Lisa Dillon is to take the role of the fearless “governess of London’s underworld” Moll Cutpurse in the first play in the Roaring Girls season at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford.
The programme includes rarely-performed Jacobethan plays which feature some of the great parts written for and about women.
Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker’s The Roaring Girl is set in a London fuelled by greed and desire. The charismatic, cross-dressing heroine Moll cuts a joyously independent path through the underhand scheming and petty vendettas of the London underworld, proving more than a match for any man.
Lisa Dillon was previously at the RSC as Katharina in The Taming of the Shrew in 2012 and played Desdemona in Gregory Doran's Othello in 2004.
Her other credits include Noel Coward’s Private Lives at the Vaudeville Theatre in 2010, BBC's Cranford Chronicles and Stephen Fry's film Bright Young Things.
The rest of the cast comprises Joe Bannister, Ian Bonar, Peter Bray, Elspeth Brodie, Colin Brown, Faye Castelow, Keir Charles, Liz Crowther, Geoffrey Freshwater, Lizzie Hopley, Joan Iyiola, Tony Jayawardena, Christopher Middleton, Ken Nwosu, Tom Padley, Ian Redford, David Rintoul, Jay Simpson, Timothy Speyer and Harvey Virdi.
Making her RSC debut, Jo Davies directs. Designer is Naomi Dawson. Lighting is designed by Anna Watson. Music is composed by Gary Yershon with sound by Simon Baker.
The Roaring Girl runs in the Swan Theatre from Wednesday (9 April) until Tuesday 30 September.