THE DUCHESS OF MALFI Comes to the Almeida

The Almeida Theatre announces Associate Director Rebecca Frecknall's new production of John Webster's revenge tragedy The Duchess of Malfi, with Lydia Wilson in the title role.

The production opens on Tuesday 10 December 2019, with previews from Monday 2 December, and runs until Saturday 18 January 2020.

It follows Frecknall's previously acclaimed Almeida productions of Three Sisters and the Olivier Award-winning Summer and Smoke.

John Webster (1580 - 1634) was an English dramatist and contemporary of William Shakespeare, best known for his tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi.

Rebecca Frecknall is Associate Director at the Almeida Theatre. For the Almeida, she has directed Three Sisters, Summer and Smoke (also West End and winner of two Olivier Awards including Best Revival) and worked as Associate Director on Ink at the Almeida/Duke of York's Theatre and Movement Director on Albion. She was previously on the Almeida's Resident Director programme. Her production of Steel by Chris Bush ran in the Sheffield Crucible Studio in 2018. Prior to the Almeida, she was Resident Director at Northern Stage from 2015-2016 after winning the acclaimed RTYDS Bursary. During this time she directed Idomeneus; What Are They Like? and Julie by Zinnie Harris. Before taking up this role, she worked as a freelance director in London and has worked with The National Theatre, RSC and Young Vic. She was the 2012 recipient of The National Theatre Studio's Resident Director Bursary and was awarded one of the Young Vic's Jerwood Assistant Director Bursaries in 2011.

Lydia Wilson plays the Duchess. She previously appeared at the Almeida in King Charles III (also West End and Broadway - nominated for Best Actress at 2015 Olivier Awards). Her other theatre credits include Fool for Love (Found 111); Hysteria (Hampstead Theatre); 'Tis Pity She's A Whore (Cheek by Jowl); The Acid Test and The Heretic (Royal Court Theatre); Blasted (Lyric Hammersmith); Pains of Youth (National Theatre) and The House of Special Purpose (Chichester Festival Theatre). For television, her work includes Flack; Requiem; Ripper Street; Misfits; Black Mirror; The Crimson Petal and the White; South Riding; Any Human Heart and Peter Versus Life. Her film work includes, Star Trek Beyond; Love Is Thicker than Water; About Time and Never Let Me Go.