Natalie Abrahami

Director

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Biography

Natalie Abrahami is a theatre, opera and film director.

Natalie started out at the Royal Court Theatre as a Graduate Trainee before training with the Young Vic and National Theatre Studio where she met Carrie Cracknell. Two years later they applied as a duo, to run the Gate Theatre, Notting Hill, which is where her collaborative practice began.

As joint Artistic Directors Natalie and Carrie commissioned Tom Basden, Nancy Harris, Sam Holcroft, Lucy Kirkwood, Nick Payne, and Alexandra Wood to pen radical re-interpretations of European classics. During their tenure they were awarded the Paul Hamlyn Breakthrough Fund for Creative Entrepreneurs for their cross-artform dance-theatre work.

Natalie went on to become an Associate Director at the Young Vic where she directed Juliet Stevenson in Happy Days and Wings, George Mackay in Ah, Wilderness! and Natalie Dormer in After Miss Julie.

Natalie collaborated with playwright Ella Hickson to create Swive [Elizabeth] for the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe, and to direct ANNA the immersive binaural sound piece created by sound designers Ben and Max Ringham at the National Theatre.

Climate conscious practice sits at the heart of Natalie’s work and was the abiding principle for Rusalka (Royal Ballet & Opera) and The Trials (Donmar Warehouse).

Recent projects include: Abigail’s Party (Royal Exchange Theatre), Good Grief (online), The Meeting (Chichester Festival Theatre), Machinal (Almeida), Queen Anne (Royal Shakespeare Company and Theatre Royal Haymarket).

Film credits include Mayday, The Roof and Life’s a Pitch.

Natalie is a regular guest lecturer for Birkbeck University’s Master of Fine Arts Directing and was a judge for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2021.

Credits

In Development

Production Company Notes
PIN
2025 		Hartshorn Hook Enterprises

A new musical by Tommy Antonio and Marc Teitler
THE TURN OF THE SCREW Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House

Benjamin Britten – Composer Myfanwy Piper – Libretto

26 March – 6 April 2026

Theatre

Production Company Notes
THE TURN OF THE SCREW
2026 		Linbury Theatre, Royal Ballet and Opera

“Natalie Abrahami and Michael Levine’s imaginative production is brilliantly creepy and insightful. A first-rate cast of adults and children do not put a foot wrong.” ★★★★★ The Guardian
ABIGAIL'S PARTY
2025 		Royal Exchange Theatre

By Mike Leigh. ‘Abrahami and her cast bring subtle shades of light and dark to these well-worn characters’ ★★★★ The Guardian
RUSALKA
2023 		Main Stage, Royal Opera House

Antonin Dvorák – Composer Ann Yee
THE TRIALS
2022 		Donmar Warehouse

By Dawn King
‘haunting and thought-provoking – this is the best play about our climate emergency.’ ★★★★ The arts desk
SWIVE
2019 – 2020 		Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Globe Theatre

Created by Natalie Abrahami and Ella Hickson
Writer Ella Hickson
Ella Hickson has joined forces with director Natalie Abrahami, whose production shifts between grimly gleeful anachronism and historical empathy… Hugely stimulating.’ ★★★★ The Independent
ANNA
2019 		National

Created by Ella Hickson, Ben and Max Ringham
‘Brilliantly unsettling. Phoebe Fox is outstanding.’ ★★★★★ Daily Mail
THE MEETING
2018 		Minerva, Chichester Festival Theatre

by Charlotte Jones
‘Richly evocative staging from director Natalie Abrahami conjures a world of chalk and flint, beauty and privation.’ ★★★★ Daily Telegraph
MACHINAL
2018 		Almeida

by Sophie Treadwell
‘Natalie Abrahami directs an impressive, powerfully disconcerting production’ ★★★★ The Independent
WINGS
2017 		Young Vic

by Arthur Kopit
“A remarkable performance from Stevenson in Abrahami’s sensitive and daring production” ★★★★The Independent
QUEEN ANNE
2015 – 2017 		Theatre Royal Haymarket & Swan Theatre, RSC

by Helen Edmundson
‘Natalie Abrahami’s fluid and confident production’ ★★★★ Evening Standard
AH, WILDERNESS!
2015 		Young Vic

by Eugene O’Neill
“Natalie Abrahami’s haunting, witty production” ★★★★ The Independent
HAPPY DAYS by Samuel Beckett
2015 		Young Vic

“Natalie Abrahami’s production is perfectly paced…Stevenson is magnificent” ★★★★★ Evening Standard
HAPPY DAYS by Samuel Beckett
2014 		Young Vic

“Juliet Stevenson gives an extraordinary expressive performance in Natalie Abrahami’s brutal and tender production.” ★★★★ Time Out
AFTER MISS JULIE
2012 		Young Vic

by Patrick Marber
YERMA
2011 		Gate Theatre & Hull Truck

By Lorca, in a new version by Anthony Weigh
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
2011 		Headlong

National Tour
THE KREUTZER SONATA
2009 		Gate Theatre/LaMama, New York

by Leo Tolstoy, in an adaptation by Nancy Harris. Revived in 2012 at Gate and International Tour.
VANYA
2009 		Gate Theatre

by Sam Holcroft, inspired by Anton Chekhov’s UNCLE VANYA
GUARDIANS
2009 		HighTide Festival

by Lucy Caldwell
THE INTERNATIONALIST
2008 		Gate Theatre

by Anne Washburn
THE ELEVENTH CAPITAL
2007 		Royal Court Theatre

by Alexandra Wood. Young Writers Festival Winner 2006 and winner of the George Devine Award 2007
PLAY and NOT I by Samuel Beckett
2005 		Battersea Arts Centre

Winner James Menzies-Kitchin Award for Directors 2005

Film

Production Company Notes
THE ROOF
2016 		Young Vic Short Films

written by Nigel Williams.
MAYDAY
2014 		Young Vic Short Films

written by Nancy Harris
Life's a Pitch
2013 		Young Vic Short Films

written by Olivia Poulet

Opera

Production Company Notes
HOW THE WHALE BECAME
2013 		ROH2

Composed by Julian Phillips with libretto by Edward Kemp, based on work by Ted Hughes.

Online

Production Company Notes
GOOD GRIEF
2021 		Finite Films and Platform Presents

Online Play, created & written by Lorien Haynes
‘Director Natalie Abrahami is among those helping to give online drama a new assurance.’ ★★★★ the Observer

Other

Production Company Notes
DESCENT
2021 		Audible

Audio play, Written by Alexandra Wood
Natalie Abrahami
Natalie Abrahami
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