The Royal Shakespeare Company has announced the cast for the world première of Phil Porter’s The Christmas Truce.
The play draws on the story of Warwickshire Regiment soldier and cartoonist Capt Bruce Bairnsfather who worked at the original Shakespeare Memorial Theatre as an electrical engineer. He will be played by Joseph Kloska who returns to the RSC after playing Pompey in Measure for Measure and Samuel Ward in Gregory Doran’s production of David Edgar’s Written on the Heart in 2011.
Bairnsfather’s most famous cartoon character Old Bill is brought to life in the play by Gerard Horan. The rest of the cast features Sam Alexander, Peter Basham, William Belchambers, Nick Haverson, Tunji Kasim, Sophie Khan Levy, Oliver Lynes, Emma Manton, Chris McCalphy, Peter McGovern, Frances McNamee, Chris Nayak, Jamie Newall, Roderick Smith, Flora Spencer-Longhurst, Harry Waller, Thomas Wheatley and Leah Whitaker.
The Christmas Truce is inspired by a true story from 1914 when soldiers on the western front left their trenches on Christmas Eve to meet their enemies in no man’s land to talk, exchange gifts and play football.
Porter’s other plays include Blink, which was performed in New York and The Cracks In My Skin.
The RSC’s deputy artistic director Erica Whyman will make her Royal Shakespeare Theatre directorial debut with The Christmas Truce. She recently directed plays by Timberlake Wertenbaker and Alice Birch as part of the RSC’s Midsummer Mischief festival in The Other Place.
She was chief executive of Northern Stage from 2005 to 2012; her productions there included Oh What a Lovely War, which was nominated for two TMA awards, Will Eno’s Oh the Humanity and Other Good Intentions and Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
The production is designed by Tom Piper with lighting by Charles Balfour. Music is composed and arranged by Sam Kenyon with sound by Andy Franks.
Alongside The Christmas Truce there will be a free exhibition exploring the life and work of Capt Bruce Bairnsfather, who became famous during World War I for his cartoons depicting life on the frontline. The exhibition opens on 10 October.
The Christmas Truce runs in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from Saturday 29 November until Friday 31 January. Press night will be on Tuesday 9 December.