Michael Boyd on the death of Steven Pimlott
15 February 2007
Steven Pimlott, who was associate director at the RSC from 1996 to 2002, died at the end of the day on Wednesday aged just 53.
Steven’s footprint on British theatre was and is as wide as anybody’s. His abilities, taste and success embraced opera, Shakespeare, bold new writing, the new European classical repertoire, Gilbert and Sullivan, and the popular modern musical. His style ranged from extravagant flamboyance to high European elegance, to stripped down purity. His storytelling was always blazingly clear, intelligent and human. He was a good musician and actor and a powerful dramaturg as well as one of the best directors of his generation. He followed me into the Crucible Theatre under Clare Venables and I followed him into the RSC. While we were associates together I found him inspirational, challenging, enormously entertaining and a good friend. As a fellow director of a theatre company I admired his real achievement as Artistic Director at Chichester, and took courage from his success with creative ensemble.
He leaves many friends behind at the RSC who will miss him dearly.
Michael Boyd
