Ask anyone who the busiest man in theatre is and the likelihood is they will all reply the same: “Jamie Lloyd”. Not yet halfway through his 30s, the past few years have seen Lloyd catapulted from a rising star right to the top of the ranks of London’s most exciting and dynamic creators.
Programming his first eclectic and hugely acclaimed season as Artistic Director of the Trafalgar Transformed season in 2013, the director brought us an impressive line-up with James McAvoy as a post-apocalyptic Macbeth, Simon Russell Beale in an eccentric The Hothouse and Hollywood star Hayley Atwell in a revival of his Olivier Award-winning, heart-wrenchingly moving The Pride. After a short wait, tonight marks the opening night of his second season, and what a way to open it is.
With The Hobbit and Sherlock star Martin Freeman making his Shakespearean stage debut as the title character in Richard III, this could be Lloyd’s most anticipated production yet. And that’s even counting next year’s musical adaptation of Back To The Future…
As part of our weekend of In Conversation talks at West End LIVE last month, Official London Theatre’s Matthew Amer caught up with Lloyd to find out more about stage blood, decapitated heads and casting nice guys as evil dictators. If you missed it, fear not. You can now catch up by watching the talk above.