Theatre News

Richard Eyre stages Ghosts for Attenborough’s final season at Almeida

Richard Eyre will return to the Almeida Theatre later this year to adapt and direct Ibsen’s Ghosts as part of Michael Attenborough’s final programmed season as artistic director of the venue before handing over to Rupert Goold.

Ghosts will run from 3 October (previews from 26 September) to 23 November 2013.

Attenborough said of the production:
“When Richard proposed directing his own new version of Ghosts at the
Almeida, I jumped at the idea. His production for us of his version of
Hedda Gabler with the then unknown Eve Best and Benedict Cumberbatch was
a masterful piece of work and his recent realisation of Nick Dear’s The
Dark Earth and The Light Sky
was simply ravishing.”

Set in the Norwegian fjordland, Ghosts takes place in Mrs Alving’s
country house, where she is preparing for the opening of an orphanage,
a memorial to her late husband. Mrs Alving’s son Oswald, an artist,
returns home for the celebrations. A story of love, betrayal and
hypocrisy gradually unfolds as ghosts from the past come back to haunt
the family.

Richard Eyre was director of the National Theatre from 1988 to 1997. His recent work includes Quartermaine’s Terms starring Rowan Atkinson at Wyndham’s Theatre, an award-winning production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible on Broadway, the world premières of Nicholas Wright’s Vincent in Brixton and The Reporter (both for the National) and the stage musicals Mary Poppins and Betty Blue Eyes for Cameron Mackintosh.

Further production team and casting for Ghosts are still to be announced.