Eyre studied at the University of Cambridge. He began his working life as an actor. After directing a successful play at the Phoenix Theatre, Leicester, he subsequently focussed on direction. Eyre was associate director at the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, and ran the Nottingham Playhouse before being appointed Director of the National Theatre, a role he held 1988–97. NT productions of that period included Guys and Dolls, The Beggar’s Opera, Hamlet, Racing Demon, Richard III, The Night of the Iguana, Sweet Bird of Youth, Skylight, King Lear and The Invention of Love.

Eyres’s theatre work has included further productions for the NT, West End and Broadway, including Long Day’s Journey Into Night, My Name is Lucy Barton, Mary Poppins, Betty Blue Eyes, The Crucible, Private Lives, Quartermaine’s Terms and Mr Foote’s Other Leg. In opera he has directed Carmen, Werther and Le nozze di Figaro for the Metropolitan Opera, New York, and Manon Lescaut for the Baden-Baden Festival and the Metropolitan Opera. Film work includes The Children Act, Iris and Notes on a Scandal, and his many television credits include King Lear and The Dresser. He has written and directed adaptations of Hedda Gabler, Ghosts and Little Eyolf for the Almeida Theatre. His four books include National Service (a journal of his time at the NT) and What Do I Know? (collected essays). Eyre has been the recipient of numerous accolades including six Oliver awards and a knighthood. He was made a Companion of Honour in 2017.

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