Diyan Zora | Theatre Director

ABOUT

As the winner of the 2021 Genesis Future Directors Award, Diyan directed Klippies by Jessica Sian at the Young Vic Theatre. She is currently directing Tom Fool by Franz Xaver Kroetz at the Orange Tree Theatre. Diyan is also a playwright, and is a member of the Bush theatre's 2022 Emerging Writer's Group. She worked with Alexander Zeldin as an Associate Director across Faith, Hope and Charity and Love, his latest plays at the National Theatre London, the National Theatre of Paris and at various venues across Europe.

Iraqi born and Birmingham raised, Diyan currently resides in London where her first play as Director - a bilingual Arabic/English Othello - sold out a 3 week run at the Barons Court Theatre. She has since then directed Twelfth Night to critical acclaim, as well as new writing by Hassan Abdulrazzak, Martin Crimp, Fiona Doyle, Afsaneh Grey, Hannah Khalil and Silva Semerciyan.

Other Assistant and Associate credits include: The Ferryman by Jez Butterworth (Dir. Sam Mendes, Gielgud Theatre), Evening at the Talkhouse by Wallace Shawn (Dir. Ian Rickson, National Theatre), Fireworks by Dalia Taha (Dir. Richard Twyman, Royal Court), Wolf From the Door by Rory Mullarkey (Dir. James Macdonald, Royal Court) and My Name Is... by Sudha Bhuchar (Dir Philip Osment, Arcola Theatre & UK Tour).

Diyan was an Artistic Advisor and trustee on the board of the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival as well as being an Associate Artist at the newly founded Manara Theatre Company, championing the work of Middle Eastern and North African playwrights by presenting classical and contemporary plays from the region to Western audiences.

CURRENT

Tom Fool

By Franz Xaver Kroetz

Orange Tree Theatre, March / April 2022

Buy tickets here

★★★★ The Guardian ★★★★ The Times ★★★★ The Stage ★★★★ Financial Times

★★★★ Arts Desk ★★★★ Broadway World ★★★★ Everything Theatre ★★★★★ London Living

Set /costume, Zoe Hurwitz, Lighting, Christopher Nairne, Sound, Joe Dines, Movement, Chris Evans, Casting Chris Worrall, Stage Management Jenny Skivens, DSM Anna Hunscott, ASM Eavan Gribbin, Production Lisa Hood, Stu Burgess and Anthony Doran, Photography The Other Richard

★★★★ “Diyan Zora has staged a tender portrayal of a finely drawn family struggling to weigh up what their love is worth... an astute realisation of the limits of class, of dissatisfaction, and the failure to achieve childhood dreams.” The Guardian

★★★★ “The great achievement of Kroetz’s sharply written play, and Zora’s simultaneously fluid and microscopic production of it, is how it allows us to peer into the characters’ inner lives — and pretty deeply too, especially in terms of the two adults — without losing sight of the bigger picture. A gem from a playwright we should know more about... performances shot through with a painful beauty” The Times

★★★★ “Director Diyan Zora handles Kroetz’s sparse, intricately observed text with precision... Given vivid life by a trio of strong performances… one of the prolific German playwright Franz Xaver Kroetz’s most perennially relevant works.” The Stage

Read full text of reviews here