For many years Haydon ran The Guardian's theatre blog, under his birth name Chris Wilkinson.
On Theatre[2] is a series of plays created by Mick Gordon often working with experts to explore key issues of everyday life; (e.g. On Death and On Emotion).
Haydon supports and directs many of the plays including the play "On Religion" which went under the name Grace and "On Identity" which went under the name Pressure Drop which was a project involving Billy Bragg and his band.
In 2011 Haydon became the new Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre, before taking over he directed Wittenburg by David Davalos which was well received and longlisted for Best New Play at the Evening Standard Awards.
[3] In researching some of the plays in the new season Haydon was arrested in Egypt alongside the playwright Hassan Abdulrazzak.