ALBATROSS Will Embark on UK Tour Beginning in April

Looking at care for future generations in both the micro and the macro, the new play by George Devine and Bruntwood Prize winner Martha Loader centres around glaciologist Alice and her mother Eve, who looks after Alice's daughter Alba. When Alice returns in the middle of the night from her latest stint in Antarctica, where she's aiding the struggle against climate catastrophe, she's greeted with a harsh reality of home – catastrophic floods and unexpected romance arising in her absence. As Alba sleeps on, blissfully unaware of her mother's return after months away, this family drama sees mother and daughter dance around the untold secret and the unasked favour. Albatross explores how we mess up when we just want to make things better, and asks – what does one generation owe the next?

Albatross, commissioned by Menagerie Theatre in 2023 after meeting Martha Loader at Menagerie's Young Writers' Workshop 2020-21, is rooted in two years' worth of research and interviews undertaken by Martha with Antarctic researchers from around the globe, including the British Antarctic Survey, based in Cambridge. Martha has interviewed many researchers, specifically female and mothers, to understand their specific experience of working in the Antarctic.  

Writer Martha Loader said, “I'm delighted that Menagerie are taking Albatross on tour this Spring. The process of writing this play has been an incredible experience. I'm so grateful to the scientists and academics I spoke to when researching the play. Their insight and honesty has been an integral part of creating this story of women's roles in society in an age of climate catastrophe.”

Martha Loader is a writer, producer and actor. She is the most recent winner of the George Devine Award (2025, The Town) and won the Judges' Award at the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2022 for Bindweed. Her other writing for the stage includes Splinter (Play Nicely Theatre, Eastern Angles); Cuckoo (INK Festival, schools tour); and Phenomenon (Hotbed Festival, Cambridge Junction). She also won the Award for Promising Young Playwright at INK Festival 2019, and is an alumnus of the Mercury Playwrights, Soho Writers' Lab and HighTide Writers programmes.

Founded in 2000, Menagerie is new writing theatre company based at Cambridge Junction. Over the past 20 years, its international co-productions of plays – including work by Steve Waters, Janice Okoh, Tim Etchells, Fraser Grace and Naomi Wallace – have been seen in Cambridge, London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Istanbul, St Petersburg, New York, Prague, Frankfurt, Belgrade and Goa, India. Productions have included Toy Stories (UK tour 2023,) Bliss (Finborough Theatre, 2022), The Great Austerity Debate (national tour, 2018) and Best New Play Award at Brighton Festival winner bloominauschwitz (national tour, 2015).

Tour Dates

28–29 April
Mercury Theatre, Essex
Balkerne Gate, Colchester CO1 1PT
www.mercurytheatre.co.uk | 01206 573948

30 April
Stantonbury Theatre, Buckinghamshire
Stantonbury, Milton Keynes MK14 6BN
www.stantonburytheatre.co.uk | 01908 324466

6 May
Stamford Arts Centre, Lincolnshire
27 St Mary’s St, Stamford PE9 2DL
www.stamfordartscentre.com | 01780 763203

7 May
Fisher Theatre, Suffolk
10 Broad St, Bungay NR35 1EE
www.fishertheatre.org | 01986 897130

9 May
Drama Studio (UEA), Norfolk
University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ
www.ueaticketbookings.cassticket.com | 01603 592450

12 May
Cambridge Junction, Cambridgeshire
Clifton Way, Cambridge CB1 7GX
www.junction.co.uk | 01223 511511

13 May
BEAM, Hertfordshire
The Wash, Hertford SG14 1PS
www.beamhertford.co.uk | 01992 531500

14 May
The Cut, Suffolk
8 New Cut, Halesworth IP19 8BY
www.thecut.org.uk | 0300 303 3211

15 May
Wells Maltings, Norfolk
Staithe St, Wells-next-the-Sea NR23 1AN
www.wellsmaltings.org.uk | 01328 710885

16 May
Sheringham Little Theatre, Norfolk
2 Station Rd, Sheringham NR26 8RE
www.sheringhamlittletheatre.com | 01263 822347

19 May
New Wolsey Theatre, Suffolk
Civic Dr, Ipswich IP1 2AS
www.wolseytheatre.co.uk | 01473 295900

20 May
Quay Theatre, Suffolk
Quay Ln, Sudbury CO10 2AN
www.quaysudbury.com | 01787 374745

21 May
Seagull Theatre, Suffolk
19–75 Morton Rd, Lowestoft NR33 0JH
www.theseagull.co.uk | 01502 589726

22 May
Theatre Royal, Suffolk
Westgate St, Bury St Edmunds IP33 1QR
www.theatreroyal.org | 01284 769505

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