A large company of actors and musicians will stage Shakespeare’s King John in the ancient, candlelit knave of the Holy Sepulchre Church, Northampton to mark the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta.
The town’s Royal and Derngate and Shakespeare’s Globe have got together for the first time to produce the play in the church which it is believed King John and his court visited during his reign.
The church will be transported back in time to a 12th century world of politics, power struggles, unlikely alliances and inheritance battles.
Shakespeare wrote King John at a time of great political uncertainty. This production “will explore, in this election year, how across the course of history the power struggles of the ruling class have little changed”.
As previously announced, the cast includes RSC associate artist Jo Stone-Fewings as King John, 2014 Evening Standard award nominee Tanya Moodie as Constance, Alex Waldmann as The Bastard, Joseph Marcell who played the title role in the Shakespeare Globe touring production of King Lear in 2013 as Cardinal Pandulph and Barbara Marten as Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Royal and Derngate artistic director James Dacre directs, with original music by Royal Opera House associate Orlando Gough.
King John runs in the Holy Sepulchre Church, Northampton from Friday 24 April until Saturday 16 May (press night Tuesday 28 April). It then goes to the Temple Church, London from 10 until 19 April, Salisbury Cathedral from 27 until 30 May and Shakespeare’s Globe, London from 1 until 27 June.