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SHOCKING: Rebecca frecknall - You Need To See This

Cleansed at the Almeida: A gruelling, gripping orgy of cruelty

4/5 Sarah Kane’s notoriously extreme play returns to shock audiences again, but with good reason

Evening Standard

Cleansed review – Sarah Kane’s visions of brutal torture resonate more intensely than ever

Rebecca Frecknall pulls off this notoriously difficult 1998 play, in which appalling cruelty and violence is balanced against human yearning for love and beauty

The Guardian - UK

Audience member faints on opening night of London play during graphic scene

‘Cleansed’ by Sarah Kane has been known for provoking strong reactions among audiences

The Independent UK

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This play gave its cast nightmares and had audiences fainting. Now it’s back

INTERVIEW: The late playwright’s violent, sexually explicit drama is often regarded as one of the most ‘hardcore’ pieces of modern British theatre. Director Rebecca Frecknall and star Leo Bill speak to Louis Chilton about the Almeida’s new revival, and why there’s so much more to ‘Cleansed’ than just the sensational…

The Independent UK

A Moon for the Misbegotten review – even Ruth Wilson can’t redeem this long night

Rebecca Frecknall’s usually bold directorial hand seems stilled in a glacially paced revival co-starring Michael Shannon and David Threlfall

The Guardian - UK

Ruth Wilson and Michael Shannon are mesmerising in A Moon for the Misbegotten at the Almeida Theatre

4/5 Rebecca Frecknall stages a surprisingly funny revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Prohibition-era romantic tragedy

Evening Standard

Ruth Wilson on her return to the West End stage, the threat from AI, and why London tops New York

Ruth Wilson fears for screen stars, but as she returns to the West End stage, she says theatre is in fantastic shape — and things are looking up for women of a certain age, too

Evening Standard

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Stars, shockers, psychos and evangelists: Rupert Goold’s mighty end to his high-wire Almeida tenure

A smattering of famous names, a big-ambition project, a gay classic and a musical thriller … the powerhouse artistic director’s final productions have all his hallmarks, showing how he made this small theatre so formidable

The Guardian - UK

Paul Mescal headlines National Theatre’s bold new season as Stormzy debuts for ground-breaking collaboration

The theatre unveils ambitious global vision with 16 new productions, including Mescal’s double debuts and a Stormzy-powered musical

Evening Standard

From Amsterdam to the West End: the avant-garde hit factory behind The Years and Oedipus

A pair of electrifying London shows bagged four prizes at the Olivier awards. Both were developed by Dutch company ITA, which has an eye for British talent

The Guardian - UK

On my radar: Rebecca Frecknall’s cultural highlights

The theatre director on the best novel she’s read in a long time, Tracey Emin’s latest exhibition, exercising in the dark, and a Middle Eastern vegetarian restaurant

The Guardian - UK

The week in theatre: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; The Little Foxes; The Invention of Love – review

Daisy Edgar-Jones is on the prowl; Anne-Marie Duff channels Bette Davis; and Simon Russell Beale gleams in the literary afterlife

The Guardian - UK

Cat On a Hot Tin Roof at the Almeida review: Daisy Edgar-Jones is a force of nature in this striking revival

4/5 Director Rebecca Frecknall’s vivid interpretation makes a hazily-remembered classic feel new and strange

Evening Standard

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof review – Daisy Edgar-Jones is full of angry energy in a stylish family face-off

Rebecca Frecknall’s stark production brings out the rage in Williams’ play through powerful performances, but fails to plumb all its emotional depths

The Guardian - UK

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The Guardian - UK

Rupert Goold is an audacious innovator. He will make waves at the Old Vic

Having worked his magic as director of the Almeida theatre, the gifted Goold is bound for greater glories: the National had better watch out

The Independent UK

The Old Vic announces Rupert Goold as new artistic director

Goold said he will be joining with ‘excitement and trepidation’

Evening Standard

Daisy Edgar-Jones on the advice Paul Mescal gave ahead of her return to stage

The actress is starring in a Tennessee Williams play in December

The Guardian - UK

Daisy Edgar-Jones to star in new production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Rebecca Frecknall will direct Normal People actor in Tennessee Williams classic at Almeida theatre in London, opening in December

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The Conversation

Eddie Redmayne’s Emcee performance has caused uproar – but there is more to this Cabaret than meets the eye

Eddie Redmayne’s performance at the 2024 Tony Awards in June has been a hot topic among theatre fans. British director Rebecca Frecknall’s imaginative revival of Cabaret (1966) opened in London in 2021 and on Broadway in April 2024. Broadway critics have not been as overwhelmingly positive as London’s – and…

The Guardian - UK

Julie review – Rebecca Frecknall’s sensational take on Strindberg

The British director of Cabaret and A Streetcar Named Desire makes a gripping debut with the acclaimed Dutch company

The Guardian - UK

The week in theatre: Macbeth; The House of Bernarda Alba – review

Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma are magnetic murderers in Simon Godwin’s bleakly immersive warehouse production, while Harriet Walter commands the stage in Rebecca Frecknall’s stylish, if underheated Lorca

The Guardian - UK

The House of Bernarda Alba review – Harriet Walter rules as Lorca gets a refurb

Adapted by Alice Birch and directed by Rebecca Frecknall, this is a stylised study in control and daughterly disobedience

Evening Standard

The House of Bernarda Alba at the National Theatre review: a study of repression horribly relevant to today

Harriet Walter cleaves through the teeming action like a dreadnought

Evening Standard

Patsy Ferran and Anjana Vasan: the Evening Standard Theatre Awards Best Actresses on their winning sister act

The pair were gobsmacked when they were both named as joint winners

The Independent UK

Patsy Ferran on stage stardom, performing with Paul Mescal, and Pygmalion: ‘I only ever watched the first 75 per cent of My Fair Lady’

She stepped in to play Blanche to Paul Mescal’s Stanley at the 11th hour. Now she’s taking on her childhood dream role of Eliza Doolittle. Andrzej Lukowski talks to Patsy Ferran, the most exciting stage actor of her generation

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