John Burgess obituary

My friend and fellow director John Burgess, who has died aged 77, played a key role in the development of new writing for the theatre.

In 1984 John helped found the National Theatre Studio, a crucible for the development of playwrights, and in 1989 he was appointed head of new writing at the NT. He commissioned and championed innovative work, with a particular commitment to marginalised voices. Indeed, he directed more plays by women (Debbie Horsfield, Sarah Daniels, Judith Johnson and others) than any other male director in the NT’s history.

After leaving in 1994 John continued to work with writers, first with the group at the Nuffield theatre in Southampton and then through the remarkable John Burgess Play Writing Course, which he ran as its sole tutor. The course, which has just completed its 14th year, helped launch the careers of dozens of playwrights.

John once explained to me that you could tell whether a play was any good by reading the first couple of pages. If the dialogue had crackle, if it flew off the page into the mouth of the actor, it was likely to work, whatever happened in the plot. A passionately political figure, he thought plays should bear witness to the way that ordinary people live their lives.

Born in Birmingham, to Hilda (nee Holden) and Thomas Burgess, a headteacher, John attended King Edward’s school in the city and studied classics at St John’s College, Cambridge. In 1969 he went to the New Wolsey theatre in Ipswich as assistant to the artistic director, Nick Barter, and in 1973 secured a Churchill scholarship to study with Roger Planchon at the Théâtre Nationale Populaire near Lyon. He was literary manager at the Open Space in London for three years and directed new plays in Birmingham, Colchester and elsewhere.

He first assisted the director Peter Gill at the Royal Court in London in 1976, and was his associate in the great days of the Riverside Studios. He accompanied Gill in 1981 to the National Theatre, where he directed productions of Kleist’s Prince of Homburg, Sophocles’ Antigone and John Arden’s Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance.

John, who was exceptionally well read, was a committed internationalist and spoke fluent French and German. In 2005 he wrote the Pocket Guide to Greek and Roman Drama for Faber and Faber.

For 25 years from 1969 his partner was Brigid Panet. He is survived by his sister, Elizabeth, and brother, Thomas.