Ellen McDougall News

Tickets from £23 for As You Like It at Shakespeare's Globe. Celebrate love, transformation, and community in Shakespeare’s joyous comedy, As You Like It, in the Globe Theatre.

Its strength is obviously in its joyous and uncompromising queer nature. McDougall casts it entirely gender-blind, making it a piece where gender doesn’t matter, even though its role is at the very core of it. They turn it into an exploration of the performative quality of identity with plenty of tongue-in-cheek moments that tug at the artifice of drama.

Shakespeare’s Globe has announced the cast of As You Like It, directed by Ellen McDougall. Learn more about the cast here!

The Royal Opera House has announced Insurrection: A work in progress – a series of semi-staged sharings in the Linbury Theatre, based on a new work currently in development that explores how we come together to understand the legacy of enslavement.

Shakespeare’s Globe has announced the Summer Season, running from April – October 2023.  Learn more about the lineup here!

Read the reviews for Lillian Hellman's masterpiece political thriller Watch on the Rhine at Donmar Warehouse.

Lillian Hellman’s play is a time capsule of American non-interventionism under the guise of a comedy of manners that suddenly becomes a historical thriller.

From Emma Corrin's return to the stage, a Disney success coming to London for the first time and some suitably festive treats, December brings a wealth of fantastic shows to London.

All new rehearsal photos have been released for Lillian Hellman’s masterpiece political thriller Watch on the Rhine. The cast includes Kate Duchêne (Anise), Caitlin FitzGerald (Sara Muller) and Patricia Hodge (Fanny Farrelly), with John Light (Teck de Brancovis), Carlyss Peer (Marthe de Brancovis), Geoffrey Streatfeild (David Farrelly), Mark Waschke (Kurt Muller) and David Webber (Joseph).

Artistic Director Michael Longhurst and Executive Director Henny Finch have announced the full casting for Lillian Hellman's masterpiece political thriller Watch on the Rhine.

Artistic Director Michael Longhurst and Executive Director Henny Finch have announced the first three shows in the Donmar's 30th anniversary season and plans for the theatre's birthday celebrations.

The trustees of HighTide announced that they have appointed Clare Slater, currently Head of New Work at the Donmar Warehouse as the next Artistic Director of HighTide. She will lead the company alongside Executive Director Rowan Rutter as joint Chief Executives. Clare takes over from Suba Das, former Artistic Director and Chief Executive of HighTide.

The Gate Theatre today announced the appointment of Stef O'Driscoll as the company's new Interim Artistic Director. Stef will take up the position in March taking over from Ellen McDougall, who stepped down as Artistic Director in December after five years in the role.

“I wish you weren’t so far away” says Robert Rowell to Elizabeth Bishop in the return of Gate Theatre’s 2019 production of Dear Elizabeth. Staged at Theatro Technis this time around, Ellen McDougall’s concept for Sara Ruhl’s play is still the main focus rather than the actual plot of it. Each night, a pair of actors who haven’t read the script and don’t know much about the contents of the show go on a treasure hunt reading Bishop and Rowell’s letters.

Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell were two of America’s most brilliant poets. From 1947 - 1977 they wrote over 400 letters to each other; spanning decades, continents and political eras.  Their connection was messy and profound, platonic yet romantic, distant and intense. A love that resists easy definition.

Gate Generations is the creative digital response to the theatre's extraordinary 40-year history from the venue's Young Associates.  It offers an unprecedented opportunity to glimpse into the Gate's celebrated archive with five intriguing vignettes inspired by some of its landmark productions. 

The Gate Theatre has announced the appointment of Shawab Iqbal as its new Executive Director and Joint Chief Executive. Shawab will take up the position in January 2021, succeeding Lise Bell who leaves the company to start a new position as Executive Director of The Director's Theatre Writer's Theatre.

From the team who created the Gate's critically acclaimed production of Dear Elizabeth, Letters is a funny and often moving reflection on the global situation we find ourselves in.

The Donmar Warehouse announces casting for Ellen McDougall's new production of Suzan-Lori Parks' play In the Blood. Nikki Amuka-Bird will return to the Donmar in the role of Hester alongside April Koyejo-Audiger, Paul Bazely, Ginny Holder, Martins Imhangbe, Sinead Matthews and Sule Rimi.

A nameless woman starts writing a novel in Mexico City. She is regularly interrupted by her family as she tells about a younger version of herself living wildly in New York and little known poets in need of translation. Her reality interweaves with memories from different, distant lives as she transcends narratives through exceptionally vivid storytelling. Valeria Luiselli's 2011 novel Faces in the Crowd (originally translated by Christina McSweeney) is directed and adapted by the Gate Theatre's artistic director Ellen McDougall in a quiet but intense production.