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Sue MooreARTISTIC ROUNDUP MAY 2026

So…… we let it go…….Frozen has concluded and it was a huge artistic triumph.  The audience universally applauded its content, its staging, the cast’s talent, the directorial detail and choices and the courage of the Loft to stage it.  I am enormously proud of the collective achievement of the entire Frozen company for enhancing the Loft’s reputation for outstanding theatre and offering our audiences the chance to see a great piece of writing expertly handled.  My thanks go to Dave Crossfield, Jo Stevely and the entire company for their commitment to Bryony Lavery’s expertly structured play.

Hot on the heels of this main house production, we opened Pontypool by Tony Burgess in the Studio, directed by Hannah Brown; a play of enormous importance to her.  It was realised by the combined might of the Pontypool company, bringing their powers to bear to stage one of the trickiest genres – horror – particularly in an intimate space.  The audience embraced it, avoided the red stuff and endorsed the studio as an exciting space for exploratory theatre.

In the middle of all of this, we welcomed our Production Manager, Amy Carroll, back from maternity leave and we said farewell to Caitlin Mills, who has expertly covered for her for 8 months.  We are hoping Caitlin can find ways to share her creativity with us in the future.

Next up in the main house is Love, Love, Love by Mike Bartlett.  Mike Bartlett is a multi award winning writer for both stage and screen. I have seen 8 of his plays professionally, directed two of them at the Loft and, along with many of you I am sure, watched the Doctor Foster series on the TV, which is returned for its final series later this year.  I have also been to a conference in London for contemporary playwrights and heard him talk about his work.  He was the resident playwright for some years at the National Theatre.  I say this to reassure you that you are in the safest hands of an outstanding writer.  He wouldn’t get that coveted role without immense skill. Described by the Telegraph as “a bang-on-the-money new play” when it premiered, it sets out to examine the personal and the political through the lives of a baby boomer couple and their children. The dialogue sparkles with perfectly observed comments on youth, middle age and idealism.   It cleverly highlights both laughter and pain and asks questions of what, if anything, we owe the next generation or are we destined to disappoint them?  As the mother, Sandra, says:-

“I assumed that our kids would reach heights we never imagined, change the world entirely………..But look at them.  They sit on computers, not living, typing messages about nothing.  Watching meaningless videos and waiting for Friday night. They want to be rich and famous, in fact that’s all they want to be, but they never life a fucking finger”.

Bartlett is a playwright of our times, don’t miss it.

Elsewhere in the theatre, we are auditioning for the autumn productions, I have started rehearsals for Summer and Smoke with my cast and have also turned my attention to scheduling 2027.  It’s all go!

Thank you all for your constancy in supporting our programme of work. As we make final decisions this month about the largest capital project the theatre has faced in its 104 year history, every single ticket matters; matters hugely to us.

As a theatre who throughout our history has received no public funding, we are now facing a spend of half a million pounds to secure the infrastructure of the theatre. We hope you may be able to support our ambition to continue creating great theatre, by making a donation towards the costs of this project.  Please head to the Loft’s website if you can contribute and help us continue to bring brilliant writing to the stage, plays you would not normally get to see outside London.  That’s our intent and to work always towards professional standards.  As our garden starts to flourish we too will continue to not just survive, but to hopefully flourish with your help.  

On y va

SUE MOORE : ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
MAY 2026