Haydn Gwynne will return to the Royal Shakespeare Company after 11 years to play Volumnia in Coriolanus, the final production in the RSC’s Rome season.
She is currently playing Camilla in the Channel 4 series The Windsors. In 2016, she played Celia in Simon Stephens’s adaptation of Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weil and Elizabeth Hauptmann’s The Threepenny Opera at the National Theatre and in 2013 she was Margaret Thatcher in Peter Morgan’s The Audience at London’s Gielgud Theatre.
As previously announced, Sope Dirisu will take the title role. In 2016 he was Cassius Clay in One Night in Miami by Kemp Powers at the Donmar Warehouse
Associate artist Paul Jesson also returns to the RSC as Menenius. He was last with the company in 2014 in Mike Poulton’s adaptations of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies in which he played Cardinal Wolsey. His other credits include the film adaptation of Coriolanus, directed by Ralph Fiennes, and Mike Leigh’s Mr Turner.
The company also includes Charles Aitken (Cominius), Tony Boncza (senator), James Corrigan (Aufidius), Bally Gill (citizen / soldier), Robert Ginty (citizen / soldier), Ben Hall (Roman soldier), Sean Hart (citizen / soldier), Martina Laird (Junius Brutus), Geoffrey Lumb (first citizen), Justine Marriot (second citizen), Christopher Middleton (second Volscian senator / lord), Hannah Morrish (Virgilia), Jackie Morrison (Sicinius Veletus), Esther Niles (gentlewoman), Katherine Toy (Valeria), Rebecca Wingate (senator), Simon Yadoo (trumpeter / first Roman / noble) and Assad Zaman (citizen / soldier).
Coriolanus is directed by Angus Jackson and designed by Robert Innes Hopkins, with lighting by Richard Howell. Music is by Mira Calix and sound by Carolyn Downing. Movement is by Lucy Cullingford and fights are by Terry King.
Coriolanus runs in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford from Friday 15 September until Saturday 14 October. Press night will be Thursday 21 September. The production will be broadcast live to cinemas on Wednesday 11 October.
Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and Titus Andronicus all transfer to London’s Barbican Theatre from 6 November.