In memory of William (Bill) Dudley
		1947 - 2025 Honorary Member of the Tower and past President of the Friends of the Tower Theatre

The Tower was extremy saddened to hear of the death of the acclaimed set deisgner William Dudley on 31 May 2025. Known to his friends at the Tower as Bill Dudley, he had a remarkable career which started at our theatre back in the 1960s. With us, he started by helping build scenery and then he designed both sets and lighting for several shows. He was also a talented actor appearing in about a dozen productions. After training at art school, he went on to design over sixty productions at The Royal National Theatre and for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Bayreuth Theatre, and other important numerous international theatres. Robert Pennant Jones, who worked with Bill on some of his earliest productions, takes up the story:

"In his teens, Bill Dudley was working for the Canonbury Bookshop in Islington from where he saw an advertisement for the non-professional Tower Theatre in nearby Canonbury. He was interested enough to apply to become a member and to involve himself with the technical side of the numerous (18 per year) productions that were presented there. I had recently joined the theatre as an actor and soon became a director in the early 1960s working on plays by Shakespeare, Marlowe and Beckett.

Bill had already become extremely useful to the technical team led by John Dorsett, Stanley Moles, and Frank Corkery, particularly on the design side of the theatre which was to prove an early grounding for his later career. He was also a very good actor and appeared in my production of Tamburlaine the Great (where he played the entire Persian army), The Winter’s Tale (young shepherd), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Flute/ Thisbe), and The Entertainer (Young Billy Rice). He worked on numerous other productions at the time, to the admiration of all that he came in contact with - his hard work, willingness to learn, and great personality. During his time at the Tower, he qualified at the Saint Martin’s School of Art before embarking on his future professional career.

An early example of his pioneering approach was his design for the mystery plays at the National Theatre. This was a huge success where a perambulatory audience was surrounded by artefacts of the time. Later, in a production of Bartholomew Fair his use of the newly installed revolve in the Olivier Theatre was an outstanding step forward in its use. And later, his pioneering use of computer assisted design (rather than the traditional use of models, was an example of his taking theatre design to the next level). In a production of Under Milk Wood, he used actors suspended from above, descending in and out of the action.

Perhaps his greatest achievement was to design both the costumes and sets for Sir Peter Hall's and Sir Georg Solti's Ring Cycle at Bayreuth. This four opera sequence lasting 18 hours was brought to the stage in the same week. This production was also notable for the Pepper's Ghost device of making the naked Rhinemaidens appear swimming under the waters of the Rhine. He also designed outstanding productions for Glyndebourne (Die Entfuhrung aus den Serial), the Royal Opera House (Der Rosenkavalier), the Royal Shakespeare Company (Richard II & Richard III), the Royal Court Theatre (Rat in the Skull). He designed over 50 productions at the National Theatre and was awarded an OBE for his services to theatre design.

He was a witty speaker with a wonderful sense of humour and an enthusiastic player of the squeeze box, performing regularly in friendly and impromptu social sessions. He retained his connection with the Tower Theatre throughout his career becoming the President of the Tower Friends and giving his characteristically witty and entertaining talks. Lately, Bill had suffered from dementia probably brought on through over-work, comforted by his wife Lucy Bailey and his previous partner Sue Plummer (also a Tower stalwart in the 1960s).

I remember him with great affection and admiration and he is one of the few genuine geniuses I have been privileged to meet."