Almeida confirms new dates for "Daddy" and The House of Shades

Jeremy O Harris’ "Daddy" and The House of Shades by Beth Steel have announced new dates at the Almeida Theatre in London as part of its spring 2022 season.

Harris’ "Daddy" had been poised to open last year before theatres were forced closed at the start of the pandemic, and has now been rescheduled to March 2022.

The UK premiere of Harris’ play is directed by Danya Taymor.

Also rescheduled for next year is Steel’s new play, The House of Shades, starring Anne-Marie Duff. Blanche McIntyre’s production opens in May.

Artistic director Rupert Goold said: "When we shut the theatre in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic, the set for Jeremy O Harris’ "Daddy" was already installed waiting for tech to commence. For six months, it gathered dust like a ghostly relic. Now, close to two years later, we’re very pleased to confirm the return of both "Daddy" and Beth Steel’s The House of Shades which we also had to postpone last year."

The north London theatre’s spring season also includes a new version of Eugène Ionesco’s The Chairs, directed by Omar Elerian.

It will star Kathryn Hunter, Marcello Magni and Toby Sedgwick and opens in February.

Elsewhere, the theatre will stage a collection of new plays as part of The Key Workers Cycle, by writers Francesca Beard, Sonali Bhattacharyya, Josh Elliott, Annie Jenkins, Eno Mfon, Nessah Muthy, Danusia Samal, Yomi Ṣode and Molly Taylor.

Produced with All Change, Clean Break and Graeae, the plays will be performed by professional actors, community participants and key workers.

The Almeida will also develop a new platform for hosting live and video-on-demand content. It has been awarded a place on the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Digital Accelerator Programme to fund this.

It has also confirmed the return of its Genesis Almeida Writers Programme for 2021/22. This year’s version of the scheme was cut short after the theatre apologised for what it described as an "act of racism" by misattributing an image of a black participant on the programme as that of another black writer taking part.

The writers for 2021/22 are Josh Elliott, Eno Mfon, Uma Nada-Rajah, Michael John O’Neill, Ava Pickett, Sid Sagar and Molly Taylor.

Season at a glance

The Chairs by Eugène Ionesco
Translated and adapted by Omar Elerian
February 5 to March 5, with press night on February 10

The Key Workers Cycle by Francesca Beard, Sonali Bhattacharyya, Josh Elliott, Annie Jenkins, Eno Mfon, Nessah Muthy, Danusia Samal, Yomi Ṣode, and Molly Taylor
March 9 to 12

"Daddy" by Jeremy O Harris
Directed by Danya Taymor
March 26 to April 30, with press night on April 5

The House of Shades by Beth Steel
Directed by Blanche McIntyre
May 7 to June 18, with press night on May 17