Women, Beware the Devil
By Lulu Raczka, Directed by Rupert Goold
Event details
Sat 11 Feb – Sat 25 Mar 2023
Time Out
“This may be the biggest
But it is far from the first sacrifice I’ve made for this house
And I’m sure it won’t be the last
But don’t fret.
I’m ready.”
England, 1640.
A war is brewing.
Rumours are flying.
A household is in crisis.
…and the Devil’s having some fun.
For Lady Elizabeth nothing is more important than protecting her family’s legacy and their ancestral home. When that comes under threat, she elicits the help of Agnes, a young servant suspected of witchcraft. But Agnes has dark dreams of her own for this house.
This deadly new play is a “sinfully wild experience” (WhatsOnStage) by “bold and brilliant playwright” (The Guardian) Lulu Raczka (Antigone). Almeida Artistic Director Rupert Goold (Patriots) directs this “raucous production” (Evening Standard) full of treachery and trickery.
Running Time
Approx. 2 hours & 15 mins, incl. an interval
Evenings 7.30pm
Matinees 2pm
Access Performances
Book our access performances by calling Box Office on 020 7359 4404 or email boxoffice@almeida.co.uk.
Audio Described Sat 18 Mar 2pm (Touch Tour 12.15pm)
Captioned Thu 9 Mar 7.30pm
Relaxed Environment Wed 15 Mar 2pm
Content Warnings
Read more about our production guidance and warnings>
Inside Rehearsals
Cast & Creatives
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Cast
Nathan Armarkwei-LaryeaNathan Armarkwei-Laryea
Nathan Armarkwei-Laryea
For the Almeida: Spring Awakening.
Theatre includes: Hamlet; Faith, Hope and Charity; Tartuffe (National Theatre); The 306 Dawn (National Theatre of Scotland); Her Naked Skin (Salisbury Playhouse); Romeo and Juliet Vernon God Little (The Space); Homo Sacer
Film includes: In Darkness; Hunting Sublime; Oegs.
Television includes: The Witcher; Doctors; Doctor Who.
As a writer, Nathan is co-writing his first television series, a black comedy, in development at Drama Republic.
Leo BillLeo Bill
Leo Bill
For the Almeida: The Duchess of Malfi; The Tragedy of King Richard the Second.
Theatre includes: Mephisto [A Rhapsody]; Dear Elizabeth (Gate Theatre); Curtains (Rose Theatre Kingston); A Midsummer Night’s Dream; The Glass Menagerie (Young Vic); Hamlet; School for Scandal (Barbican); Light Shining in Buckinghamshire; A Woman Killed with Kindness (National Theatre); Secret Theatre (Lyric Hammersmith); The Silence of the Sea (Donmar Warehouse); Posh (Royal Court/ West End).
Film includes: Flux Gourmet; Cruella; Rare Beasts; Peterloo; In Fabric; Alice through the Looking Glass; Mr Turner; A Long Way Down; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Kinky Boots; Vera Drake; 28 Days Later; Gosford Park.
Television includes: Funny Woman; Becoming Elizabeth; War of the Worlds; The Long Song; Strike; Taboo; The White Queen; Pramface; The Borgias; Words of Captain Scott; Doctor Who; Home Time; Ashes to Ashes; Lead Balloon; Sense and Sensibility; Jekyll; Bash; A Very Social Secretary; Silent Witness; Messiah III; Beethoven’s Eroica; Canterbury Tales; Spooks; Midsomer Murders; Surrealismo; Attachments II; Crime and Punishment.
Carly-Sophia DaviesCarly-Sophia Davies
Carly-Sophia Davies
For the Almeida: Spring Awakening.
Theatre includes: Pavilion (Theatr Clwyd).
Film includes: Joanna Hoggs’ The Eternal Daughter; The Sin Eater; Arwel’s House; Manipulations.
Television includes: Midsomer Murders.
Aurora Dawson-HunteAurora Dawson-Hunte
Aurora Dawson-Hunte
Theatre includes: Dmitry (The Marylebone Theatre); The Mirror and the Light (RSC); Mrs Klein; Three Winters; The House of Bernarda Alba; Stuff Happens; The Country Wife; Trojan Women; Twelfth Night; As You Like It; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; The Changeling; The Thickness of Skin (RADA); The Government Inspector (Bridewell Theatre/ Edinburgh Fringe); Cherry Orchard; Chekhov’s Baby (Oxford University Dramatic Society); The Proposal; The Bear (Yaroslavl’State Demidov); School Journey to the centre of the Earth (National Theatre Connections/ The Old Vic).
Film includes: Morning Song.
Television includes: October Faction; The Stranger; There She Goes; Sex Education; Ride Out; My Insta Scammer Friend.
Radio includes: The Panopticon.
Other work includes: Persistence Exile
Aurora has also worked on various voice over and audio projects with Prime Solutions, Hachette, Penguin, Audible, BBC and Big Finish Productions.
Ioanna KimbookIoanna Kimbook
Ioanna Kimbook
For the Almeida: “Daddy” A Melodrama; The Duchess of Malfi.
Theatre includes: Bitter Wheat (West End); Much Ado About Nothing (National Theatre).
Film includes: Choose or Die.
Television includes: Inside No. 9; Flatmates; Wedding Season.
Lydia LeonardLydia Leonard
Lydia Leonard
For the Almeida: Little Eyolf.
Theatre includes: The Meeting (Chichester Festival Theatre); Oslo (National Theatre/ West End); Wolf Hall (RSC/ Broadway, Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play); Onassis (West End); Time and the Conways (National Theatre); Let There Be Love (Tricycle Theatre); Frost/Nixon (Donmar Warehouse/ West End); Hecuba (RSC).
Film includes: Northern Comfort; Last Christmas; The Fifth Estate; Born of War; Legendary; Archipelago; True True Lie.
Television includes: The Crown; Ten Percent; Gentleman Jack; Flesh and Blood; Quacks; Absentia; Apple Tree Yard; Life in Squares; River; Lucan; Ambassadors; Da Vinci’s Demons; Whitechapel; The 39 Steps; Ashes to Ashes; Margaret Thatcher; A Line of Beauty; Jericho; Rome.
Alison OliverAlison Oliver
Alison Oliver
For the Almeida: Women, Beware the Devil.
Theatre includes: Dancing at Lughnasa (National Theatre); Summer and Smoke; The Merchant of Venice; Blood Wedding (The Lir).
Film includes: Saltburn.
Television includes: Best Interests; Conversations with Friends.
Lola ShalamLola Shalam
Lola Shalam
Lola is in her final year at Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Women, Beware the Devil is her professional stage debut.
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Creatives
Lulu RaczkaLulu Raczka
Writer
Lulu Raczka
Theatre includes: Gulliver’s Travels (Unicorn Theatre); Antigone (New Diorama Theatre); A Girl in School Uniform (Walks into a Bar) (West Yorkshire Playhouse/ New Diorama Theatre); Grey Man (Shoreditch Festival/ Theatre503); Clytemnestra (Gate Theatre); Some People Talk About Violence (Edinburgh Fringe/ New Diorama Theatre/ Camden People’s Theatre); Nothing (Summerhall/ Lyric Hammersmith/ Warwick Arts Centre/ Camden People’s Theatre, The Sunday Times Playwriting Award, the National Student Drama Festival Award for Creative Risk).
Television includes: Riviera; : Masters of Florence.
Radio includes: Of A Lifetime (2019 Imison Award).
Rupert GooldRupert Goold
Director
Rupert Goold
Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre, founding Artistic Director of Headlong (2005 to 2013), Associate Director at the RSC and Artistic Director of Northampton Theatres (2002 to 2005).
For the Almeida: Women, Beware the Devil; Tammy Faye; Patriots (also West End); Spring Awakening; Albion; The Hunt; Shipwreck; Richard III; Medea; The Merchant of Venice; The Last Days of Judas Iscariot; American Psycho (also Broadway); Ink; King Charles III (also West End/ Broadway).
Theatre includes: Dear England (National Theatre/ West End); The 47th (The Old Vic); The Effect; Earthquakes in London (Headlong/ National Theatre); Time and the Conways (National Theatre); The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Kensington Gardens); The Merchant of Venice; Romeo and Juliet; Speaking Like Magpies (RSC); ENRON (Headlong/ West End/ Broadway); Made in Dagenham; Oliver!; The Glass Menagerie; No Man’s Land (West End); King Lear (Headlong/ Liverpool Everyman/ Young Vic); Six Characters in Search of an Author (Headlong/ West End); Macbeth (Chichester Festival Theatre/ West End/ Broadway).
Film includes: Judy; True Story.
Television includes: Macbeth; King Charles III; Richard II.
Opera includes: Turandot (ENO); Le Comte Ory (Garsington Opera).
Rupert has received Olivier, Critics’ Circle and Evening Standard awards for Best Director twice and won a Peabody Award in 2011 for Macbeth. Rupert received a CBE in 2017 New Year’s Honours for services to drama.
Miriam BuetherMiriam Buether
Set Designer
Miriam Buether
For the Almeida as Designer: Patriots; Spring Awakening; Hymn; Albion; Shipwreck; Machinal; Boy; Game; When the Rain Stops Falling; Judgement Day.
Theatre and Dance as Designer includes: The 47th (The Old Vic); King Lear; To Kill a Mockingbird; Three Tall Women; A Doll’s House 2; The Children (Broadway); The Jungle (Young Vic/ West End/ St Ann’s Warehouse); The Trial; Public Enemy; Wild Swans; The Government Inspector; The Good Soul of Szechuan; Generations, Measure for Measure (Young Vic); Glass. Kill. Blubeard. Imp.; Sucker Punch; Cock; In the Republic of Happiness; Get Santa! (Royal Court); The Children; Escaped Alone; Love and Information (Royal Court/ Minetta Lane Theatre); Sunny Afternoon; Bend it Like Beckham (West End); Chariots of Fire (Hampstead Theatre/ West End); The Father (Theatre Royal Bath); The Effect; Earthquakes in London (National Theatre).
Opera as Designer includes: La Fanciulla Del West (ENO/ Santa Fe Opera); Turandot; Wozzeck (ENO); Aida, Suor Angelica (Royal Opera House, as Set Designer); Anna Nicole (Royal Opera House/ BAM, New York); Boris Godunov (Berlin Opera).
Miriam received the Evening Standard Best Design Award in 2010 for Earthquakes in London and Sucker Punch, and in 2018 for The Jungle.
Evie GurneyEvie Gurney
Costume Designer
Evie Gurney
For the Almeida: Portia Coughlan; Women, Beware the Devil; The Hunt.
Theatre includes: Dear England; Antony & Cleopatra; Much Ado About Nothing (National Theatre); The Vortex (Chichester Festival Theatre); The 47th (The Old Vic); The Seagull (Dramaten, Stockholm); Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington D.C.).
Tim LutkinTim Lutkin
Lighting Designer
Tim Lutkin
For the Almeida: The Tragedy of Macbeth; Chimerica (also West End, Olivier Award for Best Lighting Design).
Theatre includes: Back To The Future: The Musical; Fiddler On The Roof; Life of Pi (UK Theatre Award for Best Design and Olivier Award for Best Lighting Design); Four Quartets; Big; Noises Off; Elf; Quiz; The Girls; The Go Between; Close To You; Impossible; Strangers On A Train; The Full Monty (West End); The Crucible; Under Milk Wood; Anthony & Cleopatra; Salomé; Les Blancs (National Theatre); Timon Of Athens; The Rover; Candide; All’s Well That Ends Well (RSC); Lungs; Present Laughter; The Crucible (The Old Vic).
Other work includes: The Lion King; Mickey & The Magician; Marvel Superheroes; Frozen Celebration; Disney Junior Dream Factory (Walt Disney Imagineering).
Adam CorkAdam Cork
Sound Designer and Composer
Adam Cork
Adam is composer and co‐lyricist of the documentary musical London Road which had an extended run at the National Theatre Cottesloe before transferring to the Olivier auditorium. He received a Tony Award in 2010 for his music and sound score for Red (Donmar Warehouse/ Broadway) and an Olivier Award in 2011 for King Lear (Donmar Warehouse). Adam received the 2011 Evening Standard Award ‘Best Design’ for Anna Christie and King Lear (Donmar Warehouse) and the 2011 Critics’ Circle ‘Best Musical’ for London Road. He was also nominated in 2010 for the Tony Award ‘Best Score (Music & Lyrics)’ for ENRON (Broadway/ West End).
For the Almeida: Patriots; The Hunt; Ink (also West End/ Broadway).
Theatre includes: The 47th (The Old Vic); The Shark is Broken; Leopoldstadt; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; No Man’s Land; Photograph 51; Don Carlos; Suddenly Last Summer (West End); Travesties (Menier Chocolate Factory/ West End/ Broadway); Les Blancs; Three Days in the Country (National Theatre); Frost/Nixon (Donmar Warehouse/ West End/ Broadway); Ivanov (Donmar Warehouse/ West End); The Chalk Garden; Creditors; The Wild Duck; Caligula (Donmar Warehouse).
Film includes: Genius; London Road.
Television includes: The Hollow Crown; Macbeth; Frances Tuesday; Re-ignited; Imprints.
Imogen KnightImogen Knight
Movement Director and Intimacy Co-ordinator
Imogen Knight
Imogen is an artist who works with the body. She applies her practice in theatre, film, music, television, performance art and opera. She is a Somatic Experiencing therapist and is currently training in NeuroAffective Touch with Dr. Aline Le Pierre.
For the Almeida: King Lear; Women, Beware the Devil; The Tragedy of King Richard the Second; Against; Carmen Disruption; Little Revolution; Filumena.
Theatre includes:
As Creator and Co-Creator: Robin/Red/Breast; They; The Nico Project; The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca; The Striker (Manchester International Festival); The Horse (Edinburgh Fringe/ Barbican/ European tour); Rheinklang – Ein Chorritual (Theater Basel); The Body Remembers (Battersea Arts Centre); Nuclear War (Royal Court);As Collaborator: The Confessions (Avignon Festival/ National Theatre/ European tour); Amadeus; Les Blancs; Edward II (National Theatre); Dear England (Barbican/ Southbank Centre); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf; The Birthday Party; Uncle Vanya; Rosmersholm (West End); Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour (National Theatre of Scotland/ West End); The Wife Of Willesden; Red Velvet (Kiln Theatre/ BAM, New York); The Crucible (The Old Vic).
Opera includes: The Handmaids Hale; The Dead City; Powder Her Face; A Winter’s Tale (ENO);
Film includes: Firebrand; Harm; The Secret Affair; On Chesil Beach; Here.
Television includes: Dope Girls; Ronja the Robber’s Daughter; Chernobyl; The Power; MotherFatherSon; The Innocents; The Rook; Harlots; The Hollow Crown.
Imogen is part of the theatre collective company MAAT with Maxine Peake and Sarah Frankcom, Movement Director for NYX Electronic Drone Choir.
Jonathan HolbyJonathan Holby
Fight Director
Jonathan Holby
For the Almeida: A Streetcar Named Desire (West End); Romeo and Juliet; The Duchess of Malfi; Machinal; Summer and Smoke.
Theatre includes: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; Cabaret; Ghost Stories; Summer and Smoke; Killer Joe; The Spoils; Strictly Ballroom; (West End); Orfeus (Young Vic); Waitress; The King and I (West End/ UK tour); The Way of the World (Donmar Warehouse); Oslo (National Theatre/ West End); Oliver Twist (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Wild Party (The Other Palace); The Trial of Jane Fonda (Park Theatre); Romeo and Juliet; Hamlet; Twelfth Night; The Tempest; Macbeth; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre, York); Private Peaceful; Holes; Lit; Coram Boy; The Madness of George III; The Memory of Water (Nottingham Playhouse); Richard II (The Vaults Theatre); The Be All and End All; Robin Hood (York Theatre Royal).
Film Includes: Black Dog; Tuesday; Tiny Dancer; Swing for the Fences; Amaranthine; The Mother, the Son, the Rat and the Gun; Damned; Protectors of the Dawn; My Mother; Work.
Amy Ball CDGAmy Ball CDG
Casting Director
Amy Ball CDG
For the Almeida: The Years; Alma Mater; Cold War; Portia Coughlan; Women, Beware the Devil; “Daddy” A Melodrama; Albion; The Hunt; Shipwreck; Dance Nation; Boy.
Theatre includes: Hamnet (RSC); Lyonesse; The Hills of California; Jerusalem; Leopoldstadt; Uncle Vanya; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf; The Night of Iguana; Rosmersholm; True West; The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?; The Pillowman (West End); The Son (Kiln Theatre/ West End); Sweat (Donmar Warehouse/ West End); The Ferryman (Royal Court/ Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre/ West End); The Moderate Soprano (Hampstead Theatre/ West End); The Birthday Party; Consent (National Theatre/ West End); Hangmen (Royal Court/ West End/ Atlantic Theater Company); Berberian Sound Studio (Donmar Warehouse); Stories; Exit the King (National Theatre); White Noise; A Very Very Very Dark Matter (Bridge Theatre); The Brothers Size (Young Vic); Maryland; ear for eye; Girls & Boys; Cyprus Avenue (Royal Court).
Peter ToddPeter Todd
Costume Supervisor
Peter Todd
For the Almeida: Portia Coughlan; Women, Beware the Devil; “Daddy” A Melodrama; The Hunt.
Theatre and Dance includes:
As Costume Designer: Double Murder (Hofesh Shechter Company); Voices and Light Footsteps; Chacony (Richard Alston Dance Company); The Waiting Game (Ballet Black); The Snow Queen; Hansel and Gretel; Alice in Winterland (Rose Theatre Kingston); Frankenstein (Aquilla Theatre).
As Costume Supervisor: Il trovatore; The Rape of Lucretia; La traviata; Salome (Royal Opera House); The Lost Thing (Candoco/ Royal Opera House); Dante Project; Flight Pattern; Unearthed; Don Quixote (The Royal Ballet); Lest We Forget; Le Corsaire (English National Ballet); Stories; As You Like It (National Theatre); Julius Caesar (Bridge Theatre); Prisoner of the State; Dead Man Walking (Barbican); People, Places and Things (Headlong); A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer (Complicité).
Alice TownesAlice Townes
Wigs, Hair and Makeup Supervisor
Alice Townes
For The Almeida: The Twilight Zone (West End).
Theatre includes:
As Head of Wigs and Makeup: Hairspray The Musical (London Coliseum); 9 to 5: The Musical (UK tour); The Color Purple (Curve Theatre, Leicester); Don Quixote (West End); Little Shop Of Horrors (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Girl From The North Country (The Old Vic).
As Deputy Head of Wigs and Makeup: The Sound of Music (International tour); Harry Potter and The Cursed Child (West End).
As Deputy Head of Wigs: Hamilton; Beautiful – The Carole King Musical (West End); Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (West End/ UK tour).
Television includes:
As Crowd Hair and Makeup Supervisor: The Witcher – Blood Origin.
As Core Crowd Hair and Makeup Artist: The Witcher.
As Hair and Makeup Artist: Sport Relief; Siblings; Uncle.
Dubheasa LanipekunDubheasa Lanipekun
Assistant Director
Dubheasa Lanipekun
Dubheasa is a multidisciplinary theatremaker, filmmaker and photographer. In her lens-based practice she was most recently a Sundance Institute Fellow on the Ignite Programme with Adobe, winning a place with her debut short film, Blue Corridor 15. Her work is motivated by finding the social truth within drama. She is interested in work which revolves around and interrogates the theme of liberation. Her practice is grounded in a deep interest in the politicised lives of people.
For the Almeida: Cold War; Women, Beware the Devil.
Theatre includes:As Director: Best Fit (Theatre Peckham); Labyrinths of Fire (Greenwich Theatre); Resurrections (Golden Goose Theatre); Bone (Omnibus Theatre); Deb & Joan (Canal Café Theatre); Blind Date (Katzpace); A.I. in Wonderland (University of Warwick).
As Associate Director: Never Have I Ever (Chichester Festival Theatre).
As Assistant Director: Paradise Now! (Bush Theatre); Handbagged (Kiln Theatre); We Need to Talk About Grief (Donmar Warehouse); I Know My Husband Loves Me (Union Theatre).
As Assistant Dramaturg: Clean Break Pathways Programme (Royal Court).
Access Performances
Audio Described Sat 18 Mar 2pm (Touch Tour 12.15pm)
Captioned Thu 9 Mar 7.30pm
Relaxed Environment Wed 15 Mar 2pm
For full information about how to book for our access performances please visit our Access For All page.
Concessions
All concession tickets are limited and subject to availability. Proof of eligibility is required. Concessions in the final week of performances are only valid for Deaf and disabled bookings. More info
Deaf and disabled patrons and a companion can buy tickets for £25 by calling the Box Office on 020 7359 4404 or email boxoffice@almeida.co.uk.
£5 tickets will be available to those aged 25 and under for performances from Sat 11 – Fri 17 Feb. Enter code 25UNDER when selecting your seats. Tickets go on sale at 5pm on Mon 30 Jan. More info
If you are aged 30 or under, you can book a £15 ticket for seats that are normally £30. Applicable on all performances except Fri & Sat evenings.
Book a £25 ticket for seats that are normally £30 on all performances except Fri & Sat evenings. This concession is also for £43.50 seats on matinee performances.
If you live or work in the Islington area you can book best available seats for £25 for performances from Sat 11 – Tue 21 Feb & Thu 23 Feb, subject to availability. Enter promo code ISFIRST when selecting your seats. Find applicable postcodes here.
Use code BLUELIGHT when selecting your seats to book £25 tickets for seats that are normally £30 on all performances except Fri & Sat evenings. This concession is also for £43.50 seats on matinee performances. Limited to 2 tickets per person.
Talks & Events
Talkback
After Thu 9 Mar performance
A post-show talk with members of the company. Free to same-day ticket holders.
Almeida For Free
Thu 16 Mar 7.30pm
A free performance for those aged 25 and under. More info>
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Supported by the Women, Beware the Devil Production Syndicate and the Genesis Foundation’s Kickstart Fund.
Artwork photography and video by Felicity McCabe. Concept by Émilie Chen.