The Agency Celebrates The Stage 100 2024

For nearly three decades now The Stage 100 has charted the changing face (and faces) of UK theatre. With the top five places often occupied by regulars, we’re delighted to welcome in the new year with the inclusion of some Agency Clients that made this year’s list.

Coming in at #15 we have Agency Client Lynette Linton alongside Mimi Findlay and Daniel Bailey at The Bush.  In 2023, its shows included Lenny Henry’s debut play August in England, directed by artistic director Linton and associate artistic director Bailey. Onstage highlights also included Matilda Feyisayo Ibini’s joyful Sleepova, the return of Tyrell Williams’ Red Pitch (which transfers to the West End this year) and AJ Yi’s A Playlist for the Revolution, which was one of The Stage’s picks of the year and earned director Emily Ling Williams the best director prize at The Stage Debut Awards. Executive director Mimi Findlay joined in April and will oversee, alongside Linton, the launch of several new initiatives, including a partnership with the Carers Network. Linton also directed a rich staging of Clyde’s at the Donmar Warehouse.

At #16 we have Agency Client Sam Mendes and Caro Newling for their work at Neal Street Productions. The stage arm of Mendes and Newling’s multi-art-form production company had a very busy year, with the National Theatre premiere and West End transfer of Mendes’ smart production of Gielgud/Burton drama The Motive and the Cue, the London transfer of the RSC’s Hamnet and another return West End run of The Lehman Trilogy, which plays Sydney and San Francisco in 2024. It is also co-producing Mendes’ latest production, which will reunite him with The Ferryman writer Jez Butterworth for a new play, The Hills of California. Mendes was honoured at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards for his contribution to theatre and away from the stage continued to spearhead the Theatre Artists Fund, which is now running a pioneering – and potentially hugely influential – scheme securing full-time roles for theatre freelancers.

Listed under Regional Theatres we have Agency Client Deborah Warner with Theatre Royal Bath’s Danny Moar. It has been a year of starry sojourns at Theatre Royal Bath, with Trevor Nunn directing Succession actor Brian Cox in The Score, and Dominic West announced to lead a forthcoming cast in A View from the Bridge. But big names haven’t eclipsed the venue’s daring nature, epitomised by a revival of Sophie Treadwell’s 1928 play Machinal – which tells the tale of a “murderess” executed by electric chair. Warner’s direction of the Ustinov Studio has continued to impress, with a thrillingly eclectic smorgasbord of opera, dance  and theatre.

Robert Hastie and Tom Bird also make an appearance on the list for their work at Sheffield Theatre. Their programme included the first regional production of Miss Saigon, co-directed by Hastie and Anthony Lau. Lau’s production of The Good Person of Szechwan was another highlights while its 2019 show Standing at the Sky’s Edge transferred to the National and will move on to the West End this year. It has also continued its commitment to nurturing new talent with the 2024 Bank Cohort announced in November.

Under Producers (not-for-profit) we have Agency Client Chinonyerem Odimba. Under Odimba’s leadership, contemporary theatre company tiata fahodzi (the company styles its name in lower case) scaled new heights. Its programme for the year included a touring production of Papatango Prize-winning playwright Nkenna Akunna’s cheeky little brown (the show title is also styled in lower case). The company continued to provide opportunities for British African heritage artists, inviting six creatives to work with it through its tf PlayLab and artist associate schemes. It also launched Laugh It Off, a comedy writing scheme in partnership with Theatre Centre.

Also under Producers (not-for-profit) we have Agency Client Matthew Xia and his colleague Smaje from Actors Touring Company. One of ATC’s most significant projects of 2023 was The Architect, an immersive production in honour of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, at Greenwich + Docklands International Festival. This was part of a season exploring whether the “painful legacies of history” can be transformed into a “future of hope and possibility”. Other productions in the season included Mojisola Adebayo’s play about the legacy of Henrietta Lacks, Family Tree; and Dave Harris’ Tambo & Bones, which explored the intersection between race, performance and capitalism. Matthew Xia also directed Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going to Happen by…

Agency Client Marcelo Dos Santos! Listed under ‘Rising Stars’, Dos Santos’ work has included an adaptation of children’s book Lionboy for Complicité, but his Royal Court premiere in London was scuppered by the pandemic. His latest play, Backstairs Billy, opened directly into the West End in 2023 at the Duke of York’s Theatre, directed by Michael Grandage and starring Penelope Wilton. The writer gained momentum last year, with his hit Edinburgh Fringe monologue Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going to Happen also transferring to London’s Bush Theatre.