If I was graduating now I wouldn’t go into theatre, says top director Rupert Goold

Top theatre director Rupert Goold has admitted that he wouldn’t enter the industry if he was graduating now.

The 53-year-old has been in charge at London’s Almeida Theatre since 2013, overseeing more than 70 productions, including a musical version of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel American Psycho in 2013, and a 2023 run of A Streetcar Named Desire starring Paul Mescal.

Goold is now preparing to leave the intimate north London venue behind and take up a new position as artistic director of the Old Vic.

In a new interview, Goold reflected on his career so far, which has seen him go from Cambridge University graduate to one of the UK’s most lauded theatre directors.

When asked how he thinks his younger self would fare trying to get into the industry now, he told The Telegraph: “To be honest, I don’t think I would have done it. If I was graduating now, I would have done something else.”

The director also candidly admitted he knew he wouldn’t get another highly coveted job – artistic director of the National Theatre – when the position opened up in 2023. That didn’t stop him from applying, though.

“I knew it wasn’t going to go to somebody like me,” he said. “But I thought, ‘If I don’t take it seriously and go through [the application] in some way, am I going to be on my deathbed and regretting it?’ But I also would have dreaded [getting] it, for all the reasons you can imagine!”

The director offered his thoughts how the theatre world has been drawn into online culture wars in the cancel culture era, theorising: “The world went mad, and theatre was part of that. Now, the world has got madder but I think theatre is getting saner or at least, it’s trying to deal with the madness.”

“Freedom of speech is essential,” he added.

Goold’s first season at the Old Vic is due next year and will likely be announced this autumn. While the director is largely keeping his cards close to his chest for now, he has reportedly let slip that it will include a production of Paradise Lost.

For now, Goold has his final season at the Almeida to look forward to, which includes a revival of his American Psycho musical, a production of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Sarah Kane’s masterpiece Cleansed.