Omar Elerian
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Omar Elerian (born 1978/1979) is an Italian theatre director and dramaturg based in London. He won the Standard Theatre Award for Best Director.
Elerian was born to an Italian mother from Gorgonzola and an Egypt-born Palestinian father; his paternal grandparents fled Jaffa during the Nakba. Elerian began his studies in Milan and went on to graduate from L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq.[1]
Career
With Madani Younis, Elerian co-directed The Mill: City of Dreams for Freedom Studios in 2011.[2]
From 2012 to 2019, Elerian served as associate director of the Bush Theatre. During his time at the Bush, he direction Caroline Horton's Islands and You're Not Like The Other Girls Chrissy in 2015,[3] Nassim Soleimanpour's NASSIM starting in 2017,[4][5] Arinzé Kene's Misty starting in 2018,[6] and Estelle Savasta's Going Through in 2019.[7] For his work on Misty, Elerian was nominated for Best Director at the Off West End Awards.[8]
Elerian's first project after lockdown was The Return of Danton by Mudar Alhaggi at the Munich Kammerspiele in 2021.[9]
Back in London in 2022, Elerian directed Eugène Ionesco's The Chairs at the Almeida Theatre[10] and Sami Ibrahim's Two Palestinians Go Dogging at the Royal Court Theatre.[11][12] The latter was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre.[13] His next project in 2023 was As You Like It at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.[14]
Elerian reunited with Soleimanpour for Echo at the Royal Court Theatre in 2024[15][16] and directed Khalid Abdalla's solo work Nowhere,[17] which debuted at Battersea Arts Centre. In 2025, Elerian returned to the Almeida to put on his production of Ionesco's Rhinoceros.[18] For Rhinoceros, Elerian won Best Director at the Standard Theatre Awards.[19]
References
- ↑ "CRASHING THE GATES. 5 Provocations on Contemporary British Theatre". Textures. 6 February 2014. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ↑ Cavendish, Dominic (6 April 2011). "The Mill: City of Dreams, Drummonds Mill, Bradford, review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ↑ O'Hanlon, Dom (8 June 2016). "The Bush announces Spring/Summer 2015 Season". London Theatre. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ↑ Dillon, Luke (14 July 2017). "Bush Theatre announces 2017 Autumn Winter season". West End Theatre. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ↑ Ludmon, Mark (29 August 2017). "REVIEW: Nassim, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh and Bush Theatre, London". British Theatre. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ↑ Drummer, Rob (14 September 2018). "Why You Need To See Misty by Arinzé Kene". Boundless Theatre. Retrieved 7 April 2019.
- ↑ Gillinson, Miriam (9 April 2019). "Going Through review – migrant's words flow freely across borders". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ↑ Wood, Alex. "Off-West End Awards 2019 winners announced". WhatsOnStage. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- ↑ Waugh, Rosemary (21 June 2021). "Return of Danton". The Stage. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ↑ Tripney, Natasha (9 February 2022). "Omar Elerian: Finding playfulness in language and comedy with The Chairs". The Stage. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ↑ "Royal Court Theatre Announces Cast For Two Palestinians Go Dogging By Sami Ibrahim". Theatre Weekly. 3 May 2022. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ↑ Akbar, Arifa (23 May 2022). "Two Palestinians Go Dogging review – devastatingly human portrait of conflict sears itself on the mind". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ↑ "Olivier Awards 2023: Complete List of Nominations". The Guardian. 28 February 2023. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
- ↑ "Omar Elerian 2023 Production". Royal Shakespeare Company. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ↑ Wicker, Tom (17 July 2024). "Director Omar Elerian: 'I forged my career away from my homeland, in another language'". The Stage. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ↑ Javed, Saman (19 July 2024). "Omar Elerian Q&A: 'We have created a space for something unexpected to happen every night'". Hyphen. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ↑ Silvers, Isabella (11 October 2024). "In an interconnected world, Khalid Abdalla is 'Nowhere' and everywhere at the same time". The New Arab. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ↑ "The Almeida Theatre announces the full cast of Omar Elerian's production of Rhinoceros". Theatre Weekly. 5 February 2025. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ↑ Raven, Paul (2026-03-23). "London Standard Theatre Awards 2025: Full list of winners including Hayley Atwell & Rachel Zegler". West End Theatre. Retrieved 2026-03-28.