Rachel Bagshaw
Selected credits
- The Duchess of MalfiSam Wanamaker Playhouse, The Globe
- A Dead Body in TaosFuel Theatre/ Bristol Old Vic/ Wilton's Music Hall
- Greek Myths UnpluggedUnicorn Theatre/ Online
- The Bee In MeUnicorn Theatre
- Midnight MovieRoyal Court Theatre
- The Shape of the PainChina Plate/Edinburgh Fringe/BAC/UK Tour
- HamletYoung Vic
- The Rhinestone RollersGraeae
About
Rachel is an award-winning stage director. She was recently appointed Artistic Director of Unicorn Theatre having been their Associate Director from 2018 to 2023. She is also an Associate at the National Theatre as a recipient of the Peter Hall Bursary for 2023/24.
Rachel made her directorial debut at the Globe Theatre in Spring 2024 directing The Duchess of Malfi on the Sam Wanamaker stage.
Recent productions include A Dead Body in Taos (Bristol Old Vic/ Wilton’s Music Hall), Augmented by Sophie Woolley (Royal Exchange/Told by an Idiot), Philip Pullman’s Grimm Tales and Greek Myths Unplugged, Let Loose (with Choreographer Arielle Smith, co-produced with English National Ballet), for Unicorn Theatre Online. Other theatre credits include Midnight Movie (Royal Court Theatre), The Bee in Me and Aesop’s Fables (Unicorn Theatre), Resonance at the Still Point of Change (Unlimited Festival, South Bank Centre), The Rhinestone Rollers and Just Me, Bell (Graeae). Her critically acclaimed work The Shape of Pain won a Fringe First at Edinburgh and was revived at Battersea Arts Centre in 2018. Film credits includes Let Loose (Unicorn Theatre Online/ENB) and Where I Go (When I Can’t be Where I Am (BBC/China Plate).
She is an Associate Artist at Wilton’s and works extensively in engagement and young people’s work.
Featured work
The Duchess of Malfi
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, The Globe
Director: Rachel Bagshaw
Writer: John Webster
‘Rachel Bagshaw’s staging of this dark tale is a genuine sensation.’
★★★★ London Theatre
‘This lucid version from director Rachel Bagshaw smooths over the play’s jagged melodramatic edges, revealing a gripping human drama full of warmth, sensual detail and a surprising depth of humour. Bagshaw’s detailed, highly visual staging conveys heaps of unspoken subtext, with characters silently scheming or steeling themselves on the sidelines before launching into dangerous, high-stakes conversations.’
★★★★ The Stage
A Dead Body in Taos
Writer: David Farr
Director: Rachel Bagshaw
Designer: Ti Green
Lighting Design: Katy Morison
Video Design: Sarah Readman
‘Rachel Bagshaw’s staging is brilliantly lucid’
★★★★ Timeout
‘an existential mystery exploring what constitutes humanness and how we can be truly free’
★★★★ The Guardian
★★★★ Financial Times
★★★★ The Stage
Greek Myths Unplugged
Unicorn Theatre Online
Directed by the Unicorn Theatre’s Associate Director Rachel Bagshaw, the films reinvent and reimagine the original myths enabling pupils to explore the resonances of Greek Myths to today’s world anew.
Midnight Movie
The Royal Court Theatre/Jerwood Theatre Upstairs
Written by Eve Leigh
Design: Cecile Tremolieres
Lighting & Video Design:
Josh Pharo & Sarah Readman
Sound: Nwando Ebizie
Photo by Helen Murray
“Human bodies and communication styles are unlimited in Midnight Movie, and Bagshaw’s direction recognises this fact and embraces it.”
★★★★★ BroadwayBaby
The Shape of the Pain
Produced by China Plate
Developed by Rachel Bagshaw
& Chris Thorpe
Written by Chris Thorpe
Design: Madeleine Girling
Video & Lighting Design: Josh Pharo
Composer: Melanie Wilson
Photo by Richard Lakos
Edinburgh Fringe First Winner 2017
★★★★ Guardian
★★★★ Sunday Times
★★★★ British Theatre Guide