THEATRE
Charles began his stage career working in British repertory theatre, first as an actor and then director. Following a critically acclaimed production of David Farrell’s 'A Slight Joke' and its subsequent transfer from the Edinburgh Festival to the Half Moon Theatre, London, Charles was appointed Associate Director at the Palace Theatre Westcliff directing plays by writers as diverse as Jean Genet, Victoria Wood and Agatha Christie. Other responsibilities included running the Theatre’s Schools Touring Company for which he also wrote six plays.
As an independent producer/director, his stage productions include: Steven Berkoff’s 'Greek', his own adaption of Bill Bryson’s best selling travelogue, 'The Lost Continent', and Michael Heath’s opera, 'Laura', which premiered at The Watermill Theatre, Newbury.
As a writer/director he again collaborated with composer Michael Heath to produce three new musical dramas: 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens, 'The Selfish Giant', based on the fairy tale by Oscar Wilde and 'Where the River Meets the Sea' which premiered at London’s ‘New Millennium Dome’ (now the O2 Arena).
In January 2016, to mark the 50th anniversary of TS Eliot’s death, Charles was commissioned to arrange and direct a platform performance of Eliot’s modernist masterpiece, 'The Waste Land', for the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry Awards held at the Royal Festival Hall, London.
In 2018 his stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' premiered at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff and in 2022 he performed TS Eliot's epic conversion poem 'Ash Wednesday' at York Minster for the cathedral's Ash Wednesday celebrations.
