The Almeida Theatre announces five new productions; Almeida Associate Director Rebecca Frecknall’s new production of Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, featuring Kingsley Ben-Adir, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Lennie James.
The world premiere of Otherland, a new play by Chris Bush, directed by Ann Yee.
Eugène Ionesco’s absurdist satire Rhinoceros, translated and directed by Omar Elerian.
The world premiere of Ava Pickett’s Susan Smith Blackburn Prize-winning 1536, directed by Lyndsey Turner.
A new production of Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon for the Misbegotten, with Michael Shannon and Ruth Wilson, directed by Rebecca Frecknall.
Almeida Artistic Director Rupert Goold said, “Today we announce a new season of work, featuring two revivals of beloved canonical texts, an innovative Ionesco adaptation and the world premiere of two new plays.
“The season is bookended by two timeless American classics directed by our Associate Director Rebecca Frecknall. Rebecca made her name with Summer and Smoke, cemented her reputation with A Streetcar Named Desire, and now directs a third great Tennessee Williams play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with an exceptional cast led by the magnetic pair of Kingsley Ben-Adir and Daisy Edgar-Jones, who returns to the Almeida after making her professional stage debut in Albion. Then next summer, Rebecca turns her focus to Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon for the Misbegotten, with two heavyweight stars of stage and screen Michael Shannon and Ruth Wilson.
“Before then, I am so excited to welcome back Omar Elerian with his take on Eugène Ionesco’s absurdist satire, Rhinoceros. Following the success of Omar’s celebrated 2022 production of The Chairs, we eagerly anticipate his next visionary interpretation of Ionesco’s work.
“Alongside these revivals, we are also producing two new plays: first up we are delighted to welcome back Chris Bush, whose previous work for us, Nine Lessons and Carols, was impacted by Covid lockdown, with Otherland, an ambitious and necessary new play, directed by Ann Yee.
“And then it’s the premiere of Ava Pickett’s 1536, a play that has made waves winning the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, directed by Lyndsey Turner who returns to the Almeida following acclaimed productions of Chimerica and The Treatment. Ava wrote it for us as part of the Genesis Almeida New Playwrights, Big Plays Programme and we continue to be very grateful to the Genesis Foundation for their ongoing support of the next generation of new artists.”
