Albion comes to screens

Watch on BBC

Mike Bartlett’s play Albion, directed for the stage by Rupert Goold, is a tragicomic drama about national identity, family, passion and the disappointment of personal dreams.

Filmed at London’s Almeida Theatre, the play is set in the garden of an English country house. The house has been bought by successful businesswoman Audrey Walters, who intends to restore the ruined garden to its former glory and create a memorial to the son she recently lost in a foreign war.

Watch on the BBC

It was broadcast on Sunday 16 August at 10.10pm on BBC Four, and available on BBC iPlayer immediately after broadcast.

The cast also includes Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People) and Angel Coulby (Merlin).

*****     “The play that Britain needs right now”  The Daily Telegraph

*****     “Deeply absorbing. Victoria Hamilton is gloriuos.”    The Independent

Albion at the Almeida. Angel Coulby (Anna). Photo credit Marc Brenner.  A woman  is outside. She looks aggravated, shouting at another woman and her left arm is outstretched
Albion at the Almeida. Angel Coulby (Anna). Photo credit Marc Brenner.

Production information

The screen director for Albion is Rhodri Huw, with whom IIluminations worked in 2018 on the Almeida’s Hamlet with Andrew Scott, and the associate producer is David Gopsill.

Paul Freeman is the camera supervisor and Andy Rose the sound supervisor. Sarah Hull is production manager, Morag Macintosh the vision mixer and Stephanie Rose script supervisor. The post-production edit was carried out by Steve Eveleigh and David, and the team worked with StormHD for finishing and file delivery.

A skilled broadcast team of some 30 people collaborated with Rupert Goold and Mike Bartlett, who were both intimately involved as executive producers throughout the process, with the exceptional cast and with the brilliant theatre team at the Almeida.

Illuminations recorded with multiple cameras two full runs of the show at the end of the Almeida run in February, and did a day of additional single camera filming on the stage. The edit and audio mix were complex and lengthy, and made more challenging as they coincided with the early stages of lockdown. Every shot was considered, every audio cue weighed, and a multitude of small adjustments were made.

About this artist

The Almeida Theatre makes brave new work that asks big questions: of plays, of theatre and of the world around us. It brings together the most exciting artists to take risks; to provoke, inspire and surprise audiences; to interrogate the present, dig up the past and imagine the future. The Almeida makes argument for theatre as an essential force in an increasingly fragmented society.