The Stage

Stevenson and Goodman to lead Almeida’s 2009 season in Duet for One

Published Wednesday 15 October 2008 at 16:45 by Lalayn Baluch

Olivier award-winning actors Juliet Stevenson and Henry Goodman are to star in a revival of Tom Kempinski’s 1980 play Duet for One, which will open the Almeida Theatre’s 2009 season on January 22.

The show, which will be directed by Actors Centre artistic director Matthew Lloyd and will feature designs by Lez Brotherston, tells the story of concert violinist Stephanie Abrahams, who is forced to rethink her life after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Goodman returns to the Almeida to play Dr Feldmann - he was last seen at the venue as Argan in Lindsay Posner’s production of The Hypochondriac - while Stevenson will lead the cast as Stephanie.

The season will also see the European premieres of Jez Butterworth’s new comedy Parlour Song, which is set to be directed by former Royal Court artistic director Ian Rickson, Andrew Bovell’s When the Rain Stops Falling, and Neil LaBute’s In a Dark, Dark House.

Also in 2009 will be the world premieres of Samuel Adamson’s A Quiet Island, directed by Indhu Rubasingham, and Christopher Hampton’s new version of Odon Von Horvath’s Judgement Day, directed by James Macdonald.

The year is scheduled to end with Roger Michell directing Patrick Hamilton’s classic thriller Rope, which was first produced at the Strand Theatre in 1929, and was later made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1948.

Meanwhile, the 2010 season will kick-off with Michael Attenborough’s production of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. Further details for the show, including casting, will be announced at a later date.