Full casting has been announced for Shakespeare’s poignant, morally ambiguous, and subversive epic, King Lear, which plays at the Almeida Theatre from 8 February-30 March 2024.
Joining the previously announced Danny Sapani as King Lear are Hugo Bolton (The Inheritance, Young Vic/West End) as Oswald, Oliver Cudbill (The Merchant of Venice, RSC) as Duke of Burgundy/Curan, Edward Davis (Dune: The Prophecy) as Duke of Cornwall, Fra Fee (Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, West End) as Edmund, Michael Gould (The Audience, West End) as Earl of Gloucester, Akiya Henry (Mad House, West End) as Goneril, Geoffrey Lumb (Henry V, Shakespeare’s Globe/ Headlong) as Duke of Albany, Alec Newman (The Collaboration, Young Vic) as Earl of Kent, Gloria Obianyo (Paradise, National Theatre) as Cordelia, Faith Omole (Standing at the Sky’s Edge, Sheffield Theatres/National Theatre) as Regan, Clarke Peters (Race, Hampstead Theatre) as the Fool, Steffan Rizzi (Othello, National Theatre) as Knight/Captain, and Matthew Tennyson (The Pillowman, West End) as Edgar.
We all must face the moment of truth that we won’t live forever.
Lear, father and king of unquestioned power, must divide his realm between his three daughters. The first two quickly declare the love he is desperate to hear, yet his favourite Cordelia shuns the performative circus. “Nothing” she answers, when asked to speak. And towards that nothing Lear’s world begins to slide.
As the new generation unleashes the consequences of their father’s choices, Lear takes us into the eye of the storm and its trail of destruction.
Following her Olivier Award-nominated The Tragedy of Macbeth, Yaël Farber directs, with set design by Merle Hensel, costumes by Camilla Dely, lighting by Lee Curran, sound by Peter Rice, composition by Max Perryment, movement direction by Imogen Knight, and casting by Julia Horan CDG.
