Just been re-reading an old Lyn Gardner blog piece from The Guardian (29th November 2007), the full text of which can be read here.

The bit I like most comes towards the end:

“…We have no difficulty with the idea of director as auteur when it comes to new work, but only with so-called classic texts. …[W]hen it comes to high-art texts such as Euripides, Chekhov and, indeed, Shakespeare, a hands-off sign goes up and they are ring-fenced by cultural barbed wire. It’s nonsense.

If we want these plays to stay alive, then directors must be allowed to realise their vision and use the texts in a way that speaks to them – and is likely to speak to modern audiences. Otherwise the plays will gather dust, or we risk creating a classic tradition that is no more than museum theatre full of pale, creaking ghosts of plays that have haemorrhaged all relevance and meaning.”