London’s Old Vic will begin Rupert Goold’s first season as artistic director with Damian Lewis in Shakespeare’s Henry V on January 26, 2027. Rebecca Frecknall’s Julie, starring Milly Alcock, follows. The programme also includes the musical Assassins and Arinzé Kene’s performance in Kohlhaas, alongside a continuing artistic partnership with an Amsterdam theatre.
London’s Old Vic theatre will open its first season under artistic director Rupert Goold with Henry V, starring Damian Lewis. The Shakespeare production begins on January 26, 2027, with Goold directing and Miriam Buether designing the set. Lewis returns to a major theatre role almost a decade after The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?. His stage work has previously included the roles of Romeo and Hamlet.[1], [2]
Next comes Julie, adapted from August Strindberg’s Miss Julie by Rebecca Frecknall, who will also direct. Frecknall is the Old Vic’s new associate director, and Milly Alcock takes the title role. The adaptation originated at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, the Dutch theatre company with which the Old Vic is establishing an ongoing artistic partnership.[1]
Goold will return to directing duties in summer for Assassins, the musical by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman. Arinzé Kene will then appear in Kohlhaas, based on a text by Marco Baliani and Remo Rostagno. Omar Elerian translates and directs that production, previously staged at Brighton Festival. The Old Vic operates as a not-for-profit charity; Goold describes its institutional position as lying between commercial and publicly subsidised theatre.[1]
