HIS plays have been showcased in the West End and around the globe.

There was Oedipus at the ancient amphitheatre in Paphos, Cyprus, Romeo and Juliet delighting audiences in Barbados, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner touring Fiji and New Zealand and Twelfth Night in French at the Theatre in Rouen.

They have starred a host of celebrated actors including Matthew Kelly, Martin Jarvis and Imogen Stubbs.

But mostly the productions have appeared on stage in Southampton where he has scooped awards – and brought a towering artistic totem of shipping containers, spectacular circus and major street theatre to the city.

It’s the end of an era for Patrick Sandford as he steps down as associate director of The Nuffield Theatre after a quarter of a century.

“It seems like about 24 weeks, not more than 24 years. It’s just gone so quickly,” he laughs.

“I suppose that’s partly to do with the fact that after seven or eight years we got a large amount of lottery money to redo the auditorium and it felt like coming back to a new place!”

Patrick’s early successes included Exchange, a new play by Michael Frayn, and Chekhov’s Three Sisters.

Through Exchange, he met journalist and biographer Claire Tomalin, soon to be Frayn’s wife, who asked Patrick to direct her one and only play. His work on The Winter Wife, the tale of short story writer Katherine Mansfield, won him the coveted Theatre Management Association (TMA) Best Director award.

The Nuffield toured its own productions around the world and Patrick co-founded the Art at the Heart project, bringing major street theatre events to the new Guildhall Square, including aerial acrobatics from No Fit State Circus with Barricade and the towering Waterlitz structure created from shipping containers.

But despite the use of diverse outside spaces and theatres around the world, it’s the audiences at The Nuffield Patrick has the most praise for.

“There’s something very strange about audiences here and I mean that in the nicest possible way. Its location has always been a barrier to watching. That means that people who come to our theatre really want to see the play, they haven’t come for a gin and tonic!

"That’s really fantastic to play to as you know your work is appreciated. People often come and talk to me about the play in the bar afterwards and I’ve really enjoyed that.”

As a thank you, anyone who lived within a quarter of a mile radius of The Nuffield, situated on the University of Southampton campus, was invited to a special showing of Chekov play The Seagull, directed by one of the UK’s most hotly-tipped directors, Blanche McIntyre, and for a drink to say goodbye to Patrick and Kate Anderson, his fellow chief executive of 12 years. The pair said their goodbyes at The Nuffield yesterday to pursue freelance opportunities, but will work together again, co-producing the one man play Bloodshot in the autumn.

Daily Echo:

A scene from The Seagull

Patrick goes immediately to America to pursue openings for his own solo performance piece, returning in late summer to direct a site-specific Hedda Gabler in London and Kate is set to embark on a theatre development project.

Patrick added: “I’m very sad, but also very excited. I know I’m going to miss it very much. I love the Nuffield Theatre and I love Southampton. But all good things come to an end and I’m looking forward to working on some of my own projects and not having a deadline.

“Hopefully it will feel liberating, but it will be scary. I suppose fear makes you feel alive!”

  • Sam Hodges has now taken up his post at The Nuffield, which is moving to a creative producer-led model as Southampton’s cultural quarter begins to take shape.