Sir Trevor Nunn returns to Downing for 2025 Richmond Lecture
Downing alumnus and Honorary Fellow Sir Trevor Nunn (1959 English) returned to the College this week to give the 2025 Richmond Lecture.
This year’s lecture took the format of a Q&A, with questions about his life and career asked by the Master Professor Graham Virgo and Downing Dramatic Society members Lily Ellis and Alice Roberts.
Delighted to be back in College, he reminisced about his time as a student at Downing and spoke of how the College had changed. He spoke warmly of being taught by influential literary critic F.R. Leavis at Downing, who he described as unconventional, rule-breaking and inspiring. One of 12 of Leavis’ students in his year group, they became known as ‘the disciples’.
“He was the reason we all wanted to be here. We had all read his books at school. We all passionately wanted to be taught by Leavis,” Sir Trevor said.
Sir Trevor’s experience with theatre had begun before coming to Cambridge, having acted in a play in a professional theatre aged 13 and formed a youth theatre in his hometown of Ipswich, where he directed a production of Hamlet.
While at Cambridge, he was an active member of the ADC Theatre, which he described as a thrilling experience due to the theatre being managed and run entirely by students. He was fortunate to be part of the Theatre at the same time as some very talented actors, including Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Derek Jacobi.
Following University, he started his career as a trainee director at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, where he would frequently hitchhike down to Stratford-upon-Avon to watch the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), which he would eventually be asked to join by its founder Peter Hall in 1964, going on to become its artistic director. During his career, Sir Trevor has directed all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays, completing the canon with a production of A Midsummer’s Night Dream in the theatre in Ipswich in which he saw his first ever Shakespeare play.
Other topics touched on were his production of Shakespeare plays for television in the 1970s, and his award-winning career in musical theatre, which began with a Christmas showing of Robert Bolt’s The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew for the RSC and eventually led to him directing acclaimed West End productions of Cats, Les Misérables and Starlight Express.
The Master, Professor Graham Virgo said: “I was delighted to welcome Sir Trevor Nunn back to Downing to hear his stories about his time as a student at Downing and his illustrious career. We are very grateful for Sir Trevor’s continuing commitment to students and the creative arts at Downing.”
Published 13 March 2025