Natalie Abrahami is a theatre, opera and film director specialising in developing collaborative new works.

The collaboration with writers sits at the heart of Natalie’s practice. She learned dramaturgy and directorial craft at the Royal Court, before going on to commission a generation of emerging playwrights while helming the Gate Theatre, Notting Hill with Carrie Cracknell.

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

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.

During the Pandemic Natalie rehearsed Lorien Hayne’s Good Grief on zoom and shot it over two days in the depths of Lockdown. It premiered for streaming in February 2021.

A climate conscious approach sits at the heart of Natalie’s work and this has been the abiding principle for The Trials at the Donmar Warehouse and Antonín Dvořák’s Rusalka at the Royal Opera House.

Natalie is currently developing several musicals and a film of The Meeting by Charlotte Jones with House Productions.

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.

Photo: Johan Persson

Profile by Sam Marlowe, The Stage 2018 (PDF)
Profile by Matt Trueman, The Stage 2014 (PDF)


Representation: Rose Cobbe United Agents