Almeida Theatre

It's a production that people still talk about.

I was really lucky that somebody said to me, let's go and see Madea because it was a production that had come from the Almeida Theatre in London and then transferred to the West End and it starred Diana Rigg and it was directed by Jonathan Kent.

And it had this...

It's impossible to forget what happened, what they did at the end of this production, which was the whole set, the back of the stage was covered in metal sheeting.

About a decade at least ago, there was this fantastic project where the entire Iliad was recited.

I think it started at about 7am and it was done by the Almeida Theatre in conjunction with the British Museum.

They had all these fantastic actors come and recite different chunks of the Iliad.

So it started off, they were reciting in the British Museum and the whole thing was live streamed.

I spent an amazing day on my sofa reciting live tweeting the whole thing and explained to people, no, you won't hear about the horse, sorry.

And they kept going after the BM was shut.

They then moved to the Almeida Theatre and I think it finished at about 10pm.

So it went all the way through the day with very brief pauses for different reciters to stand up and speak.

is they have specific performances for under 25, so it's young people under 25 or young people under 30, and the audience is entirely composed of people from that demographic.

And I had the pleasure of seeing at the Almeida Theatre in London a production of King Lear, as part of their under 25s night.

And it was the most invigorating experience I've ever had in theater because it was an audience that was entirely composed of young people.

And we were all so vocal and so engaged in this almost 400, 500 year old story.

But yeah, I mean, I knew a bit about this playwright going in, more or less what was written by Ava Pickett, who is quite becoming a household name, at least on the London stage at the moment.

She's written several plays, most notably that was on the West End this year and had been at the Almeida previously, 1536, which is an excellent play that she had written.

Also another called Manningtree Witches, which had premiered in Essex in the spring at the Mercury Theatre.

But didn't you say that this was one of her first plays?

Claire Barron's Pulitzer finalist play, Dance Nation, opened Playwrights Horizons in New York.

That came over to the Almeida.

It actually lost the Pulitzer to Fairview, which probably feels like the right decision.

But that follows a group of pre-teen competitive dancers.

It appeared he did it for the Tunnel Group for the Dutch company in Amsterdam.

That led to him actually going to work there for some time.

But The Doctor, which is an adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's 1912 play, was his last production as associate director at the Almeida.

It was a kind of summary of six years at the Almeida where he learned his craft to some extent and very much enlivened the schedules with adaptations of things like The Wild Duck.

So that's 11 years.

Rewinding to the summer and your project with Arsenal in the Community, the girls from Lots to Explore got to perform at the Almeida Theatre.

Can you tell us what they were doing? So, there was a part of a select group that performed across three nights.

They were one part of a play.

To see that evolution from a shy young woman to this confident and willing woman who wanted to play the part with the most lines was pretty sick.

So that kind of story is just one example of just how powerful that whole process was for these young women.

Then there's the fact that it was at the Almeida Theatre, which if you're from Hackney or Islington or Camden, you know the legacy that that theatre has.

It's probably an equivalent of the Emirates within the art and theatre world, so it's pretty cool for them to have experienced that and to have worked towards something so hopefully life-changing for them.

I am a critic and a content creator here on social media today.

I'm going to be talking to you about Triumph, which I saw at the Almeida Theatre in London.

It is concurrently premiering at the Public Theatre in New York.

If you have seen either of these productions, I would love to hear from you in the comments section down below.

Admittedly, no friend to the climate.

And also, you dare say they would encounter some serious questions at border control.

Anyway, the few set pieces that make up this production superimposed on the set of Golden Boy currently running at the Almeida Theatre have been designed by Miriam Buther with fairly straightforward costuming credited to Emma White and one particularly clockable blonde wig sourced presumably by Wigs, Hair and Makeup team member Casey Martin.

I do like that the fringe starts to fall more and more asymmetrically as Iris becomes more and more emotionally unraveled.