"[2][3][4][5] He is best known for his play The Doctor, and his modern adaptations of classic texts, including versions of Oresteia, Mary Stuart, and 1984, devised with Duncan Macmillan.
Born in Stockton-on-Tees to a non-theatrical family, he was taken to see a production of Richard III starring Kenneth Branagh as a teenager, which inspired him to take up writing and directing.
In summer 2014, he directed the European premiere of Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play by Anne Washburn, which provoked a violently divided critical reaction.
The production, which presented a Scandi-noir surveillance state, received rave reviews and transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre, produced by Sonia Friedman.
[20] In 2018, Icke opened his new adaptation of Sophocles' Oedipus for Ivo van Hove's company Toneelgroep Amsterdam,[21] starring Hans Kesting and Marieke Heebink.
[23] In 2020, Icke was announced as the first Ibsen Artist in Residence[24] at ITA, supported by the Philip Loubser Foundation, which committed him to making productions with the company from 2020 to 2022.
[26] Icke's compression of Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 as Player Kings[27] starring Sir Ian McKellen as Falstaff opened to strong reviews in London's West End in the Spring of 2024.
His adaptation of Oedipus opened later the same year at Wyndham's Theatre, starring Mark Strong and Lesley Manville, to rave reviews.
"[32] Icke tends to work with the same performers (a group that Natasha Tripney has dubbed "Team Icke")[33] including repeat collaborations with Lia Williams, Tobias Menzies, Juliet Stevenson, Jessica Brown Findlay, Luke Thompson, Lorna Brown, Daniel Rabin, Rudi Dharmalingham, Joshua Higgott, and Angus Wright.
Reviewing his Headlong Romeo and Juliet, she wrote From its opening moments, when a digital clock starts to count the minutes, Icke offers a story in which elements of time and fate are compressed and heightened.
[34]Though he has failed to satisfy some of the conservative broadsheet critics, such as Dominic Cavendish, Icke has found favour with others, including Susannah Clapp in The Observer, who described him as "one of the most important forces in today’s theatre.
"[35] Icke's work, according to Megan Vaughan, "is a sign that the UK’s once stuffy middle-class theatre culture is waking up to more exciting and less prescriptive techniques.