1. © creativebusinessphotography.co.uk
    © creativebusinessphotography.co.uk
  2. Rupert Goold  (© Rob Greig)
    © Rob Greig |

    Rupert Goold (artistic director)

Almeida Theatre

Islington's mercurial powerhouse has waxed strong under current artistic director Rupert Goold
  • Theatre | Off-West End
  • Islington
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Time Out says

One of London's most mercurial and influential houses, the 325-seat Almeida Theatre began life as a radical international receiving house in the '80s, before the joint artistic directorship of Ian McDiarmid and Jonathan Kent led to a stable '90s marked by a close relationship with the great Harold Pinter, whose final plays all premiered there.

The current artistic director is Rupert Goold, who has electrified a venue that had grown rather genteel under its previous leader Michael Attenborough with a mix of bold new writing, interesting experiments and radical reinventions. 

Tickets are reasonably priced, with special offers for students, Islington locals, over 65s and under-25s.

The bar – arguably a slightly bourgeois hangover from the Attenborough era – is light and airy with a pleasant seasonal menu.

Details

Address
Almeida St
Islington
London
N1 1TA
Transport:
Rail/Tube: Highbury & Islington; Rail: Essex Road; Tube: Angel
Price:
£10-£39.50
Opening hours:
Mon-Sat 10am-7.30pm
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What’s on

A Moon for the Misbegotten

4 out of 5 stars
Michael Shannon interview: ‘I think TV is garbage – I certainly don’t watch it’. It’s a trap, almost, to think of Eugene O’Neill’s final play A Moon for the Misbegotten as a sequel to his miserable masterpiece Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Sure, they share the character of Jim Tyrone, a dissolute young actor in Long Day’s Journey and a dissolute older actor here. But you go in expecting despair and instead find something that’s more like an episode of Steptoe and Son.Maybe that’s down to director Rebecca Frecknall – now a master of whipping the lesser-revived plays of the American canon into shape – putting space between this and the old workhorse of Long Day’s Journey (which we’ve seen three times in London in the last 13 years): not the faded grandeur of a seaside home here, but a wooden yard full of splintered timbers pointing into the sky, messy and dusty.The production itself, though, is anything but dusty. From the first moment, every line is a punch or a jab or a dagger. Peter Corboy and Ruth Wilson as siblings Mike and Josie burst onto the stage and whack each other with dialogue, and their fists. Fed up with his dad Phil’s drunkenness and slave-driving on their rock-infested farm, Mike is leaving. All that’s left to Phil is daughter Josie, whose sleeping around has made her ‘the scandal of the neighbourhood’, and their landlord Jim Tyrone who may or may not sell the farm to them and who may or may not be in love with Josie.David Threlfall is a hoot as Phil,...
  • Drama

Romans: A Novel

Although she turned in a fine adaptation of Lorca‘s The House of Bernarda Alba for the National Theatre a couple of years ago, it’s been an age since we’ve had a ‘proper’ play from the wonderful Alice Birch, whose Anatomy of a Suicide and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. were two of the great British stage works of the ’10s. There’s no secret what she’s been up to since: her screenwriting career has massively taken off, most notably with Lady Macbeth and the screen adaptation of Normal People, although she’s pretty damn busy generally.  Anyway, long story short, Romans: A Novel is her first ‘original’ play in years, which is cause for celebration in and of itself. Plus it sounds like she’s lost none of her ambition: the somewhat cryptically titled play is a dissection of masculinity from the nineteeth century to the present and the way in which male narratives shape the world as we know. Precisely what it’ll involve is very much TBC, but it will star Andor’s Kyle Soller and will be directed by Sam Pritchard, Birch’s husband. 
  • Experimental

The Line of Beauty

Some of superstar director Michael Grandage’s first London shows were at the Almeida Theatre. But that was all a long time ago: he’s not been back this century. Until now: as part of Rupert Goold’s final season, Grandage returns to direct a very juicy prospect indeed. The Line of Beauty is rising star playwright Jack Holden’s adaptation of Alan Hollinghurt’s classic novel of Thatcherite Britain, set in 1983 as it follows protagonist Nick as he gets sucked into an alluring, disconcerting world of extreme privilige in a rapidly changing country. There’s no word on casting yet, but you wouldn’t put it paat Grandage to land a name – though his own and that of the book are doubtless quite enough to sell out the show. 
  • Drama
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