The better the acting is, the less visible the director and the less visible the actor. Marianne Elliott Read Quote
For me, it’s life or death doing plays: there’s this perfectionist thing about me that it has to be brilliant – anything less than that is a failure. Marianne Elliott Read Quote
You need to see yourself in what you direct, I think – directing is quite self-indulgent from that point of view. Marianne Elliott Read Quote
My father was a director, and my mother and grandparents were actors, so I spent a great deal of my time as a teenager trying to get away from the theatre. Marianne Elliott Read Quote
I had a very embarrassing time acting extremely badly at university, which is when directing suddenly became so attractive. Marianne Elliott Read Quote
It’s incredible how London-centric the theatre world is. Certain actors won’t travel away from London anymore for work; practitioners often aren’t taken seriously enough unless their work is seen in London; and it’s sometimes very difficult to get national critics to review shows – especially if there’s a clash with a London press night. Marianne Elliott Read Quote
I suppose what’s so amazing about working at the National Theatre is that, because it’s a subsidized theatre, you’re not trying to create a product that’s going to have a mass market in order to make the money back. Marianne Elliott Read Quote
I just think that you have to approach anything you do with a huge amount of integrity – I don’t really care where it comes from, whether it’s a children’s piece or an adult piece. Marianne Elliott Read Quote
I suppose I always find a lot of characters that are deeply, deeply keening with a sense of yearning and desire through sadness, but they have a bravery that keeps them going despite that. Marianne Elliott Read Quote
For me, ‘Angels in America’ is not really about AIDS. For me, it’s a metaphor for anybody who is struggling with serious illness or having to face their own demise. All of the characters face some form of destruction in themselves. Marianne Elliott Read Quote
