William Dudley

William Dudley (4 March 1947 – 31 May 2025) was a British theatre designer.

Background Dudley was the son of William Stuart Dudley and his wife Dorothy Irene (née Stacey). He attended Highbury Grammar School.

He was educated at Saint Martin's School of Art and the Slade School of Art. He was a member of the Society of British Theatre Designers. He was married to the theatre director Lucy Bailey.

National Life Stories conducted an oral history interview (C1173/27) with Dudley in 2007–2008 for its An Oral History of Theatre Design collection held by the British Library.

Dudley died from complications of dementia on 31 May 2025, at the age of 78.

Career Dudley designed his first production in October 1970, Hamlet for Nottingham Playhouse. Since then, he has designed the following productions:

The Duchess of Malfi (Royal Court) – 1971 Man Is Man, Bertolt Brecht (Royal Court) – 1971 Anarchist (Royal Court Upstairs) – 1971 Tyger (co-designed for the National Theatre) – July 1971 Cato Street (Young Vic) – 1971 The Good Natur'd Man (National) – 1971 Live Like Pigs (Royal Court Upstairs) – 1972 I Claudius (Queen's Theatre) – 1972 The Baker, the Baker's Wife and the Baker's Boy (Newcastle) – 1972 Rooted (Hampstead Theatre) – March 1973 Magnificence; Sweet Talk and The Merry-Go-Round (Royal Court) – 1973 Ashes (Open Space) – January 1974 The Corn is Green (Watford Palace) – 1974 Twelfth Night, director Peter Gill (RSC Stratford) – August 1974 Harding's Luck (Greenwich Theatre) – December 1974 Fish in the Sea (Half Moon Theatre) – February 1975 As You Like It (Nottingham Playhouse) – 1975 The Fool (Royal Court) – 1975 The Norman Conquests (Berlin) – 1976 Small Change, Peter Gill (Royal Court) – July 1976 As You Like It (opening of Riverside Studios) – May 1976 Ivanov, director David Jones (RSC Aldwych Theatre) – September 1976 The Cherry Orchard, director Peter Gill, (Riverside Studios) – January 1978 That Good Between Us (RSC Donmar Warehouse) – July 1977 Lavender Blue (National, Cottesloe) – November 1977 Touched (Nottingham Playhouse at the Old Vic) – September 1977 The World Turned Upside Down (National, Cottesloe) – 2 November 1978 Has 'Washington' Legs? (National, Cottesloe) – 29 November 1978 Billy Budd (The Metropolitan Opera House, New York) – 1978 Dispatches (National, Cottesloe) – 6 June 1979 Undiscovered Country (National, Olivier) – 20 June 1979 Lark Rise to Candleford (National, Cottesloe) – 1979 The Tales of Hoffman by Offenbach (dir. John Schlesinger) Royal Opera House – 1980 Don Quixote (National, Olivier) – 1982 Schweyk in the Second World War, Bertolt Brecht (National, Olivier) – 1982 Small Change (National, Cottesloe) – 1983 Cinderella, Pantomime (National, Lyttelton) – December 1983 The Ring Cycle by Richard Wagner (dir. Peter Hall con. Georg Solti) Bayreuth Festival – 1983 The Mysteries: Doomsday/The Nativity/The Passion, designed and lit (National, Cottesloe; Lyceum Theatre) – 1985 The Party (RSC The Pit) – 1985 Richard III (RSC Barbican Theatre) – 1985 Today (RSC The Pit) – 1985 Mutiny, David Essex musical (Piccadilly Theatre) – 1985 The Critic/The Real Inspector Hound (National, Olivier) – 1985 Edmond, David Mamet (Royal Court) – 1985 The Merry Wives of Windsor (RSC Barbican Theatre) – 1986 and 1987 Futurists (National, Cottesloe) – 1986 Prairie du Chien/The Shawl (Royal Court Upstairs) – 1986 Kafka's Dick (Royal Court) – 1986 Country Dancing (RSC The Pit) – 1987 Richard II (RSC Barbican Theatre) – 1987 Entertaining Strangers (National, Cottesloe) – 1987 Girlfriends, Howard Goodall musical (Playhouse Theatre) – 1987 Waiting for Godot (National, Lyttelton) – 1987 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (National, Lyttelton) – 1988 The Shaughran (National, Olivier) – 1988 and 1989 The Changeling (National, Lyttelton) – 1988 The Father, August Strindberg (National, Cottesloe) – 1988 The Voysey Inheritance (National, Cottesloe) – 1989 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (dir Howard Davies) New York – 1990 Cunning Little Vixen by Janáček (dir. Bill Bryden) Royal Opera House - June 1990 The Ship (dir. Bill Bryden) Harland and Wolf Shipyard, Glasgow – 1990 Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti (dir. Andrei Serban) Lyric Opera, Chicago – November 1990 Pygmailion by George Bernard Shaw (dir.Howard Davies) NT Olivier – April 1992 Heartbreak House by George Bernard Shaw (dir. Trevor Nunn) Haymarket, London – June 1992 The Rise and Fall of Little Voice by Jim Cartright (dir. Sam Mendes) NT Cottesloe – 1992 The Big Picnic (dir. Bill Bryden) Harland and Wolf Shipyard, Glasgow – 1994 My Night with Reg by Kevin Elyot (dir. Roger Michell) Royal Court, London – 1994 Persuasion by Jane Austen (Film) (dir. Roger Michell) BBC – 1995 (BAFTA for design) Some Sunny Day by Martin Sherman (dir. Roger Michell) Hampstead Theatre – 1996 Mary Stuart by Friedrich von Schiller (dir Howard Davies) National Lyttelton – March 1996 The Alchemist by Ben Johnson (dir. Bill Alexander) Birmingham Rep/NT Olivier – October 1996 The Homecoming by Harold Pinter (dir. Roger Michell) National Theatre, Lyttelton – Jan 1997 Dance of the Vampires (dir. Roman Polanski) Raimund Theatre, Vienna – October 1997 The London Cuckolds by Edward Ravenscroft (dir Terry Johnson) National Lyttelton – February 1998 Cleo, Camping, Emmanuel and Dick by Terry Johnson (dir Terry Johnson) National Lyttelton – September 1998 Lenny (dir Peter Hall) Queens Theatre – July 1999 Amadeus (dir Peter Hall) Old Vic – October 1998; New York – 1999 Rose Theatre Interactive Exhibition Bankside, London – 1999 The Silver Tassie – Sean O'Casey – Mark Anthony Turnage (dir. Bill Bryden) ENO – February 2000 Blue/Orange by Joe Penhall (dir Roger Michell), National Cottesloe – April 2000; Duchess Theatre – April 2001 All My Sons by Arthur Miller (dir Howard Davies) National Lyttelton – July 2000; National Lyttelton – August 2001 Entertaining Mr Sloane (dir Terry Johnson ) Arts Theatre – January 2001 The York Realist (written and dir Peter Gill) Royal Court – January 2002; Strand Theatre – March 2002 The Coast of Utopia: Voyage/Shipwreck/Salvage, trilogy by Tom Stoppard (dir Trevor Nunn) National – August 2002 The Breath of Life by David Hare (dir Howard Davies) Theatre Royal Haymarket – October 2002 Honour by Joanna Murray-Smith (dir Roger Michell) National Cottesloe – 2003 Hitchcock Blonde (written and dir Terry Johnson) Royal Court and Lyric Theatre – 2003 The Permanent Way by David Hare (dir Max Stafford Clark) National Cottesloe – January 2004 Cyrano de Bergerac (dir Howard Davies) National Olivier – April 2004 Old Times by Harold Pinter (dir Roger Michell) Donmar Warehouse – July 2004 The Woman in White musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber (dir Trevor Nunn) Palace Theatre – September 2004; New York – 2005 Titus Andronicus (dir Lucy Bailey) Shakespeare's Globe – 2006 Giant By Anthony Sher - Hampstead Theatre, London – 2007 The Last Confession by Roger Crane (dir. David Jones) Chichester Festival Theatre – 2007 Peter Pan 360 (dir. Ben Harrison) Kensington Gardens, London – 2009 End of the Rainbow by Peter Quilter (dir.Terry Johnson) Trafalgar Studios, London – 2010 The Beggar's Opera (dir Lucy Bailey) Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park – 2011 Fortune's Fool (dir Lucy Bailey) The Old Vic – 2013. Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'be''' by Frank Norman/Lionel Bart (dir.Terry Johnson) Theatre Royal, Stratford East – 2014Sunday in the Park with George, (dir. Lee Blakeley) Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris – April 2013Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton (dir. Lucy Bailey) Royal and Derngate, Northampton – 2015The Rehearsal by Jean Anouilh (dir. Jeremy Sams) CFT, Minerva – May 2015Ross by Terence Rattigan (dir. Adrian Noble) Chichester Festival Theatre – June 2016Comus by John Milton (dir. Lucy Bailey) Sam Wanamaker Playhouse – October 2016For Services Rendered by W Somerset Maugham (dir. Howard Davies) CFT, Minerva – August 2015Witness for the Prosecution by Agatha Christie (dir. Lucy Bailey) London County Hall – 2017Switzerland by Joanna Murray-Smith (dir. Lucy Bailey) Ustinov Studio, Bath – August 2018

Honours and awards Awards include:

Olivier Awards 1979, Designer of the Year for Undiscovered Country Olivier Awards 1985, Designer of the Year for The Mysteries and The Critics Olivier Awards 1986, Designer of the Year for The Futurists, Kafka's Dick and Merry Wives of Windsor Olivier Awards 1993, Olivier Award for Best Costume Design for Heartbreak House & The Rise and Fall of Little Voice BAFTA 1995 – Best Production Design for Persuasion Royal Television Society 1995 - Best Production Design for Persuasion Olivier Awards 1999, Olivier Award for Best Costume Design for Amadeus & The London Cuckolds Olivier Awards 2001, Olivier Award for Best Set Design for All My SonsCritics' Circle Theatre Awards 2002, Best Designer for The Coast of Utopia Trilogy Olivier Awards 2004, Olivier Award for Best Set Design for Hitchcock BlondeDudley was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to stage design.