John Caird

Tony Award-winning director John Caird is an Honorary Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Principal Guest Director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre (Dramaten) in Stockholm, and a freelance writer and director of plays, musicals, and operas. During the 2024-25 season for HGO, he directs La bohème. His previous work at HGO includes directing and writing the libretto for two company world premieres: Tarik O’Regan’s The Phoenix (2019) and André Previn’s Brief Encounter (2009). Also for HGO, he previously directed Parsifal (2024), Tosca (2023, 2015, 2010), La bohème (2018, 2012), and Don Carlos (2012). His recent directorial credits include his own adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated film Spirited Away in Tokyo; Estella Scrooge in New York; A Knights’ Tale, Hamlet, and Twelfth Night, all in Tokyo; Don Giovanni at Welsh National Opera; McQueen at the Haymarket Theatre; Tosca in Chicago and LA; Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Stratford Festival in Canada; La bohème in San Francisco and Toronto, Parsifal in Chicago; and his own musical, Daddy Long Legs, off-Broadway, in Tokyo, and across the U.S. His many National Theatre productions include his own Olivier-award winning version of Bernstein’s Candide, now playing in multiple productions worldwide. His directorial work for the RSC included over 20 productions, including Nicholas Nickleby and Les Misérables, both of which have won numerous awards in the West End, Broadway, and all around the world. At Dramaten he has directed Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dance of Death, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Gertrud, and Merry Wives of Windsor. Theatre Craft, his book about directing plays and musicals, is published by Faber and Faber.