Daisy Edgar-Jones to star in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in new Almeida Theatre season

The Islington venue announced five new productions for its upcoming season which will run from Christmas till next summer.

The first play to feature will be a production of the Tennessee Williams classic directed by Rebecca Frecknall.

It will follow her versions of Summer and Smoke in 2018 and A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Edgar-Jones’s Normal People co-star Paul Mescal, in 2023.

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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof will also star Kingsley Ben-Adir (Bob Marley: One Love; Barbie) and Lennie James (Line of Duty) and will run from December 10 2024 to February 1 2025.

This will be followed by Otherland, written by Chris Bush (Standing at the Sky’s Edge) and directed by Ann Yee. 

Otherland depicts a break-up and “explores what it means to be true to yourself in the face of unstoppable change”. It will run from February 11 to March 15 2025.

The new season at the Almeida also includes Eugène Ionesco’s absurdist satire Rhinoceros, directed and newly translated by Omar Elerian. It runs from March 25 to April 26 2025.

The season continues with another world premiere: 1536 by Ava Pickett, which runs from May 6 to June 7 2025. 

Directed by Lyndsey Turner, the play is set in Tudor England in the wake of Anne Boleyn’s arrest. 

The season will end with another production directed by Frecknall starring Ruth Wilson and Michael Shannon.

A Moon for the Misbegotten by Eugene O’Neill is a heated family drama set on a barren farm in Connecticut. The play is a sequel to O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and portrays two characters confronting their pasts in a single night.

Almeida Artistic Director Rupert Goold said, “Today we announce a new season of work, featuring two revivals of beloved canonical texts, an innovative Ionesco adaptation and the world premiere of two new plays.

“The season is bookended by two timeless American classics directed by our Associate Director Rebecca Frecknall.

“I am so excited to welcome back Omar Elerian with his take on Eugène Ionesco’s absurdist satire, Rhinoceros.

“Alongside these revivals, we are also producing two new plays: first up we are delighted to welcome back Chris Bush, with Otherland, an ambitious and necessary new play, directed by Ann Yee.

“And then it’s the premiere of Ava Pickett’s 1536, a play that has made waves winning the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, directed by Lyndsey Turner who returns to the Almeida following acclaimed productions of Chimerica and The Treatment.”