European Premiere
By David Mamet
Directed By Lindsay Posner
David Mamet's Romance is an uproarious courtroom farce which lampoons the American judicial system and exposes the hypocrisy surrounding personal prejudices and political correctness. Wildly humorous and often gob-smackingly outrageous, America's Newsday described Romance as 'Flagrantly foul and so much fun...a giddy, glorious, bad taste valentine.'
Romance marks the first play by David Mamet to be produced at the Almeida. His other work includes Glengarry Glen Ross (for which he won the Pulitzer Prize), American Buffalo and Speed-the-Plow.
Lindsay Posner has also directed three of Mamet's other plays; A Life in the Theatre, Oleanna, and Sexual Perversity in Chicago in London's West End and Pinter's The Birthday Party, currently at the Duchess Theatre.
John Mahoney will play the Judge. He has appeared on the London stage in Steppenwolf Theatre Company's production of The Man Who Came To Dinner at the Barbican in 1998. He is widely recognised for his role as Marty Crane in Frasier, for which he has received an Emmy award.
Bailiff
Theatre: Caligula (Donmar Warehouse). For the RSC: Pericles, The Tempest, Henry VI Parts I, II & III, Timon of Athens, Oronoko. Of Mice and Men (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Beef No Chicken (Tricycle), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (New End), Macbeth (Leicester Haymarket), Burning Point (Tricylce), The Fatherland (Riverside Studios), Dragons Can’t Dance (Stratford East).
Television: The Singing Cactus, Bad Girls, Murder Squad, Red Cap, Roger Roger, Crossroads, Doctors, Holby City, Casualty, The Bill, Sharman, PorkPie, The Governor, Dangerfield, The Upper Hand, Boon - Xmas special, Alive and Kicking, South of the Border, A Box of Swan, Saracen, Desmonds, Les Girls, Home, Codename Kyril, Bust, A Roller Next Year, Rockcliffe's Babies, The Singing Detective, Zastorzzi.
Film: Dog Eat Dog, US Navy Seals, Jack and Sarah, For Queen and Country.
Defendant
Theatre: For the Almeida Theatre: Romance, William Morris in The Earthly Paradise, The Tower. For the National Theatre: The Pillowman, London Cuckolds, Blue Remembered Hills, Dealers Choice. Other theatre credits include: The Woman Before (Royal Court), The Tempest (Old Vic), Bedroom Farce (Aldwych), World Music (Sheffield Crucible), Push Up (Royal Court), The Real Thing (Donmar/Albery/Broadway), Morphic Resonance (Donmar), Hamlet (Sheffield Crucible), King Lear (Royal Court), Katerina (Lyric, Hammersmith), Relative Values (Salisbury Playhouse), Anna Karenina (Shared Experience), Shoot the Archduke (Lilian Baylis).
Television: Life After George, New Tricks, Tunnel of Love, Frances Tuesday, Murphy’s Law, My Family, I’m Alan Partridge, Midsomer Murders, The Armando Iannucci Show, Too Much Sun, Déja Vu, A Dance to the Music of Time, Harbour Lights, Bye Bye Baby, Brass Eye, Dressing for Breakfast, A Few Short Journeys of the Heart, The Bill, Casualty, Between the Lines.
Film: Woody Allen 2005, On a Clear Day, Blackball, Mike Basset England Manager, Rogue Trader.
Radio: House of Milton Jones, Frederick & Augusta, Morphic Resonance, People Like Us, Crossing the Equator.
Judge
Theatre: For the Steppenwolf Theatre Company: The Dresser, I Never Sang For My Father, The Drawer Boy, The Man Who Came To Dinner, Supple In Combat, Death And The Maiden, The Song Of Jacob Zulu, Wrong Turn At Lungfish, Born Yesterday, You Can’t Take It With You, Stage Struck, The Hothouse, And A Nightingale Sang, A Prayer For My Daughter, The House, Loose Ends, Of Mice And Men, Balm In Gilead, No Man’s Land, Arms And The Man, Savages, Absent Friends, Death Of A Salesman, Taking Steps, Orphans. Other Credits Include: The Weir (Geffen Playhouse), The Subject Was Roses (Roundabout Theatre Company), House Of Blue Leaves (Broadway), Long Days Journey Into Night (Irish Rep/ Galway Arts Festival)
Television: Frasier, The Hidden History Of Chicago, Nothing Sacred, The Medicine Show, Buying A Landslide, With Two Lumps Of Ice, Marital Privilege, The Water Engine, Human Factor, Ten Million Dollar Getaway, Dinner At Eight, H.E.L.P., Favorite Son, Prisoner Of Silence, Lady Blue, First Step, The Killing Floor, Chicago Story.
Film: The Groomsmen, Almost Salinas, Atlantis: The Lost Empire (voice over), The Broken Hearts Club, The Iron Giant (voice over), Antz (voice over), She’s The One, Primal Fear, Mariette In Ecstasy, American President, Reality Bites, Hudsucker Proxy, In The Line Of Fire, Striking Distance, Article 99, Barton Fink, The Russia House, The Image, Love Hurts, Say Anything, Eight Men Out, Sundown, Frantic, Suspect, Moonstruck, Tin Men, Streets Of Gold, Manhattan Project, Code of Silence.
Bernard
Theatre: For the Royal Court Theatre: Forty Winks, Terrorism, Black Milk, Crazyblackmuthafuckingself. Other Theatre credits include: World Music (Donmar Warehouse & Sheffield Crucible), Comedy of Errors (Bristol Old Vic & New Vic), Romeo & Juliet (Liverpool Playhouse), Mother Clap’s Molly House (National Theatre & Aldwych), Twelfth Night (Liverpool Playhouse), Cuckoos (Gate Theatre/National Studio), The Beggar’s Opera (Broomhill Opera, Wilton’s Music Hall). Trousers and Charity Shops (Birmingham).
Television: Trial and Retribution, Pierrepoint, Twisted Tales, Born & Bred, Blackpool, Life Begins, Jeffrey Archer – The Truth, Heartbeat, Tipping the Velvet, Chambers, Harry Enfield Presents, Princess, Poirot, Plain Jane, The Practice.
Film: Dresden, Maybe Baby, Angels & Insects.
Radio: The Girl From The Sea.
Doctor
Theatre: For the National Theatre:Stuff Happens, Cyrano de Bergerac, His Dark Materials, Henry V, The Coast of Utopia, Tartuffe, The Relapse, The Winter’s Tale and The Madness of George III. Other Theatre credits include: Bloody Sunday – Scenes from the Saville Inquiry (Tricycle), Frankenstein, The Waves (NT Studio), The Liar (Old Vic), The Birth of Merlin (Theatr Clwyd), Tartuffe, Candlelight (Watford Palace Theatre)Jack the Ripper (The Finborough), Fair Game (New End), Dido Queen of Carthage (The Rose).
Television: Brittas Empire, The 10%ers, Cold Lazarus, Marlene Marlowe.
Film: The Madness of King George, Siam Sunset and Journey of No Return.
Defence Attorney
Theatre in the UK includes: For the National Theatre:Death Of A Salesman, Guys and Dolls, The Bay At Nice, Wrecked Eggs, Futurists, The Father, Speed-The- Plow, Night of the Iguana, Machinal, Sweet Bird of Youth, Mr Happiness, Johnny On A Spot. For the Royal Court: The Old Neighborhood, Search & Destroy, Edmond, The Lights. Other theatre credits include: Man & Boy, (Duchess Theatre), The Goat or Who Is Sylvia (Apollo Theatre), Indian Ink (The Aldwych), The Graduate (Gielgud), Triumph of Love (Almeida), The Front Page (Chichester).
Theatre in the US includes: For the Goodman Theatre, Chicago: The Visit, The Cherry Orchard , The Front Page, Lone Canoe, Holiday, Native Son. Other credits include: Dr Faustus (Magic Theatre San Francisco), The Graduate (Plymouth Theatre NYC), Art (Royal George Theatre Chicago), Some Americans Abroad (Lincoln Center NYC), Quartermaine’s Terms(Playhouse 91 NYC), Edmond (Provincetown Playhouse NYC/ Goodman Chicago), The Curse of An Aching Heart (Little Theater, Broadway), Prairie Du Chien, The Water Engine (Public Theater NYC), Twelfth Night, The Beaver Coat (Circle Rep Co. NYC).
Television: Space Odyssey, The Armando Ianucci Show, Frightmares, Jonathan Creek, The Hamptons, Paul’s Case, Crazy Like A Fox, Yesterday’s Dreams, A Very Peculiar Practice, Saracen, The Ginger Tree, Mother Love, Poirot, Hostages, Ghostwatch, A Year In Provence, The 10%ers, 99-1.
Film: Second In Command, The Kovack Box, Revolver, Closer, Proof, The Jacket, The Machinist, Twelve Days of Terror, Belly of The Beast, Thunderpants, Ali G Indahouse, Quicksand, Spy Game, The Hours, The Winslow Boy, Tomorrow Never Dies, Daniel, The Verdict, The Russia House, Homicide, In Love & War.
Prosecutor
Theatre: For the Almeida: Mr Peter’s Connections, The Possibilities.Other Theatre Includes: Jumpers (Royal National Theatre / West End /Broadway), House/Garden, The Art of Success (Manhattan Theatre Club), The Late Middle Classes (Ambassador Theatre Group), Art (West End), Chimps (Hampstead Theatre Club), American Buffalo (Young Vic), Habeas Corpus (Donmar Warehouse), An Inspector Calls (West End, Broadway, New York), The Birthday Party (National Theatre), The Homecoming (Comedy Theatre), Piaf (Broadway), Man and Superman (Broadway). For the Royal Court Theatre: Hard Fruit, Bazaar, The Editing Process, Berlin Bertie, Doing The Business. For the Royal Shakespeare Company: King John, Sarcophagus, Flight, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Crimes in Hot Countries, Red Noses, The Party, The Desert Air, Henry V, Good (London & Broadway).
Television: 11th Hour, Rome, The Last Detective, A Touch of Frost, Dave Chapelle Show, Helen West, Waking the Dead, Mrs Bradley Mysteries, Great Expectations, Woman in White, Midsomer Murders, The Last Englishman, Pie in the Sky, Men of the Month, The Chief, Cracker, Hedda Gabler, Mr Wroe’s Virgins, Bonjour La Classe, The Life and Times of Henry Pratt, Bad Girl, Blackheath Poisonings, A Fatal Inversion, For the Greater Good, The Wolvis Family, Blackeyes, My Kingdom for a Horse, Miami Vice, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Here’s Boomer, A Rumor of War.
Film: Conspiracy, Topsy Turvey, Mad Cows, Titanic Town, Dreaming of Joseph Lees, The Avengers, The Man Who Knew Too Little, Shooting Fish, The Pelican Brief, Maria’s Child, The Russia House, Heaven’s Gate.
Radio: ‘M’, Shut Eye, Blind, Hecuba, Last Orders, The Secret Parts, The Man Who Knew Everything.
Writer
David Mamet began his career as an actor and director after studying at Goddard Colege, Vermont and the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater in New York. He received critical acclaim in the late 1970’s for his early plays that included Sexual Perversity in Chicago and American Buffalo.
From the late 1970’s to the present day, David Mamet he has written, directed and produced a large number of hugely acclaimed plays and screenplays. These include Glengarry Glen Ross (for which he received the Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Award), A Life in The Theatre, Oleanna and Boston Marriage.
In 1983, alongside William H. Macey, David Mamet formed the Atlantic Theater Company with a group of New York University Students. Since then, the Atlantic Theater Company has produced more than 90 plays – including the World Premiere of Romance earlier this year.
In addition to his numerous plays and screenplay credits David Mamet has also written three children’s books, three volumes of essays, three novels as well as acting books such as True & False and Three Uses of The Knife.
Director
Theatre: A Life in the Theatre (Apollo Theatre), Oleanna (Garrick Theatre), The Caretaker (Bristol Old Vic), Sexual Perversity in Chicago (Comedy Theatre), Power (Cottesloe, National Theatre), Tartuffe (Lyttelton, National Theatre), Twelfth Night (Royal Shakespeare Theatre), The Rivals (The Swan, RSC), The Taming of the Shrew (The Pit, The Barbican Theatre, RSC), Volpone (The Swan, RSC), After Darwin (Hampstead Theatre), American Buffalo (Young Vic), The Provok’d Wife (Old Vic), The Lady from the Sea (Lyric Hammersmith, West Yorkshire Playhouse), The Seagull (The Gate Theatre, Dublin), The Robbers (The Gate), The Misanthrope (Young Vic), Leonce and Lena (Sheffield Crucible Studio), The Doctor of Honour (National Tour and Donmar Warehouse), Much Ado About Nothing (Regents Park Open Air Theatre).
Lindsay Posner was associate director of the Royal Court Theatre from 1987 to 1992. Productions at the Royal Court included: Colquhoun and McBryde, The Treatment, Death of the Maiden, American Bagpipes, Ficky Stingers, No One Sees the Video, Built on Sand, Blood, Downfall and Ambulance.
Opera: Man and Boy: Dada (Almeida Theatre), Jenufa (Opera Theatre Company, London), Guilio Cesare (The Royal Opera House at the Barbican).
Television: Two Oranges and a Mango, The Maitlands.
Radio: Loot
Design
Theatre: For the West End: The Home Place (also Gate Dublin), The Birthday Party, Ying Tong, A Woman of No Importance, Boston Marriage. For the Royal Shakespeare Company: Brand, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Pericles, Alice in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass. For The National Theatre: Honk!, Widowers’ Houses. Other Theatre credits include: Honk! (UK tour, Boston, Chicago, Tokyo & Singapore), The Scarlet Letter, Just So, Pal Joey (Chichester), The Rivals (Bristol old Vic), The Astonished Heart/ Still Life (Liverpool Playhouse), The Wizard of Oz (Birmingham Rep), The Black Dahlia (Yale Repetory Company), Ain’t Misbehavin’, Guys & Dolls (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield),The 39 Steps, A Doll's House, The Comedy of Errors, Half a Sixpence (West Yorkshire Playhouse).
Opera: The world premiere of The Handmaid’s Tale (Royal Danish Opera, English National Opera, Canadian Opera).
Ballet: Cut to the Chase (English National Ballet).
Lighting
Theatre: For the Almeida: Macbeth, The Cricket Recovers, Man & Boy:Dada, The Embalmer, Heartbreak House. Other Theatre includes: Henry IV pts.1&2; Fix Up; A Prayer for Owen Meany; Further than the Furthest Thing; The Night Season; The Walls (National Theatre), Julius Caesar; Two Gentlemen of Verona (Royal Shakespeare Company), Caligula; After Miss Julie; Henry IV; World Music; The Cosmonaut’s Last Message…(Donmar Warehouse), Flesh Wound; Trust (Royal Court), A Life in the Theatre (Apollo, West End), On the Ceiling (Birmingham Rep & Garrick, West End), ), Japes (Theatre Royal Haymarket, West End), Cuckoos (BITE, Barbican), Neil has also designed lighting for productions at: Sheffield Crucible; Royal Exchange; West Yorkshire Playhouse; Bristol Old Vic, Birmingham Rep, Royal, Northampton; Liverpool Playhouse; Nottingham Playhouse; The Traverse and the Edinburgh International Festival.
Dance includes: Rhapsody (Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House), The Soldier’s Tale (ROH2, Linbury Theatre), Darkness & Light (Orchard Hall Theatre, Tokyo & Expo Dome, Nagoya)
Opera includes: Chorus! (Welsh National Opera), L’Orfeo (Opera City, Tokyo), Pulse Shadows (Queen Elizabeth Hall).
Assistant Director
Theatre includes: As Director: Burlington Bertie Goes to War (Tour), Dutchman (Edinburgh Fringe Festival & The Etcetera Theatre), The Art of Success (The Arcola Theatre), Kvetch (The Etcetera Theatre), Saved (Tour).
As Assistant Director credits include productions at The West Yorkshire Playhouse, The Lyric Hammersmith, The Arts Theatre & The Young Vic.
Sound
Matthew Berry is the Resident Sound Technician at the Almeida Theatre.
Theatre: Sound Design for the Almeida: Man and Boy: Dada, The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, Camera Obsucra, I Take Your Hand in Mine. Also: Tons of Money (Bristol Old Vic), Hedder Gabler (Associate for West End).
Production sound: Brighton Rock (Almeida), The IO Passion (Aldeburgh, Almeida & Bergenz), Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm? (UK Tour), The Embalmer (UK tour), Celebration/The Room (Lincoln centre N.Y.), Lulu (Kennedy Centre, Washington DC), Conversations After a Burial (UK tour), Mr Peter’s Connections (UK tour).
Director: Lindsay Posner
Design: Peter McKintosh
Lighting Design: Neil Austin
Cast Includes: Geff Francis, Nigel Lindsay, John Mahoney, Paul Ready, Nick Sampson, Colin Stinton, Nicholas Woodeson