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I first met Steven back in 1993 when I invited him to a workshop of a new musical I’d written. I’d recently seen his Earl’s Court Carmen and knew that this was a director who knew how to stage music in a wonderfully theatrical, imaginative and sensitive way. More ...
Steven Pimlott died on 14 February, after preparing this production, gathering the cast for it, and rehearsing it for something more than a week. We had been talking about The Rose Tattoo since he relinquished the reins at Chichester in 2005, though he would have first directed Moličre’s The Misanthrope had not his cancer diagnosis last summer temporarily cut short our discussions. More ...
I first met Steven in January 1991 when he interviewed me to be his Staff Director on The Miser at the National. About two minutes in, I said that what I thought I really was, was a dramaturg – a term I had started using somewhat pretentiously to silence people who asked me whether I was really a writer or a director. On Steven it had the opposite effect and far from silencing him, led to a conversation which continued until I said good-bye to him outside Covent Garden tube station almost exactly 16 years later, on January 30th of this year. More ...
Meeting Steven Pimlott in the dingy back offices of The Other Place was one of those electrifying experiences that make life worthwhile. For two hours we devoured conversation, on Racine's Athalie, Kleist's Penthisilea, and most of all on our pet projects - Milton's Paradise Lost (mine) and Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita (his), and the connections between the two. More ...
At Manchester Grammar School, Steven was selected to join some very able linguists to form the first group at the school to study Russian to O level. They had the misfortune to have me as their teacher for the next two years, so I saw him every school day in that time, and occasionally later. Amazing boy! Needless to say he was exceptional and, even then, suave, sophisticated and witty. More ...
At the age of fifteen I saw Camino Real at The Swan and it changed my life. It shook me awake and helped me to realise that theatre is what I want to do with my life. My tribute to Steven Pimlott is simply as a great admirer of his skill and brilliance as a director. For me, his work is something I will always aspire to.
I knew Steven way back in 1978 when English National Opera North was formed in Leeds. He was an assistant director and I was in the chorus, fresh out of the London Opera Centre. He became a friend, and we socialized together at many dinner parties. I remember him organising an outing to Blackpool Pleasure Beach which was huge fun.
I also remember when he directed Nabucco and there were huge problems with the chorus costumes: when we all ran onto the stage, a huge cloud of fluff rose up and we were all coughing and choking. The costumes had to be sprayed so then they were incredibly stiff and heavy. Throughout, Steven kept his cool!
In later years we kept in touch and although we didn’t see each other as often, always picked up from where we were before: the true test of friendship. He came to see me in shows and I saw many of his productions and we would have a good gossip on the ‘phone!
I was terribly saddened by his passing, which seems so unfair and is just too soon. I think of him often and can hear his voice quite clearly in my head, usually laughing!