alm brochure - Almeida Theatre

NOW BOOKINGALMEIDA THEATRE:ROMANCE6th September– 22nd October 2005STEPHEN DILLANE’S MACBETH26th October– 5th November 2005THE HYPOCHONDRIAC10th November 2005–7th January 2006ALMEIDA OPERA:THE CRICKET RECOVERS29th & 30th June, 3rd & 4th July 2005LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD6th & 7th July 2005SYSTEMS IN TIME8th & 9th July 2005ALMEIDA WEST END:HEDDA GABLER19th May – 6th August 2005For details of Assisted Performancesplease see page 13Use Our New Online Booking System www.almeida.co.ukBox Office 020 7359 4404When I was appointed Artistic Director of the Almeida I said thatwe would present an eclectic programme, ranging from redefinedmajor classics to the cutting edge of brand new work. To date wehave produced ten premières of new plays and four classics,threeof them in newly commissioned translations.The coming 05/06 season will continueand expand this wide-ranging variety oftheatrical events. Three of the first fourplays are American in origin – thrillinglytwo premières by a pair of contemporarytheatrical giants – David Mamet andSam Shepard; followed by a major revivalof the great Tennessee Williams’ Period ofAdjustment, to be directed by our AssociateDirector, the award-winning Howard Davies.On the classic front we have commissioneda fabulously outrageous new version ofMolière’s comedy The Hypochondriac fromthe celebrated young playwright RichardBean, which will play through November,December and over Christmas.Lindsay Posner will direct both the Molièreand Mamet’s play Romance. Lindsay hasalready directed Mamet’s three mostrecent productions in the West End; ALife in the Theatre, Oleanna and SexualPerversity in Chicago, all hugely successful.He also directed the National Theatre’striumphant production of Moliere’s Tartuffewith Martin Clunes.Sandwiched between Romance and TheHypochondriac (for only 10 performances) weshall host an extraordinary solo performanceby one of the finest actors of his generation,Stephen Dillane, as Macbeth. An exploratoryvision into the mind of the tragic hero, withother characters sliding in and out of histortured conscience, this will undoubtedlyprove to be a fascinating contrast with ourfull scale production earlier this year.In 2006, I myself shall be directing theEuropean première of a new Sam ShepardThe Late Henry Moss and a huge project forthe Spring, a brand new version by Sir DavidHare of Maxim Gorky’s brilliant play Enemies,written ten years before the Russian revolution,with a cast of over thirty characters.Booking is now open for the Mamet. Amassive hit in America, Romance is a wildpolitical satire set in a New York courtroom;as one US reviewer described it, “a giddy,glorious, bad-taste valentine to classic farce”.And also for the Molière – a great classicfarce indeed.In addition, you can book for Stephen Dillane’sMacbeth and our latest award-winningAlmeida Opera season, which in July returnsfor its fourteenth year, with a characteristicallylively and inventive programme of work.If you haven’t yet seen Sir Richard Eyre’sremarkable production of Hedda Gabler, Iwould urge you to do so. It’s now transferredto the Duke of York’s Theatre in the West Endfor a limited run ending on 6th August.It only remains for me to express two veryimportant thank you’s. Firstly to Coutts whoare now entering their third consecutive yearas our distinguished Principal Sponsor and toour company and staff whose whole-heartedcommitment to our work is unswerving andwho are the major reason that this theatreachieves the consistently high standards forwhich the Almeida is so widely known.Michael AttenboroughArtistic Director