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Starting out as a theatre director, Rachel O’Riordan worried her ballet background might work against her, but in fact it makes her style distinctive, writes JANE COYLE

‘I LIKE MEN. I’m completely unfazed by them. I sometimes think they get a bad name simply for being men and it’s not their fault. I had three brothers, so I know something about it.” Just as well she does, as director Rachel O’Riordan is currently knee-deep in two male-dominated plays – one a world premiere for the Lyric Theatre, the other a new adaptation of a controversial 1950s classic by two of the North’s most fearless and outspoken male writers.