theatre (Teikoku Gekijo) in 1987 and has been running in repertoire with other works at the same location ever since, as well as touring extensively throughout Japan.
In 2006, he directed his own version of The Beggar's Opera for the Nissay Theatre in Tokyo, starring Seiyo Uchino as Macheath, the production being revived in 2008. His 2007 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (Natsu no Yo no Yume) for the New National Theatre (Shinkokuritsu Gekijo) was revived in 2009. His play Kinshu adapted from Teru Miyamoto's famous novel opened at the Galaxy Theatre in 2007 and was revived in 2009. He has also directed Coward's Private Lives (Shiseikatsu) at Theatre Crié in 2008 and Jane Eyre at the Nissay Theatre in 2009.
In 2010, Caird directed his own National Theatre version of Bernstein's Candide at the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo, starring Inoue Yoshio and Ichimura Masachika.
He returned to Tokyo in the summer of 2012 to direct the Japanese première of his musical Daddy Long Legs at Theatre Crié, with music by Paul Gordon and Japanese libretto and lyrics by Maoko Imai. The production was designed by David Farley, and starred Maaya Sakamoto and Yoshio Inoue. The production has been revived since then on numerous occasions, with the same cast and was filmed by Wowow Television. In the summer of 2022, the same production will open with Mone Kamishiraishi playing the part of Jerusha and Yoshio Inoue continuing in the role of Jervis.
His revival of the Shochiku production of Jane Eyre opened at the Nissay Theatre in the autumn of 2012 and toured to Hakata-za in Kyushu. Daddy Long Legs was revived at Theatre Crié in January 2013 and again in 2014 and 2015. Further revivals are to be programmed for 2019 and beyond. A CD of the songs and a DVD of the show were both released by Toho in 2014.
In the spring of 2015, Caird directed a new production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night for the Toho Company at the Nissay Theatre in Tokyo, starring Kei Otozuki, Tomoko Nakajima, Satoshi Hashimoto and Songha. The play was translated by Kazuko Matsuoka, with song lyrics by Maoko Imai, designs by the late Johan Engels, lighting by Ryuichi Nakagawa and music by John Cameron.
In 2017, Caird directed Hamlet at Geigeki Theatre in Tokyo with Seiyo Uchino in the title role, Jun Kunimura as Claudius, Yuko Asano as Gertrude and Shihori Kanjiya as Ophelia. The play was translated by Kazuko Matsuoka and Maoko Imai, Yukio Horio designed the sets, Nobuko Miyamoto designed the costumes, the lighting was by Ryuichi Nakagawa and Dozan Fujiwara composed and performed the music.