First look at Elliot Cowan as Donald in Stefano Massini's play at Theatre Royal Bath

The pictures, taken by Manuel Harlan, land a week before the critics are invited in: Donald began its run in the Ustinov Studio on 6 November and holds its press night on Tuesday 17 November at 7pm, with performances continuing until Saturday 5 December 2026. It is the play's UK premiere, presented by Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Sustainable Entertainment in a version adapted and directed by Sean Foley.

The writer's name is the obvious draw. Stefano Massini wrote The Lehman Trilogy, the banking saga that became an international hit, and here he moves from one American fortune to another, following Donald John Trump through property development, golf courses, hotels, the media and reality television, until the only territory left to conquer was the world itself. The production bills it as an entertaining look at the man behind the myth and his pursuit of being, in the show's own words, "the most winningest winner in history".

It is a three-hander. Elliot Cowan plays the man who became the 45th and 47th President of the United States, and Oscar Batterham and Jo Herbert share every other figure in his life between them. Cowan's previous roles include Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Donmar Warehouse and the title part in Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe.

Batterham was recently seen in the West End as Roger Davies in TINA: The Tina Turner Musical, and his other stage work includes The One That Got Away, The Whale, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Jane Austen's Emma. Herbert is best known from television, where her credits run from Call The Midwife and Unforgotten to The Crown and Casualty.

Foley, a double Olivier Award winner and Tony nominee, co-adapted and directed Dr Strangelove, adapted and directed The Painkiller with Kenneth Branagh and Rob Brydon, and directed both the Olivier-nominated The Upstart Crow and the Olivier-winning Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense.

Evening performances are at 7.30pm, with matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2.30pm, and the running time is 2 hours 20 minutes. No London dates have been announced.