ABSTRACT
On their website, in April 2009, the Guardian newspaper published a short article by its lead drama critic, Michael Billington, entitled ‘Don’t Let Auteurs Take Over in Theatre’. The focus of his concern is that certain British directors are ‘in danger of acquiring auteur status’. The danger of auteurism is twofold, he explains; first, the director develops a kind of cult status, gathering acolytes about them, in whose eyes the sacred director can do no wrong; second, their star shines so bright that they begin to take ‘precedence over the writer’. In case the reader is in any doubt about who these dangerous figures might be, he names Emma Rice of Kneehigh, Simon McBurney of Complicite, and the subject of this essay, Katie Mitchell (Billington 2009).
