Before it was a theatre
1690s
Thomas Neal MP established the Seven Dials area, hoping it would become as popular with well-off residents as the nearby Piazza. Instead Seven Dials became one of the most notorious slums in London.
1870s
Seven Dials was taken over by workshops and breweries. What will become the Donmar was a vat room and hop warehouse for the local brewery in Covent Garden.
1920s
The warehouse was used as a silent film studio, and then the Covent Garden Market banana ripening-depot.
1960s
Donald Albery formed Donmar Productions (amalgamating his first name and his wife’s second name – Margaret) and purchased what would become the Donmar Warehouse. During this time, the Donmar played host to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and the London Festival Ballet.
1970s and 1980s
The Donmar became the home for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s studio productions before it was taken under the management of Ian Albery and Nica Burns. It became the West End home for Britain’s most innovative touring companies, including Cheek by Jowl, plus stand-up comedy and cabaret.
The Donmar as we know it
1990s
In 1989, Roger Wingate’s ACT purchased the theatre and began a major renovation. In 1990 Sam Mendes was invited to take up residency as Artistic Director and opened the refurbished theatre in 1992 with the UK premiere of Sondheim’s Assassins. Other productions under his direction included Cabaret, Company, Uncle Vanya, Twelfth Night, Proof with Gwyneth Paltrow, and The Blue Room with Nicole Kidman. Directors working at the Donmar around this time included Matthew Warchus, Katie Mitchell, David Leveaux and Michael Grandage. ATG took over from Roger Wingate and ACT as the landlord of the Donmar in 1999.
2000s
Michael Grandage became Artistic Director in 2002. Productions under Grandage’s tenure included Frost/ Nixon, Piaf, Mary Stuart with Harriet Walter and Janet McTeer, Othello with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellen in The Cut and Eddie Redmayne and Alfred Molina in Red. A high profile West End season featured Kenneth Branagh, Jude Law, Judi Dench, Tom Hiddleston and Rosamund Pike. A production of King Lear with Derek Jacobi marked the first time NT Live was broadcast from a venue other than the National Theatre.
2010s
In 2011, the Donmar purchased its Dryden Street home, including a rehearsal space, offices and education studio. In 2012 Josie Rourke and Kate Pakenham were appointed as Artistic Director and Executive Director; the first all-female leadership team of a major London theatre. They created a programme that saw the Donmar reach new audiences in the UK and overseas, especially New York, alongside innovative ticket access schemes. A number of hit productions were broadcast across the world with NT Live, including Coriolanus with Tom Hiddleston, Les Liaisons Dangereuses with Janet McTeer and Dominic West, and Saint Joan with Gemma Arterton. This bold programming continued with James Graham’s Privacy, and The Vote – broadcast live on More4 on the night of the 2015 election – and the all-female Shakespeare Trilogy staged at Donmar King’s Cross.
Michael Longhurst took over as Artistic Director in March 2019, joined by Executive Director Henny Finch. During their tenure, the theatre was nominated for 19 Olivier Awards. Productions included new plays by writers such as Lucy Kirkwood, Jack Thorne, Lynn Nottage, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Alice Birch; classics such as Kit Harington in Henry V and Macbeth with David Tennant and Cush Jumbo (which transferred to the West End and was broadcast in cinemas internationally to over 200,000 people), and Best New Musical Olivier nominees The Band’s Visit and Next to Normal (also West End). During the pandemic, the Donmar produced Blindness with Juliet Stevenson which toured the world during 2020, and Longhurst’s sell-out production of Constellations, with four different casts, which broke box office records at the Vaudeville Theatre. In 2021, there was a major capital refurbishment of the theatre, to bring it up to date in terms of accessibility, sustainability and audience experience.
Today
Tim Sheader became the Artistic Director of the Donmar, and joint CEO alongside Henny Finch, in March 2024. His first season included Adrien Brody in The Fear of 13,Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 – nominated for 8 Olivier Awards including Best New Play and Best New Musical – and acclaimed revivals of Patrick Marber’s Dealer’s Choice and Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel.
