Graeme Phillips

Graeme James Phillips (April 1948 – August 2025) was a British theatre director who was the artistic director of the Unity Theatre, Liverpool. During his tenure, several touring theatre companies came to Liverpool, as well as a production of the play Angels in America by Tony Kushner. He also helped establish both FACT Liverpool and the Homotopia festival.

Life and career Phillips was born in April 1948. He trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London and then worked around the UK including in Ipswich, Leeds, London, Crewe and the Gateway Theatre in Chester. He joined Merseyside Unity Theatre, which later became the Unity Theatre, in 1982. He was influential in the transformation of a dilapidated synagogue to a modern theatre, overseeing two capital redevelopments of the premises, and ultimately becoming its artistic director in the early 1990s. Touring theatre companies he brought to Liverpool included Told by an Idiot, Frantic Assembly, The Right Size, and Improbable. He noted Angels in America by Tony Kushner and David Yip's Gold Mountain as two personal highlights of his time at the Unity.

He also played a key role in establishing the purpose-built media and electronic arts centre FACT Liverpool, which opened in 2003, and in launching the Homotopia festival in 2004. Both were initially based in the Unity Theatre building.