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Photograph: Shelia Burnett
Phelim McDermott Director
Photograph: Shelia Burnett
My Neighbour Totoro (Improbable/ RSC/ Barbican)
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Phelim is a founder member and co-artistic director of Improbable.. Awards include Winner Olivier Award Best Direction for My Neighbour Totoro Winner Olivier Award Best New Opera Production for Akhnaten Winner Time Out Off West End Best Production for 70 Hill Lane Nominated Outstanding Musical Drama Desk Awards for The Addams Family Winner Manchester Evening News Best Fringe Show for 70 Hill Lane Winner Obie for best show off Broadway for 70 Hill Lane Winner Best Show Cairo International Festival of Experimental Theatre for 70 Hill Lane Winner 2002 Laurence Olivier Award, Best Entertainment for Shock Headed Peter. Winner of The Best Director Award in the Barclays TMA Theatre Award 1998 for Shock Headed Peter Nominated for the 1998/9 South Bank Show Theatre Award for Shock Headed Peter Winner of the Time Out Director of the Year Award for Gaudete Winner of the Barclays Theatre Award for Best Touring Production 1997 for A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Current Work includes:

My Neighbour Totoro Improbable / Royal Shakespeare Company

Best Direction - WhatsOnStage Awards 2023
Best Director - Olivier Awards 2023 and 5 other Olivier's including Best Entertainment

Theatre and Opera Directing includes

The Hours Met Opera

The Tao of Glass (Writer and Co-Director) Improbable

Akhnaten Improbable / ENO / LA Opera / Met Opera / Improbable

Olivier Winner Best New Opera Production

Opening Skinner's Box (with Lee Simpson) Improbable / Northern Stage / West Yorkshire Playhouse

Aida Improbable / ENO / Houston / Geneva

Cosi Fan Tutti Improbable / ENO / Met Opera

A Christmas Carol West End / Sonia Friedman Productions

The Tempest Improbable / Northern Stage / Oxford Playhouse

The Little Match Girl (with Mark Down) Improbable / Blind Summit / Spoleto Festival, Charleston, USA

Beauty and the Beast Improbable / Young Vic / International

The Perfect American ENO/ Teatro Real Madrid / Improbable

The Enchanted Island The Metropolitan Opera, New York [World Premiere]

125th Anniversary Gala The Metropolitan Opera, New York

Alex Arts Theatre, UK and International Tour

Satyagraha Improbable / ENO / Metropolitan Opera

Theatre of Blood National Theatre/Improbable

Lifegame (with Julian Crouch and Lee Simpson) Improbable

Coma (with Julian Crouch and Lee Simpson) Improbable

The Hanging Man (with Julian Crouch and Lee Simpson) West Yorkshire Playhouse/Lyric Hammersmith

Midsummer Night’s Dream Deutsches Schauspielhaus

Cinderella (with Neil Bartlett, Julian Crouch and Lee Simpson) Improbable / Lyric Theatre Hammersmith

Sticky (with Julian Crouch and Lee Simpson) Improbable

Shock Headed Peter (with Julian Crouch) Cultural Industry/Lyric Hammersmith/ West Yorkshire Playhouse

Gaudete Almeida

The Sweetshop Owner Croydon Warehouse

Would Say Something Guy Dartnell one man show

The Glass Hill Watermans Arts Centre

The Vinegar Works Almeida

The Ghost Downstairs Leicester Haymarket

Dr Faustus Nottingham Playhouse

Don Quixote Commotion Theatre Company

The Servant of Two Masters West Yorkshire Playhouse Venice and Rome for the Goldoni Bicentennial

The Hunchback of Notre Dame West Yorkshire Playhouse

Improbable Tales Nottingham Playhouse

Get Off My Foot Nottingham Playhouse

The Government Inspector West Yorkshire Playhouse

A Family Affair Theatre Clwyd

A Midsummer Night’s Dream English Shakespeare Company Tour

Writing Credits include

Adapted for the Stage: Cupboard Man by Ian McEwan Gaudette by Ted Hughes The Vinegar Works by Edward Gorey The Sweetshop Owner by Graham Swift The Ghost Downstairs by Leon Garfield for the Leicester Haymarket The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo (with Julian Crouch) The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban Original Plays: Get Off My Foot - a comedy about a double act written for the Nottingham Playhouse with Lee Simpson The Glass Hill - a devised play based on a boy’s childhood fantasies Improbable Tales - improvised at the Nottingham Playhouse The Masterson Inheritance - improvised Radio 4 comedy drama 70 Hill Lane - an autobiographical piece about ghosts and supernatural goings on.