"Director Chris White's almost ludicrously sure-footed direction always brings us back to the kitchen" **** Alledinburghtheatre.com on My English Persian Kitchen (pictured)
Chris White
Theatre Director
Photo credit Ellie Kurrtz
Chris White is a freelance theatre director and practitioner. He is an Associate Practitioner and Director for RSC Creative Learning and Engagement and co-ran the young writer's programme at Soho Theatre.
Chris' production of Hannah Khalil's My English Persian Kitchen ran at the Traverse Theatre and Soho Theatre in 2004 in sell out runs to critical and audience acclaim. Other recent directing includes Chippy by Henry Darke in a Cornish tour (Spring 2024), co-writing and directing Wood of Words a new play from the words of Shakespeare at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre RSC (2023), The Lighthouse Keepers Son with Maureen Beattie at the Samuel Beckett Research Centre, Reading University, and Nothing in a Butterfly by Ric Renton at Omnibus. He also co-directed Trouf, a new version of Hannah Khalil's Scenes from 76* Years in Tunisia, sponsored by British Council Tunisia and AFAC which played at Shubbak Festival in London in 2023.
Other work includes a South-East tour of Gutted by Sharon Byrne following a successful run at the Edinburgh Festival (2019), Hayley Wareham's Bottled at the Vaults Festival, Booby's Bay, by Henry Darke, produced by Alison Holder at London's Finborough Theatre, Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol and Cornwall. Chris's acclaimed production of Hannah Khalil's Scenes from 68* Years ran at the Arcola Theatre in London in April 2016. He was nominated for Best Director in the Offie Awards 2016 for this production.
Chris has also worked in Beijing, directing A Midsummer Night's Dream at the National Centre of Performing Arts with an ensemble of Chinese actors in 2016, the show was a great success and became part of the company's regular repertoire. In 2019 he returned to mount a revised version of the production ahead of a South East Asian tour.
Further work includes a nation-wide project with RSC Education called The Head That Wears A Crown, which culminated in a perfomance on the main stage at the Royal Shakespeare Company in July 2015. Watch the trailer below:
Chris has also worked at The Belgrade Theatre in Coventry on I Burn, I Pine, I Perish, which he created and directed with the Shine On and Youth comapnies. Read Chris's blog about his experience.
Other work includes Hard Places by Farhad Sorabjee played at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester in September 2012 (supported by ACE), then at the Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai, followed by an Indian tour in November 2012; the Meyer-Whitworth award nominated, sell-out London production of Hannah Khalil's Plan D at the Tristan Bates Theatre, Covent Garden, and 40 Years Young (produced with Mark Bixter) at the Young Vic, an original production created by Chris, celebrating 40 years of the theatre, featuring visual art, music, extracts of former shows, and new work by Martin Crimp and Matthew Dunster.
Chris is represented by Rachel Daniels at Berlin Associates.
Press quotes:
On My English Persian Kitchen:
***** Graphic. Gripping. Emotional. Inspiring. - Scots Gay Arts
*****The result is utterly immersive, indeed inescapable as steam rises from pots along with phantoms of our host’s past. - The Quintessential review
**** My English Persian Kitchen by Hannah Khalil is a thoroughly flavourful feast of a play that transports its audiences, through its aromatic delights, into an Iranian kitchen. - The Guardian
****"Under Chris White’s direction, Nefar flickers between the identities of passive cook and erratic, explosive victim" - Corr Blimey
On Scenes From 68* Years:
On Midsummer Night's Dream:
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