DIRECTION

Timothy’s work as a theatre director encompasses modern and classical work, a clutch of UK and world premieres along with opera and new  musical writing; as well as leadership of a number of prestigious and academic conservatoire programmes.

Associates include Shakespeare’s Globe, The Royal Opera House, The National Theatre, Cheek by Jowl, English Touring Opera, RADA, Rutgers University, and a number of London and regional theatres.

Ritual in Blood, by Steven Berkoff, World Premiere
Nottingham Playhouse

‘A coup for Nottingham Playhouse, as Timothy Walker directs the world premiere of a new play by Steven Berkoff. Berkoff turns dry chronicle into well-lubricated drama in a way that directly courts comparison with Shakespeare. Walker‘s dark, stark production masterfully marshals a massive cast assigned to multiple roles in a multi dimensional drama of great intellect and style.’
The Guardian

‘Timothy Walker’s impressive, sculptural staging …’
The Sunday Times

‘Impressively directed by Timothy Walker …’
The Times

‘Yielding tremendously strong performances … Walker uses the full depth of the stage to create some haunting tableaux.’
The Stage

‘Timothy Walker’s directing is superb.’
Lincolnshire Echo

‘Walker utilises the theatre to its full potential. Hugely effective.’
Burton Mail

“Steven Berkoff’s brilliant and uncompromising historical drama about the persecution of Jews in 13th Century Lincoln is gripping and disturbing stuff in this world premiere directed by Timothy Walker and played out by over twenty actors against a black background slashed with red. … a play bristling with lessons from history and resonances for our time.’
Church Times

Edward II, by Christopher Marlowe
Shakespeare’s Globe

‘Timothy Walker’s potent new production make this a contender for the strongest show in the Globe’s season. In it’s parts and in it’s overall vision, this is a thoroughly engaging and thoughtful production.’
Daily Mail

‘The Globe Theatre has made amends with its new version of Edward 11. Timothy Walker’s production brings out its full power. You are thoroughly gripped.’
Sunday Telegraph

Edward 11 achieves it’s success because both it’s director, Timothy Walker, and it’s protagonist, Liam Brennan, have prior experience of playing Shakespeare here. This Edward 11 … both unpretentious and canny … reaches zones of conflict, authority and anguish that bring Marlowe’s play into a more tragic condition than I had known it could attain.’
Financial Times

‘A deeply suggestive production worth seeing for it’s solid serious attention to the play’s dark heart – and in its dynamic use of this unique space. Looking up at the night sky, you can ponder how queasily relevant to modern day Britain are Marlowe’s themes: homophobia; the viciousness of the establishment when it perceives itself to be under threat – and the sordid tangle of class, power and sex.’
The Guardian

‘Timothy Walker’s fluid and emotionally powerful Edward 11, is a fine production. It’s all curiously modern. Marlowe’s scenes overlap and segue like edits in a film. It’s a story grippingly told.’
Mail on Sunday

‘Marlowe’s radical Renaissance drama … given an epic, authentic sweep in Timothy Walker’s galvanising all-male production.’
Sunday Express

‘The production is performed in period costume but the dramatic vision seems modern. The Globe’s forte is airing lesser-known Renaissance dramas such as this.’
Independent on Sunday

‘This is the year’s most successful sexing up. Edward 11 plays gloriously on sexuality and gender without trampling on the ambiguities of Marlowe’s text. The production brims with eroticism from the moment it kicks off.
TLS online

‘Timothy Walker’s full-throttle production of Christopher Marlowe’s sympathetic chronicle play is the first I have seen to make vividly apparent why Edward 11’s gay obsession for Gaveston destroys his ability to keep the throne or save his own life. Walker’s production, with atmospheric musical support, powerfully achieves something new – a fresh revelatory sexual charge.’
Evening Standard

‘Marlowe’s depiction of regicide has earned the director of the present production, Timothy Walker, his stage-king Liam Brennan and company only praise and applause.‘
Times Literary Supplement

‘A triumphant all-male production of Marlowe’s Edward 11 is just what he would have wanted.’
Metro

‘Right from the start of Timothy Walker’s gorgeously costumed doublet-and- hose production the performances are all impeccable, in an ensemble production that brings alive an entire medieval hierarchy, where the conflict between transgressive sexuality, class and power was just as explosive as it is today.’
What’s on in London

‘This is the Globe’s best production so far this season.’
Morning Star

‘Amazing dramatic frisson … This revival reminds us of Marlowe’s accessibility and the wonderful simplicity of his verse. Timothy Walker’s vocally powerful all-male production underlines the emotional and physical violence of the age’
The Glasgow Herald

‘The Globe’s second Marlowe production of the season (and indeed of it’s life so far) is not only much better than the first, but is also virtually it’s antithesis. Nothing is rushed, and every nuance or development is allowed to register its impact. One rather unexpected result of this was that my son, aged 10, pronounced this the best play he had ever seen, because it was so exciting and eventful.’
Early Modern Literary Studies

‘There is a glorious rhythmic, stamping dance with Maori echoes recreating Edward’s battles, with mimed clashing of broadswords and choreographed battle lines.
I was blown away by the beauty and clarity of Marlowe’s blank verse. Edward 11 is an outstanding example of the use of the Globe’s space to perform a rare masterpiece play and should get the large and appreciative audience it deserves.’
Curtain Up

‘An excellent choice for the Globe … rattling along at considerable pace under the direction of Timothy Walker’
The Stage

‘This summer, contemporary sensibilities have nowhere been more vividly exposed than with a powerful new staging of Christopher Marlowe’s Edward 11.
This is not a casual reading by Master of Play, Timothy Walker, but rather a poignant reminder of how a lifestyle that exists outside institutionalised ‘norms’ can lead to political vulnerability.’
Plays International

Critics Choice:
Sunday Telegraph, ‘Timothy Walker’s production brings out its full power’
Curtain Up, ‘Chilling, disturbing, heart rending’
The Guardian, ‘Captivating’
Mail on Sunday, ‘Gripping’
What’s On, ‘Impeccable’
Metro, ‘Triumphant’
Time Out, ‘Lively’
Daily Mail, ‘Potent’

Out Cry, by Tennessee Williams, Cheek by Jowl
Lyric Hammersmith

‘The lights go up, the performance begins, and a tale unfolds of two children stranded in a house in which their parents died a violent death. In Timothy Walker’s production, his first for Cheek by Jowl, Jason Merrells and Sara Stewart perform a non-stop, virtuosic mime. Nick Ormerod’s set, and the contribution from Jane Gibson as Director of Movement, add enormously to the impact of this production. Out Cry is one of Williams most succinct and controlled plays. Seeing it for the first time in this astonishing and beautiful performance, one is tempted tempted to say that it is likely to survive better than some of his more obviously topical plays.’
The Times Literary Supplement

‘The tension is hair-raising. Jason Merrells stands at a window, trembling in anticipation, while a terrified Sara Stewart levels a gun at his bare back. Then the positions are reversed. Bodies sweat, hands shake, faces strain. Thrilling stuff. Both give elaborately detailed performances, vigorous, uninhibited — and Timothy Walker’s direction for Cheek by Jowl, allows us to see the pain and the panic in these two disorientated creatures.’
The Times

‘Walker’s emotion-charged production gets two no-holds-barred performances. Sara Stewart lends Clare a distracted wild-eyed sensuality and Jason Merrells persuasively embodies the more stringent side of William’s that believed in the compulsion to work.’
The Guardian

‘One of Tennessee Williams best planned works. I am glad to have seen Timothy Walker’s imaginatively designed production, and applaud Cheek by Jowl for risking the British premiere of what Williams considered his most beautiful play.’
Sunday Telegraph

‘Powerful theatre … The piece is potent, claustrophobic and compelling. Out Cry is directed with precision and a raw, stark simplicity.’
Theatre Magazine

‘A show that rivets the audience to the seats by its searing energy and raw atmosphere.‘
Gloucester Echo

‘It has you entranced throughout. Extremely moving, wonderfully acted and with thoughtful direction. A class act.’
Newcastle Evening Chronicle

‘Cheek by Jowl, founded by Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod, is one of the world’s most critically acclaimed classical theatre companies’
Peter Kirwan

Swanwhite, by August Strindberg, British Premiere
Gate Theatre, London

‘This charmingly peculiar fairytale shows how much there is of Strindberg that most of us know absolutely nothing about. I first became aware of Walker in Cheek by Jowl’s sublimely funny ‘A Family Affair’ eight years ago. This is the image that can now be replaced, or at least joined, by that of someone who has managed to create on his directorial debut, a passionate tale of love among the archetypes. More than simply offering a fascinating glimpse of fin de siecle drama the play provides its cast with vivid characters to create and a language to do so that is reminiscent of meadows and medieval gardens; fire rages, seas pound, a brace of dead mothers brings blessings. It could all be perfectly absurd but isn’t, because of the cast’s convincing habitation of their roles. On Gemma Fripp’s set, with its sense that menace lurks in the shadows, the three candle holding servants look as if they have stepped from an 1890’s children’s book. Apt image for Strindberg’s dip into the pools of myth.’
The Times

‘Fascinating London revival … Timothy Walkers production has a darkling, disturbing quality. The pantomime elements of wicked stepmother (Richenda Carey), the prince in the Blue Tower (Jason Morell) and the eponymous repressed heroine (Jules Melvin) are beautifully stated against a background of fire, destruction and the strange prattle of three subservient subversives (Amanda Bellamy, Sally Bentley, Deborah McLaren).‘
The Observer

‘Highly charged eroticism … In the sinister murk (fastidious lighting by Zerlina Hughes) lurk imps and sprites who then flit across the black soil floor. Scattered furniture suggests a child’s playroom — and a graveyard. Gemma Fripp’s design is the landscape of a nightmare recalled in the shock of adulthood. Debut director Timothy Walker balances the sensual with the cerebral and pin-points bleak humour. A production of vicious beauty.’
Time Out

‘At the moment August Strindberg’s Swanwhite is actually receiving its British premiere here, a rather astonishing thought that puts one close to the audiences who found the dramatists work so controversial (when it was new, even if this play gave him one of his best successes.)
He can still shock. The very genre of the piece, a ‘fairy tale for adults’, is disarming, in the manner of the Dennis Potter play where the adults romp in children’s togs.’
Financial Times

There are Crimes and Crimes, by August Strindberg, British Premiere
Leicester Haymarket Theatre

‘The play stands comparison with Strindberg’s best work. There’s no doubt that this is a night that gets to Strindberg’s rancid heart. Walker (who also co- directs) charts a compelling progress from tarnished triumph to bitter despair’
The Telegraph

‘This production moves seamlessly from funeral March to can-can, and from cemetery to cafe society, gets the measure of a drama that is tragic and comic, melodramatic and understated in equal measure‘
The Guardian

‘At the heart of it all is Timothy Walker as Maurice. He carves his way through this production as majestically as a liner ploughing it’s way through the ocean. This is definitely one of the gems in the Haymarket season. ’
The Stage

Strindberg rarity of guilt and passion is a real find. Heroically performed by (Co-Director) Timothy Walker’
Daily Mail

‘You have to applaud the theatre for its enterprising vision in giving There are Crimes and Crimes the prominence it merits.’
The Independent

Cosi fan tutte by Amadeus Mozart, English Touring Opera
Hackney Empire London and touring

‘A delightfully fresh and serious Cosi fan tutte, directed with remarkable fidelity to the the text …
Certainly worth travelling to see.’
The Sunday Times

‘Timothy Walker, the producer of ETO’s new Cosi is a fine actor. It’s no suprise then, that he mines subtle detail from the text, that he shapes the narrative with a due regard for the accumulating lesser crises which build to the work’s showdown. He lays bare the evolving emotional and dramatic complexities with a crystal clear clarity, all of which fuel Mozart’s enigmatic masterpiece. Walker has forged an ensemble of singers who rise to the crucial exchanges with a sure sense of their purpose … There’s no doubting the star quality of Amanda Echalaz’s subtly observed, mettlesome and moving Fiordilgi.
Opera Magazine

‘Unmissable night of love and desire … A thrilling production.’
Cambridge Evening News

‘One of its finest productions.’
Reading Chronicle

‘Thoroughly enjoyable sell-out production.’
Bristol Evening Post

‘Fruity tutte is a joy. This opera is a tour-de-force.’
Birmingham Post

‘A refreshingly undistorted production by Timothy Walker which was neither too funny nor too serious, but relied on good youthful acting to point Mozart’s moral.’
The Glasgow Herald

‘This new Cosi reveals why the company is such a precious asset … Timothy Walker, an actor new to opera production makes a good start here. Highly recommended.’
Yorkshire Evening News

EDUCATION
TIMOTHY’S EXPERIENCE IN THEATRE EDUCATION IS EXTENSIVE AND INCLUDES:

Head of Acting for Rutgers State University (2009-2015), Director of the International Actors Fellowship (2007-2011), Director for the New Zealand Young Shakespeare Company/NZYSC (2013-2019) all in association with Shakespeare’s Globe; as well as schools workshop leader for the National Theatre, and director of various projects at RADA.

Productions for Rutgers & the NZYSC include Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Julius Caesar, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew and The Winter’s Tale.

Ongoing Projects
Ongoing writing projects include:
Stuck On a Sunday, a children’s musical conceived in conjunction with ROH2 as part of their brief to extend work into new musical areas.
Stuck On a Sunday was developed by Timothy with co-writers Jason Morell and Marc Teitler through workshops at the Royal Opera House.
An album of songs and instrumentals was recorded in London, Berlin, Potsdam and Paris.