Burgess resumed his career in weekly rep at
Folkestone, where he ran into his old actor friend,
Harry Landis, who was, at that time, artistic director of the
Marlowe Theatre in
Canterbury. Burgess joined Landis for a season there and subsequently went on tour in a production of
The Tempest with the
Oxford Playhouse Company. He then began a long and fruitful association with the
Royal Shakespeare Company, for whom he appeared throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In both
The Witch of Edmonton, in which he played Old Banks, and
Richard II, as
John of Gaunt, he was directed by
Barry Kyle. Under
Terry Hands' directorship, Burgess played
Sicinius Velutus in
Coriolanus, which toured Europe to great acclaim. He also played Reignier in
Henry VI Part I, Simpcox in
Henry VI Part II and Roman in
Children of The Sun, all for Hands. Under
Trevor Nunn's stewardship, Burgess played Lodovico and The Duke of Venice in the much lauded 1989 production of
Othello, which was made into
a film. For Nunn, he also performed the roles of Scroop in
Henry IV, Parts I and II, Duke Frederick in
As You Like It and Syringe and Sir John Friendly in
The Relapse. Burgess was directed by Ron Daniels in
The Lorenzaccio Story, in which he played a goldsmith,
The Women Pirates – Ann Bonney and Mary Read, in which he appeared as Forbes, and ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream'', in which he performed the role of
Egeus. He also played Vesey in
Bill Alexander's production of
Money and Pistol for Daniels, and again appeared in
Henry IV, Parts I and II. In 1978, Burgess played Vlok in
David Edgar's play
The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs at the
Warehouse Theatre in
London. The latter play concerned the treatment of the dissident white lawyer
Albie Sachs by the
apartheid regime in South Africa. ==Screen career==