CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF and More Set For The Almeida Theatre

The Almeida Theatre has announced five new productions including 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, and 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.”

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF

by Tennessee Williams

Director: Rebecca Frecknall; Set Designer: Chloe Lamford; Costume Designer: Moi Tran; Lighting Designer: Lee Curran; Sound Designer: Carolyn Downing; Composer: Angus MacRae; Casting Director: Julia Horan CDG; Children's Casting Director: Amy Beadel; Associate Director: Justina Kehinde   

Tuesday 10 December 2024 – Saturday 1 February 2025
Press Night: Tuesday 17 December, 7pm

I'm not living with you. We occupy the same cage.   The Pollitt family gathers to celebrate a birthday, but behind the smiles is a family in crisis.   With Brick and Maggie's marriage plagued by secrets and deceit, the question of legacy lingers. As the family confront the impending death of their patriarch, a war of truth and lies is waged.   Following her Olivier Award-winning production of A Streetcar Named Desire, Almeida Associate Director Rebecca Frecknall (Cabaret; Summer and Smoke) directs BAFTA nominee Kingsley Ben-Adir (Bob Marley: One Love; Barbie) and Golden Globe nominee Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People; Twisters) in Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play.

The full cast includes Kingsley Ben-Adir, Guy Burgess, Clare Burt, Seb Carrington, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Derek Hagen, Lennie James, Ukweli Roach and Ria Zmitrowicz.   Presented in association with Chris Harper Productions.
By special arrangement with The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee.    

OTHERLAND

by Chris Bush

Directed by Ann Yee

Tuesday 11 February – Saturday 15 March 2025

Jo and Harry are changing. Harry is changing more than most, undeniably, And change is beautiful. Necessary. Terrifying.   Break-ups aren't just about who gets the CD collection. As Jo and Harry begin to untangle themselves from each other, new worlds start to open up – worlds filled with new partners, new identities, new possibilities. What kind of women do they want to be, and do they have the courage, or the permission, to get there?   From Chris Bush, the playwright behind the Olivier Award-winning Standing at the Sky's Edge, and director and choreographer Ann Yee (Next to Normal; The Human Body), Otherland explores what it means to be true to yourself in the face of unstoppable change.

RHINOCEROS

by Eugène Ionesco

Translated and Directed by Omar Elerian   Tuesday 25 March – Saturday 26 April 2025   Who knows what is good and what is evil? You're only concerned with yourself. That's the truth. But you'll never really become a rhinoceros… you haven't got the chops!   A provincial town in France.
Jean meets his friend Berenger for a drink, but things take an unexpected turn when a rhinoceros charges through the town square. After all, there are no rhinoceroses in France, right?   Suddenly, one by one the townspeople are transforming into the thing they first feared. An epidemic has taken hold and rhinoceritis is spreading like wildfire, until there are almost no human beings left.
Returning to the Almeida following his production of The Chairs, Omar Elerian directs and translates Eugène Ionesco's absurdist satire about resisting conformity and holding onto what's left of our humanity as we resist the rumbling power of the herd.  

1536

by Ava Pickett

Directed by Lyndsey Turner

Tuesday 6 May – Saturday 7 June 2025

Kings don't kill their wives alright? It's not - it just don't happen. It doesn't. Tudor England.  A field in Essex.  Three women hurry to their childhood meeting place, thirsty for gossip from London.  Word spreads of a clash between the King, Henry VIII and his Queen, Anne Boleyn. And closer to home, another rumour threatens to catch fire. As these women realise the parallels between their ordinary, rural lives and the royal drama taking place at a distance, they are faced with several choices, all of which end in violence. Written as part of the Genesis Almeida New Playwrights, Big Plays Programme, Ava Pickett's 1536 was the winner of the 2024 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and was commended by The George Devine Award for its "sparkling dialogue and savage undercurrent". Lyndsey Turner (Chimerica) directs this fiendishly smart and funny new play which asks whether female solidarity can survive in a world where barbarism and misogyny are state sanctioned. 1536 is the first play commissioned through the Genesis Almeida New Playwrights, Big Plays Programme to make its world premiere at the Almeida. This programme is made possible with support from the Genesis Foundation.   Additional support for the production is provided by The Charlotte Aitken Trust and Cockayne Grants for the Arts & The London Community Foundation.  

A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN

by Eugene O'Neill

Directed by Rebecca Frecknall

Tuesday 17 June – Saturday 16 August 2025 There is no present or future – only the past, happening over and over again – now.  On a barren farm in Connecticut, Josie Hogan dreams of more. Abandoned by her brothers and trapped with her volatile father, the desire for change feels urgent.  Haunted by the death of his mother, James Tyrone Jr drinks to cover the pain. Trapped in a spiral of guilt and shame he longs for connection. When the two are brought together, a single night reveals a devastating truth and both will be altered forever. Almeida Associate Director and multi–Olivier Award winner Rebecca Frecknall (A Streetcar Named Desire; Cabaret) directs Golden Globe winner Ruth Wilson (The Affair; Luther) and Academy Award-nominated Michael Shannon (George & Tammy; Boardwalk Empire) in this “scorching play about the eternal American theme of reality and illusion” (The Guardian) from Eugene O'Neill, one of the great 20th century playwrights.
Presented in association with Smith & Brant Theatricals.  

To post a comment, you must register and login.