US Premiere of THE HUNT Starring Tobias Menzies to Begin in February at St. Ann's Warehouse

St. Ann’s Warehouse is presenting the U.S. premiere of the Almeida Theatre production ofThe Hunt, a blistering thriller catapulting audiences into some of today’s thorniest questions surrounding mob justice and forgiveness. Adapted by David Farr and directed by Almeida Artistic Director Rupert Goold, The Hunt features Tobias Menzies, whose performances have gripped UK stage audiences for decades, making an arresting U.S. theater debut. For American audiences familiar with Menzies’ versatile film and TV career—in beloved series including The Crown, Game of Thrones, and Outlander—The Hunt is an introduction to an exceptional onstage talent operating at full force. 

A modern day parable, The Hunt is based on Thomas Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm’s 2012 Academy Award-nominated film Jagten, featuring actor Mads Mikkelsen. It is the second adaptation of a Vinterberg work presented by St. Ann’s Warehouse, following its 2012 U.S. premiere of Grzegorz Jarzyna’s “viscerally charged” (The New York Times) production of Festen, Vinterberg’s final Dogme 95 film. 

Like the film, Goold’s “superb” (Sunday Times), “devastating” (Evening Standard) production is set in a rural hunting community that goes mad when a teacher is accused of misconduct by a 6-year-old child. Where guns and drinking songs are the way of life, truth is no match for the impulses unleashed. Goold’s thrilling staging unfolds on Es Devlin’s brilliant set, a literal glass house revolving into anarchy. 

The U.S. premiere of The Hunt marks a milestone year for Rupert Goold’s visionary direction in New York, with the recent announcement that his Olivier-nominated production of Tammy Faye—which originated at the Almeida—will transfer to Broadway in 2024. His staging of The Hunt has been praised as “electric” (The Observer, in a five-star review) and “top-of-his-game” (The Stage, in a five-star review). “As much as the film brought into focus uncomfortable questions about how society functions, the communal aspect of theatre sharpens them,” writes The Telegraph, in another five-star review. 

“I never approach an adaptation from one medium without first being sure I can find a new form on the stage for the story,” says Rupert Goold. For The Hunt, his idea was to compress “the story into a series of gladiatorial scenes that offer scope to wonderful actors to mine the extraordinary depths that stage acting, with its full physicality, uniquely offers.” He adds, “The possibility of [staging it] at St. Ann’s, with its contemporary design, intimate playing space, and wide-reaching audience is one we would absolutely leap at. It is an important work about a universal theme, and in an election year I think the dangers it warns of will be incredibly potent for a New York audience.”   

Goold and Menzies reteam for this work, continuing a quarter-century working relationship that has seen them collaborate on plays by Stoppard and Shakespeare. Goold says Menzies is “possibly the finest stage actor [he has] ever worked with,” noting his “ability to find hinterland and interiority alongside dazzling flights of fancy.” 

Presenting this provocative work in a season of formally diverse productions—of dance-theater, puppetry, documentary theater, sci-fi, and a deconstructed Western—St. Ann’s doubles down on its vital role as the New York home for today’s boldest international theater-makers.

About David Farr

David Farr is a playwright, screenwriter, stage director, novelist and Film/TV director whose plays have been performed all over the world. He has increasingly moved into film and television, working on the long-running BBC show Spooks and completing his first feature film, Hanna, for Focus Features in 2009. His directorial debut, The Ones Below with Cuba Pictures, premiered at Toronto International Film Festival in 2015 and was released in UK cinemas in March 2016.

Farr’s adaptation of John le Carré's novel The Night Manager, produced by The Ink Factory, starring Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston and directed by Susanne Bier, aired on BBC1 in 2016. A total of 9.9 million people tuned in to watch the series finale, and the show earned multiple awards and nominations.Farr’s episode of the Philip K. Dick series Electric Dreams, entitled Impossible Planet, aired on Channel 4 in 2017 and his BBC1 and Netflix epic miniseries Troy: Fall of a City aired in February 2018. Farr adapted his feature film Hanna into a television series for Amazon Prime. Series 2 of Hanna was released to great praise in 2020, with Farr writing and directing. Series 3, the final series of Hanna, was released in 2021. Most recently, Farr’s adaptation of The Midwich Cuckoos, produced by Route 24, was released on Sky.

Farr’s theater career began when he became Artistic Director of The Gate Theatre, London, in 1995. His work at The Gate earned him a reputation as one of the most exciting new talents in British theater, a reputation that he built on when he left The Gate to become Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic in 2002 and London's Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith in 2005. In 2009, Farr left The Lyric to become Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His productions of The Winter's Tale, King Lear and The Homecoming opened to critical acclaim.

Farr’s first book for children, The Book Of Stolen Dreams, was published in hardback in 2021 and in paperback in September 2022.

About Rupert Goold

Rupert Goold is Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre, where he has previously directed Cold War; Women, Beware the Devil; Tammy Faye; Patriots (transferred to West End in May 2023); Spring Awakening (screened in UK cinemas); The Hunt; Shipwreck; Albion (broadcast on BBC Four); Ink (also West End/ Broadway); Richard III (broadcast live to cinemas around the world); Medea; The Merchant of Venice; King Charles III (also West End/ Broadway/ UK and International tour) and American Psycho (also Broadway). He most recently directed Dear England (National Theatre/ West End). He was Artistic Director of Headlong from 2005 until 2013 where his work included The Effect; ENRON; Earthquakes in London; Decade. He has twice been the recipient of the 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. His feature film work includes Judy; True Story; and his other work on film includes the BAFTA nominated Richard II (part of The Hollow Crown); Macbeth for the BBC; Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III for BBC Two. He was awarded a CBE for services to drama in 2017. 

About Tobias Menzies 

For the Almeida, Menzies has performed in Uncle Vanya; Oil; The Fever (The Mayfair Hotel); Cloud Nine; and Platonov. Additional theater credits include The Hush (National Theatre); Searched Rough Cuts (Royal Court); Recruiting Officer (Donmar Warehouse);  Decade (Headlong); Children's Hour (Comedy Theatre);  King Lear (Liverpool Playhouse/ Young Vic); The Cherry Orchard (Crucible Theatre); The History Boys (National Theatre); Hamlet (Royal Theatre, Northampton); Sergeant Musgrave's Dance (Oxford Stage Company); Three Sisters (The Playhouse); Arcadia (Royal Theatre, Northampton/ Salisbury Playhouse); Light (Complicité); The Way Of The World (Royal Exchange Theatre); and The Colonel Bird (Gate Theatre). Menzies has been featured in films including King Lear;Carmilla; Underworld: Next Generation; Blackbird; Black Sea; Hysteria; Forget Me Not (winner of London Independent Film Festival Best Film); The Duel; Atonement; Casino Royale; Pierrepoint; Piccadilly Jim; Finding Neverland; The Low Down. TV credits: The Crown;The Terror; Catastrophe; Outlander (nominated for Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor) The Circuit; The Night Manager; Honourable Woman; Game Of Thrones; Silent Witness; Black Mirror: The Waldo Moment; Dr. Who: Cold War; The Thick Of It; Secret State; Getting On; Eternal Law; The Shadow; Any Human; Law & Order; It Crowd Preston; Spooks; Pulling; Kingdom; Rome; The Belsen Redemption; Persuasion; A Very Social Secretary; I Saw You; Summer In The Suburbs; Longitude.

Schedule and Tickets

Tickets for The Hunt are on sale now and can be purchased online. Performances take place February 16, 17, 20–24, 27–29, March 1–3, 5–9, 12–17 at 7:30pm, February 18 & March 10 at 5pm, and February 24, March 2, 3, 9, 16 & 17 at 2pm. 

About the Almeida Theatre

Since 2013, the Almeida has been led by Artistic Director Rupert Goold and Executive Director Denise Wood. During their tenure, notable productions have included American Psycho: a new musical thriller (transferred to Broadway); Chimerica (transferred to the West End and won five Olivier Awards); 1984 (transferred to the West End, Broadway, and Australia); King Charles III (transferred to the West End, won the Olivier Award for Best New Play, transferred to Broadway, toured the UK and Sydney, and was adapted for BBC television); Oresteia and Hamlet (both recently transferred to Park Avenue Armory in New York after successful West End runs); Mary Stuart (transferred to the West End and toured the UK); Summer and Smoke (transferred to the West End and won two Olivier Awards including Best Revival) and The Hunt.  Recent highlights include A Streetcar Named Desire (transferred to the West End and won 3 Olivier Awards including Best Revival); Patriots (transferred to the West End) and The Doctor (transferred to the West End and Park Avenue Armory, New York), as well as critically acclaimed productions of Spring Awakening (screened in cinemas UK wide), The Tragedy of Macbeth (screened on BBC Four and available on BBC iPlayer) and Tammy Faye (transferring to Broadway in 2024-2025).

The Almeida Theatre is a registered charity and is dependent on the support of individuals, companies and trusts and foundations to realize our artistic ambitions, nurture emerging talent and connect with over 4,000 young people and community each year through Almeida Participation. We gratefully acknowledge the generosity of our supporters.

The Almeida is grateful for the support of Arts Council England.

About St. Ann’s Warehouse

St. Ann’s Warehouse plays a vital role on the global cultural landscape as an American artistic home for international companies of distinction, American avant-garde masters, and talented emerging artists ready to work on a grand scale. Located on the waterfront in Brooklyn Bridge Park, the spectacular waterfront theater provides artists with flexible, open space, enabling them to work with unfettered creativity, knowing that the theater can be adapted to suit their needs.

Over its 44-year history, St. Ann’s Warehouse has introduced American audiences to landmark works from a global community of theater-makers including The National Theatre of Scotland (Black Watch, Let the Right One In); Kneehigh (Brief Encounter, Tristan & Yseult); TR Warszawa (Festen, Macbeth); Mark Rylance (Measure for Measure), Daniel Kramer (Woyzeck), Enda Walsh (The Walworth Farce, and Misterman, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, both featuring Cillian Murphy); The Donmar Warehouse (the all-female Shakespeare Trilogy); Daniel Fish’s Oklahoma! (2019 Tony Award winner); Good Chance Theatre’s The Jungle; and  Little Amal Walks NYC, a massive public art project co-produced by St. Ann’s and The Walk Productions last season. St. Ann’s also produced Lou Reed’s and John Cale’s Songs for ‘Drella; Lou Reed’s Berlin; legendary Hal Willner tribute concerts, and solo outings by Jeff Buckley, Marianne Faithfull, Aaron Neville, David Bowie, Joe Strummer, and many others. During the pandemic, St. Ann’s deployed its roof and façade for free public art exhibitions and outdoor roof concerts.

www.stannswarehouse.org

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