Work as a designer:

Uncle Vanya (student project whilst at the Old Vic School) 1951/1952

Playboy of the Western World (Synge) 1954

Maria Marten (Piccolo Theatre Company) 1954

Don Juan and The Death of Satan (by Ronald Duncan) 1956

Nekrassov (Sartre) 1957

Lady at the Wheel (Leslie Bricusse) 1958

John Gabriel Borkman 1958 (for television - ATV)

King Richard II (Shakespeare) 1959

Brand (Henrik Ibsen) 1959

Platonov (Chekhov) 1960 (Royal Court Theatre)

The Dream of Peter Mann (Bernard Kops) (Lyceum, Edinburgh)

As You Like It (William Shakespeare) 1961

Peer Gynt: (Henrik Ibsen) 1961 (London, Old Vic)
production photos
costume designs

Othello (Shakespeare)

Miss Julie (August Strindberg) 1965/66

The Tempest (Shakespeare) 1970 (Manchester University Theatre)

Peer Gynt: (Henrik Ibsen) 1970 (Manchester University Theatre)

The Story of Vasco (Opera by Gordon Crosse, lyrics by Ted Hughes) 1974

The Cherry Orchard (Anton Chekov) 1979

The Round Dance (adapted from Schnitzler's 'La Ronde' by Richard Negri and Casper Wrede, who also directed) 1982


Work as a director at the Royal Exchange:

The Skin of our Teeth (Wilder), co-directed with James Maxwell

The Caretaker (Pinter), 1983

Emperor Jones (O'Neil) and The Chairs (Ionesco)

typically with cigarette in hand watching a rehearsal's progress at Wimbledon School of Art


Production photographs of shows that Negri directed
whilst a tutor of theatre design students at Wimbledon
School of Art:

Clocks (devised) 1974

Shipwreck (devised) 1981

Picnic on a Battlefield (Fernando Arrabal) 1982

The Cocktail Party (TS Eliot) 1983

Perfection City (David Shellan) 1984

Chairs (Eugene Ionesco) 1984

Smoke Rings (devised) 1984

The Skin of Our Teeth (Thornton Wilder) 1985

Evocations (devised) 1985

Hidden Mountain (devised) 1986

A Night Out (Harold Pinter) 1987

The work of the student productions above that Negri produced towards the end of his working life show his maturity and undimmed vision for the theatre. This vision was never compromised by pressure to relax and allow superfluous decoration to intrude, beloved by students of any generation. Reading Negri's mentor, Michel Saint-Denis' book 'Training for the Theatre' (Heinemann Educational Books Ltd./London. ISBN 0-435-18795-3) from the days when he studied at The Old Vic Theatre School, I think the following passage articulates Negri's search for a theatre of poetic integrity:

". . Such productions should be more open and frank. They should be anti-illusionary, without artificial theatricality; they should be non-operatic, non-rhetorical. A way must be found to make them convincing from the psychological point of view, exacting in their deep search for reality, of whatever kind, and, at the same time, true to their own style, maintaining the poetry which is so often forgotten.

If it is agreed that these aims express the deep, unexpressed needs of today's audiences and artists, then perhaps actors, directors and designers in the theatre might begin a search for that deep reality which can be attained only through study, understanding and appreciation of style - style considered as a reality in itself artistically bound to the expression of reality as a whole.

Open and frank, non-operatic productions imply new relationships between audiences and actor, stages which are anti-illusionary and fresh approaches to the designing of scenery, costumes and lighting. These must be in keeping with a new architecture expressive of these new conventions."

I think even from scrutiny of the production photographs of these student shows it is pretty clear that those principles were being thoughtfully applied by Negri. He was serving his mentor's vision, as well as his own, in a context where future generations of practitioners might understand, value and focus on the beauty and power of human presence in space, which, for Negri, was central to meaningful theatrical communication.