Gaskill, William

Gaskill, William (1930– ), English director, who spent several years as an actor and stage manager in repertory before going to theRoyal Court Theatre, where he directed N. F. Simpson's double bill A Resounding Tinkle and The Hole (1958) and his One-Way Pendulum (1959). After Richard III, Cymbeline, and Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle for the RSC in 1961–2 he became an associate director of the National Theatre company, his productions including Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer (1963), Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children, and Arden's Armstrong's Last Goodnight (both 1965). Returning to the Royal Court as Artistic Director, 1965–72, he staged several controversial new plays, among them Edward Bond's Saved (1965), Early Morning (1968), Lear (1971), and The Sea (1973). In 1974 he helped to found Joint Stock with the aim of involving dramatists in collaborative preparatory work with their actors. His intermittent association with the National Theatre continued with Farquhar's The Beaux' Stratagem (1970), Middleton and Rowley's A Fair Quarrel (1979), and Pirandello's Man, Beast and Virtue (1989). He also staged Congreve's The Way of the World (Chichester and London, 1984) and Marivaux's Infidelities (1987), in his own translation.