Almeida Theatre Artistic Director Rupert Goold announces a socially distanced season of three world premieres for Christmas 2020 and into 2021.
Running over Christmas 2020 will be Nine Lessons and Carols: stories for a long winter – a new production devised by Chris Bush, Rebecca Frecknall and a company of six actors and musicians.
Opening in early 2021 will be – Hymn, a new play by Lolita Chakrabarti, featuring acclaimed actors Adrian Lester and Danny Sapani, directed by Blanche McIntyre, and The Maladies, a new play by Carmen Nasr, performed by the Almeida Young Company, directed by Diyan Zora.
Rupert Goold said, “Having gratefully received a grant from the government’s Culture Recovery Fund, we are very pleased to be offering a season of work playing through Christmas and into 2021. The theatre has been reconfigured for social distancing, with a reduced capacity of 120 – about a third of our usual size. Acknowledging the context and timing of our re-opening, we decided that it was imperative to produce new work this winter: to provide employment to staff and freelancers, to welcome our audiences, supporters and local community back into the building, and to reunite our young artist groups. Considerable work has gone into ensuring that the theatre is safe for audiences and more information on those measures can be found on our website. For those audiences who can’t make it to the Almeida, we will also be offering digital screenings for people to watch at home.
“In December, we welcome playwright Chris Bush to the Almeida for the first time to work with our Associate Director Rebecca Frecknall and a company of six actors and musicians to devise a new play titled Nine Lessons and Carols: stories for a long winter. It will reflect on a year of separation and the power of contact.
“After Christmas, we present two world premieres: Carmen Nasr’s The Maladies, about a break-out of unexpected mass hysteria, directed by Diyan Zora and performed by the Almeida Young Company, and Lolita Chakrabarti’s Hymn, a play about masculinity and ambition, featuring two of the UK’s great stage actors Adrian Lester and Danny Sapani and directed by Blanche McIntyre who returns to the Almeida following her production of The Writer in 2018.
“On top of this, we are delighted to be able to offer schools exclusive access to films of two recent Almeida productions – Albion and The Duchess of Malfi – in the hope that this will help to fill the void of school theatre trips. We are also launching the second year of our Genesis Almeida New Playwrights, Big Plays Programme – a group of seven brilliant, inventive and imaginative playwrights who will be with us for the next twelve months, attending masterclasses with creatives and developing their own commission for the Almeida.
“Lastly, a huge thank you to everyone that has supported us with encouraging messages and generous donations over the last seven months. Without them, we wouldn’t be in a position to present this season today.”
Full listings and tickets can be found here
