William Dudley

Background

Dudley was the son of William Stuart Dudley and his wife Dorothy Irene (née Stacey). He attended Highbury Grammar School.

He was educated at Saint Martin's School of Art and the Slade School of Art. He was a member of the Society of British Theatre Designers. He was married to the theatre director Lucy Bailey.

National Life Stories conducted an oral history interview (C1173/27) with Dudley in 2007–2008 for its An Oral History of Theatre Design collection held by the British Library.

Dudley died from complications of dementia on 31 May 2025, at the age of 78.

Career

Dudley designed his first production in October 1970, Hamlet for Nottingham Playhouse. Since then, he has designed the following productions:

The Duchess of Malfi (Royal Court) – 1971

Man Is Man, Bertolt Brecht (Royal Court) – 1971

Anarchist (Royal Court Upstairs) – 1971

Tyger (co-designed for the National Theatre) – July 1971

Cato Street (Young Vic) – 1971

The Good Natur'd Man (National) – 1971

Live Like Pigs (Royal Court Upstairs) – 1972

I Claudius (Queen's Theatre) – 1972

The Baker, the Baker's Wife and the Baker's Boy (Newcastle) – 1972

Rooted (Hampstead Theatre) – March 1973

Magnificence; Sweet Talk and The Merry-Go-Round (Royal Court) – 1973

Ashes (Open Space) – January 1974

The Corn is Green (Watford Palace) – 1974

Twelfth Night, director Peter Gill (RSC Stratford) – August 1974

Harding's Luck (Greenwich Theatre) – December 1974

Fish in the Sea (Half Moon Theatre) – February 1975

As You Like It (Nottingham Playhouse) – 1975

The Fool (Royal Court) – 1975

The Norman Conquests (Berlin) – 1976

Small Change, Peter Gill (Royal Court) – July 1976

As You Like It (opening of Riverside Studios) – May 1976

Ivanov, director David Jones (RSC Aldwych Theatre) – September 1976

The Cherry Orchard, director Peter Gill, (Riverside Studios) – January 1978

That Good Between Us (RSC Donmar Warehouse) – July 1977

Lavender Blue (National, Cottesloe) – November 1977

Touched (Nottingham Playhouse at the Old Vic) – September 1977

The World Turned Upside Down (National, Cottesloe) – 2 November 1978

Has 'Washington' Legs? (National, Cottesloe) – 29 November 1978

Billy Budd (The Metropolitan Opera House, New York) – 1978

Dispatches (National, Cottesloe) – 6 June 1979

Undiscovered Country (National, Olivier) – 20 June 1979

Lark Rise to Candleford (National, Cottesloe) – 1979

The Tales of Hoffman by Offenbach (dir. John Schlesinger) Royal Opera House – 1980

Don Quixote (National, Olivier) – 1982

Schweyk in the Second World War, Bertolt Brecht (National, Olivier) – 1982

Small Change (National, Cottesloe) – 1983

Cinderella, Pantomime (National, Lyttelton) – December 1983

The Ring Cycle by Richard Wagner (dir. Peter Hall con. Georg Solti) Bayreuth Festival – 1983

The Mysteries: Doomsday/The Nativity/The Passion, designed and lit (National, Cottesloe; Lyceum Theatre) – 1985

The Party (RSC The Pit) – 1985

Richard III (RSC Barbican Theatre) – 1985

Today (RSC The Pit) – 1985

Mutiny, David Essex musical (Piccadilly Theatre) – 1985

The Critic/The Real Inspector Hound (National, Olivier) – 1985

Edmond, David Mamet (Royal Court) – 1985

The Merry Wives of Windsor (RSC Barbican Theatre) – 1986 and 1987

Futurists (National, Cottesloe) – 1986

Prairie du Chien/The Shawl (Royal Court Upstairs) – 1986

Kafka's Dick (Royal Court) – 1986

Country Dancing (RSC The Pit) – 1987

Richard II (RSC Barbican Theatre) – 1987

Entertaining Strangers (National, Cottesloe) – 1987

Girlfriends, Howard Goodall musical (Playhouse Theatre) – 1987

Waiting for Godot (National, Lyttelton) – 1987

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (National, Lyttelton) – 1988

The Shaughran (National, Olivier) – 1988 and 1989

The Changeling (National, Lyttelton) – 1988

The Father, August Strindberg (National, Cottesloe) – 1988

The Voysey Inheritance (National, Cottesloe) – 1989

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (dir Howard Davies) New York – 1990

Cunning Little Vixen by Janáček (dir. Bill Bryden) Royal Opera House - June 1990

The Ship (dir. Bill Bryden) Harland and Wolf Shipyard, Glasgow – 1990

Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti (dir. Andrei Serban) Lyric Opera, Chicago – November 1990

Pygmailion by George Bernard Shaw (dir.Howard Davies) NT Olivier – April 1992

Heartbreak House by George Bernard Shaw (dir. Trevor Nunn) Haymarket, London – June 1992

The Rise and Fall of Little Voice by Jim Cartright (dir. Sam Mendes) NT Cottesloe – 1992

The Big Picnic (dir. Bill Bryden) Harland and Wolf Shipyard, Glasgow – 1994

My Night with Reg by Kevin Elyot (dir. Roger Michell) Royal Court, London – 1994

Persuasion by Jane Austen (Film) (dir. Roger Michell) BBC – 1995 (BAFTA for design)

Some Sunny Day by Martin Sherman (dir. Roger Michell) Hampstead Theatre – 1996

Mary Stuart by Friedrich von Schiller (dir Howard Davies) National Lyttelton – March 1996

The Alchemist by Ben Johnson (dir. Bill Alexander) Birmingham Rep/NT Olivier – October 1996

The Homecoming by Harold Pinter (dir. Roger Michell) National Theatre, Lyttelton – Jan 1997

Dance of the Vampires (dir. Roman Polanski) Raimund Theatre, Vienna – October 1997

The London Cuckolds by Edward Ravenscroft (dir Terry Johnson) National Lyttelton – February 1998

Cleo, Camping, Emmanuel and Dick by Terry Johnson (dir Terry Johnson) National Lyttelton – September 1998

Lenny (dir Peter Hall) Queens Theatre – July 1999

Amadeus (dir Peter Hall) Old Vic – October 1998; New York – 1999

Rose Theatre Interactive Exhibition Bankside, London – 1999

The Silver Tassie – Sean O'Casey – Mark Anthony Turnage (dir. Bill Bryden) ENO – February 2000

Blue/Orange by Joe Penhall (dir Roger Michell), National Cottesloe – April 2000; Duchess Theatre – April 2001

All My Sons by Arthur Miller (dir Howard Davies) National Lyttelton – July 2000; National Lyttelton – August 2001

Entertaining Mr Sloane (dir Terry Johnson ) Arts Theatre – January 2001

The York Realist (written and dir Peter Gill) Royal Court – January 2002; Strand Theatre – March 2002

The Coast of Utopia: Voyage/Shipwreck/Salvage, trilogy by Tom Stoppard (dir Trevor Nunn) National – August 2002

The Breath of Life by David Hare (dir Howard Davies) Theatre Royal Haymarket – October 2002

Honour by Joanna Murray-Smith (dir Roger Michell) National Cottesloe – 2003

Hitchcock Blonde (written and dir Terry Johnson) Royal Court and Lyric Theatre – 2003

The Permanent Way by David Hare (dir Max Stafford Clark) National Cottesloe – January 2004 [1]

Cyrano de Bergerac (dir Howard Davies) National Olivier – April 2004

Old Times by Harold Pinter (dir Roger Michell) Donmar Warehouse – July 2004

The Woman in White musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber (dir Trevor Nunn) Palace Theatre – September 2004; New York – 2005

Titus Andronicus (dir Lucy Bailey) Shakespeare's Globe – 2006

Giant By Anthony Sher - Hampstead Theatre, London – 2007

The Last Confession by Roger Crane (dir. David Jones) Chichester Festival Theatre – 2007

Peter Pan 360 (dir. Ben Harrison) Kensington Gardens, London – 2009

End of the Rainbow by Peter Quilter (dir.Terry Johnson) Trafalgar Studios, London – 2010

The Beggar's Opera (dir Lucy Bailey) Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park – 2011

Fortune's Fool (dir Lucy Bailey) The Old Vic – 2013.

Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'be' by Frank Norman/Lionel Bart (dir.Terry Johnson) Theatre Royal, Stratford East – 2014

Sunday in the Park with George, (dir. Lee Blakeley) Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris – April 2013

Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton (dir. Lucy Bailey) Royal and Derngate, Northampton – 2015

The Rehearsal by Jean Anouilh (dir. Jeremy Sams) CFT, Minerva – May 2015

Ross by Terence Rattigan (dir. Adrian Noble) Chichester Festival Theatre – June 2016

Comus by John Milton (dir. Lucy Bailey) Sam Wanamaker Playhouse – October 2016

For Services Rendered by W Somerset Maugham (dir. Howard Davies) CFT, Minerva – August 2015

Witness for the Prosecution by Agatha Christie (dir. Lucy Bailey) London County Hall – 2017

Switzerland by Joanna Murray-Smith (dir. Lucy Bailey) Ustinov Studio, Bath – August 2018

Honours and awards

Awards include:

Olivier Awards 1979, Designer of the Year for Undiscovered Country

Olivier Awards 1985, Designer of the Year for The Mysteries and The Critics

Olivier Awards 1986, Designer of the Year for The Futurists, Kafka's Dick and Merry Wives of Windsor

Olivier Awards 1993, Olivier Award for Best Costume Design for Heartbreak House & The Rise and Fall of Little Voice

BAFTA 1995 – Best Production Design for Persuasion

Royal Television Society 1995 - Best Production Design for Persuasion

Olivier Awards 1999, Olivier Award for Best Costume Design for Amadeus & The London Cuckolds

Olivier Awards 2001, Olivier Award for Best Set Design for All My Sons

Critics' Circle Theatre Awards 2002, Best Designer for The Coast of Utopia Trilogy

Olivier Awards 2004, Olivier Award for Best Set Design for Hitchcock Blonde

Dudley was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to stage design.