Michael Attenborough takes over the Almeida

At the ripe age of 51, Michael Attenborough has inherited the plum job in British theatre. In July he will take over the directorship of London's Almeida Theatre from Jonathan Kent and Ian McDiarmid, and he is thrilled at the prospect. "The Almeida offers a unique space that is both intimate and epic," he says. "You can do just about anything with it."

Three things have made the Almeida the most exciting theatre in Britain. First, an eclectically international programme: everything from Molière and Marivaux to Brecht and Neil LaBute. Second, top-level casting that has given us Ralph Fiennes in Hamlet and Ivanov, Kevin Spacey in The Iceman Cometh and Juliette Binoche in Naked. Third, a territorial expansion that has seen the Almeida colonise the Hackney Empire, the old Gainsborough film studios and even a converted bus depot in King's Cross. So how does Attenborough intend to follow Kent and McDiarmid's dazzling double-act?

"I certainly hope to continue the first two planks of their policy," he says. "There are lots of international plays I'm burning to do. Racine's Athalie, for instance, which deals with the highly topical subject of religious fervour. And Gorki's The Enemies, which hasn't been seen since David Jones's magnificent production at the Aldwych 30 years ago. And Lorca's Yerma - a marvellous piece of poetic naturalism. I think there's a lot of British drama of the last century to re-examine: I'd love to revive the DH Lawrence trilogy, which Peter Gill first rediscovered, with a permanent company. I'm not announcing a programme; I'm simply speculating about the kind of work the Almeida should do.

"As for casting, I think Jonathan and Ian would say they simply chose the best actors available rather than always hunting for stars. I shall do the same, though there are several actors, such as Robbie Carlyle and Gary Oldman, whom I'd love to get back inside a theatre. I'm less interested at the moment in looking for new spaces - my first task will be to get the renovated building up and running, which won't happen till next spring. But I think a lot of the success of the previous regime was due to the fact that Jonathan and Ian were actors as well as directors.

I'd like to capitalise on that by having a floating team of associates who might come in for a year at a time - actors of the calibre of Simon Russell Beale, as well as writers and designers. I'd also like to feel that directors like Declan Donnellan and Simon McBurney would feel that this is a space in which they could come and work."

Cynics could easily interpret Attenborough's move as a reaction to Adrian Noble's restructuring plans for the Royal Shakespeare Company, where Attenborough is principal associate director. He diplomatically denies this: "I've been given a lot of freedom and encouragement at the RSC."

He points out, modestly, that he was headhunted by the Almeida rather than applying for the post, and that in the recent past he has rejected other approaches - specifically from Chichester and the Royal Court. He also points out that he hasn't yet severed his connection with the RSC: he still has to transfer David Edgar's A Prisoner's Dilemma to the Barbican Pit and direct a new Antony and Cleopatra in Stratford. And he pays generous tribute to Noble who, he says, actively encouraged him, after a none-too-successful The Changeling, to venture further into the classics with Romeo and Juliet, Othello and Henry IV. "Speaking purely as a director, I was happy as a pig in shit."

So why move? "It's partly the excitement of the space: the chance to put my own stamp on a particular building. But it's also to do with the obsessive nature of responsibility. At the RSC I had amazing freedom to direct new plays and classics but didn't have to take the ultimate responsibility of running the company. Having run two theatres in the past, I'm ready for that challenge again. And I know no other way of running a theatre than obsessively. It's like being in love: you have to live, eat, sleep, breathe it. So, after talking to my wife and family, I decided to take the plunge."

I suspect the Almeida has made a shrewd choice. Attenborough has been round the block: during a 30-year career he has directed at Colchester and Leeds, run both Hampstead and Watford and been a decisive influence at the RSC, even managing to avert a strike at Stratford this winter through his sympathetic treatment of backstage staff. He also has eclectic tastes: foreign classics, new plays, even musicals. Intriguingly he talks about the possibility of doing a show like Bernstein's On the Town; he only looks a bit surprised when I tell him this was one of Kent's pet projects.

Despite his calm, persuasive manner, Attenborough must be a man who likes living dangerously. He knows that, in succeeding Kent and McDiarmid, he has a tough act to follow and that many will dub him a safe choice. My hunch is that, as long as he shows a touch of unpredictability and a constant capacity to reinvent the Almeida space, he could be the right man for the job.