Calling all StageSiders, welcome back to another installment of StageSide Stories here at StageSideUK. This time around we talk to the Artistic Director of Greenwich Theatre, James Haddrell. So settle in and lets learn more about the role of an artistic director and the need for theatre spaces in the UK.
To start us off, could you introduce yourself and give us a little information on what your role as Artistic Director at Greenwich Theatre consists of?
Of course. My role here has evolved. I started work here in 2001 as press officer and gradually worked my way up via marketing manager to executive director. At that time we weren’t producing aside from the annual Panto, but I worked a lot to support emerging artists and build a co-production model with those artists. Then, not long before the pandemic, my title changed to artistic director to acknowledge that work, and we began producing. I now work in partnership with a great executive director, James Turner – a model which enables me to work more consistently on producing and building artistic partnerships. Now we are producing consistently, working with some of the most exciting writers at work today, and launching a new producing arm.
2026 is set to be a great year for Greenwich Theatre, could you outline what the launch of Greenwich Theatre Productions means for the organisation?
Absolutely. It means a division in how our company is understood – we run a venue, Greenwich Theatre, which sits at the heart of a loyal local community, supports local artists, and presents work by visiting companies through the year. However, at the same time we are now consistently producing several shows a year, and while our base is in Greenwich those shows can take place anywhere. Therefore we launched Greenwich Theatre Productions, distinct from our venue, with the capacity to tour, transfer and produce elsewhere.
What prompted the decision to create a dedicated producing arm now, and how does it build on the work Greenwich Theatre has already been doing in-house?
The decision has come at a moment when our producing aspirations have outstripped our venue capacity. I have never believed that we should become a solely producing house – there are too many emerging and touring artists and companies who need a stage in London to showcase their work, bringing it to wider industry, media and public audiences, but that means our capacity to host in-house work is limited. This season we have four shows in production which overlap – something which would never be possible in one venue.
Greenwich Theatre Productions will see work presented beyond the theatre building, with shows heading to Park Theatre, Southwark Playhouse Borough and King’s Head Theatre in 2026. How does producing for different spaces change the way you think about a show?
I’ve always thought that part of the skill of a good programmer is recognising the right venue for the right show. There are scripts that I’ve read and loved over the years that I’d desperately like to produce, but they are either too big or too small for our Greenwich stage. For example, last year we took a production of Nick Payne’s One Day When We Were Young to the Park Theatre to test the model before launching Greenwich Theatre Productions. The show is a beautiful two-hander that follows a couple from their youth in the Second World War through to old age – it demands an intimate space for an audience or their delicate unresolved love story would be lost, but it needs the space for a set that can accommodate several decade changes (not to mention an air-raid). Our studio would be too small and our main house too big. Park90 was perfect. That logic sits with each of the pieces we have chosen this spring – an intimate thriller headed for the Little at Southwark Playhouse, an immersive bar location at the Park Theatre, and a low-tech high impact collection of shorts for the late slot at Kings Head Theatre.
The 2026 season brings together new writing, revivals and adaptations. What connects these choices for you artistically?
We have developed something of a reputation in recent years for producing lesser known titles by major writers, and those writers have supported us on that journey. A rewritten, rarely seen Jez Butterworth, stage premieres of writing for radio by Caryl Churchill, a deconstructed Berkoff classic and a reimagined early drama by Joe Penhall – in each case the writers have approved changes or made them themselves, revitalising work that has not been seen for a long time or has not been seen by a wide audience. That sits at the heart of the new season – The Wasp is by the writer of the much more widely known Globe and West End hit Emilia, America the Beautiful is a near-definitive collection of short plays by a major name in US theatre and film making, and The Swallowing Dark has only been seen in London at the tiny Theatre503. All of these have been revisited by the writers for us.
Alongside that we have our summer show, which gives us a forum for new writing – in this case a new version of The Little Mermaid – and we have also been invited to revive our immersive version of Jim Cartwright’s TWO. If there is a unifying feature to the shows in the season, it’s a chance to re-engage with a story or a writer that audiences may think they know, but maybe don’t know as well as they think…
There’s a strong balance between established voices and rarely-revived work. How important is that sense of rediscovery or re-introduction in your programming?
I think it’s important, for audiences and for the industry, that this kind of offer exists. There are houses dedicated to new writing, and there are houses with a strong classics programme, but playwrights of the last 30 or 40 years often fall between the two – and the desire that we’ve found among these writers to see their earlier or lesser produced work not only revived but re-evaluated and re-imagined feels like a strong endorsement of what we’re doing.
The transfer of TWO and a new staging of The Wasp, combined with the venues the company will visit, suggest a continued interest in intimacy and audience proximity. What draws you to that kind of theatrical experience?
I have always loved shows where you can feel the actors breathing, where you can share a space with them and occupy a story with them. I’ve seen amazing shows on major stages, and those shows offer the opportunity for huge and exciting spectacle, but those productions feature actors showing you something, not being something. A story is being presented to you, no matter how good the performances, as an act of display. When you can get up close to the actors, that changes, and display can be replaced by immersion, you stop watching as an outsider at one remove and you can share the experiences of the characters in a much more genuine way. That’s the kind of theatre that I love.
Alongside some of the darker, more challenging work, there’s also a new musical Romeo and Juliet and a family-friendly Little Mermaid. How do you approach programming for such a wide audience?
For me we still seek coherence in a season or a year – a reimagined Shakespeare belongs on the same stage as a reimagined Jim Cartwright, both poets for their generations, and a new Little Mermaid is as exciting for children as a new Neil LaBute is for adults. In every case we will seek to challenge our audiences, not to patronise, to surprise them, to excite them, and to work with some of the best writers and actors around.
Looking ahead, what do you hope audiences across London will come to associate with a ‘Greenwich Theatre Production’?
That sits at the heart of the strategy to launch the new producing arm. We regularly hear that audiences coming to our in-house work are surprised by the quality. It’s time for that to change, and for audiences to expect that quality and to hold us to account if we fall short. A Greenwich Theatre Production is textually rich, innovatively designed, intellectually or emotionally challenging, something which sparks discussion and debate on the way home, and something people will recommend on to their friends.
And finally, if you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring artistic director, what would it be?
Match your show to your space, believe in your vision, and regardless of the size of your venue never forget the next wave of artists and what you can do to keep the industry growing.
A huge thank you to James for sharing your insights and experience of being an artistic director. It is particularly interesting to learn about your growth and continued professional career from marketing executive to Artistic Director within the same company.
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