‘It’s a relief … I’m irrelevant!’: Rufus Norris on life after the National Theatre

There were several big endings for Rufus Norris in 2025, all crammed into the same few seismic months. The close of his tenure as director of the National Theatre after a decade at the helm collided with the loss of his mother, who died three weeks before he left the NT, and with a significant birthday concluding his 50s.

After turning 60 he took time for DIY, kayaking and a house move. “It felt important to have a complete break,” he says. “I’m a bit of a workaholic, but I’m also a bird of simple brain so I can as easily lose myself in how to build a shed or do up a place.” His first post-NT gig took him to Istanbul to direct a Turkish-language version of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman at the Zorlu Performing Arts Centre.

The job grew out of a workshop he was teaching there when the venue’s general manager, Filiz Ova, asked him to direct the play in its largest space.

Turkey, Istanbul

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