The Royal Shakespeare Company has announced casting for its forthcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream which runs in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon between Tuesday 30 January and Saturday 30 March 2024.
Eleanor Rhode, who was last at the RSC as the director of King John in 2019, returns to direct one of Shakespeare’s most captivating comedies in a Dream that is epic, intimate, and completely full of wonder.
Joining the previously announced Mathew Baynton as Bottom are Nicholas Armfield as Demetrius, Emily Cundick as Snout, Bally Gill as Oberon/Theseus, Esme Hough as Cobweb, Ryan Hutton as Lysander, Charlotte Jaconelli as Peaseblossom, Laurie Jamieson as Snug, Neil McCaul as Egeus, Helen Monks as Peter Quince, Michael Olatunji as Moth, Adrian Richards as Philostrate, Boadicea Ricketts as Helena, Sirine Saba as Titania/Hippolyta, Rosie Sheehy as Puck, Dawn Sievewright as Hermia, Mitesh Soni as Flute, Premi Tamang as Starveling and Tom Xander as Mustardseed.
Ian Charleson winner, Bally Gill returns to the RSC for the first time since playing Romeo in Erica Whyman’s 2018 production, Romeo and Juliet. Rosie Sheehy, recently in the RSC’s All’s Well That Ends Well and Richard III, is reunited with director Eleanor Rhode having last worked with her on King John (2019). Sirine Saba also joins the cast, having performed in Michael Boyd’s RSC production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2000.
The full creative team joining Eleanor Rhode is also announced today. A Midsummer Night’s Dream will feature Design by Lucy Osborne, Illusion Direction and Design by John Bulleid, Lighting by Matt Daw, Music by Will Gregory, Sound by Pete Malkin, Movement by Annie-Lunnette Deakin-Foster, Video by Nina Dunn, Fights & Intimacy by Rachel Bown-Williams & Ruth Cooper-Brown and Casting by Matthew Dewsbury CDG.
On Midsummer’s Night, the real and fairy worlds collide.
Four young lovers, faced with the prospect of unhappy marriage or worse, flee the court of Athens and stumble into an enchanted forest. Nearby, a group of amateur actors rehearse a play to celebrate an upcoming royal wedding.
As these mere mortals cross paths with a warring fairy King and Queen, chaos reigns in the natural world. The lines between reality and illusion start to blur and no-one but mischievous Puck knows what is true and what is magic.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
30 January – 30 March 2024
Captioned: Friday 23 February, 7.15pm
Audio Described: Friday 01 March, 7.15pm (Touch Tour, 5pm)
Audio Described, Captioned and Chilled: Saturday 09 March, 1.15pm (Touch Tour, 11am)
Handheld Captioned: Thursday 21 March, 7.15pm and Saturday 30 March, 1.15pm.
Chilled: Thursday 28 March, 1.15pm
This production includes Creative Audio Description by Benjamin Wilson (Creative Audio Description Consultant). Audiences can access audio description and an additional soundscape through headsets, which is performed live and in character by the cast, at every performance from press night.
POST SHOW TALKS
Director Talk: Monday 12 February, 5.15pm
Unwrapped: Saturday 23 March, 10.15am
Post Show Stay Late: Wednesday 27 March
