Director Michael Oakley is a recipient of the JMK Award for Young Directors for which he directed Edward II at BAC. His production of Terrence Rattigan’s Variations On A Theme starring Rachael Stirling is currently playing at the Finborough Theatre. In 2012 he was Co-Artistic Director of Chichester Festival Theatre’s pop-up space Theatre on the Fly. Direction includes Playhouse Creatures (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Changeling (Southwark Playhouse), Shooting Truth (NT Connections) and Graceland (The 24 Hour Plays: Old Vic New Voices). Associate Direction includes Relative Values (Theatre Royal Bath and UK tour), Kiss Me Kate (The Old Vic), The King’s Speech (West End and UK tour), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Chichester Festival Theatre and West End). Assistant Direction includes Inherit The Wind (The Old Vic), A Month in the Country, The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound, Oklahoma!, Cyrano de Bergerac (Chichester Festival Theatre), tHe dYsFUnCKshOnalZ! (Bush Theatre) and Much Ado About Nothing (Globe Education). Michael was trainee director-in- residence at Chichester Festival Theatre and has also completed a training course with Cheek by Jowl.
“Marvellously entertaining and stylishly directed by Michael Oakley, in sum one of those evenings when theatre is more alive than life” Five Stars, The Daily Telegraph on Playhouse Creatures
“A sure gift for racy, pacey storytelling that bodes well for the future and his classical career; a young director who already knows that it is telling the story that really counts” Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, on Edward II