Max Stafford-Clark

Maxwell Robert Guthrie Stewart "Max" Stafford-Clark (born 17 March 1941) is a British theatre director.

Stafford-Clark was born in Cambridge, England, the son of Dorothy Crossley (Oldfield) and David Stafford-Clark, a physician. He was educated at Felsted School in England and Riverdale Country School in New York City, followed by Trinity College, Dublin.

His directing career began as associate director of the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 1966. He became artistic director there from 1968 to 1970. He was director of the Traverse Theatre Workshop Company from 1970 to 1974.

Stafford-Clark co-founded the Joint Stock Theatre Company in 1974. Joint Stock worked with writers using company research to inspire workshops. From these workshops, writers such as David Hare, Howard Brenton and Caryl Churchill would garner material to inspire a writing phase before rehearsals began. This methodology is sometimes referred to as The Joint Stock Method. Productions during this period included Hare's Fanshen (1975), Brenton's Epsom Downs and Churchill's Cloud Nine (1979) which Stafford-Clark directed, as well as The Speakers, a promenade production.

From 1979 to 1993, he was artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre. He remains to date the Court's longest serving artistic director. In a difficult period for new writing, he helped nurture emerging playwrights including Andrea Dunbar, Hanif Kureishi, Sarah Daniels and Jim Cartwright. His regular collaborators on his productions included the singer Ian Dury. During this time the theatre's productions included Victory by Howard Barker, The Arbor by Andrea Dunbar, Insignificance by Terry Johnson, Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker and Rat in the Skull by Ron Hutchinson. Perhaps the most important commission and production of this era was Top Girls by Caryl Churchill (1982).

He has staged productions for Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival.

In 1993, he founded the Out of Joint touring company with producer Sonia Friedman. He was its artistic director until 2017 when he was succeeded by Kate Wasserberg. He left the company after complaints were made about a tendency to make lewd remarks to women. The emergence of this issue in October 2017 led to further accusations of inappropriate sexual comments, going back several decades. The actress Tracy-Ann Oberman was among those who contacted The Guardian to relate their experience, taking the number of women who had made complaints about Stafford-Clark to five.

Academic credits include an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes University and Professorships at the University of Warwick and the University of Hertfordshire.

Stafford-Clark and Carole Hayman were married in 1971; after that marriage was dissolved, he and Ann Pennington wed, in 1981. He lived for a period on Gloucester Crescent in Camden Town.

During a six-month period in 2006 and 2007, Stafford-Clark suffered three strokes, which left him physically disabled and impaired his eyesight. Stafford-Clark's experience, and the condition of the NHS, inspired Irish playwright Stella Feehily (the couple married in2010) to write the play This May Hurt a Bit, first performed in 2014.

He has one daughter, Kitty Stafford-Clark, from his second marriage.

In July 2017, an employee of Stafford-Clark's Out of Joint theatre company made a formal complaint about his behavior; an investigation followed, and he was asked to leave the company. Stafford-Clark stepped down in September 2017; in the weeks that followed, three more women stated that he had "made lewd comments to them."

In 1999 the British Library acquired Stafford-Clark's papers consisting of production diaries and rehearsal scripts covering his time with the Joint Stock Theatre Company, the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre, and Out of Joint theatre company. The Library also acquired supplementary production diaries and rehearsal scripts in 2005.

• 2000 A State Affair by Robin Soans (Out of Joint/Soho Theatre)
• 2000 Rita, Sue and Bob Too by Andrea Dunbar (Out of Joint/Soho Theatre)
• 2001 Feelgood by Alistair Beaton (Out of Joint, Hampstead Theatre and the Garrick Theatre)
• 2001 Sliding with Suzanne by Judy Upton (Out of Joint/The Royal Court)
• 2002 Hinterland by Sebastian Barry (Out of Joint/The National Theatre)
• 2002 A Laughing Matter by April De Angelis (Out of Joint/The National Theatre)
• 2002 She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith (Out of Joint/The National Theatre)
• 2003 The Breath of Life by David Hare (Sydney Theatre Company)
• 2003 Duck by Stella Feehily (Out of Joint/Royal Court)
• 2003 The Permanent Way by David Hare (Out of Joint/The National Theatre)
• 2004 Macbeth by William Shakespeare (Out of Joint)
• 2005 Talking to Terrorists by Robin Soans (Out of Joint/Royal Court)
• 2006 O Go My Man by Stella Feehily
• 2006 The Overwhelming by JT Rogers (Out of Joint/The National Theatre)
• 2007 King of Hearts by Alistair Beaton (Out of Joint, Hampstead Theatre)
• 2008 The Convicts Opera - Stephen Jeffreys - Based On The Beggars Opera
• 2009 Dreams of Violence by Stella Feehily - (Out of Joint/Soho Theatre)
• 2009 Mixed Up North by Robin Soans - (Out of Joint/Octagon Theatre Bolton)
• 2010 Andersen's English by Sebastian Barry (Out of Joint/Hampstead Theatre
• 2010 The Big Fellah by Richard Bean (Out of Joint/Lyric Hammersmith)
• 2011 A Dish of Tea with Dr Johnson adapted by Russell Barr, Ian Redford & Max Stafford-Clark from James Boswell.
• 2011 Bang Bang Bang by Stella Feehily - (Out of Joint/Royal Court Theatre/ Octagon Theatre Bolton/ Salisbury Playhouse/ Leicester Curve)
• 2011 Top Girls by Caryl Churchill - (Out of Joint, Chichester Festival Theatre)
• 2012 Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker - (Out of Joint)
• 2014 This May Hurt A Bit by Stella Feehily
• 2014 Pitcairn by Richard Bean
• 2015 Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage by Robin Soans