Rupert Goold

Early years and education

Goold was born in Highgate, England, a suburb of north London. His father was a management consultant, and his mother was an author of children's books. He attended the independent University College School, graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1994 with a First in English literature and studied performance studies at New York University on a Fulbright Scholarship. He was trainee director at Donmar Warehouse for the 1995 season, and assisted on productions including 'Art' and Speed-the-Plow in the West End.

Career

Goold was artistic director of the Royal and Derngate Theatres in Northampton from 2000 to 2005. Prior to that, he was an associate at the Salisbury Playhouse in 1996-97. In addition to his work as a director he has co-authored three adaptations for the stage. Goold directed Sir Patrick Stewart (whom he had previously directed as Prospero, and later in Richard II) as Macbeth in his acclaimed Minerva Studio staging of Macbeth at the Chichester Festival Theatre in May 2007.

In September 2007, the production transferred to the Gielgud Theatre in London, then the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York and then to the Lyceum Theater on Broadway. At the 2007 Evening Standard Theatre Awards, Macbeth won two awards: Stewart won the Best Actor Award, while Goold won The Sydney Edwards Award for Best Director. It also won Goold a 2008 Olivier Award for Best Director. He says he was not concerned with thoughts of a career anti-climax. "I came home to an empty house after the Olivier Awards, clutching my trophy for Best Director and I realised that I'd peaked. It was now going to be downhill all the way. But I still felt quite comfortable with the realisation that nothing could get better after this." He later directed a 2010 BBC 4 television film version of Macbeth using Soviet-era Russian-type uniforms and weapons.

In 2008, he directed the UK premiere of Stephen Adly Guirgis's The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and a radical re-interpretation of Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author at the Chichester Festival which he co-authored with Ben Power. This production subsequently transferred to the West End and toured the UK and later Australia. In 2009 he directed a hugely acclaimed West End revival of Lionel Bart's Oliver! Produced by Cameron Mackintosh, Goold recreated Sam Mendes' direction for the London Palladium production, which was nominated for three Olivier Awards. In 2009, Goold directed a revival of Shakespeare's King Lear at the Young Vic. Goold set his Lear in Northern England during the 1970s, and approached the play with a drastically different view, and as a result this production received mixed reviews. In 2009, he again won Best Director at the Evening Standard Awards for ENRON. His opera credits include productions at Batignano Opera Festival and Garsington.

In the following years he directed a string of plays for the Almeida Theatre, which include the musical American Psycho (2013), the new play King Charles III (2014), the revivals Medea (2015) and Richard III (2016), as well as the new play Ink (2017). Goold returned to Broadway with the transfer of King Charles III. He earned a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play. The following year he directed the musical transfer, American Psycho based on the 1991 novel of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis. In 2019 he directed the Broadway transfer for the James Graham play Ink about the rise of Rupert Murdoch which ran at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Goold received his second nomination for the Tony Award for Best Direction. That same year he directed the Almeida Theatre production of The Hunt (2019) starring Tobias Menzies by David Farr which was based on the 2012 film of the same name directed Thomas Vinterberg. In 2021 he directed the musical revival of Spring Awakening on the West End.

In 2022 he directed the Peter Morgan play Patriots about the rise of Vladimir Putin and the Elton John musical Tammy Faye about the American evangelist Tammy Faye Messner. The following year he directed the play Dear England about the England football manager Gareth Southgate and Cold War a musical based on the 2018 film of the same name directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, the former of which earned Goold a nomination for the Olivier Award for Best Director. In 2024 he directed the New York transfer of The Hunt which ran at St. Ann's Warehouse.

In February 2025, Goold directed William Shakespeare's Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company starring Luke Thallon, Jared Harris, Nancy Carroll, Elliot Levey and Anton Lesser. The production will also tour the UK in 2026. It is the second production of the play that Goold has directed following his 2005 production at the Royal & Derngate.

On 24 November 2024, Goold was named as the next artistic director of The Old Vic taking over from Matthew Warchus in September 2026.

Goold is married to actress Kate Fleetwood. The couple met while working together on a production of Romeo and Juliet. They have one son, Raphael, and a daughter, Constance.

Theatre

Directing

Writing

• The End of the Affair (1997), a play with music, adapted with Caroline Butler, from the novel by Graham Greene. The first production included music played by a pianist at the side of the stage, underscoring the text with some period songs sung by the cast. Goold and Butler removed the music from later productions and the play was published without musical interpolation in 2001.
• Faustus (2004), adapted with Ben Power from Dr Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
• Six Characters in Search of an Author (2008), adapted with Ben Power from the play by Luigi Pirandello

Film and television

Directing

• Macbeth (TV, 2010)
• Richard II (TV, 2012)
• True Story (2015)
• King Charles III (TV, 2017)
• Judy (2019)
• Dear England (TV, 2026 Episode 1)