21 replies to this topic

[MrBarnaby]

Anything has to be an improvement on what Attenborough has turned it into . A dull theatre pandering to its Islington audience with dreary revivals and safe plays. Bolder programming is much needed to make the Almeida relevant again.

[Jon]

Epicoene, on 09 February 2013 - 04:46 PM, said:

Goold is nothing if not overtly ambitious. He applied for the RSC job but was then induced to withdraw his application when they introduced an entirely new requirement that the AD had to live in Stratford (presumably to favour their own in-house candidate). The fact he hasn't waited for the NT post to become vacant indicates to me that he knows (or strongly suspects) that job is already allocated in some way (for example, that N.Hytner has decided he is so totally indispensable he's staying for another 10 years, or that the NT board have let it be known it will go to a female candidate). Anyway, Goold is relatively young enough to take the NT as the next but one. It will be interesting to see whether the chattering classes (include me in) gravitate back to the Almeida after the Donmar's decade of dominance.

I suspect Hytner will announce his departure in 2014 once the Dorfman is reopened. With Goold going to the Almeida, it makes the race for the NT AD more interesting.

[Honoured Guest]

Jon, on 10 February 2013 - 10:24 AM, said:

I suspect Hytner will announce his departure in 2014 once the Dorfman is reopened. With Goold going to the Almeida, it makes the race for the NT AD more interesting.

Nicholas Hytner said on BBC Radio 4's Front Row a couple of weeks ago that his replacement process will have begun by the time of next January's NT press conference.. I think there's a danger of the NT becoming less interesting because it seems to me that its narrow policy of churning out a series of productions for its three peculiar theatres will be increasingly overshadowed by, for example, Michael Grandage's current West End programme, Nicholas Hytner's own promised West End programme, Rupert Goold's Almeida programme which pledges "to welcom(e) the best artists from here and abroad" and Vicky Featherstone's Royal Court which one imagines will be more inclusively programmed and outward looking. The NT is both blessed and constrained by its building and, for me, it risks being outperformed by its neighbours who allow themselves more freedom and flexibility. The  "quality" is there but the "spark" is elsewhere.

[Epicoene]

MrBarnaby, on 10 February 2013 - 08:32 AM, said:

Anything has to be an improvement on what Attenborough has turned it into . A dull theatre pandering to its Islington audience with dreary revivals and safe plays.

Why shouldn't it pander to its local audience ?

[Whenindisgrace]

MrBarnaby, on 10 February 2013 - 08:32 AM, said:

Anything has to be an improvement on what Attenborough has turned it into . A dull theatre pandering to its Islington audience with dreary revivals and safe plays. Bolder programming is much needed to make the Almeida relevant again.

Why do you think the local audience want dreary revivals and safe plays?  Surely they want sparky and exciting revivals directed by great directors starring great actors and bold plays which will make the place headline news again.

[FireFingers]

Wasn't there a rumour that Goold would be directing American Psycho at the Almeida a month or so ago?

EDIT: http://blog.musicalt...to-open-at.html

[Epicoene]

Whenindisgrace, on 10 February 2013 - 09:21 PM, said:

Why do you think the local audience want dreary revivals and safe plays?  Surely they want sparky and exciting revivals directed by great directors starring great actors and bold plays which will make the place headline news again.

His point really was merely to sneer at Islington residents. He no-doubt thinks it is OK for (for example) the Theatre Royal Stratford East to "be relevant to"  its local audience to the extent that I haven't been there for about 25 years, but that does not apply when the local audience is white/middle-class/rich.

[dallardice]

Well I'm about as local to the Almeida as you can get, and I've been very selective about what I've seen in the last few years, and much of what I have chosen to see has been disappointing - the only things I can really remember as having been exceptional was Ruined and Reasons to be Pretty.  I liked Knot of the Heart too but that was a very Islington play...  I'm very excited at Rupert Goold taking over in the hope that it brings some energy back to the place...

Incidentally, just on mentioning the Theatre Royal Stratford East, I used to live in E15 so it was my local, and I hadn't been back for years until I saw Glasgow Girls there last week (National Theatre for Scotland production).  Great show, great connection to the audience, not perfect by any means but the most fun I've had in a theatre for ages...

[Epicoene]

I have been going to the Almeida since the Pierre Audi days. Michael Attenborough turned out to be competent rather than outstanding and unfortunately got their grant reduced as a consequence. However, in the midst of all the generally bland programming he managed to direct a near-definitive version of Measure for Measure and that just about made up for it all.

Goold is almost sure to be better but it is not an obvious theatre for him to take on - he is a very flashy director and likes staging tricks and surprises and using stage machinery, it will be interesting to see how he manages when all he has is some actors and a stage.

[paplazaroo]

FireFingers, on 11 February 2013 - 03:30 AM, said:

Wasn't there a rumour that Goold would be directing American Psycho at the Almeida a month or so ago?

EDIT: http://blog.musicalt...to-open-at.html

Yeah, that's not a rumour, it's definitely happening later this year