Rupert Goold is leaving the Almeida theatre after more than a decade in charge to take over at the Old Vic, ending a search for a new leader at one of the UK’s biggest theatrical institutions.
Rumours of the move at the top of the British theatre world began circulating this week, after the news in May that the current Old Vic artistic director, Matthew Warchus, would step down from the role in 2026.
Goold said: “After 11 wonderful, demanding and richly rewarding years at the Almeida, I’ve decided to head across the river in search of a new challenge. It’s been the privilege of my life to have led the Almeida over the past decade. But I believe it’s important that our theatres are renewed through new leadership and that in turn can and should bring new artists and ideas into this unique space.”
Goold will be joined by Rebecca Frecknall, who has been named associate director having held the same role at the Almeida. Goold will work alongside the executive director Laura Stevenson as co-chief executives.
Goold, who joined the Almeida after running the Headlong touring company, is one of the most celebrated artistic directors in the UK. He directed the Olivier award-winning Dear England at the National Theatre in 2023 before its West End transfer. He brought James Graham’s play Ink, Mike Bartlett’s Albion and an adaptation of the Oscar-winning film Cold War to the Almeida stage, and has won the Olivier, Critics’ Circle and Evening Standard awards.
Nick Clarry, the chair of the Old Vic, said: “Our 206-year-old theatre has thrived artistically over the last 10 years, transforming our work on and off stage and welcoming more people through our doors than ever before. Looking to the future with Rupert and Laura as co-CEOs, the board believes we have an exceptional team to lead the Old Vic into its next chapter.”
Goold, who has been an associate director at the Royal Shakespeare Company since 2010, spoke to the Guardian in 2018 about the hectic nature of recruitment for British theatre’s biggest roles.
“Your phone goes,” he said. “In fact, everyone’s phone goes; often they’re shopping around, seeing who might be interested. There are a lot of coffees. It’s the one bit of the business when directors are forced to feel like actors: you’re auditioning.
“People talk about it in terms of the career politics, stepping stones and all that, but in my experience it’s more intuitive. You think: ‘Ooh, I’d like to make work here.’”
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Goold also spoke about the different ways outgoing artistic directors approach their replacements. “Michael [Attenborough], my predecessor at the Almeida, was very welcoming, but he also had enough experience to know I was going to try and change things. When I took over at Headlong [then the Oxford Stage Company], Dominic Dromgoole left an out-of-date bottle of cassis on my desk and a note saying: ‘I don’t believe in handovers.’ In a way, I respect that.”
