"One fine day I discovered that more complex plays really have to be directed"
About this Quote
It reads like a humble brag disguised as a confession, and that’s exactly why it lands. Trevor Nunn isn’t just praising directors; he’s skewering the romantic myth that great theater simply “happens” once talented actors and a good script share oxygen. “One fine day” has the fairy-tale lilt of revelation, but the punchline is practical, almost deadpan: complexity doesn’t self-organize. Someone has to take responsibility for shape, rhythm, and meaning.
The subtext is a quiet argument with an older, actor-centric idea of the stage where the director is a traffic cop at best. Nunn, coming up in the postwar British theater ecosystem and later steering institutions like the RSC and the National Theatre, lived inside the rise of the modern director as interpreter, editor, and systems designer. When he says “more complex plays,” he’s pointing at works with layered timelines, shifting tones, dense metaphor, or a chorus of competing truths - the kind of material where “letting it breathe” can quickly become letting it sprawl.
The intent is not authoritarian; it’s clarifying. “Directed” here doesn’t mean micromanaged. It means made legible. Nunn implies that complexity is a kind of generosity to the audience only if someone is curating the experience: guiding attention, calibrating irony, controlling tempo, and building a visual and emotional grammar. The line’s wit is in how it frames a whole professional philosophy as a simple discovery: theater isn’t just performed; it’s constructed.
The subtext is a quiet argument with an older, actor-centric idea of the stage where the director is a traffic cop at best. Nunn, coming up in the postwar British theater ecosystem and later steering institutions like the RSC and the National Theatre, lived inside the rise of the modern director as interpreter, editor, and systems designer. When he says “more complex plays,” he’s pointing at works with layered timelines, shifting tones, dense metaphor, or a chorus of competing truths - the kind of material where “letting it breathe” can quickly become letting it sprawl.
The intent is not authoritarian; it’s clarifying. “Directed” here doesn’t mean micromanaged. It means made legible. Nunn implies that complexity is a kind of generosity to the audience only if someone is curating the experience: guiding attention, calibrating irony, controlling tempo, and building a visual and emotional grammar. The line’s wit is in how it frames a whole professional philosophy as a simple discovery: theater isn’t just performed; it’s constructed.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
|---|
More Quotes by Trevor
Add to List
