The Almeida Theatre Kicks Off 'Greek' Season with ORESTEIA Tonight

The Almeida Theatre launches its new season: Almeida Greeks.

Almeida Artistic Director Rupert Goold introduces Almeida Greeks: "We are delighted to announce our Greek festival this summer at the Almeida: three major productions of Greek tragedy in our theatre from May to November. Inspired in form and spirit by the Greek Dionysia, we will also present a festival of other work in the theatre and off site, including responses, talks, readings and panels.

"At the Almeida we strive to create theatre that asks questions of its audiences, of who they are and the world they live in, work that is alive and resonant. When we came to the writers of Ancient Greece we wanted to be true to their plays - staging them in full complexity, presenting their formal iconoclasm, their humour, musicality, politics, violence and unswerving drama.

"These writers took society's old myths and made them new: changed them, exploded them, set them loose as contemporary stories that spoke to their city. At the same time they posed big, provocative, uncomfortable questions; ones which two thousand years later, we still struggle to answer.

"We want to follow their example. We are taking the Greeks out of the Attic."

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THE SEASON...

ORESTEIA
Aeschylus
A new version created by Robert Icke

TODAY 29 May - 18 July 2015
Press Night 5 June, 7pm

Almeida Associate Director Robert Icke reimagines Oresteia for the modern stage, in its first major London production in more than a decade. Lia Williams returns to the Almeida as Klytemnestra.

Orestes' parents are at war. A family drama spanning several decades, a huge, moving, bloody saga, Aeschylus' greatest and final play asks whether justice can ever be done - and continues to resonate more than two millennia after it was written.

Design is by Hildegard Bechtler with light by Natasha Chivers, sound by Tom Gibbons and video by Tim Reid. Casting is by Julia Horan CDG.

Almeida Associate Director Robert Icke most recently directed The Fever at The May Fair Hotel and Mr Burns at the Almeida. Other Almeida credits include 1984, a co-production with Headlong and Nottingham Playhouse co-created with Duncan Macmillan, which enjoyed a successful West End run and two UK tours. Robert was previously Associate Director at Headlong where he worked with Rupert Goold to conceive and develop Decade, directed Boys by Ella Hickson and a UK tour of Romeo and Juliet.

Lia Williams has previously appeared at the Almeida in Harold Pinter's Celebration. In a long association with Harold Pinter, Lia has performed in The Homecoming with Ian Holm, The Room, Celebration, The Lover, The Collection and The Hothouse at the National Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson. Harold Pinter directed Lia in Oleanna at the National Theatre and in the West End with David Suchet. Lia's other theatre work includes Hannah Jarvis in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and David Hare's Skylight with Michael Gambon on Broadway, at the National Theatre and on the West End. Lia's performance earned her nominations at both the Olivier and Tony Awards for Best Actress. Lia also received a BAFTA nomination for her performance in May 33rd.

BAKKHAI
Euripides
A new version by Anne Carson
Directed by James Macdonald

23 July - 19 September 2015
Press Night 30 July, 7pm

James Macdonald returns to the Almeida to stage Anne Carson's new version of Euripides' hedonistic, visceral tragedy. Ben Whishaw makes his Almeida debut as Dionysos, alongside Almeida alumnus Bertie Carvel. Using three actors and a chorus, this new production will echo the original Ancient Greek performance model.

Pentheus has banned the wild, ritualistic worship of the god Dionysos. A stranger arrives to persuade him to change his mind. Euripides' electrifying tragedy is a struggle to the death between freedom and restraint, the rational and the irrational, man and god.

The chorus will include Ameira Darwish, Eugenia Georgieva, Kaisa Hammarlund, Hazel Holder, Melanie La Barrie, Elinor Lawless, Catherine May, Louise Mills and Belinda Sykes.

Design is by Antony McDonald, with light by Peter Mumford, sound by Paul Arditti, composition by Orlando Gough and musical direction by Lindy Tennent-Brown. Choreography is by Jonathan Burrows and Gillie Kleiman. Casting is by Anne McNulty CDG.

Anne Carson is a poet, essayist, translator, playwright, and classicist who frequently references, modernises, and translates Greek mythology. Anne's translation of Sophokles' Antigone, starring Juliette Binoche and directed by Ivo van Hove, is currently playing at the Barbican having premiered at Théâtre National du Luxembourg earlier this year. She is also currently collaborating with Simon McBurney on Autobiography of Red. Anne is a MacArthur Fellow; she has received the Lannan Prize, the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Pushcart Prize, and was an Anna-Maria Kellen fellow at the American Academy in Berlin in 2007.

James Macdonald's work at the Almeida includes The Triumph of Love, Judgement Day and most recently A Delicate Balance. He was Associate Director of the Royal Court from 1992 to 2007 premiering works by Sarah Kane, Caryl Churchill and Martin Crimp. More recently at the Royal Court he has directed The Wolf From the Door, c*ckand Love and Information. His other credits include Roots (Donmar Warehouse), #aiww: The Arrest of Ai Wei Wei, And No More Shall We Part (Hampstead Theatre), King Lear, The Book of Grace, Top Girls (Broadway), A Delicate Balance, Judgment Day, Dido, Queen of Carthage, The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other, Exiles (National Theatre), Dying City (Lincoln Center), Drunk Enough to Say I Love You (Public Theater) and Glengarry Glen Ross (West End)

Bertie Carvel is best known for creating the role of Miss Trunchbull in Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin's Matilda, The Musical (RSC, West End and Broadway). His iconic performance won him a raft of awards including the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical, the prestigious Drama Desk Award and a Tony nomination. Bertie's other theatre credits include Rope (Almeida), The Pride (Royal Court), Parade (Donmar Warehouse), The Man of Mode, The Life of Galileo and Coram Boy (all National Theatre). On television, he is soon to appear as Nick Clegg in James Graham's Channel 4 drama Coalition, and as Jonathan Strange in the BBC adaptation of Susanna Clarke's novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Other film and television credits include The Wrong Mans, Babylon, Restless, Hidden, Sherlock, Just William, The Crimson Petal and The White, John Adams, Doctor Who, Hawking and LES MISERABLES. He is currently filming Mike Bartlett's Doctor Foster for the BBC.

Ben Whishaw makes his Almeida debut, having last appeared on stage in Jez Butterworth's Mojo in the West End. Other theatre includes Peter and Alice (West End), c*ck(Royal Court), His Dark Materials, The Seagull, The Idiot (all National Theatre) and Hamlet (Old Vic) for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award. On film, he recently lent his voice to Britain's best loved bear in Paddington and performed in the BAFTA-nominated Lilting. He played Q in Sam Mendes' Skyfall, a role he will reprise in upcoming Bond film Spectre. Other films include Enduring Love, Layer Cake, Perfume, Stoned, I'm Not There, Brideshead Revisited, Bright Star, The Tempest, Cloud Atlas and Lilting. He won a TV BAFTA for the BBC adaptation of Richard II. Other television includes The Hour, Nathan Barley and Criminal Justice, for which he won Best Actor Awards at the Emmys and the Royal Television Awards. Later this year he will appear opposite Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz in The Lobster, as Herman Melville in the Heart of the Sea and alongside Meryl Streep and Helena Bonham Carter in Suffragette.

MEDEA
Euripides
A new version by Rachel Cusk
Directed by Rupert Goold

25 September - 14 November 2015
Press Night 1 October, 7pm

One of world drama's most infamous characters is brought to ferocious life in this new production by Almeida Artistic Director Rupert Goold and controversial feminist writer Rachel Cusk. Kate Fleetwood makes her Almeida debut in the title role.

Medea's marriage is breaking up. And so is everything else. Testing the limits of revenge and liberty, Euripides' seminal play cuts to the heart of gender politics and asks what it means to be a woman and a wife.

Design is by Ian McNeil, costume by Holly Waddington, composition and sound by Adam Cork and choreography by Scott Ambler. Casting is by Julia Horan CDG.

Rachel Cusk was selected by Granta as one of their Best Young British Novelists in 2003. Author of seven novels and three works of non-fiction, she won the Whitbread First Novel Award for Saving Agnes, a Somerset Maugham Award for The Country Life, and was shortlisted for the 2007 Orange Prize for Arlington Park. Her latest novel, Outline, was shortlisted for the Folio Prize and the Goldsmiths Prize.

Kate Fleetwood will soon appear in Maria Friedman's production of the Cole Porter musical High Society at the Old Vic, having previously been nominated for Best Actress in a Musical at the Olivier Awards for her performance in the National Theatre's London Road. She was nominated for Best Actress at the Tony Awards for her role as Lady Macbeth in Rupert Goold's acclaimed production of Macbeth (Chichester Festival Theatre/ West End / Broadway). Her other theatre credits include The Winter's Tale (Royal Shakespeare Company) and The Tempest (Shakespeare's Globe). Kate's film credits include the BAFTA-winning Philomena, Les Miserables and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1.

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Tickets: Box Office: 020 7359 4404 (10am - 7.30pm). Online: almeida.co.uk.

The Almeida Theatre - The Almeida Theatre was founded by Pierre Audi in 1980; his successors were Jonathan Kent and Ian McDiarmid in 1990, and Michael Attenborough in 2002. Productions including Hamlet with Ralph Fiennes in 2005, Rufus Norris' Festen, Ruined by Lynn Nottage and most recently Chimerica and Ghosts have given the theatre international renown. In 2014 Almeida productions won eight Olivier Awards including Best Actress, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best New Play, Best Director and Best Revival. In summer 2013, Rupert Goold joined the Almeida as Artistic Director. His first production as Artistic Director was American Psycho: A new musical thriller. This was followed by King Charles III which then transferred to the West End at the Wyndham's Theatre and has been nominated for six Olivier Awards 2015, and The Merchant of Venice, originally produced for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2011.

Elsewhere Goold's work includes Made in Dagenham which is currently running in the West End. 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 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 and in the West End. He was Associate Director at the Royal Shakespeare Company from 2009 to 2012 and was Artistic Director of Northampton Theatres from 2002 to 2005. He has twice been the recipient of the Laurence Olivier, Critics' Circle and Evening Standard Awards for Best Director. For television he has directed Macbeth and Richard II for the BBC and Neal Street Productions, the latter of which was nominated for a BAFTA. His first feature film, True Story, which stars James Franco and Jonah Hill for Plan B and Fox Searchlight recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.