

Christmas Day
By Sam Grabiner, Directed by James Macdonald
Event details
Tue 9 Dec 2025 - Thu 8 Jan 2026
There’s something perverted about a Christmas tree.
They’ve got an aura.
It looks perverted and it gives me the creeps.
In an abandoned building somewhere above the Northern Line, with foxes prowling the deserted streets outside, a Jewish family gathers on Christmas Day.
A viciously funny new play about identity, belonging, and the rituals we perform with the people we love.
James Macdonald (Infinite Life; The Children) directs a darkly comic world premiere from Olivier Award-winning playwright Sam Grabiner (Boys on the Verge of Tears).
Evenings 7.30pm
Matinees 2pm
Content Warnings Recommended for ages 15+. Read more about our production guidance and warnings>

Introducing the 2025-26 Season
CAST & CREATIVES
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Cast
Jamie Ankrah
Samuel Blenkin
Callie Cooke
Jacob Fortune-Lloyd
Nigel Lindsay
Bel Powley
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Creatives
Sam Grabiner
Writer
James Macdonald
Director
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.).
Jon Clark
Lighting Designer
Max Pappenheim
Sound Designer
Lucy HindLucy Hind
Intimacy Director
Lucy Hind
Theatre includes:
As Movement & Intimacy Director: Kerry Jackson (National Theatre).
As Movement Director: Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (UK tour); Girl from the North Country (The Old Vic/ West End/ Broadway/ US tour); Murder on the Orient Express (Chichester Festival Theatre); Hamlet (Young Vic); The Light in the Piazza (Southbank Centre/ Los Angeles Music Center/ Lyric Opera of Chicago); Macbeth; The House of Bernarda Alba (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); Local Hero (Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh); The Last Ship (Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto/ US tour); Calendar Girls (UK tour); Miss Littlewood (RSC); Sleeping Beauty (Theatr Clwyd); The Divide (The Old Vic); No’s Knife (The Old Vic/Abbey Theatre, Dublin); Ugly Lies The Bone (National Theatre); The Effect; Playing for Time; Twelfth Night; This Is My Family (Sheffield Theatres); Multitudes; The House That Will Not Stand (Tricycle Theatre); Aladdin; Kes (CAST); Refugee Boy; Wind in the Willows (West Yorkshire Playhouse).
As Choreographer: Billy Elliot (Curve Theatre, Leicester); The Last Ship (Northern Stage); The Assassination of Katie Hopkins (Theatr Clwyd); The Snow Maiden (Opera North); Barnbow Canaries (West Yorkshire Playhouse); The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare’s Globe/ US tour); The Jacobin (Buxton Arts Festival); Love Your Soldiers (Sheffield Theatres).
Amy Ball CDGAmy Ball CDG
Casting Director
Amy Ball CDG
For the Almeida: 1536; Rhinoceros; Otherland; Look Back in Anger; Roots; The Years (also West End); Alma Mater; Cold War; Portia Coughlan; Women, Beware the Devil; “Daddy” A Melodrama; Albion; The Hunt; Shipwreck; Dance Nation; Boy.
Theatre includes: Mrs. Warren’s Profession; Dr. Strangelove; Hamnet; Unicorn; Slave Play; Lyonesse; The Hills of California; Jerusalem; Leopoldstadt; Uncle Vanya; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; The Night of the 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/ Broadway/ 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).
Sabia SmithSabia Smith
Costume Supervisor
Sabia Smith
Sabia studied costume construction and supervision at RADA.
For the Almeida: Look Back in Anger; Roots.
Theatre includes: The Parent Agency (Chester Storyhouse); A Christmas Carol (Northern Stage); Next to Normal (Donmar Warehouse/ West End); The Duchess of Malfi; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Hakawatis: Women of the Arabian Nights; Midsummer Mechanicals (Shakespeare’s Globe); Ulster American (Riverside Studios); Robin Hood: The Legend. Re-written. (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Inquiry (Chichester Festival Theatre); Favour (Bush Theatre); Love and Other Acts of Violence (Donmar Warehouse); Noises Off (West End); Whodunnit [Unrehearsed] (Park Theatre); The American Clock (The Old Vic); Twelfth Night (Wilton’s Music Hall); We’re Stuck! (Shoreditch Town Hall).
Opera includes: Don Giovanni (Lithuania National Opera & Ballet); Aleko; Gianni Schicchi; Gods of the Game: a Football Opera; La Gioconda; The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko; Falstaff; Don Carlos (Grange Park Opera); Zauberland (Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord/ Royal Opera House/ La Monnaie / De Munt/ Opéra de Lille/ Lincoln Center, New York/ Opéra de Rouen); The Marriage of Figaro (Royal Academy of Music).
Dance includes: Message In A Bottle (Sadler’s Wells/ UK and International tour); Anne of Green Gables (Sadler’s Wells).
Mary Halliday
Props Supervisor
Hazel Holder
Voice Coach
Performance Schedule



Access Performances
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 on access performances or for Deaf and disabled bookings. More info
Deaf and disabled patrons and a companion can buy discounted tickets 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 Tue 9 – Mon 15 Dec. Enter code 25UNDER when selecting your seats. Tickets go on sale at 5pm on Tue 18 Nov. More info
If you are aged 30 or under, over 65 or are unemployed you can book tickets at a discounted rate. Not applicable on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday.
If you live or work in the Islington area you can book best available seats for £27.50 for performances from Tue 9 – Wed 17 Dec (excluding Tue 16 Dec), subject to availability. Enter promo code ISFIRST when selecting your seats. Find applicable postcodes here.
Talks & Events
After Wed 17 Dec & Wed 7 Jan evening performances.
A post-show talk with members of the company. Free to same-day ticket holders.
Mon 5 Jan 7.30pm
A free performance and festival of events exclusively for those aged 25 and under. Sign up to our emails for Tickets & Events for 16-25s to be notified when tickets are available.
Production Supporters
Christmas Day is supported by Dianne Roberts, and Lin and Ken Craig.