Tudors, Tragedies and Tim Key
In This Edition:
Reviews of 1536 and The Fifth Step
Tim Key’s new comedy out in cinemas now
What To Book at The Almeida and RSC
The Almeida’s New Season + New Artistic Director
Award-winning theatre director Dominic Cooke (Mrs Warren’s Profession and Follies) will succeed Rupert Goold at the North London venue, joining the Almeida in 2026. His other recent credits include Medea and Good in the West End, and The Normal Heart and Follies at the National Theatre. Cooke was Artistic Director of the Royal Court from 2007 to 2013. His screen credits include the films The Courier and On Chesil Beach, and directing episodes of TV series The Hollow Crown. Goold’s last season has also been announced - see below:
Romans
World premiere by award-winning writer Alice Birch (Anatomy of a Suicide; Normal People) starring Olivier Award winner Kyle Soller (The Inheritance; Andor) and directed by Sam Pritchard (all of it), former Royal Court Associate Director
The Line of Beauty
Adaptation of the Booker Prize-winning novel by Alan Hollinghurst by Olivier nominee Jack Holden (Cruise; Kenrex) and directed by Tony Award winner Michael Grandage
81 (Life)
Second installment of the ‘Islington Trilogy’ with creative Direction by Dani Parr and Stephanie Bain and co-created by Rhianna Ilube with associate artists and over 80 community members
Christmas Day
World premiere by Olivier Award winner Sam Grabiner (Boys on the Verge of Tears) reunited with James Macdonald (Infinite Life; The Children)
American Psycho
Revival of Rupert Goold’s 2013 musical thriller with music by the composer of Spring Awakening
A Doll’s House
Romola Garai returns to play Nora, following her Olivier-winning performance in The Years, in a new version by Anya Reiss (Becoming Elizabeth; The Seagull)
Directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins (The Tragedy of King Richard the Second; Ghosts)
Under the Shadow
Adaptation of Babak Anvari’s BAFTA-winning horror film
Written by Carmen Nasr (The Maladies; The Climbers) and Directed by Nadia Latif (Fairview; Marys Seacole) starring Leila Farzad (I Hate Suzie; Kaos)
Cleansed
Rare revival of Sarah Kane’s intense masterpiece, directed by Almeida Associate Director Rebecca Frecknall (A Streetcar Named Desire; Cabaret)
Golden Boy
Revival of Clifford Odets’ classic American drama, directed by Olivier Award winner Sam Yates (VANYA; Magpie) starring Josh O’Connor (The Crown; Challengers)
Desire Under the Elms
Directed by former Almeida Resident Director Ebenezer Bamgboye (The Lonely Londoners) and starring Zackary Momoh (Seven Seconds; Harriet)
Eugene O’Neill’s searing tragedy about passion and reason
RSC New Season
Henry V with Alfred Enoch
A new version of Cyrano de Bergerac with Olivier award-winning actor Adrian Lester making his RSC debut in the title role
Josh Roche's two-part The Forsyte Saga
And new musical, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.
At The Other Place:
Daniel Raggett directs Sam Heughan and Lia Williams in Macbeth
Artist and director Whitney White’s All Is But Fantasy sheds new light on four of Shakespeare's most famous characters.
To Watch
Dept. Q on Netflix
This Scotland-based adaptation of Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Danish crime novels is fantastic, rich TV and another addictive thriller developed by Scott Frank, best known for The Queen’s Gambit and Logan. It’s tense, layered and fantastically deliberate. Set in Edinburgh, Dept. Q follows Carl Morck (Matthew Goode), a sharp but rude detective who is unexpectedly put in charge of a newly formed cold case unit. A better version of Black Doves.
Salt Path
I’ve heard great things about this adaptation of Raynor Winn’s memoir about walking the South West Coast Path from Somerset to Dorset, with her husband, Moth. Unlike other hikers, the couple were not walking for pleasure – at least not to begin with. They had nowhere else to go after losing their farm. From theatre director Marianne Elliott, it stars two actors at the top of their game– Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs – both giving lovely, emotional, low-key performances. No poisoned pina coladas in sight.
The Ballad of Wallis Island
This comedy from James Griffiths, based on his BAFTA-winning short, I hope becomes one of the films of the summer. It tells the story of former lovers and bandmates reunited for a private island show hosted by an eccentric lottery winner, Charles (Tim Key). Key - one of my favourite comedians and Partridge regular - plays an eccentric lottery winner who lives alone on a remote island - and is note perfect in his delivery. One to watch when it inevitably starts raining one evening.
Reflections
The Fifth Step @SohoPlace
I saw David Ireland’s play first at Edinburgh last year; Ireland’s script, which gently wrongfoots you whenever it sees the opportunity, is very funny and brilliantly delivered. James (Martin Freeman)’s chummy authority is lapped up by the booze and porn-addicted Luca (Jack Lowden), in desperate need of a good father figure. But when the lad eagerly grasps at an unconventional spiritual awakening and embarks on his own path, diverting from the one James thinks he should be on, the older man’s carefully constructed bonhomie begins to crumble, revealing a darker core. Both actors are brilliant: Lowden crackles with energy and allows Luca’s vulnerability to sit close to the surface, while Freeman is utterly convincing as a man trying his best to believe his own nonsense. Get a ticket now. Ireland is a very very special writer.
1536 at The Almeida
In a muddy field in 1536, three young women’s lives are irrevocably shaped by the fall of a distant queen. The news of Anne Boleyn’s arrest for treason, carried from London by the innocent Jane (Liv Hill), is more than mere gossip for the spirited Anna (Sienna Kelly) and the pragmatic midwife Mariella (Tanya Reynolds). It signals a dangerous shift in the political climate, one that directly threatens their own freedoms.
The play’s great strength lies in its use of modern, relatable language. The conversations about sex, love and marriage feel immediate and urgent, not like dusty historical reenactments. We are drawn into the trio's friendship, their laughter echoing defiantly in a world that seeks to silence them. All three performances are strong, but it is Sienna Kelly’s magnetic Anna who forms the spine of the narrative. Her desire for a life lived on her own terms becomes a reckless provocation as the patriarchal society around her, emboldened by the Queen’s fate, begins to tighten its grip.
The male characters, initially figures of romance, reveal themselves as instruments of the very violence sanctioned by the state. What begins with flirtation and laughter on a small patch of grass culminates in a raw and intense climax, as the consequences of their defiance become brutally clear.
1536 is a sharp, intelligent play that powerfully connects the political machinations of the powerful to the everyday lives of ordinary women. It’s a tightly constructed and superbly acted piece of theatre that brings the past to life with wit and a shudder of recognition. A transfer should be inevitable.
Lots to look forward to.