Adrian Noble was educated at Chichester High School and Bristol University. His professional training began at the London Drama Centre, and he moved from there into community theatre and young people’s theatre at the Trinity Arts Centre, Birmingham. In 1976 he went to the Bristol Old Vic on a Thames TV Director’s Bursary, where he was first a Resident Director and then an Associate Director. In 1980 and 1981 at the Royal Exchange Theatre Company in Manchester he directed The Duchess of Malfi and Dr Faustus.

In 1980 he joined the RSC as Assistant Director, becoming an Associate Director almost immediately. His first production for the RSC was Ostrovsky’s The Forest which transferred first to the Warehouse and then to the Aldwych Theatre in the West End and was named best revival in 1981 Drama Awards. In 1988 he was appointed by Terry Hands to be Artistic Director of the RSC Stratford season and in 1989 went on to be Artistic Director of the RSC London season. In 1989 Adrian left the RSC to pursue an independent career and directed The Art of Success at the Manhattan Theatre Club and Chekhov’s Three Sisters at the Gate Theatre, Dublin and The Royal Court Theatre.

Adrian Noble was the Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the Royal Shakespeare Company between 1990 — 2003. His RSC productions include: A Dolls House, A New Way to Pay Old Debts, The Comedy of Errors, Measure for Measure, King Lear, Anthony and Cleopatra, The Winters Tale, Henry V, Desert Air, As You Like it, Macbeth, Kiss Me Kate, The Art of Success, The Plantagenets, The Master Builder, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, (also on Broadway), The Seagull, The Secret Garden and Cymbeline.

His film A Midsummer Night’s Dream was released in 1996. His production of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe opened at Sadlers Wells Theatre in December 2000 and was revived in Stratford in 2002.

Since leaving the RSC, Adrian’s productions include The Home Place by Brian Friel at the Abbey Theatre and in the West End, Brand by Ibsen starring Ralph Fiennes, Pericles at The Roundhouse in Stratford and in the West End London, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at The London Palladium.

His opera productions include Le Nozze di Figaro, Cosi fan tutte, Don Giovanni for Opera de Lyon, The Magic Flute for Glyndebourne, Il ritorno d’Ulisse for the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Macbeth at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, Carmen at the Opera Comique, Paris, Alcina for the Wiener Staatsoper and Xerxes for the Theater an der Wien.