Latest news with #RupertGoold
The Guardian
05-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
The Almeida theatre has a coup in Dominic Cooke: this gifted director is also a proven talent spotter
Dominic Cooke is an inspired choice to succeed Rupert Goold at the Almeida. He is a proven hand at directing new plays, classics and musicals. He is a very good producer who appears to rejoice in the success of his colleagues. And, at a time when the vogue is for 'reimagined' versions of old plays, he is that rare figure: one who respects an author's intentions while remaining open to new ideas. At 59 he also has an extensive list of credits without being, in words once fatuously applied to the BBC's former head of Radio 3, John Drummond, 'tainted by experience'. As artistic director of London's Royal Court from 2006 to 2013, Cooke showed exceptional judgment. I well remember an opening press conference where he said one of his aims was to stage plays about the aspirational middle classes. He was as good as his word with productions of Bruce Norris's The Pain and the Itch and Clybourne Park which satirised, respectively, phoney white liberalism and bourgeois property fetishism. But Cooke also championed a whole school of then unknown young writers including Bola Agbaje, Anya Reiss, Polly Stenham, Penelope Skinner and Mike Bartlett. And it was during his tenure that the Royal Court staged Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem now widely regarded as the best new play of the current century. While promoting new work Cooke has also shown his skill at directing the classics, ancient and modern. I very much admired his pairing of The Winter's Tale and Pericles for the RSC in 2006 in joint promenade productions. What he brought home with unusual clarity was the idea that Shakespeare's late plays are quasi-religious experiences underpinned by resurrection myths: in a single day we saw Kate Fleetwood miraculously restored to life first as the secluded Hermione and then as the coffined Thaisa. His production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible reminded us of the danger of unyielding intellectual rigidity and his current West End version of Shaw's Mrs Warren's Profession sensibly trims the text to highlight Shaw's vehemently anti-capitalist message: it also reminds us in the play's climactic mother-daughter showdown that, in a good play, everyone is right. Imelda Staunton plays Mrs Warren and she has been a feature of Cooke's two most successful ventures into musicals. In his outstanding 2017 National Theatre production of Follies he not only brought out Stephen Sondheim's fascination with duality: he showed us how every character was haunted by his or her past. When Staunton's Sally sang In Buddy's Eyes you saw a woman filled with a deluded belief in her life-partner's ardour: by the time she sang Losing My Mind the same woman was a lovelorn wreck on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Cooke's recent London Palladium production of Hello Dolly! also breathed new life into a Broadway standard: Staunton sang the title song not in the usual style of a superannuated showbiz legend but in that of a cheery little soul renewing her acquaintance with the beloved haunt, and the waiters, of her youth. Cooke has worked profitably in other media. His TV production of Shakespeare's Henry VI trilogy and Richard III was excellent and his two feature films, On Chesil Beach and The Courier, both had great style. But his domain is the theatre and he will be judged at the Almeida by his ability to combine a sensitivity to the present with a respect for the past. There is every reason to hope he will not only be as good as Goold but will forge his own style.
The Guardian
05-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Dominic Cooke appointed as the Almeida theatre's artistic director
Dominic Cooke has been appointed as the new artistic director of the Almeida theatre in London, succeeding Rupert Goold in 2026. Cooke ran the Royal Court for several years and is an in-demand director with recent hits in the West End and at the National Theatre. 'Twelve years after leaving the Royal Court, I couldn't be more excited to be returning as an artistic director and to be taking the reins of this unique theatre,' he said. He described Goold's Almeida as 'a beacon of quality and innovation' and added: 'I'm hugely grateful to him and his team to be handed an organisation in such good health. I look forward to building on this legacy and to future adventures in this magical space.' A specialist in musicals, Cooke staged a celebrated revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies at the National in 2017 and reunited with one of its stars, Imelda Staunton, on an admired revival of Hello, Dolly! at the London Palladium last summer. His production of George Bernard Shaw's Mrs Warren's Profession, starring Staunton and her daughter Bessie Carter, opened at the Palladium last month. Other West End productions directed by Cooke include Medea with Sophie Okonedo and Good with David Tennant. During his time at the Royal Court he directed plays by Caryl Churchill, Tarell Alvin McCraney and Bruce Norris. He has also directed two feature films, The Courier (starring Benedict Cumberbatch) and On Chesil Beach (adapted from Ian McEwan's novel), as well as three episodes of The Hollow Crown for television. The chair of the Almeida board Tamara Ingram said Cooke is 'celebrated around the world and brings a wealth of experience both of running a theatre and as a consistently acclaimed, award-winning artist. We are greatly looking forward to what lies ahead and to seeing how his leadership defines the next chapter of the Almeida.' Goold called it a 'wonderful appointment' and said that Cooke's tenure at the Royal Court brimmed 'with confidence and new voices'. He added that Cooke 'will bring his many talents to bear on continuing the rich story of our great theatre'. It was announced last year that Goold will leave the Almeida to run the Old Vic, replacing Matthew Warchus. The Almeida's executive director Denise Wood is also standing down to pursue freelance projects. Recruitment for Wood's successor will begin shortly.
The Guardian
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Stars, shockers, psychos and evangelists: Rupert Goold's mighty end to his high-wire Almeida tenure
Rupert Goold, the outgoing artistic director of the Almeida theatre in London, has just announced his final programme, which he hopes captures the 'spirit and values' of his past 12 years at its helm. Does it? Comprising 10 productions and four world premieres, it does contain all the signature-marks of Goold's tenure: a smattering of star names (including Josh O'Connor and Romala Garai, the former the American classic, Golden Boy, the latter in a version of A Doll's House by Anya Reiss); a big-ambition project with Jack Holden's adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst's Booker prize winning novel, The Line of Beauty, about 1980s gay life (how do you turn Hollinghurst's glorious prose into glorious theatre? We'll see this autumn, I suppose); and a revival of the musical thriller American Psycho, based on Bret Easton Ellis's book, which featured in Goold's first programme at the Almeida in 2013, and brings a nice circularity to this last one. A play about masculine psychopathy, it is in the mould of previous musicals that combined hard-edged subject matter with song, from Spring Awakening, featuring teen depression, rape and suicide, to the rise and fall of a TV evangelist, Tammy Faye (both of which Goold directed). There is also another production by Rebecca Frecknall – a revival of Sarah Kane's searing play, Cleansed. Frecknall, a star director whom Goold has long championed, is joining Goold at the Old Vic as associate director when he takes over as its artistic director, so this does not mark the end of their impressive collaboration. Few could dispute that Goold has made this little but mighty theatre, nestling in the heart of leafy north London, all the mightier. Openings there have become unmissable events and many have transferred to the West End, including American Psycho (then to Broadway, in fact). For good or bad, Goold is also one of the leading industry figures to have brought screen talent closer to the stage. In fairness, most of power celebrity castings have been well judged, alongside causing a stir – from Saoirse Ronan's Lady Macbeth to Daisy Edgar-Jones as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Paul Mescal as Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire, as well as musical collaborations with Elton John and Jake Shears for Tammy Faye. But what I see as Goold's greatest accomplishment is his collaborations with the most exciting writers and directors of our time. It is this that has made this programming so formidable. He has a long track record with Robert Icke, each play ever more sensational, from his monumental Oresteia to The Doctor, which transferred to the West End, and Hamlet starring Andrew Scott. There have been several plays by Mike Bartlett (the biggest highlight was King Charles III), as well as the supremely talented Omar Elerian and Beth Steel. These are rich associations, alongside those with Frecknall. I look forward to Alice Birch's Romans: A Novel, opening in September. Like Goold, Birch has shuttled between TV and stage work, having recently written television versions of Sally Rooney's Normal People and Conversations With Friends. She will make her Almeida debut with this examination of masculinity across two centuries. Some of my personal highlights have been the more high-wire moments in Goold's tenure: Elerian's exquisite revival of Eugene Ionesco's The Chairs, a production of Jeremy O Harris's Daddy: A Melodrama, featuring a giant swimming pool across the span off the stage. And, of course, The Years, which is one of the best plays I have seen in the past five years – and in which Garai also featured. So several circularities – and the promise of a very strong swansong indeed.
Time Out
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Rupert Goold will end his tenure at London's Almeida Theatre with a monumental 18 months of programming
We've known for a while that Rupert Goold – the man who transformed the Almeida from chintzy backwater to London's most important theatre – would be stepping down to take over at the Old Vic, and that he'd be taking his chief lieutenant director Rebecca Frecknall with him. What we've had no idea of is a timeframe. Until today (May 28). The bad news is that Goold is definitely off, and that he'll direct his final production for the theatre early next year, with Frecknall bowing out in the summer. The good news is that if you've enjoyed the last 12 years of his programming then there's still quite a lot more to come: today's final announcement takes us right up to the end of next year, encompassing ten productions. Although we will presumably find out who Goold's successor is fairly soon, there's clearly no rush: their first show seems unlikely to run any sooner than January 2027. It's almost too big to call 'a season', but this final tranche of shows looks pretty mouthwatering, combining the sense of zeitgeist and event that's always dominated Goold's programming from the off with the embrace of writers and directors of colour that was learned on the way after some initial criticism of his Almeida as a white boys' club. Without further ado, then! The first show to be announced is a smaller one: 81 (Life) (Aug 21-23) is a community theatre show by playwright Rhianna Illube and 81 people from the Islington community. It's billed as part poem, part game-show and part play, and follows 60 strangers invited to a park at sunset, each grappling with something big. The first full run comes from the visionary Alice Birch, her first original play in years. The inscrutably titled Romans: A Novel (Sep 9-Oct 11) is an examination of masculinity and how male narratives have shaped the world from the nineteenth century to the present that will star Andor 's Kyle Soller in his first stage performance since the pandemic. The rather opaque description includes the lines 'He is up by 4am for weights, cardio, ice bath. He is recording a podcast. He is living as a badger'. It's directed by Sam Pritchard. Expect brilliance. Next up and massive name director Michael Grandage returns to the Almeida for the first time this century to direct Jack Holden's adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst's landmark depiction of Thatcher's Britain The Line of Beauty (Oct 21-Nov 29). Rising star playwright Sam Grabiner got his big break at Soho Theatre with his play Boys On the Verge of Tears, for which he managed to bag big name director James Macdonald. The two reunite for Grabiner's new play Christmas Day (Dec 9-Jan 10 2026), a dark comedy about a north London Christmas family gathering on… Christmas Day. Goold's final show will be a revival of his 2013 production of Duncan Sheik's musical adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's provocative yuppie satire American Psycho (Jan 24-Mar 14 2026). It's an interesting show to bring back: its original incarnation starred Matt Smith at the height of his immediate post- Doctor Who fame, but never transferred to the West End (reportedly because Smith wasn't up for it). It opened on Broadway in 2016 with a different cast and tanked fairly hard. Could Goold's hope here be to finally secure it a hit West End run? We'll probably know better when we find out who has been cast as murderous banker Patrick Bateman. The brilliant actor Romola Garai has popped up at the Almeida a couple of times during Goold's tenure, in the coruscating The Writer and recent West End smash The Years. She'll star in Ibsen's proto-feminist landmark A Doll's House (Mar 31-May 16 2026), in a new production by leftfield director Joe Hill-Gibbins, adapted by Anya Reiss. Following that, another rising star Carmen Nasr will adapt British-Iranian filmmaker Babak Anvari's acclaimed psychological horror Under the Shadow (Jun 2-Jul 4 2026) in a production by the excellent former Young Vic associate Nadia Latif. It'll star Leila Farzad. Frecknall's final show will be a revival for Sarah Kane's monumental work of love and torture Cleansed (Jul 21-Aug 22 2026), which will run ten years after Katie Mitchell's National Theatre production gained infamy for the volume of fainting audience members (though Frecknall has an altogether more conciliatory style). Actor Josh O'Connor will make his first stage appearance in 11 years to star in director Sam Yates' revival of the great US playwright Clifford Odets's Depression-era classic Golden Boy (Sep 8-Oct 31 2026) about a gifted young violinist who becomes sucked into the world of professional boxing. Still with us? Okay: the last show of the Rupert Goold era will be another American classic, a revival of Eugene O'Neill's sultry Greek tragedy rewrite Desire Under the Elms (Nov 10-Dec 19 2026), with Brit actor Zackary Momoh starring. And that's that, era over. It's obviously quite a lot of shows and many of them won't go on sale until next year. It seems likely – if not a given – that Goold's first programming at the Old Vic will be in autumn 2026 and probably not announced for some time; his successor at the Almeida is likely to be named soon, but we're probably a year away from a programming announcement. In the meantime – we've got plenty to go on! Romans: A Novel and The Line of Beauty will go on general sale June 10. 81 (Life) will go on sale in the summer, and Christmas Day and American Psycho
