Royal Shakespeare Company artistic director Gregory Doran is to direct Troilus and Cressida in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford—the first time the play set in the Trojan war has been produced since 2006.
Doran said of the production, “it’s a very special play which echoes the tone and mood of our times. We have a cast which combines great RSC veterans with some of our younger rising stars as well as reflecting a truly diverse array of talent from all around the UK.
“I’m really interested in exploring the re-gendering of roles in this testosterone-fuelled play to create a 50-50 gender-balanced cast. We’ve pioneered the re-gendering of roles at the RSC for many years but this is the first time in the history of the company that we’ve made a conscious decision to do so for the entire play.
“The re-gendering is completely balanced and has been carefully achieved so that the women have exactly the same stage time and line count as the men.
“But much more important is the interpretative choices that may be opened up and we hope may illuminate the play in ways we can’t yet imagine—for example, the role of Cassandra, the Trojan prophetess whose curse is that none believe or understand her, will be played by the talented deaf actress Charlotte Arrowsmith.
“I’m very proud, in our great journey through the canon, to be tackling this dark, sardonic, funny and much underrated play with such a splendid, talented cast.”
Gavin Fowler will play Troilus. He was last at the RSC in Oscar Wilde’s Salome in the Swan Theatre in 2017. His other work includes Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Michael Grandage Company at the Noël Coward Theatre in 2013.
Amber James is Cressida. She played Charmain in Antony and Cleopatra for the RSC in 2017 and earlier in 2018 she was Stella in Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire, a Theatr Clwyd, Nuffield Southampton and English Touring Theatre co-production.
The cast also includes Nicole Agada (Paris’s servant), Adjoa Andoh (Ulysses), Andy Apollo (Achilles), Charlotte Arrowsmith (Cassandra), Daisy Badger (Helen), Desmond Barrit (Pandarus), Suzanne Bertish (Agamemnon), Daniel Burke (Diomed), James Cooney (Patroclus), Oliver Ford Davies (Nestor), Helen Grady (Calchas), Amanda Harris (Aeneas), Daniel Hawksford (Hector), Andrew Langtree (Menelaus), Geoffrey Lumb (Paris), Esther McAuley (Hecuba), Theo Ogundipe (Ajax), Leigh Quinn (Alexandra), Sheila Reid (Thersites), Mikhail Sen (Helenus), Ewart James Walters (King Priam) and Gabby Wong (Andromache / Antenor).
Virtuoso percussionist Evelyn Glennie will be part of the creative team along with designer Niki Turner, lighting designer Matt Daw, co-composer / sound designer Dave Price, movement director Siân Williams and fight director Terry King.
Troilus and Cressida can be seen in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from Friday 12 October until Saturday 17 November. Press night will be on Thursday 18 October. It will be broadcast live to cinemas on Wednesday 14 November.