The Theatre of Rupert Goold

The first book to provide a survey, analysis and practical guide to the work and processes of the director Rupert Goold. It features contributions from Goold and many of his key collaborators and provides a rich account of both individual works and a practical guide to the processes behind them.

Since the late 1990s, Rupert Goold has garnered a reputation as one of the UK’s most exciting and provocative theatre directors. His exhilarating, risk-taking productions of both classic texts and new plays have travelled from regional stages to the National Theatre, the West End, Broadway and beyond. Through his artistic directorship of Northampton’s Royal & Derngate, the touring theatre company Headlong and London's Almeida Theatre, he has radically transformed, not only the companies themselves, but the landscape of British theatre. This is the first book to survey and analyse the full range of Goold's work to date and is a vital resource for students, scholars and fans of his work.

Based on extensive interviews with Goold and some of the playwrights, designers, actors and other creatives who have collaborated with him, The Theatre of Rupert Goold provides an account of Goold’s work from the beginnings of his career to the present day, offering a backstage view of the creative processes behind some of his most successful productions including: Paradise Lost, Faustus (Royal & Derngate); Macbeth (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet (RSC); Six Characters in Search of an Author, ENRON (Headlong); Time and the Conways (National Theatre); Charles III and Ink (Almeida). The Theatre of Rupert Goold is an accessible and fascinating guide to Goold’s approach to making theatre, an approach that asks provocative questions of the modern world in the most theatrical ways imaginable.