Royal Shakespeare Company announces cast for All’s Well That Ends Well
Casting has been announced for the upcoming Royal Shakespeare Company production of All’s Well That Ends Well.
Shakespeare’s dark comedy will run between 16 August – 8 October 2022 in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Exploring themes of romantic fantasy, toxic masculinity and consent, the piece will be directed by Blanche McIntyre. It will play in repertoire with Richard III, directed by Gregory Doran, with a number of the cast appearing in both productions.
Making up the cast are Bruce Alexander (King of France), Laila Alj (First Soldier), Micah Balfour (Older Dumain), Oscar Batterham (Lord/Second Soldier), Claire Benedict (The Countess), Sophie Cartman (Rinaldo/Duke of Florence), Callum Coates (Gentleman), Simon Coates (Lafeu), Matthew Duckett (Lord/First Gentleman), Will Edgerton (Lavache), Jessica Layde (Mariana), Funlola Olufunwa (Widow), Olivia Onyehara (Diana), Ewan Orton (Lord/Escalus), Thom Petty (Second Gentleman), Joeravar Sangha (Lord), Eloise Secker (Younger Dumain), Rosie Sheehy (Helena), Jamie Wilkes (Parolles) and Benjamin Westerby (Bertram).
All’s Well That Ends Well is designed by Robert Innes Hopkins, who previously collaborated with Blanche McIntyre on the RSC’s Titus Andronicus (2017).
Completing the creative team are Richard Howell (Lighting), D.J. Walde (Music), Gregory Clarke (Sound), Douglas O’Connell (Video), Asha Jennings-Grant (Movement and Intimacy) and Kate Waters (Fights).
For more information and tickets, visit rsc.org.uk
Blanche McIntyre said: “I am so excited to have the chance to direct Shakespeare’s most modern comedy at the RSC. All’s Well that Ends Well, as full of grief and nostalgia as romance and adventure, with its story of sexual politics, class prejudice and generation gaps, would always have felt contemporary. But the fantasy relationships and fake identities in the play make it a perfect match for our anxious, idealistic, lonely, social-media-addicted age.
“I’m thrilled to be working again with designer Robert Innes Hopkins for our second RSC collaboration. We can promise a fleet footed, inventive, contemporary, colourful production, with one foot in real life and one in the online world. I look forward very much to bringing it to audiences, and I hope they will have a thought provoking as well as entertaining evening.”
The productions of All’s Well That Ends Well and Richard III will both be captured on film. They mark the conclusion of RSC’s ten-year pledge to produce all of Shakespeare’s collected plays for the stage.
