FULL CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR THE RSC’S 2023 PRODUCTION OF THE TEMPEST
FULL CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR THE RSC’S 2023 PRODUCTION OF THE TEMPEST
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Today (Friday 2 December 2022), as rehearsals begin for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) upcoming production of The Tempest, the company announces full casting for the show which will run in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from Thursday 26 January to Saturday 4 March 2023, with press night on Thursday 2 February.
As previously announced, Alex Kingston (Doctor Who, A Discovery of Witches, ER) will return to the RSC to play Prospero alongside Jessica Rhodes, who makes her debut with the Royal Shakespeare Company playing Miranda.
They are joined by Jamie Ballard as Antonio, whose recent theatre credits include Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre, Wolsey in Henry VIII at The Globe, and Vanya in Uncle Vanya at Theatr Clwyd/Sheffield Crucible. For the RSC, Jamie’s credits include The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure, Written on the Heart, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, King John, As You Like It and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. On screen, Jamie’s credits include ITV’s Vera, BBC One’s Three Girls and Ripper Street.
Ishia Bennison will play Gonzalo. Ishia’s previous RSC credits include Romeo and Juliet, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Candide, Our Private Life, A New Way to Please You, Sejanus, Speaking Like Magpies, Cymbeline and Measure for Measure.
Other recent theatre credits include Once We Were Mothers at the Orange Tree theatre, Goats and Told From the Inside at the Royal Court and Julius Caesar at the Donmar Warehouse. Screen credits include Happy Valley, New Tricks and Last Tango in Halifax.
Grace Cookey-Gam will make her RSC debut as Sebastian. Grace’s previous theatre credits include Persuasion at the Rose Theatre Kingston, Alexandra Palace and Oxford Playhouse, Richard III and Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre and on screen, BBC series This Is Going To Hurt.
Peter De Jersey will play Alonso. Peter’s previous RSC credits include Imperium Parts 1 and 2 (West End), Antony and Cleopatra, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Odyssey, As You Like It, Troilus and Cressida, King Lear, A New Way to Please You, Last Days of Don Juan, Sejanus, Believe What You Will, Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other theatre credits include The Threepenny Opera at the National Theatre, Coriolanus at the Donmar Warehouse, Sixty-Six Books at The Bush Theatre, Vernon God Little at the Young Vic and House of Games at the Almeida. Screen credits include Netflix’s The Sandman, Amazon Prime’s Wheel of Time, BBC One’s Line of Duty and ITV’s Broadchurch.
Heledd Gwynn will make her RSC debut as Ariel. Heledd received the of the Ian Charleson Award for her performances as Hedda in the Sherman Theatre production of Hedda Gabler and as Hastings in Headlong's production of Richard III. Her other theatre credits include Henry V directed by Elizabeth Freestone, Miss Julie at Theatre Clwyd and Peter Gill's A Provincial Life for National Theatre Wales. Heledd’s screen credits include leading roles in BBC’s The Pact, as well as Ordinary Lies and Holby City.
Joseph Payne will make his RSC debut as Ferdinand. His previous theatre credits include Antigone at Mercury Theatre in Colchester, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet with London Touring Theatre Company and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Frankenstein and Great Expectations with National Youth Theatre. On screen, Joseph’s credits include Netflix’s The Witcher.
Tommy Sim’aan will make his RSC debut as Caliban. Tommy graduated Bristol Old Vic in 2020 and since then his theatre credits have included As You Like It at The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (International Tour), West Side Story and The History Boys at The Oxford Playhouse.
Simon Startin will play Stephano. As an actor, Simon’s most recent credits include productions at the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, Arcola and Birmingham Rep, as well as TV roles on BBC, Channel 4 and Paramount. As an activist he has worked with many organisations including the Royal Shakespeare Company, BBC, National Theatre, Creative Diversity Network, ARC Stockton Arts Centre and London Theatre Consortium to increase disabled representation on stage and screen. Simon is the Artistic Director of Vital Xposure and an associate artist of Theatre Royal Stratford East, London Bubble and Graeae Theatre.
Cath Whitefield will play Trinculo. Cath’s previous RSC credits include a UK tour of Othello. Other theatre credits include Into the Woods at Theatre Royal Bath, The Wolf, The Duck and the Mouse at the Unicorn Theatre, Measure for Measure at the Young Vic and Medea at the National Theatre. Screen credits include the BBC adaptation of His Dark Materials and Don’t Forget the Driver.
The full company comprises Jamie Ballard (Antonio), Ishia Bennison (Gonzalo), Natalia Campbell (Goddess), Tina Chiang (Master), Grace Cookey-Gam (Sebastian), Peter De Jersey (Alonso), Heledd Gwynn (Ariel), Liz Jadav (Goddess), Jonny Khan (Francisco), Natalie Kimmerling (Sailor), Alex Kingston (Prospero), David Lee-Jones (Adrian), David Osmond (Sailor), Joseph Payne (Ferdinand), Rodrigo Peñalosa Pita (Boatswain), Jessica Rhodes (Miranda), Tommy Sim’aan (Caliban), Imogen Slaughter (Goddess), Simon Startin (Stephano) and Cath Whitefield (Trinculo).
Directed by Elizabeth Freestone, The Tempest has Set Design by Tom Piper, Costume Design by Tom Piper and Natasha Ward, Lighting by Johanna Town, Music and Sound by Adrienne Quartly, Movement by Sarita Piotrowski, Fights by Kev McCurdy, Puppetry Direction and Design by Rachael Canning. Casting is by Helena Palmer CDG.
The world is out of kilter. Political unrest and an unsettled climate make for stormy times.
People are out of kilter, too. Sibling rivalry and family ruptures cause heartache and uneasy souls.
On an island full of noises, a mother and daughter strike a truce with nature to survive. Then one day, their long-lost enemies sail into view on the horizon. Against the power of a furious sea, the reunited foes are forced to confront their pasts and themselves.
The Tempest asks us to examine the delicate balance in our personal relationships as well as with the fragile ecosystems around us. What damage do we do to each other – and to the natural world? In the end, young love brings hope for a better life: perhaps healing ourselves and mending the planet are one and the same thing.
ENDS
For further enquiries, please contact Bethany Arnold (Senior Publicist) bethany.arnold@rsc.org.uk
LISTINGS
The Tempest
Directed by Elizabeth Freestone
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
Thursday 26 January – Saturday 4 March 2023
Press Night: Thursday 2 February, 7pm.
Post-show talk (BSL interpreted): Wednesday 1 March, 7.15pm.
Audio Described and Captioned performances: Saturday 18 February, 1.15pm and Thursday 23 February at 1.15pm.
Chilled performance: Thursday 23 February, 1.15pm.
Socially Distanced performance: Wednesday 1 March, 7.15pm.
Signed performances: Wednesday 1 March, 7.15pm and Saturday 4 March, 1.15pm.
Pre-show events will take place on Wednesday 1 February before the evening performance at 7.15pm and Saturday 25 March before the matinee performance at 1.15pm. Our Pre-show events include Director Talks, Unwrapped demonstrations and debates. Please check the schedule or with Box Office for the latest list of pre-show events and start times.
NOTES TO EDITORS
The RSC is supported using public funding from Arts Council England
The work of the RSC is supported by the Culture Recovery Fund
The RSC is generously supported by RSC America
The Tempest is supported by Season Supporter Charles Holloway
The RSC Acting Companies are generously supported by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation
TikTok £10 Tickets sponsored by TikTok
Arts Council England
Arts Council England is the national development body for arts and culture across England, working to enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to visual art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better.
Between 2018 and 2022, we will invest £1.45 billion of public money from government and an estimated £860 million from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country. www.artscouncil.org.uk
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a theatre and learning charity that creates world class theatre, made in Stratford-upon-Avon and shared around the world, performing plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, as well as commissioning an exceptionally wide range of original work from contemporary writers. Our purpose is to ensure that Shakespeare is for everyone, and we do by that unlocking the power of his plays and of live performance and out learning and education work throughout the UK and across the world.
We believe everybody’s life is enriched by culture and creativity. We have trained generations of the very best theatre makers and we continue to nurture the talent of the future. Our transformative Learning programmes reach over half a million young people and adults each year, and through our Creative Placemaking and Public Programme we create projects with and for communities who have not historically engaged with our work. We are a leader in creative immersive technologies and digital development.
We have a proud record of innovation, diversity and excellence on stage and are determined to grasp the opportunity to become an even more inclusive, progressive, relevant and ambitious organisation.
We have one of the UK’s largest arts learning programmes, working with over 1,000 schools each year to broaden access to high quality arts learning and transform experiences of Shakespeare in schools. Through our national partnership programme with schools and regional theatres we target areas of structural disadvantage, including 26 areas of multiple deprivation across the country, from Cornwall to Middlesbrough. Research shows that our approaches to teaching Shakespeare support the development of reading and writing skills, accelerate language acquisition and development, raise aspirations and improve student attitudes to school and learning in general. They also foster well-being, self-esteem, empathy, resilience and tolerance and promote critical-thinking, creative, analytical, communication and problem-solving skills.
We are committed to being a teaching and learning theatre and we are the only arts organisation to have been awarded Independent Research Organisation status. We create world class theatre for, with and by audiences and theatre makers of all ages. We provide training for emerging and established theatre makers and arts professionals, for teachers and for young people. We share learning formally and informally. We embed training and research across our company, work and processes.
We recognise the climate emergency and work hard to embed environmental sustainability into our operations, creative work and business practice, making a commitment to continually reduce our carbon footprint.
Keep Your RSC supports our mission to create theatre at its best, unlocking Shakespeare and transforming lives. Thousands of generous audience members, trusts and foundations and partners supported Keep Your RSC since 2020, alongside a £19.4 million loan from the Culture Recovery Fund, we are thrilled to be welcoming audiences back. It will take time to recover, to reopen all our theatres, and many years to repay the loan and the support and generosity of our audiences is more important than ever. Please donate at rsc.org.uk/donate
