{{Short description|British theatre director}} {{BLP sources|date=March 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2019}} {{Use British English|date=January 2019}} {{Infobox writer | embed = | honorific_prefix = | name = Alexander Zeldin | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1985|04|24}} | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = Playwright, theatre director | language = English | nationality = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = | period = | genre = Theatre | subject = | movement = | notable_works = | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | years_active = | module = | website = | portaldisp = }}
'''Alexander Zeldin''' (born 24 April 1985) {{cn|date= March 2025}} is a British dramatist, author, and theatre director.
==Early life== Zeldin grew up in Oxford, the son of a Russian-Jewish father and an Australian mother. His father died when he was 15 years old.<ref name="crompton">{{cite web |last1=Crompton |first1=Sarah |title=Playwright Alexander Zeldin: ‘Lots of people can make a living being an artist in France. In the UK, that’s not the case’ |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/oct/15/alexander-zeldin-playwright-confessions-national-theatre-inequalities-trilogy-interview |website=The Observer |access-date=1 July 2025 |date=15 October 2023}}</ref>
==Career== Zeldin worked in Russia, South Korea and the Middle East as well as at the Naples Festival, before, between 2011 and 2014, developing a number of his own works as a teacher at East 15 Acting School,<ref name="crompton">{{cite web |last1=Crompton |first1=Sarah |title=Playwright Alexander Zeldin: ‘Lots of people can make a living being an artist in France. In the UK, that’s not the case’ |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/oct/15/alexander-zeldin-playwright-confessions-national-theatre-inequalities-trilogy-interview |website=The Observer |access-date=1 July 2025 |date=15 October 2023}}</ref> where he met several of the actors and creative team that collaborate with him today. At this time, he also worked as an assistant director to Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne.<ref>{{cite web |title=Peter Brook |url=https://www.institut-francais.org.uk/cine-lumiere/whats-on/special-screenings/peter-brook/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180308003622/http://www.institut-francais.org.uk/cine-lumiere/whats-on/special-screenings/peter-brook/ |archive-date=2018-03-08 |website=Institut Francais}}</ref><ref name="RNT">{{Cite web |title=Alexander Zeldin |website=Royal National Theatre |url=https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/artists/alexander-zeldin/ |access-date=6 April 2024 |language=en-GB}}</ref>
His play, ''Beyond Caring'', which told the story of several temporary workers meeting on a night shift in a meat factory, had its premiere at the Yard Theatre in Hackney in 2014, before transferring to the Temporary Theatre at the National Theatre in 2015.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.ft.com/content/73894f3a-f309-11e4-b98f-00144feab7de |url-access=subscription | title=Beyond Caring, National Theatre, London — review | newspaper=Financial Times | date=5 May 2015 }}</ref>
In 2015 he was the recipient of the Quercus Trust Award and was appointed as associate director at Birmingham Repertory Theatre.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/george-mann-and-alexander-zeldin-win-2015-quercus-trust-award | title=George Mann and Alexander Zeldin win 2015 Quercus Trust Award | date=8 December 2014 | first=Georgia | last=Snow | work=The Stage | access-date=20 January 2019 }}</ref> Beyond Caring toured the UK and a new US production, re-developed for the US by Zeldin and produced by Lookingglass Theater in conjunction with David Schwimmer's company Dark Harbour Stories, opened in Chicago in April 2017.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://lookingglasstheatre.org/event_page/beyond-caring/ | title=Beyond Caring }}</ref>
His play ''Love'' opened at the National Theatre in December 2016, before transferring to Birmingham Rep. A European tour took place in 2018 <ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/alexander-zeldin | title=Curtis Brown }}</ref> and ''Love'' has been made into a film by the BBC and Cuba Pictures. In 2017, he was named Artist in Residence at the National Theatre and in 2018, was the winner of the Arts Foundation twenty-fifth anniversary Fellowship for Literature.
His play, ''Faith Hope and Charity'', at the National Theatre in 2019, where he is now an associate director. From 2020, he has been an associate artist of the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe in Paris and was one of the 2021 visiting artists at the Vienna Festwochen, where his three plays up to that date were presented for the first time as ''THE INEQUALITIES''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.festwochen.at/en/wiener-festwochen-2021-previews-2 |title=Wiener Festwochen 2021 Previews #2 - Wiener Festwochen |website=www.festwochen.at |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303135844/https://www.festwochen.at/en/wiener-festwochen-2021-previews-2 |archive-date=2021-03-03}}</ref>
Zeldin's next play, ''The Confessions'', opened in Vienna in 2023, before transferring to the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe in Paris in October of that year.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/04/theater/the-confessions-alexander-zeldin.html | title=New York Times review of The Confessions | work=The New York Times | date=4 October 2023 | last1=Cappelle | first1=Laura }}</ref> Like his 2022 French-language production ''A Death in the Family'',<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/17/theater/alexander-zeldin-death-in-the-family.html |title=New York Times review of Death in the Family|work=The New York Times |date=17 February 2022 |last1=Cappelle |first1=Laura }}</ref> ''The Confessions'' is based on remembrances of his family, in this case his mother's memories of her early life in Australia. It subsequently transferred to the National Theatre later the same month.<ref name="crompton">{{cite web |last1=Crompton |first1=Sarah |title=Playwright Alexander Zeldin: ‘Lots of people can make a living being an artist in France. In the UK, that’s not the case’ |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/oct/15/alexander-zeldin-playwright-confessions-national-theatre-inequalities-trilogy-interview |website=The Observer |access-date=1 July 2025 |date=15 October 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Akbar |first1=Arifa |title=The Confessions review – dazzling drama drawn from a mother’s memories |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/oct/24/the-confessions-review-national-theatre-london |website=The Guardian |access-date=1 July 2025 |date=24 October 2023}}</ref>
''The Confessions'' was followed in October 2024 by ''The Other Place'', a reimagining of Sophocles' ''Antigone'', also at the National Theatre.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Other Place |url=https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/the-other-place/ |website=National Theatre |access-date=1 July 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521010701/https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/the-other-place/ |archive-date=21 May 2024}}</ref> Reviewing for ''The Guardian'', Arifa Akbar described it as a "rivetingly naturalistic modern-day reworking", praising its "meticulous underpinning of ideas".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Akbar |first1=Arifa |title=The Other Place review – a searing, gasp-inducing take on Sophocles |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/oct/09/the-other-place-review-national-theatre-alexander-zeldin-antigone |website=The Guardian |access-date=1 July 2025 |date=9 October 2024}}</ref>
His most recent play, ''Care'', opened at the Young Vic in May 2026, as part of the inaugural season of artistic director Nadia Fall.<ref>{{cite web |title=Nadia Fall Announces Inaugural Season at the Young Vic Theatre |url=https://www.youngvic.org/blog/nadia-fall-announces-inaugural-season-the-young-vic-theatre |website=Young Vic |access-date=1 July 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250515041243/https://www.youngvic.org/blog/nadia-fall-announces-inaugural-season-the-young-vic-theatre |archive-date=15 May 2025 |date=12 May 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Gumushan |first1=Tanyel |title=Young Vic Theatre announces Nadia Fall’s inaugural season |url=https://www.whatsonstage.com/news/young-vic-theatre-announces-nadia-falls-inaugural-season_1677627/ |website=WhatsOnStage.com |access-date=1 July 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250515002108/https://www.whatsonstage.com/news/young-vic-theatre-announces-nadia-falls-inaugural-season_1677627/ |archive-date=15 May 2025 |date=14 May 2025}}</ref>
==Honours== Zeldin was appointed a ''Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres'' by the French government in 2024.<ref name="RNT">{{Cite web |title=Alexander Zeldin |website=Royal National Theatre |url=https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/artists/alexander-zeldin/ |access-date=6 April 2024 |language=en-GB}}</ref>
==See also== * List of British playwrights since 1950 ==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/alexander-zeldin Curtisbrown.co.uk]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zeldin, Alexander}} Category:1985 births Category:Living people Category:21st-century British dramatists and playwrights Category:British expatriates in France Category:British theatre directors Category:British people of Australian descent Category:British people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Category:Writers from Oxford