The Donmar to set up King’s Cross theatre and round off all-female Bard trilogy

The theatre is also giving away hundreds of free tickets to those aged 25 and under in a bid to attract a new, younger audience
Nothing like a dame: Harriet Walter as Brutus in the Donmar’s all-female Julius Caesar
Helen Maybanks

The Donmar is building a 420-seat temporary theatre in King’s Cross to stage the final part of Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female Shakespeare trilogy.

The theatre is also giving away hundreds of free tickets to those aged 25 and under in a bid to attract a new, younger audience.

Dame Harriet Walter is returning to lead the company for the 13-week season, which includes revivals of its previously performed all-female Julius Caesar and Henry IV, and a new all-female production of The Tempest in which she will play Prospero.

The theatre’s artistic director, Josie Rourke, said the decision to move the plays from its Covent Garden base was influenced by the success of their New York transfer. There they were performed in the round, which is not possible at the 271-seat Donmar.

Mission: the Donmar’s artistic director Josie Rourke
Dave Benett

Ms Rourke said: “One of the things we found out when we did the original production is the interest and the demand for the plays stretched beyond what the Donmar could contain. The new theatre is right by the underground entrance and is basically a tent, but a very nice tent.

“It is great to do something there which is a really buzzy part of London at the moment, but also when the plays were put on in the round in Brooklyn they just worked and there is something about it that suits these very dynamic shows.”

A quarter of all the tickets will be free for theatregoers aged 25 and under. Private backers are subsidising the majority of them, although the theatre is asking its audience to help pay for the remaining 1,500.

Ms Rourke, 39, said: “There is a big conversation going on now, that we are right in the middle of, about diversity and who appears in Shakespeare plays, but at the same time we need to be talking about who watches them. There was a 2013 report which said just under half of young Londoners had never attended the theatre or gone to a gallery or a live music event and we have to change that. We are asking our audience if they feel able to pay it forward and pass on their enthusiasm.”

What to see at the theatre – in pictures

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Lloyd, 58, directed her all-female Julius Caesar at the Donmar Warehouse in 2012, followed by the Henry IV two years later, with Dame Harriet, 65, playing Brutus and King Henry.

Lloyd said the plays, which set Shakespeare’s works in a women’s prison, were intended to a be a one-off “celebration” after Ms Rourke and executive producer Kate Pakenham were put in charge of the Donmar, but had become “a mission”.

She added: “I always say there is no conspiracy stopping women or minorities being on stage, it is just that if we aren’t men don’t always notice. It’s just blindness.”

The temporary theatre will be open from September 23 until December 17.

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