The Almeida Theatre has announced its new season for 2026, including a major new production of Sarah Kane’s acclaimed play Cleansed.
Olivier Award-winning director Rebecca Frecknall (Cabaret) returns to the Almeida following her multi-award-winning production of A Streetcar Named Desire starring Paul Mescal.
Cleansed will run at the Almeida Theatre in London from 21 July to 22 August 2026.
Rebecca Frecknall directs Kane’s masterpiece exploring the brutality of desire, and asks what happens to love when there’s nothing else worth living for?
The play is set in a university which is operating as an institution designed to rid society of its undesirables, and where a group of “students” try to save themselves through love while under the rule of the sadistic Tinker. How far are they prepared to go to prove their devotion? And will their love survive when subjected to the most extreme violence?
Before her death in 1999 aged 28, Sarah Kane (Blasted, Skin, Phaedra’s Love, Crave, 4.48 Psychosis) was one of the most original and controversial voices in British playwriting history.
Cleansed was first performed in 1998 at the Royal Court Theatre.
Rebecca Frecknall’s next project is also at the Almeida, directing a new production of Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon for the Misbegotten starring Michael Shannon, Ruth Wilson and David Threlfall, from 18 June until 16 August 2025.
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