Theatrenow have learned that Michael Attenborough is to be the new Artistic Director of the Almeida - one of the most sought-after jobs in British theatre. Theatre-watchers will be interested to see that the job has, as at the National, gone to a director rather than an actor.

Attenborough, son of actor-director Richard (Lord) Attenborough, has worked at Hampstead Theatre and the Young Vic and, for the last decade, with the RSC, for whom he will direct a farewell performance of Antony and Cleopatra at Stratford in April.

More details will be released by the Almeida soon, but they have confirmed that Attenborough will start there in July this year, and he will no doubt be looking forward to a busy summer at the helm of one of London's most exciting and highly-regarded theatre companies with an enviable reputation, on both sides of the Atlantic, for productions both of the classics and of new writing.

—by Paul Webb Theatrenow