Alexander has been quoted as saying that ‘people are tired of the Beckettian – Pinterish ‘mode of theatre’. He’s a little surprised to hear it repeated to him, ‘that’s very controversial of me’, but he sees it as a fashion in theatre which isn’t linked to what he regards as the tradition in theatre. 

The Absurdist form doesn’t sit well with Alexander’s philosophies. “There was that trend for a while in theatre, very much to show individuals on stage who are not connecting in any meaningful way, and they’re part of a universe that’s felt to be fundamentally meaningless and menacing.” 

He’s more interested in Theatre which extends back to the Greeks, through Shakespeare and Schiller and Miller, where things may be dark and difficult and you’re exploring evil and social disorder but it’s taking place within a world in which people can meet in love and there is some fundamental meaning.

The Marylebone building is Rudolf Steiner House, and the theatre was the Steiner Hall for 97 years. It underwent a rebrand three years ago when Alexander became Artistic Director, and the venue was relaunched as Marylebone Theatre.    It’s not a separate entity, Alexander is employed by the Steiner Society. ‘We’re very much wanting to infuse our work with qualities that arise out of Rudolf Steiner’s vision for theatre which was profound and important to his life’s work.’ Steiner wrote four plays and gave lecture courses on the history of theatre and the potential future of theatre.  It was a great inspiration to Michael Chekhov (amongst others). Nephew to the playwright Anton Chekhov, Michael was a Russian American actor and theatre practitioner who influence ‘everyone’ from Marilyn Munroe to Yul Brynner, to Johnny Depp and many others.

Steiner believed that theatre is rooted in sacred ritual and in our times needs to be consciously rediscovered; to draw back the veil on a spiritual world that lies behind this one.   So, Alexander is definitely interested in theatre that goes beyond naturalism; ‘to explore other dimensions of human experience including angels, demons, the existence of human beings, afterlife and rebirth.’

YENTYL is currently showing at Marylebone Theatre; a play adapted from an original short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Many people make the association with the 1983 musical starring Babara Steisand but this production from Melbourne’s Kadimah Yiddish Theatre is a play. Having already reviewed it, Alexander is quite right to say that the work of the actors and the director is just simply beautiful; very gorgeously done with a story that has real depth.  Alexander thinks that it’s a highly imaginative piece of theatre which connects to Steiner’s work. ‘There’s a character in it who is non-human, coming out of a different dimension, so it’s a play that’s touching on those larger spiritual realms.’

The show is in English and Yiddish (with subtitles for those who need it) which is very interesting to hear. Alexander programmed the work after he saw a recording sent to him by someone who has a good eye for international work.   It fits very well with the rest of the programming and at the same time it’s of particular interest to the Jewish community in the area who have become a part of their audience base. 

Alexander himself grew up with mixed Iranian and British heritage. His family emigrated to India, so he’s a little removed from the horrors occurring in Iran right now. He doesn’t feel Anglo Saxon in his character, as he has his roots in the middle east and his family in India. He grew up in a very North London Jewish environment, so the programming feels like ‘home’. ‘I wanted to bring theatre from around the world that was exploring Britishness but also bigger global culture.’   Later in the year the theatre welcomes a show about the good old British boozer, OUR PUBLIC HOUSE.

Meanwhile, this brings us back round to Arthur Miller’s THE PRICE which opens 17 April.   It’s a little closer to home, set in the West. Miller is regarded as a playwright who is critical of the ‘American dream’. Alexander is quick to point out, that more specifically, Miller is critical of American capitalism. ‘That’s something that’s endlessly worth putting on a British stage.’

There are links to Steiner here too, with Miller’s wife Marilyn Munroe, a student of Michael Chekhov.  As well as seeing him as a spiritual teacher, she had a very deep kind of surrogate paternal relationship with him. So, Munroe was absorbing through Chekhov quite a lot of the ideas and certainly the acting method that came from Steiner.   ‘It’s a kind of tangential link but if you read Miller’s essays and what he understood the task of the writer to be, it is deeply aligned to Steiner’s vision.’

Of course, we can see that in Miller’s work, he goes back to traditional Greek Theatre in form and also in characterisations, but it goes beyond that. ‘He always wanted the set to open out into a world where memory is floating in the past and there is a kind of sense that the human psyche is more complicated than we might think.’

In relation to the set for the play, Alexander is quite excited, as the set designer, Jon Bausor, has already made the model box. ‘It places us squarely in the material world, but it opens out and indicates something bigger.’

Speaking of something beyond, we have a chat about pub theatres. He knows his way around them and he’s rather proud as he recently had a group of young actors who came to use the theatre and were supported with free rooms. They created a production of AN IDEAL HUSBAND which has recently been showing at White Bear Theatre.  Alexander was impressed with a recent show at The Tabard in Chiswick A THING OF BEAUTY a play about film maker Leni Riefenstahl starring Imogen Stubbs which had very good reviews.  He’s well aware that a lot of good theatres starts in these venues but would he take a production from a pub theatre? He smiles.  ‘I definitely wouldn’t rule it out.’

THE PRICE by Arthur Miller is at Marylebone theatre 17 April – 7 June 2026. Further details, box office and trailer are all available on the website

Image: Two-time Olivier Award-winning Henry Goodman (Yes, Prime Minister, Fiddler On The Roof, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui) in the role of Gregory Solomon