Theatre

The all-rounder
Nina Raine, 30
Raine directed her own play ‘Rabbit’, which has just transfered from the Old Red Lion to the Trafalgar Studios. She also recently directed ‘Unprotected’ in Liverpool and Edinburgh.
Which is most important?
Directing or playwriting? I never want to do just the one thing because playwriting is so lonely and draining. There’s something energising about getting into a room with other people when the creative process is not just down to you. You have to be quite confident to say I am going to disappear for six months to try and write something. Feature continues

Where did you train?
I directed a couple of plays at university, but I wasn’t someone who does ten shows a year and manages to fit their degree around it. The major training was at the Royal Court.
Is there one production you saw that made you want to direct? Two very different ones. One was Max Stafford-Clark’s ‘King Lear’ at the Royal Court in 1993. I still remember someone running across the stage with a Sainsbury’s trolley. And the other was ‘Comedy of Errors’ at Stratford, directed by Ian Judge [1990].
How did you come to direct ‘Rabbit’ at the Old Red Lion?
Loads of theatres read it but no one was willing to give it a chance except them.
What made you persevere?
It was the fact that it had the odd reading and people responded so brilliantly.
Has your father, Craig Raine, been a hindrance or a help?
It’s great that I’m not a poet, because it means that I can resist his advice if I don’t agree with it. He’s a very sharp reader. When I write a script he’s absolutely the person I would give it to. The others would be my mother and my brother.
Don’t they think everything you do is wonderful?
Absolutely not! They are the harshest critics.