Philip Dart

Director & Adaptor

Philip has been a regular director at Vienna’s English Theatre for many years, where productions have included Charley’s Aunt, Lend Me a Tenor, The Importance of Being Earnest, Pygmalion, Travels With My Aunt, The Mousetrap, Baskerville, The Unfriend, and See How They Run.

After gaining a degree in Drama at Hull University, his directing career began in regional theatre and on the London Fringe. For twenty-five years he was the Artistic Director of the Channel Theatre Company, based in southeast England, and in the 00s he set up the acclaimed Chalkfoot Theatre Arts. 

Philip’s first foray into national touring began with two UK touring premieres: Larry Kramer’s pioneering play, The Normal Heart and Anthony Minghella’s Made in Bangkok. There followed a number of highly successful touring productions, including The Woman in Black (UK touring premiere), Michael Frayn’s Benefactors, Rattigan’s While the Sun Shines and Tom McGrath’s play Laurel and Hardy (a co-production with Buxton Opera House).   

In a freelance capacity Philip has directed two in-house productions for the Festival Theatre, Malvern: Shaw’s Arms and the Man and a reworking of the musical, Nightingale. He also directed Noël Coward’s Fallen Angels for Pavilion Theatre and Candida and Dangerous Obsession for the English Theatre of Hamburg. He enjoys working with student actors and drama school productions include Vanity Fair for the Arts University Bournemouth, Ring Round the Moon for the Drama Studio London and Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class for RADA (final year show). For 28 years he wrote and directed the Buxton Opera House pantomime.

In addition to his work as a freelance theatre director in the UK and Europe, Philip has also established a strong track record as a playwright. Starting early in his career with a co-adaptation of the medieval Mystery Plays at Canterbury Cathedral (script published by Churchman Books), he went on to specialise in adaptations of literary works.  Most notably Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (for Northampton Theatre Royal), Jane Austen’s Emma and Robert Tressell’s epic novel of the Edwardian underclass, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. 

Philip’s reworking of Erskine Childers’ Edwardian spy novel The Riddle of the Sands won him nominations for Best Director and Best Production during a run at London’s Jermyn Street Theatre and his adaptation of the little known Wilkie Collins story The Haunted Hotel toured the UK on three occasions. 

Two years ago, Philip’s adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel, The Sign of the Four proved to be a sell-out success here at the theatre and Philip is delighted to be returning with his latest Sherlock Holmes adaptation – The Valley of Fear.

For more information about Philip’s work go to www.scenethreecreative.co.uk.