"The World Is Collapsing": Dominic Cook Plans a Bold First Political Season at the Almeida

Exclusive: The new artistic director of London's theatre, grappling with Britain's decline and working with smart glasses, will stage a series of highly political plays next season at one of North London's most prestigious venues. The new director says the world is "falling apart." Exploring Britain's decline with David Tennant and a collection of new plays by Caryl Churchill

A series of highly political plays will be staged at one of north London's most famous theaters next season as its new artistic director says the world is "falling apart".

An exploration of Britain's decline featuring David Tennant and a series of new plays by Caryl Churchill are scheduled for Dominic Cooke's first season at the Almeida Theatre.

"It's hard not to be political these days," Cook said of the show. I don't believe in art telling people what to think, but I do think we need to stage situations, put them in culture that aren't being looked at.

Cook, who ran the Royal Court for several years, is a long-time friend of Tennant and will direct him in the revival of John Osborne's "Entertainer."

"I'm really excited about it," he said. I have known David since he was a drama student; I stayed at his flat once when I was doing a show in Edinburgh. I was impressed by his strictness and intelligence."

He broached the idea of the play to Tennant: "I've been thinking about him doing it for a very long time. We're doing quite a radical repositioning of the play. It really speaks to our time; it deserves to be saved. It's a lot about English identity and empire. It's all about that moment in the 50s when England came to power for the first time in history."

Cook said it was about politics in Britain today: "We have this internal memory of ourselves as this great nation. We're just a relatively big country globally. There's this space where we're trying to deal with that change. Look at Brexit: it was about us ruling the waves, and obviously we're not anymore."

The opening season of Three and One Verses is a collection of short plays by Churchill, who, at 88, is "still as sharp as ever," according to Cook. "It's exciting; he's more on the cutting edge than ever, as provocative, as fascinating. He talks in Three and a Bit about being indifferent to suffering when it's not on your doorstep. It grabs you and creeps up on you in a very unlikely way."

The Almeida will join other theaters, as well as cinemas and pubs, in banning Meta's new smart glasses. "They're horrible, aren't they? Because of their aggressive nature, especially for women," Cook said. People have been banned from filming during performances for years. We will definitely suppress them. "The problem with bloody things is that they are hard to notice and suppress."

Stars including Cate Blanchett, Rosamund Pike, and Gillian Anderson have recently made headlines for distracting and distracting audiences on set. "It's only fair that venues want to control the use of phones because people have the right to decide if they want to be filmed or not," Cook said. The concentration required to deliver a leading performance on stage is immense, and it's easy to get distracted if the phone goes off and a camera is in your face.

Another highlight of the season will be Almeida Young's (14-18) company production of Angel to Olympus, an integrated myth by Flora Wilson Brown, directed by Takiye Kamaria.

Cook wants to work more with young talent after cuts to school drama programs have dried up the pool of new directors. "That's the fascinating part about theater — they work with every single kid in the district. When the arts are reduced in education and removed from the curriculum, these things become more and more important. It's very short-sighted."

One of the reasons I wanted this job was because I was concerned about the talent pipeline. We're trying to find avenues for emerging directors – we have a project coming up on that, which we'll talk more about soon. "You only learn by doing, and you have to have the space to do it."