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 Donmar Warehouse in 2015 | |
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| Address | Earlham Street London,WC2 United Kingdom |
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| Public transit |  Covent Garden |
| Type | Off-West End, Nonprofit organization |
| Capacity | 251 plus 20 standing places |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Website | |
| www | |
TheDonmar Warehouse is a 251-seat,not-for-profitOff-West Endtheatre inCovent Garden,London, England. It first opened on 18 July 1977.
Sam Mendes,Michael Grandage,Josie Rourke andMichael Longhurst have all served as artistic director, a post held since March 2024 byTim Sheader.[1] The theatre produces new writing, contemporary reappraisals of European classics, British and American drama and small-scale musical theatre.
As well as presenting at least six productions a year at its home inCovent Garden, as well transferring shows to the West End, Broadway and elsewhere.
Theatrical producerDonald Albery formed Donmar Productions around 1953,[2] with the name derived from the first three letters of his name and the first three letters of his friend, ballerina Margot Fonteyn.[3] In 1961, he bought the warehouse, a building that in the 1870s had been a vat room andhops warehouse for the local brewery in Covent Garden, and in the 1920s had been used as a film studio and then the Covent Garden Market banana-ripening depot.[3] His sonIan Albery, a producer and theatre design consultant, converted the warehouse into a private rehearsal studio.[3]
In 1977, theRoyal Shakespeare Company acquired it as a theatre and renamed itWarehouse, converting and equipping at "immense speed".[4] The first show, which opened on 18 July 1977, wasSchweik in the Second World War, directed byHoward Davies, which transferred from theOther Place in Stratford. The electricity for the theatre was turned on just 30 minutes before curtain up, and the concrete steps up to the theatre were still wet.[4]
The Warehouse was an RSC workshop as much as a showcase and the seasons includedTrevor Nunn's Stratford 1976Macbeth, starringJudi Dench andIan McKellen, which opened at the Covent Garden venue in September 1977 before transferring to theYoung Vic. The RSC went on to stage numerous productions, both original and transfers fromThe Other Place, Stratford. In 1980 nearly all the RSC company were involved inNicholas Nickleby so a new two hander was found from the pile of submitted scripts.Educating Rita, withJulie Walters and Mark Kingston directed byMike Ockrent, went on to be one of the RSC's biggest successes.
From 1983 to 1989 it came under the artistic directorship ofNica Burns.
In 1989, Roger Wingate was responsible for the acquisition of the Donmar Warehouse, following which it was completely rebuilt and re-equipped prior to its reopening in 1992. Wingate appointedSam Mendes as the theatre's first Artistic Director.[5] Wingate is Honorary Life President of the Donmar.[6]
The Donmar became an independent producing house in 1992 withSam Mendes as artistic director. His opening production wasStephen Sondheim'sAssassins. He followed this with a series of classic revivals.
Among Mendes' productions wereJohn Kander andFred Ebb'sCabaret,Tennessee Williams'sThe Glass Menagerie,Stephen Sondheim'sCompany,Alan Bennett'sHabeas Corpus and his farewell duo ofChekhov'sUncle Vanya andTwelfth Night, which transferred to theBrooklyn Academy of Music.
Under Mendes,Matthew Warchus's production ofSam Shepard'sTrue West,Katie Mitchell's ofBeckett'sEndgame,David Leveaux's ofSophocles'sElektra andTom Stoppard'sThe Real Thing were all productions at Donmar. Mendes' successorMichael Grandage directed some of the key productions of the later part of Mendes' tenure, includingPeter Nichols'sPassion Play andPrivates on Parade and Sondheim'sMerrily We Roll Along.
In 2002Michael Grandage succeededSam Mendes as Artistic Director. Grandage appointedDouglas Hodge andJamie Lloyd as Associate Directors; in 2007Rob Ashford succeeded Hodge.
For its revivals of foreign plays, the company regularly commissioned new translations or versions, includingIbsen'sThe Wild Duck (David Eldridge),Racine'sPhaedra (Frank McGuinness),Dario Fo'sAccidental Death of an Anarchist (Simon Nye) andStrindberg'sCreditors (David Greig).
Its musical productions includedGrand Hotel and theStephen Sondheim works,Pacific Overtures,Merrily We Roll Along,Company,Into the Woods and the 1992 production ofAssassins that openedSam Mendes' tenure as Artistic Director.
Under the umbrella of Warehouse Productions, the theatre sometimes opened shows in the West End. Including 1999'sSuddenly Last Summer and 2005'sGuys and Dolls.
Many well-known actors have appeared at the theatre, includingNicole Kidman (The Blue Room),Gwyneth Paltrow (Proof),Ian McKellen (The Cut) andEwan McGregor (Othello).[7]
With only 250 seats, the tickets forOthello starring McGregor were in such demand that Grandage feared it could become "a bad news story".[8] His response was to plan a one-year season at the 750-seatWyndham's Theatre, four major new productions presented byDonmar West End. It commenced on 12 September 2008, withKenneth Branagh in the title role ofChekhov'sIvanov, given in a new version byTom Stoppard and directed by Grandage.[9] The West End season continued withDerek Jacobi inTwelfth Night,Judi Dench inYukio Mishima'sMadame de Sade andJude Law inHamlet, all directed by Grandage.
Following the Donmar West End season, the Donmar held three productions internationally: transfers ofRed,Piaf andCreditors, to Broadway, Madrid and theBrooklyn Academy of Music respectively.[10][11] Furthermore, from 30 September through December, the Donmar had the first of three year resident spots atTrafalgar Studios 2, in order to showcase its past Resident Assistant Directors.[12]
In February 2011, the Donmar collaborated with theNational Theatre Live programme to broadcast its production ofKing Lear, starringDerek Jacobi, to cinemas around the world. With over 350 screens in 20 countries, this single performance ofKing Lear was seen by more than 30,000 people.[13]
In January 2012,Josie Rourke became the third Artistic Director in the Donmar's history. The first production under her leadership wasGeorge Farquhar'sThe Recruiting Officer, which Rourke also directed. Her first season also includedRobert Holman's 1987 play,Making Noise Quietly, directed byPeter Gill;Jack Thorne's new version ofThe Physicists by Swiss playwrightFriedrich Duerrenmatt;Brian Friel'sPhiladelphia, Here I Come!, directed by Lyndsey Turner; and Rourke's own production ofJean Racine'sBerenice, in a new translation byAlan Hollinghurst andPhyllida Lloyd's all femaleJulius Caesar, which later went on to play at theSt. Ann's Warehouse, New York.
The Donmar built a temporary,in-the-round, 420-seat theatre next toKing's Cross station. This theatre housed the all-female Shakespeare trilogy: The Tempest, Julius Caesar and Henry IV, directed byPhyllida Lloyd, from September to December 2016.[14][15]
In June 2018,Michael Longhurst was named the fourth Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse. Longhurst's previous credits includeConstellations at theRoyal Court Theatre andAmadeus at theNational Theatre.
Longhurst's first season at the Donmar started on 20 June 2019 withDavid Greig’sEurope, followed by the UK premiere ofAppropriate byBranden Jacobs-Jenkins. Further planned productions include[Blank] byAlice Birch, the UK premiere ofMike Lew'sTeenage Dick and the season closes withCaryl Churchill'sFar Away.[16] He directed a revival ofConstellations in the West End with four different casts. The theatre reopened in September 2021 and further productions includedHenry VwithKit Harington, Macbeth withDavid Tennant andCush Jumbo, and the musicalsThe Band's Visit andNext to Normal.
In March 2024,Tim Sheader took over as artistic director[17]
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