Almeida Theatre announces Rupert Goold’s final season as artistic director

The Almeida Theatre has announced Rupert Goold’s final season as artistic director.

The season includes four world premieres, with Goold’s final production set to be a revisiting of American Psycho, the musical that launched his leadership in 2013. You can find out more here.

Among the new works is Romans: a novel by Alice Birch, directed by Sam Pritchard. You can find out more about the show, as well as lead casting, in our dedicated story.

Listen to a discussoun about the season here:

Also premiering is The Line of Beauty, an adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst’s Booker Prize-winning novel. Jack Holden’s stage version is directed by Michael Grandage – with an array of further details here.

Another new play, Christmas Day by Sam Grabiner, directed by James Macdonald, follows a Jewish family gathering in an abandoned building in London on Christmas Day. It has set design by Miriam Buether and casting by Amy Ball, and runs from 9 December 2025 to 10 January 2026. The pair reunite following Grabiner’s Olivier Award-winning Boys on the Verge of Tears last year.

Joe Hill-Gibbins will direct a new version of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, adapted by Anya Reiss, with Romola Garai returning to the theatre from 31 March to 26 May 2026.

Carmen Nasr returns to the Almeida with Under the Shadow, adapted from Babak Anvari’s BAFTA-winning film – find out more about that production, and its leading star, here. 

Rebecca Frecknall directs Cleansed by Sarah Kane in her final production as Almeida associate director – with the show running from 21 July to 22 August next year.

Sam Yates will directs Josh O’Connor in Clifford Odets’ Golden Boy – with more information here.

The final production in the season will see Ebenezer Bamgboye return to the Almeida to direct Zackary Momoh in the 1924 play Desire Under the Elms by Eugene O’Neill. O’Neill’s play, inspired by Greek tragedy, is set on a remote New England farm in the mid-19th century and follows the tensions between an ageing farmer, his new, younger, wife and his son. It will play from 10 November to 19 December 2026.

The Almeida also continues its community engagement through 81 (Life), the second part of the Islington Trilogy, co-created by Rhianna Ilube with 81 local residents. Presented in partnership with All Change and Cardboard Citizens, it follows 24 (Day) from 2023 and precedes 1000 (Millennia), planned for 2026.

Goold said today: “New writing has always been a central pillar of our work so I’m proud to be premiering brand new plays from four of the most exciting voices in the country. Three of the writers are new to us in Alice Birch, Jack Holden and Sam Grabiner, while Carmen Nasr returns following her Almeida Young Company production The Maladies in 2022.”

Tickets for Romans and The Line of Beauty go on sale on 3 June for top-tier members, 5 June for friends and 10 June for the public. Tickets for 81 (Life) go on sale in the summer, for Christmas Day and American Psycho in the autumn and all other shows in 2026.