Building on the success of their recent American Psycho production, the Almeida Theatre has announced two intriguing new plays set to run from springtime.

King Charles III, a play about our future monarch, will lead the charge in April, while Mr Burns, a dystopian story loaded with pop culture, will follow in June.

Programmed by the theatre’s new artistic director, Rupert Goold, both shows continue the theatre’s recent shift towards troubled, futuristic narratives – as seen in its current production, Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan’s 1984.

Following their collaboration on the ground-breaking Earthquakes in London, King Charles III sees Goold reunites with Mike Bartlett to explore the unwritten rules of our democracy, the people underneath the crowns and the conscience of Britain’s most famous family.

The controversial new play, which will receive its world premiere at the Almeida, sees Prince Charles ascend to the throne after the death of the Queen, but unsure how to carry out the role he has spent a lifetime preparing for.

Currently directing 1984, Robert Icke recently joined Goold at the Almeida as Associate Director and June will see him direct the European Premiere of Anne Washburn’s acclaimed Mr Burns. A searing vision of post-apocalyptic America, this production was heralded as one of the most significant new plays of the year when it opened in New York last autumn.

In a future without power and direction, Mr Burns sees a small group of survivors recall a much loved episode of the Simpsons. The story is told again and again, handed down over the years, reshaping along the way as it becomes mythology.

Asking whether the stories we tell make us the people we are, Mr Burns explodes the boundaries between pop and high culture and, when society has crumbled, imagines the future of America’s most famous TV family.

For more information on the Almeida’s upcoming shows, visit www.almeida.co.uk