Dominic Cooke Unveils Political First Season at Almeida Theatre Featuring David Tennant
Dominic Cooke announced a politically charged inaugural season at the Almeida Theatre, featuring a revival of John Osborne’s The Entertainer starring David Tennant and new short plays by Caryl Churchill, telling The Guardian that the world is falling apart and avoiding political themes would be an abdication of responsibility.
Cooke Directs Tennant in Radical Repositioning of Osborne Play
The upcoming programme at the north London theatre focuses heavily on Britain’s shifting global status and domestic political anxieties. Cooke, who previously led the Royal Court Theatre, stated that he has wanted to direct Tennant in John Osborne’s classic play for a significant period. Cooke noted that he has known Tennant since his drama student days in Edinburgh, praising his intellectual rigor.
According to Cooke, the production will apply a radical repositioning to the text. The director pointed out that the play examines the moment in the 1950s when England first confronted its status as a second-rate power, drawing a direct parallel to contemporary political developments such as Brexit and the public grappling with imperial history.
Almeida Opens Season with Churchill Plays and Bans Smart Glasses
The season opens with Three and a Bit, a collection of short plays by Caryl Churchill. Cooke described the 88-year-old playwright as remaining sharply on the cutting edge, noting that her new work explores human indifference to distant suffering.
Alongside the stage productions, the Almeida joins other performance venues, cinemas, and pubs in cracking down on Meta’s new smart glasses. Cooke called the wearable devices ghastly due to their invasive nature, particularly regarding women in audiences. The artistic director emphasized that performers require immense concentration and that recording devices disrupt the theatrical environment, echoing recent complaints by actors such as Cate Blanchett, Rosamund Pike, and Gillian Anderson regarding audience filming.
Supporting Emerging Talent Through Youth Programmes
The season also highlights the work of the Almeida Young Company, with members aged 14 to 18 set to perform Angel to Olympus, an amalgamation myth written by Flora Wilson Brown and directed by Takiyah Kamaria. Cooke stressed the importance of youth arts engagement amid ongoing reductions to drama programs within school syllabuses. Pointing to dwindling pools of new directors resulting from educational funding cuts, Cooke stated that the theatre is developing a dedicated project to support emerging directing talent.