Almeida Questions

Almeida Questions is an eclectic programme of pre-show discussions which consider some of the questions raised by the work on our stage. In each discussion, invited panellists dig into the key issues and ideas emerging from the show. See the upcoming discussions around our current season below

PAST DISCUSSIONS

WOMEN IN POWER

While she owns things, the country isn’t safe.
Look, it’s a weapon if it’s in her hands.

(Mary Stuart, Act I Scene I).

More than four hundred years on from the reign of Elizabeth I, arguably the most iconic female leader in British history, the reality of women in power today is debated on the Almeida stage. Catch up on highlights of the discussion as Tanya Seghatchian chairs a panel including Sonia Friedman, Laura Bates, Lucy Kerbel, and Dawn Foster.

THE RIGHT TO WRITE

Who owns culture? Who has the right to tell certain stories? Is imagination enough?

A panel including Oil playwright Ella Hickson; Vava Tampa, writer, poet and founder of Save the Congo; theatre critic Matt Trueman; British-Chinese journalist, author and speaker Xīnrán Xue and Oil’s director Carrie Cracknell discuss cultural appropriation and the right to write.

SHAKESPEARE, HISTORY, NATIONHOOD AND US

Why does history matter so much to the British? How has popular history shaped our sense of nationhood? And to whom does history belong?

Almeida Artistic Director Rupert Goold and historian Simon Schama discuss the cultural understanding of history in the 16th century, how Shakespeare's work changed this, and the ways in which his plays speak to the anxieties of a nation in crisis.

DRAMATISING POVERTY

Does modern drama have a responsibility to put stories of disadvantage on stage and screen? Is there a danger of cultural voyeurism? To discuss, Boy playwright Leo Butler will be joined by Selina Todd (author of The People: The Rise and Fall of the Working Class, fellow and vice principal of St Hilda's College, Oxford), BAFTA and Evening Standard Award-winning playwright, Roy Williams (Sucker Punch,Days of Significance) and Policy and Research Director at The Children's Society, Dr Sam Royston. The discussion is chaired by Almeida Director of Participation, Dani Parr.

ON CHEKHOV

Almeida Associate Director Robert Icke, director of Uncle Vanya, in conversation with renowned director Katie Mitchell, who has staged ground-breaking productions of all of Chekhov's major plays, about the challenges and pleasures of working on Chekhov.

ON NATURALISM

What is naturalism? How did it develop? And is it still a viable way to make theatre? Journalist Andrew Haydon, academic Dan Rebellato and playwright David Eldridge discuss the characteristics of the 19th-century movement in European theatre, whether EastEnders fits the category, and the challenges of staging “round plays in square rooms.”

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Listen: On Naturalism

IN CONVERSATION: RICHARD EYRE AND RUPERT GOOLD

Almeida Artistic Director Rupert Goold in conversation with
Sir Richard Eyre about the joys and challenges of artistic leadership; about balancing directing shows with directing an artistic programme; and about how theatre has evolved since Richard's legendary time at the National Theatre.

FROM ARISTOTLE TO ALBERT SQUARE

Guardian Chief Culture Writer Charlotte Higgins, Professor of Classics at King's College Edith Hall, acclaimed actor and director Fiona Shaw and Guardian columnist and priest Giles Fraser discuss what tragedy, in theory and in life, means to us now in the 21st century.

FROM MEDEA TO MUMSNET

Novelist and writer of our production of Medea,Rachel Cusk is joined by broadcaster and author Polly Vernon and the editor of Mumsnet, Sarah Crown to discuss why Medea is such an incendiary figure and what her story asks of contemporary feminism.

FROM DIONYSOS TO DAWKINS

What if a god were alive among us now? Almeida Artistic Director
Rupert Goold takes a closer look at the Athenian understanding of the divine and its effect on us now, with the broadcaster Joan Bakewell and Professor of Christian Origins at King's College Dr Joan Taylor.

FROM ATREUS TO PISTORIUS

Is it ever acceptable to kill? Almeida Associate Director Robert Icke, philosopher A.C. Grayling and Cambridge English Lecturer Dr Jennifer Wallace ask whether the end can ever justify the means.

WHY GREEKS MATTER

Three of the world's leading directors of classical work, Rupert Goold, Ivo van Hove
and Deborah Warner explore why these texts remain, and should remain, central to the ongoing practice of theatre makers and audiences.