Stage and screen Three Trinity storytellers talk about finding inspiration, next chapters, and the future of the arts in a post-pandemic world.
Rupert Goold CBE (1991) Q Describe your path since leaving Trinity. I started out as an assistant director to Sam Mendes at the Donmar Warehouse, then went to Salisbury Playhouse, freelanced for a few years, became Artistic Director at Northampton theatres, then Associate Director at the RSC, founded Headlong Theatre Company and since 2013 have been Artistic Director at the Almeida. I’ve squeezed in a few movies and musicals along the way.
Q Did anyone in particular inspire you? How did you get started? My mentor was Jonathan Church who was Artistic Director at Salisbury Playhouse when I arrived as a trainee and believed in me enough to let me direct. I owe him everything. Q What current and forthcoming projects are you excited about? I’m working on a new play about post-Soviet Russia and the rise of the oligarchs that is chilling, and a new musical with Elton John that is warming.
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Q What’s the piece of work you’re most proud of? In terms of legacy, it’s probably a production of Macbeth with Patrick Stewart that went to the West End and Broadway. The film we made of it in 2010 is still the one studied in most schools, which I’m very proud of. I also made a Turandot for ENO that was absolutely murdered by the press which I adored! Q As we move closer to a post-pandemic world, what does this mean for performance, productions, and artists? What does the future look like? I think audiences are desperate to come back. The pandemic reminded us how much we miss live performance and the communal humanism of theatre. It also accelerated the gold-rush of streamer-led film and TV being made in the UK. There has never been a better time to be a writer, technician, or performer in this country in terms of opportunity. I hope the Government continues to offer incentivising tax breaks for work made here because the arts are of incalculable financial and reputational value to the nation, particularly in this post-pandemic, postBrexit landscape. Above all though, I want to see the desperate and self-defeating cuts to arts provision in schools ended. Every child deserves and needs access to culture as they grow up, it should be the first line of the curriculum. 14 THE FOUNTAIN ISSUE 31
