Cast & Creatives
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Director JONATHAN KENT established the Almeida Theatre as a full-time producing house with Ian McDiarmid in 1990. He was joint artistic director for 12 years.
His productions included Ibsen’s When We Dead Awaken, Dryden’s All for Love, Euripides’ Medea (also West End and Broadway), Anthony Burgess’ new version of Griboyedov’s Chatsky, Bernhard’s The Showman, Moliere’s The School for Wives, Louis Mellis and David Scinto’s Gangster No. 1, Moliere’s Tartuffe, David Hare’s versions of The Life of Galileo, The Rules of the Game, Ivanov, John Byrne’s version of Gogol’s The Government Inspector, Nicholas Wright’s version of Pirandello’s Naked and Shakespeare’s The Tempest. His production of Hamlet also opened at the Hackney Empire, before transferring to Broadway. Kent directed Richard II and Coriolanus in repertoire for the Almeida at Gainsborough Studios. The two productions toured to New York and Tokyo.
In 1998 he opened a season for the Almeida at the Albery Theatre in the West End with two Racine tragedies in repertoire - Phèdre (in a new version by Ted Hughes) and Britannicus, both of which toured to New York. He closed the season with his revival of David Hare’s Plenty. The Almeida at Kings Cross season opened in 2001 with Kent’s production of Lulu by Frank Wedekind, (also Kennedy Centre, Washington DC). Other Kings Cross productions included David Hare’s new version of Chekhov’s Platonov, Faith Healer by Brian Friel and King Lear.
Other theatre credits include Corneille’s Le Cid, David Hare’s new version of Brecht’s Mother Courage and her Children and Martin Crimp’s new version of Marivaux’s The False Servant, all for the National Theatre. Kent directed Man of La Mancha on Broadway in 2002, Hamlet in Japan and London in 2003, Hecuba at the Donmar Warehouse in 2004, Edward Bond’s Lear at the Sheffield Crucible in 2005 and Hugh Whitemore’s new version of Pirandello’s As You Desire Me in the West End 2005/6 and Brian Friel’s Faith Healer on Broadway in 2006.
His opera work includes Katya Kabanova, Lucio Silla and Tom Ades’s The Tempest all for Santa Fe Opera, A Child of our Time for English National Opera, Tosca for the Royal Opera House, Elektra for the Mariinsky, St Petersburg and The Turn of the Screw for Glyndebourne.
Future projects include The Marriage of Figaro (2008) and the world premiere of Paul Moravec and Terry Teachout’s new opera The Letter (2009) both for Sante Fe Opera, Oedipus for the National Theatre and The Fairy Queen for Glyndebourne, also Paris and New York.