Michael Longhurst has been appointed as the new artistic director at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Longhurst, the acclaimed director of Amadeus at the National Theatre and Constellations at the Royal Court, will take over from outgoing artistic director Josie Rourke at the Covent Garden theatre in March 2019.
Rourke, who worked with Longhurst when she was artistic director at the Bush theatre, in west London, and has collaborated with him at the Donmar, called him “one of the most gifted, original and impressive directors in the country”. She also described Longhurst as a “deeply kind and thoughtful leader who commands huge respect in the theatre community”.
It will be the 37-year-old’s first role running a major building. He trained in directing at Mountview after studying philosophy at Nottingham University. His recent productions have included Amy Herzog’s Belleville, starring James Norton and Imogen Poots, at the Donmar and Caroline, or Change, starring Sharon D Clarke, at Chichester Festival theatre. That production receives a West End transfer later this year. Longhurst had a hit with Nick Payne’s Constellations, starring Sally Hawkins and Rafe Spall, which transferred to the West End after its Royal Court run and also went to Broadway in 2015.
In a statement, Longhurst said he was “deeply honoured” by the appointment. “I saw my first show at the Donmar aged 15 and later even slept overnight on the street in the returns queue.”
When it opened, the Donmar occupied a site once used as a brewery and a banana-ripening warehouse. It later became a rehearsal space and a London home for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Sam Mendes was appointed artistic director of the 251-seat theatre in 1992, followed in 2002 by Michael Grandage. Rourke arrived in 2012 and announced her departure at the start of this year. Her debut as a film director, Mary Queen of Scots, starring Margot Robbie, Saoirse Ronan and David Tennant is scheduled for release later this year.
Michael Billington’s verdict: ‘A delight in theatricality’
Following in the footsteps of Sam Mendes, Michael Grandage and Josie Rourke, Michael Longhurst has a pretty big task ahead of him. What is encouraging, at a time when many of his generation opt for the random rewards of the freelance life, is to find Longhurst willing to take responsibility for running a building: especially one where, in the current climate, a vast amount of the director’s time goes into promotional fundraising as well as putting on plays.
Longhurst’s career to date – and he’s still only 37 – has covered the waterfront but, if I had to find a consistent thread, it would be his unashamed delight in theatricality. I first really became aware of him in 2009 when he directed a site-specific production of Adam Brace’s Stovepipe that took the audience on a journey through a Shepherd’s Bush shopping complex standing in for Amman and Baghdad. But the production that put Longhurst on the map was Nick Payne’s Constellations in 2012. Starting in the tiny Royal Court Upstairs before moving to the West End and Broadway, this was a Stoppardian play that was a mix of romcom and quantum physics and was beautifully staged: the blend of sentiment and science was somehow captured by designer Tom Scutt’s white balloons that floated ethereally above the heads of Rafe Spall and Sally Hawkins as the enraptured lovers.
Longhurst has done his share of the classics, including Tis Pity She’s a Whore and The Winter’s Tale at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, but latterly he has brought this theatrical flair to musical drama. His revival of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus at the Olivier in 2016 was a revelation. Putting the 20-strong Southbank Sinfonia on stage, along with six singers and 16 actors, he highlighted Shaffer’s delight in theatrical spectacle: when the musicians swarmed round Salieri like eager supplicants, you also got a striking reminder of the once-famous Salieri’s hollow fame. Last year at Chichester, Longhurst also caught perfectly the wild inventiveness of Caroline, Or Change – a musical with a score by Jeanine Tesori and book and lyrics by Tony Kushner – that includes everything from singing washing machines to a crooning night bus.
Longhurst’s task is now to maintain the Donmar’s high standards while giving it a more distinct identity. Under Rourke it has offered a rich mix of shows – ranging from Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female Shakespeares to James Graham’s exploration of topical themes – but Longhurst needs to redefine its moral purpose while preserving his delight in theatricality.
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