As Sam Mendes starts previewing Charlie And The Chocolate Factory at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Josie Rourke, one of his successors as artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, has confided that she might not have got the job had she not said no to the Skyfall director early on in her career.
At a party in New York for the Donmar in Sardi’s restaurant, off Broadway, Rourke admitted Mendes unsuccessfully asked her to come to the Big Apple with him in 2003, when he was directing Uncle Vanya and The Cherry Orchard.
“I’d never been to New York but I had to make a choice between coming to this city or starting my career as a freelance director in England. I chose the other path.... clearly I made the right call.”
Rourke is in the Big Apple to unveil two autumn productions: the all-female Julius Caesar that will be staged at Brooklyn venue
St Ann’s Warehouse and the Garry Kasparov chess-themed drama The Machine, directed by Rourke, which will be at the Park Avenue Armory. No word if an assistant director will join her Stateside.
