Eyre was Associate Director at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
from 1967 to 1972. He won STV Awards for the Best Production in
Scotland in 1969, 1970 and 1971. He was artistic director of
Nottingham Playhouse from 1973–78 where he commissioned and
directed many new plays, including Trevor Griffiths' Comedians.
Eyre was director of the UK's National Theatre (which gained the
now little-used prefix Royal during his time there) between 1987 and
1997. He had previously directed a noted revival of Guys and Dolls
for the venue in 1982, with Olivier Award-winner Julia McKenzie
and Bob Hoskins. He repeated this production in 1996 with Imelda
Staunton and Joanna Riding. His diaries from his time at the National
have been published as National Service, winning the 2003 Theatre
Book Prize.
Other than Guys and Dolls, his most noted theatre productions include
Hamlet (twice), with Jonathan Pryce at the Royal Court in 1980 and
Daniel Day-Lewis in 1989; Richard III with Ian McKellen; King Lear
with Ian Holm; Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana and
Sweet Bird of Youth; Eduardo De Filippo's Napoli Milionaria and Le
Grande Magia; Henrik Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman with Paul
Scofield, Vanessa Redgrave and Eileen Atkins; Ibsen's Hedda Gabler
with Eve Best; and numerous new plays by David Hare, Tom
Stoppard, Trevor Griffiths, Howard Brenton, Alan Bennett,
Christopher Hampton and Nicholas Wright.
Eyre has also directed operas. His debut was the 1994 production of
La traviata at the Royal Opera House which starred Angela
Gheorghiu and was conducted by Sir Georg Solti. This production
was televised and has subsequently been released on video and DVD.
He directed the musical Mary Poppins in London and on Broadway.
On 14 February 2007, Eyre's production of Nicholas Wright's The
Reporter premiered at the Royal National Theatre, London. The play
explores the social climate in the years before James Mossman's death
as well as the reasons for the death itself.
Eyre directed a new production of Bizet's opera Carmen for the
Metropolitan Opera's 2009/10 season, starring Latvian mezzo-soprano
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