Bertie Carvel will play Leontes and Kathryn Hunter will take the roles of Autolycus and Time in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of The Winter’s Tale in summer 2025.
Carvel has twice won a Laurence Olivier Award: for best actor in a leading role in a musical for his role as Miss Trunchbull in Matilda The Musical which played at the RSC in 2010 and at London’s Cambridge Theatre in 2011 and best actor in a supporting role for playing Rupert Murdoch in James Graham’s play Ink at the Duke of York’s Theatre in 2017. His depiction of Murdoch also won him a Tony Award for best actor in a featured role in a play. On television, he is known for playing Adam Dalgleish in the crime series Dalgleish, which is based on the novels of P D James.
Hunter, who is well known for portraying Arabella Figg in the Harry Potter films, was last at the RSC when she played the title role in Simon Godwin’s 2018 production of Timon of Athens.
The rest of the company comprises Madeline Appiah (Hermione), Lewis Bowes (Florizel), Amelda Brown (shepherdess), Rhianna Compton (ensemble), Hilda Cronje (Emilia), Ryan Duval (young shepherd), Matthew Flynn (Antigonus), Leah Haile (Perdita), Chihiro Kawasaki (Danger and ensemble), Aïcha Kossoko (Paulina), John Light (Polixenes), Mkiyah Page-Gordon (ensemble), Rakhee Sharma (ensemble), Raphael Sowole (Camillo) and Richard Sutton (jailer and ensemble).
The creative team includes director Yaël Farber, set and costume designer Soutra Gilmour, lighting designer Tim Lutkin, composer Max Perryment, movement director Imogen Knight, fight and intimacy director Yarit Dor, casting director Julia Horan CDG and dramaturg Drew Lichtenberg.
The Winter’s Tale will run in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford from Saturday 12 July until Saturday 30 August.