Full casting announced for RSC’s MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Casting has been announced for the RSC’s forthcoming production of William Shakespeare’s romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Michael Longhurst, which runs in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon from 12 April-24 May.
Set in the world of top-flight football and celebrity culture, where scandal-filled rivalries are the hottest new thing and lads and WAGs collide, Longhurst’s Much Ado About Nothing is the first production in Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans second season as Co-Artistic Directors of the RSC.
Freema Agyeman (Romeo and Juliet, West End), who made her RSC debut in Twelfth Night last year, will play Beatrice, alongside Nick Blood (Day of the Jackal, Sky) as Benedick, Eleanor Worthington Cox (Next To Normal, Donmar Warehouse/West End) as Hero, and Daniel Adeosun (The Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare’s Globe) as Claudio,
Completing the cast are Azan Ahmed as Conrade, Gina Bramhill as Margaret, Nick Cavaliere as Verges, Flaminia Cinque as Sexton/Ensemble, Peter Forbes as Leonato, Tanya Franks as Antonia, Lydia Fraser as Ursula/Ensemble, Olivier Huband as Don Pedro, Megan Keaveny (Ensemble), Nojan Khazai as Don John, Antonio Magro as Dogberry, Posi Morakinyo as Balthasar/Oatcake/Ensemble, Jay Taylor as Borachio, and Arthur Wilson as Seacole/The Friar/Ensemble.
Director Michael Longhurst said: "I’m delighted to be tackling this play for my RSC directing debut with such an amazing company of actors - a premier league of talent indeed! It’s an incredibly exciting time to be directing for the RSC, as part of Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey’s second season; thanks to Anna Cooper CDG for the assist in selecting the team.
“I’m thrilled that Freema Agyeman will continue her remarkable foray into Shakespeare’s canon, returning to Stratford-upon-Avon to play Beatrice and that the incredible Nick Blood joins her to make his RSC debut as Benedick. Like the standout talent from a football youth academy, Eleanor Worthington Cox steps back into the very RSC rehearsal room to play Hero, 13 years after her Olivier-Award winning performance as the eponymous role in Matilda The Musical.
“Much Ado About Nothing is about love: finding and accepting it - but its timeless investigation of masculinity and sex and gender power dynamics in a slander-fuelled plot - felt ripe for exploration in the contemporary setting of topflight football where WAGs and players-behaving-badly can enact a not-so-merry war.”
Joining Michael Longhurst on the creative team are set and costume designer Jon Bausor, lighting designer Jack Knowles, sound designer Emma Laxton, choreographer and movement director Julia Cheng, video designer Tal Rosner, intimacy director Sara Green, and casting director Anna Cooper CDG.