Cast Announced for World Premiere of Mike Bartlett's ALBION at Almeida Theatre

It's England really, isn't it? A climate without cloud and rain isn't honest.

In the ruins of a garden in rural England, in a house which was once a home, one woman searches for seeds of hope.

Albion is a new play by Mike Bartlett, directed by Rupert Goold, their first collaboration following their international award-winning production King Charles III.

Joining the previously announced Victoria Hamilton are Nigel Betts, Edyta Budnik, Christopher Fairbank, Charlotte Hope, Margot Leicester, Vinette Robinson, Nicholas Rowe, Helen Schlesinger and Luke Thallon. Albion is designed by Miriam Buether, with lighting design by Neil Austin, sound design by Greg Clarke and casting by Amy Ball.

Victoria Hamilton plays Audrey Walters. She has previously appeared in The Doctor's Dilemma at the Almeida. Recent television appearances include The Queen Mother in The Crown and Anna in Doctor Foster. Other theatre credits include Love, Love, Love at the Royal Court; Twelfth Night for the Donmar Warehouse at Wyndham's Theatre; Once in a Lifetime, Summerfolk and Money at the National Theatre; Suddenly Last Summer at the Donmar Warehouse and UK Tour; Sweet Panic in the West End; A Day in the Death of Joe Egg at the Roundabout Theatre, New York and in the West End; Home & Beauty in the West End; The Country Wife and As You Like It at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield; King Lear, The Provoked Wife and The Seagull at The Old Vic; Troilus And Cressida and As You Like It at the RSC; The Master Builder in the West End; Retreat and Memorandum at the Orange Tree Theatre. Other television includes Our Ex-Wife; The Circuit; Call the Midwife Christmas Special; The Game; What Remains; Toast; Larkrise to Candleford; Time of Your Life; Trial and Retribution; Wide Sargasso Sea; The Shell Seekers; A Very Social Secretary; Jericho; Spine Chillers; To the Ends of the Earth; The Brontes; Goodbye Mr Chips; Baby Father - I & II; Victoria & Albert; The Savages; King Lear; The Merchant of Venice; Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice. Films include French; Scoop; Before You Go and Mansfield Park.

Mike Bartlett's plays for the Almeida include Game and the multi-award winning King Charles III (Olivier Award - Best New Play) which premiered at the Almeida before West End and Broadway transfers, and a UK and international tour. Mike's television adaptation of the play was broadcast on BBC earlier this year. Other plays include Wild at The Hampstead Theatre; An Intervention for Paines Plough and Watford Palace Theatre; Bull for Sheffield Theatres, Off Broadway and The Young Vic (Olivier Award - Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre); Medea for Headlong, at the Glasgow Citizens, Watford Palace and Warwick Arts Centre; Chariots of Fire at The Hampstead Theatre and at the Gielgud Theatre, West End; 13 at the National Theatre; Decade (co-writer) for Headlong; Earthquakes in London for Headlong and the National Theatre; Love, Love, Love for Paines Plough, the Plymouth Theatre Royal, the Royal Court, and the Roundabout Theatre Company, New York (Theatre Award UK - Best New Play); c*ck(Olivier Award - Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre), Contractions, and My Child for the Royal Court; and Artefacts for the Bush Theatre and Nabokov. Plays for the radio include: King Charles III, Cock, Heart, The Core, Family Man, and Love Contract for BBC Radio 4; and The Steps and Not Talking for BBC Radio 3. As Director: Medea (Headlong/Glasgow Citizens/Watford/Warwick) and Honest for the Theatre Royal Northampton. Television includes King Charles III; Doctor Foster; and The Town.

Rupert Goold is the Almeida's Artistic Director where he has previously directed Ink, Richard III (which was broadcast live to cinemas around the world in July 2016), Medea, The Merchant of Venice, King Charles III and American Psycho, which opened on Broadway in April 2016. He was Artistic Director of Headlong from 2005 until 2013 where his work included The Effect, ENRON, Earthquakes in London and Decade. Other theatre credits include Made in Dagenham in the West End; The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at the Almeida; Macbeth at Chichester Festival Theatre, in the West End and on Broadway; and No Man's Land at The Gate, Dublin and in the West End. He has twice been the recipient of the Laurence Olivier, Critics' Circle and Evening Standard Awards for Best Director. He was Associate Director at the Royal Shakespeare Company from 2009 to 2012 and was Artistic Director of Northampton Theatres from 2002 to 2005. On film he directed the BAFTA nominated Richard II, part of The Hollow Crown, and Macbeth for the BBC, feature True Story starring James Franco and Jonah Hill, and a television adaptation of his production of Mike Bartlett's King Charles III for BBC Two. Rupert was awarded a CBE for services to drama in the 2017 New Year's Honours.

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