Artistic Director

David Thacker has just announced his fifth season as Artistic Director of the Octagon Theatre Bolton. In the last four seasons he has directed twenty-one productions including: All My Sons, Ghosts, The Enemies Within, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Comedians, The Hired Man, A Streetcar Named Desire, Love on the Dole, Romeo and Juliet, The Price, The Demolition Man, Secret Thoughts, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Habeas Corpus, Alfie, Macbeth, The Winslow Boy, Lighthearted Intercourse, Of Mice and Men, Tull and The Glass Menagerie.

David has directed over 150 theatre productions including plays by William Shakespeare, Arthur Miller, Samuel Beckett, Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov, Tennessee Williams, Tom Stoppard and Eugene O’Neill. He has been privileged to work with many outstanding actors including Trevor Eve, Helen Mirren, Clive Owen, Vanessa Redgrave, Natasha Richardson and David Tennant, and some of our leading directors such as Michael Attenborough, Sir Trevor Nunn, Sir Richard Eyre, and Sir Peter Hall.

He has worked at eight producing theatres including the Royal Shakespeare Company (Director-in-Residence), the Young Vic (Director), the Dukes Playhouse, Lancaster (Theatre Director), and the National Theatre. Seven of his productions have transferred to the West End.

He has won Olivier Awards for Best Director (Pericles) and Best Revival (Pericles) and the London Fringe Award for Best Director (Ghosts) and Best Production (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?).

David is also a prolific television director. He has directed more than 30 TV productions, including episodes of The Vice, Silent Witness, Foyle’s War and Waking the Dead. He has also directed films, such as Measure for Measure, A Doll’s House, Broken Glass, The Mayor of Casterbridge and Faith, the critically acclaimed film for the BBC set during the miners' strike.