John Tiffany Quotes
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I was obsessed with theatre and loving the work of Caryl Churchill, Edward Bond, Howard Brenton, and Howard Barker, people doing real formal experimentation. But 'Road' was the first time I'd read a play written in a very true Northern dialect that seemed to have that excitement running through it.
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Broadway is full of crazy people.
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My need is about communicating the whole, and when the whole is there in the text and in what the actors are doing, then it doesn't need 'frou-frou,' as I call it.
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Austerity has led us to a terrible philosophy where we think we've got to cut back on everything that's 'frippery', like the arts.
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We never want to update 'Black Watch,' because it's about a moment in time, and through that moment, it manages to speak about Afghanistan and all other wars. This play is 'about' Iraq, but it's actually about every war that's ever been or will ever be.
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I'll always have a relationship with Scotland.
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Some actors just have a quality, a way of combining music and character and story, where everything just falls into place.
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I did a couple of short films when I was in Scotland.
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I never get star-struck. I never fanboy. Ever, ever, ever.
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I don't know how films get made, and I think I'll leave it to other people.
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A first preview is not exactly a pleasant experience for directors and actors. You're never as raw as when the audience first comes in.
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It blows my mind that you get Shakespeare where the 'low' comedy characters have got Northern or Welsh accents.
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I thought a director was like a pillow who sat under the writer, supporting them and submitting to their vision. It took me a long time to realise that what a writer really wants is a production that matches the play and the writing. It is the only way the play can achieve its full potential.
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When I sold my flat in Glasgow, I bought a little cottage on the North Yorkshire coast. Whenever we go up from London to stay there, I'm just like, 'I'm home! I'm home in Bronte-land!'
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Pinocchio's really naughty. He's all impulse: 'I want to sleep now. I want to eat that. I want to run off to Pleasure Island.' It's commedia dell'arte meets Grimm's tales.
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In film, if you've got to do a scene in a swimming pool, you do a scene in a swimming pool. If you've got to blow up a car, you blow up a car. In theater, you can't do that, and therefore, you have the opportunity to engage the audience's imagination in a way that's rich.
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Where film can eat up story, theatre needs space and breath.
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I've never understood why anyone would want to join the army, but that's irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that, as long as we go on voting in governments who are prepared to take troops into an illegal war, that army is a necessity.
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The only thing I fear is when people say, 'I should go to the theatre more.' I say, 'We should create work that makes you not have a choice.'
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I suppose the key for me is about opening up experiences and untold stories to audiences.
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We just don't need any more 'Macbeth's in the world, however brilliant mine might turn out to be.
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I tend to work quite a lot during the weekends. My weekend can often be about two hours on Sunday.
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I love singing, and I used to perform quite a lot, but now, as a director, you just tend to watch other people perform and tell them what to do.
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Whenever I'd seen Greek tragedy done with masks and declamations, it brought me out in a rash.