Donnellan was born in
Manchester and grew up in
Ealing, London. He was educated at
St Benedict's School, Ealing and
Queens' College, Cambridge, where he read English and Law. After leaving Cambridge, he was called to the Bar at
Middle Temple in 1978. He founded
Cheek by Jowl with
Nick Ormerod in 1981. Since 2006 the company has been part of the
Barbican's International Theatre Program (BITE) resulting in co-productions of
The Changeling (2006),
Cymbeline (2007) and
Troilus and Cressida (2008). He has directed plays at the
Royal Shakespeare Company, the
English National Opera,
the Old Vic and the
Bolshoi Ballet, among others. For the
Royal Shakespeare Company he has directed
The School for Scandal,
King Lear (Academy 2002) and an adaptation of
Great Expectations (2005) with
Nick Ormerod. The cast of Great Expectations included
Gwendoline Christie and
Sian Phillips. He has also directed
Le Cid for the Avignon Festival,
Falstaff for the
Salzburg Festival and the ballet of
Romeo and Juliet for the
Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Other work in Russia includes ''
The Winter's Tale'' for the
Maly Drama Theatre of
Saint Petersburg. In 1989, Donnellan was made Associate Director of the
Royal National Theatre in London where his productions have included
Fuenteovejuna, The Mandate and
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1993) The cast of Sweeny Todd included
Alun Armstrong,
Adrian Lester and
Julia McKenzie. In 1993 Donnellan directed both parts of
Angels in America, after having previously directed the play’s first part Millennium Approaches at the National’s Cottesloe Theatre in 1991. In 1993 the play’s second part, Perestroika, received its London debut at the National Theatre and was played in repertory with Millennium Approaches, starring
Daniel Craig and
Jason Isaacs. In 2000 he formed a company of actors in Moscow, under the auspices of The Chekhov Festival, whose productions include
Boris Godunov,
Twelfth Night and
Three Sisters. He wrote a play,
Lady Betty, which was performed by Cheek by Jowl in 1989. He has also adapted ''Don't Fool with Love
by Alfred de Musset, Antigone by Sophocles, The Mandate
by Nikolai Erdman and Masquerade'' by
Mikhail Lermontov. First published in Russian in 2001, Donnellan's book,
The Actor and the Target, was published in English in 2002 (reprinted 2005), and has since appeared in 15 languages, including French, Spanish, Italian, German, Romanian and Mandarin. He directed the 1992 short
The Big Fish which starred
Fiona Shaw. He directed the 2012 film
Bel Ami, an adaption of the
Maupassant novel; the film starred
Robert Patinson,
Uma Thurman,
Kristin Scott Thomas,
Christina Ricci and
Colm Meaney. Donnellan has won awards in London, Paris, New York and Moscow, including
Laurence Olivier Awards for: • 1987
Best Director for
Le Cid,
Twelfth Night and
Macbeth • 1989/90
The Observer Award for Outstanding Achievement for
Fuenteovejuna • 1994
Best Director of a Musical for
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street • 1995
Best Director of a Play for
As You Like It In February 2004 he was made a Chevalier de
l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his work in France, and in 2009 he shared the Charlemagne award with
Craig Venter and
Archbishop Desmond Tutu. In 2014, Donnellan directed the stage play of
Shakespeare in Love (play) at the
Noël Coward Theatre. The play was adapted for stage by
Lee Hall (playwright) from the screenplay by
Tom Stoppard and
Marc Norman and produced by
Disney Theatrical Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions. In 2024, Donnellan released his follow up to
The Actor and the Target,
The Actor and the Space. ==Stage productions==