Timothy O'Brien

Timothy Brian O'Brien, RDI (8 March 1929 – 14 October 2022) was a British theatre designer. O'Brien was born in Shillong in British India. He was educated at Cambridge University from 1949 to 1952, and as a Henry Fellow and Fulbright Scholar at the Yale School of Drama from 1952 to 1953. His career began in television at the BBC in 1954. From 1956 to 1965, he was Head of Design of ABC Television, working largely on the Armchair Theatre and at the same time designed for the London stage, mostly new plays by Shaffer, Orton, and others. As an Associate Artist and Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1966, he has designed 31 productions for the company, in particular productions of Troilus and Cressida, and Richard II, directed by John Barton; The Merry Wives of Windsor, Pericles, Prince of Tyre and Love's Labour's Lost, directed by Terry Hands and Enemies, Summerfolk, The Lower Depths and The Zykovs all by Maxim Gorky, directed by David Jones. O'Brien's designs for the National Theatre included Next of Kin, directed by Harold Pinter; John Gabriel Borkman, directed by Peter Hall and "Tales from the Vienna Woods", directed by Maximilian Schell.