RSC ANNOUNCE PRINCIPAL CASTING FOR YAËL FARBER’S THE WINTER’S TALE
DATE ISSUED: 1 MAY 2025
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- MADELINE APPIAH, BERTIE CARVEL, AÏCHA KOSSOKO & JOHN LIGHT STAR IN WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S ENIGMATIC TALE OF LOVE, LOSS AND HOPE.
- DIRECTED BY YAËL FARBER IN HER RSC DEBUT FOLLOWING ACCLAIMED PRODUCTIONS OF KING LEAR & THE OLIVIER-NOMINATED MACBETH FOR THE ALMEIDA THEATRE
- OPENING IN THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE THEATRE, STRATFORD-UPON-AVON FROM 12 JULY FOR 7 WEEKS ONLY THIS SUMMER
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The Royal Shakespeare Company today announce principal casting for Yaël Farber’s upcoming production of The Winter’s Tale, opening in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from Saturday 12 July with press night on Tuesday 22 July at 7pm.
The production will see Bertie Carvel return to the RSC in the role of Leontes alongside Madeline Appiah in the role of Hermione, Aïcha Kossoko as Paulina and John Light as Polixenes. Further casting will be announced later this month.
Director Yaël Farber said: “Bertie Carvel is an extraordinary artist. In his hands the complexity, cruelty and pathos of Leontes feels exciting and possible. Equally - Madeline Appiah’s Hermione promises not just grace and empathy but ferocity. Portraying women in their complexity can be rare. This will be a Hermione for our times. To have an artist of John Light’s calibre playing Polixenes is a gift in a play where we witness not one, but two patriarchs fall prey to their own delusions of control. By contrast, Paulina is one of the most powerful women Shakespeare has conjured. Hers is a feminism of transformative, fireborne love and protection. And as a performer, Aïcha Kossoko brings many layers and worlds with her, laying bare how limited we can often be in understanding women in their full power.
The Winter’s Tale is a beautiful and strange beast… a mystery to be solved in some ways. A fusion of gritty tragedy and leaps of faith for both the characters and the audience. We are in such a stark and brutal time in the world - and this story plunges us into the shadows of human nature from the start. The journey then expands into a space of miracles and wonder.
I am drawn to stories that explore the shadows - but I am most interested right now in the possibility of redemption. A redemption that is earned.”
Commenting on the production, RSC Co-Artistic Directors Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans added: “Having admired Yaël’s work for many years, we’re overjoyed to welcome her to the RSC to make her debut with us in 2025, alongside this extraordinary company of returning actors. There’s something about Yaël’s approach to directing that takes us beyond the here and now and instead, puts us in touch with the deeply primal, cosmic even. There’s a transcendent quality to her plays which, enhanced by her rich use of symbolism, produce an effect that’s at once utterly compelling and enigmatic. We cannot wait to see Yaël work her magic on Shakespeare’s late masterpiece, The Winter’s Tale”.
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Double Olivier and Tony award-winning actor Bertie Carvel is considered one of the most versatile actors of his generation, able to entirely transform himself from one role to the next. Bertie was last seen at the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2010, where he originated the role of Miss Trunchbull in Matilda the Musical by Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin. Bertie went on to receive his first Tony nomination and an Olivier Award for ‘Best Actor in a Musical’ for the production in the West End and on Broadway.
Bertie recently wrapped HBO’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, playing Prince Baelor Targaryen. The series is based on George R. R. Martin’s string of novellas set a hundred years before the events of ‘Game of Thrones’. Immediately prior to that Bertie once again took the title role in the third season of Dalgliesh, the TV adaptation of P.D. James’ well-loved novels for Channel 5 and Acorn. In 2023, Bertie played Tony Blair in The Crown, becoming the first actor to appear in the show in two different roles (he appeared as Robin Day in an earlier season).
Bertie’s screen credits include Banquo in Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, Bamatabois in Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables, Doctor Foster, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Baghdad Central, The Pale Horse, The Sister, Coalition and Babylon.
On stage, he received a second Olivier Award and the Tony Award for his portrayal of Rupert Murdoch in James Graham’s play Ink (West End, Broadway). Notable theatre credits include Pygmalion (Old Vic), The 47th (Old Vic) starring as Donald Trump, The Hairy Ape (Old Vic), Bakkhai (Almeida Theatre), Rope (Almeida Theatre), The Pride (Royal Court) and Parade (Donmar), which earned him a nomination for 'Best Actor in a Musical' at the Olivier’s.
Bertie made an “impressive directorial debut” (Guardian) in August 2016 at the Chichester Festival theatre, directing John Galsworthy’s 1909 play Strife. He also directed and Exec Produced episodes of the hit TV series Dalgliesh.
Also returning to the RSC in the role of Hermione is Madeline Appiah who last performed with the company in 2012 under Artistic Director Michael Boyd where she appeared in Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice and The Taming of the Shrew; the first three plays to open in the newly re-modelled Royal Shakespeare Theatre following a major redevelopment.
Madeline starred alongside Idris Elba in his award-winning Sky and Starz comedy In The Long Run and originated the role of Zelma Bullock in the Olivier-nominated West End hit TINA - The Tina Turner Musical.
Madeline’s extensive stage credits include Cymbeline (The Globe); Kerry Jackson, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Here We Go; Welcome to Thebes (National Theatre); Tina Turner The Musical (Aldwych); Hamlet (Harold Pinter Theatre); The Hotel Cerise (Theatre Royal Stratford); Iyalode of Eti (Utopia Theatre/Rich Mix/Arcola); In The Next Room or The Vibrator Play (St James Theatre); The Duchess of Malfi (Old Vic); Speechless (Shared Experience); Off the Endz (Royal Court); Mother Goose (Greenwich Theatre); It Felt Empty When the Heart Went at First… (Arcola/Clean Break); Arabian Nights (New Vic); Dionysis Unbound (Bridewell Theatre); 200 Years, Cinderella (Watford Palace); The Wedding Dance (Birmingham Rep/Tour); Restoration (Oxford Stage Company); I Have Before Me… (Calypso); Brezhnev’s Children (BAC) and Ms Ross: The Lady and Her Music (Neptune Theatre).
Her TV and film credits include: Death in Paradise, Blood of My Blood, Black Mirror, Jungle, The Box, In the Long Run, Elephant, King for a Term, Partners in Crime, Doctors, Gavin and Stacey, EastEnders, The Bill and Holby City.
They will be joined by Aïcha Kossoko as Paulina. Aïcha can currently be seen playing Tanzania in the Olivier award-nominated Kyoto at Soho Place; a co-production between the RSC, Good Chance, Rachel Styne and Jess Foung.
Additional theatre credits include: The Vote (Donmar Warehouse), Antony & Cleopatra (Chichester Festival Theatre, Liverpool Playhouse), Welcome To Thebes and The Observer (National Theatre); La Dispute (Abbey Theatre Dublin); Yours Abundantly (Gillian Plowman Productions); Richard III (Southwark Playhouse); Blithe Spirit (Watford Palace); The Evocation of Papa Mas (Told By An Idiot); The Magic Carpet (Lyric, Hammersmith); Celestina (Birmingham Rep/Edinburgh International Festival); Signes de vie (Igi Theatre Company); The Vagina Monologues (Arts Theatre); Monkey (Young Vic); Wedding Story (Soho Theatre); the title role in Andromache (Living Pictures); Macbeth and Yerma (BAC); The Old Curiosity Shop (Southwark Playhouse); The Cherry Orchard, Demons and Dybbuks, The Black Dahlia and Buried Alive (Method and Madness); The Two Gentleman of Verona (Globe); Antony and Cleopatra (Riverside Studios); Julius Caesar (Alley Theatre) and Inheritance (Eastern Angles).
Her screen credits include: Wasted, Radiator, The Fever, Claude Chabrol’s La comédie du pouvoir, Sick Note, Skins, In Deep, Coronation Street, Casualty, Eastenders, Doctors and Kingmakers & radio credits including: The Number One Ladies Detective Agency and Today.
Completing the announcement is Olivier award-nominated actor John Light as Polixenes, who returns to the company for the first time since 2006, having appeared in past RSC productions which include: The Giant, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, The Seagull, In The Company Of Men and A Patriot For Me.
John’s extensive stage credits include: Little Foxes (Young Vic), Watch on the Rhine, Luise Miller (Donmar), The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage (The Bridge Theatre), Uncle Vanya (Theatre Royal Bath), The Son (The Kiln Theatre & Duke of York’s Theatre), Mary Stuart (Duke of York’s Theatre, Almeida), The Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe), Three Days in the Country, The Night Season (National Theatre), The Blackest Black, My Boy Jack (Hampstead Theatre), Taken at Midnight (Chichester Festival Theatre, West End), Julius Caesar (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre), Carmen Disruption, The Master Builder, The Tower, Certain Young Men (Almeida), Apologia, Clocks and Whistles (Bush Theatre), True West (Sheffield Crucible), Hedda Gabler (Dublin Gate Theatre), Thom Pain (based on nothing) (Print Room).
His screen credits include: Showtrial, Around the World in 80 Days, Father Brown, Silk, North and South, Cambridge Spies, Love in a Cold Climate, Aristocrats, Holding On, Atlantis, Mars, Murder in Provence, Maigret, Endeavour, DCI Banks, Band of Brothers, De Gaulle, Albert Nobbs, Scoop, Partition, Heights, The Lion in Winter, Trance, Dk2, 5 Seconds to Spare, The Ascension, Benedict Arnold, Agent Hamilton, A Rather English Marriage, Investigating Sex and Purpose.
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‘It is an heretic that makes the fire, not she which burns in't’
Even in the darkest of winters, redemption may be found.
Unjustly accused of infidelity, Hermione is rejected by her jealous husband, brutally separated from her daughter and her young son dies. Years later, fate offers reconciliation in the most magical of circumstances.
Shakespeare's enigmatic story of love, loss and rebirth is directed by Yaël Farber in her RSC debut following acclaimed productions of King Lear and the Olivier-nominated Macbeth for the Almeida Theatre.
The creative team includes 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.
ENDS
For further information please contact Kate Evans (Head of Media Relations) at kate.evans@rsc.org.uk
LISTINGS INFORMATION:
THE WINTER’S TALE
By William Shakespeare
Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Saturday 12 July – Saturday 30 August
Press Night: Tuesday 22 July at 7pm
Tickets from £16
Audio Described performances: Saturday 2 August, 1.15pm and Friday 22 August, 7.15pm
Chilled & Handheld Captioned performance: Thursday 7 August, 1.15pm
Performance with Integrated BSL Interpreter: Thursday 14 August, 7.15pm
Captioned performances: Friday 15 August, 7.15pm and Saturday 30 August, 1.15pm
Chilled performance with Integrated BSL Interpreter: Saturday 16 August, 1.15pm
Director Talk, Monday 21 July, 5.15pm
Post Show Talk (BSL Interpreted): Thursday 14 August
NOTES TO EDITORS
The RSC is supported using public funding by Arts Council England
The work of the RSC is supported by the Culture Recovery Fund
The RSC is generously supported by RSC America
With thanks to Season Supporter Charles Holloway OBE
Miranda Curtis CMG – Lead Production Supporter
Darwin Escapes – Summer Theatre Sponsor
TikTok £10 Tickets sponsored by TikTok
The RSC Acting Companies are generously supported by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s mission is to bring people together to experience stories that deepen our understanding of ourselves, each other and the world around us, and that bring joy. Shakespeare’s restless exploration of all of human nature is our inspiration and touchstone.
The Company’s roots lie in the bold vision of a local brewer, Edward Fordham Flower, who in 1879 established a theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon with his son Charles. The RSC as we know it today was formed by Sir Peter Hall, whose ambition was to produce new plays alongside those of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. We continue this today across our three permanent theatres in Stratford – the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the Swan Theatre and The Other Place – and indeed online and around the globe. We believe everybody’s life can be enriched by culture and creativity. Our transformative Creative Learning and Engagement programmes reach over half a million young people and adults each year. We have collaborated with generations of the very best theatre makers and we continue to nurture the talent of the future.
Arts Council England is the national development body for arts and culture across England, working to enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to visual art, reading to dance, music to literature and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2018 and 2022, we will invest £1.45 billion of public money from government and an estimated £860 million from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country. www.artscouncil.org.uk
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Whether you’re seeking beachside spa breaks, golfing adventures, tranquil countryside retreats, or family-friendly activities, Darwin Escapes has something for everyone. Among these is the conveniently located Stratford-Upon-Avon Lodge Retreat, just two miles from the heart of Stratford-upon-Avon. Here, guests can enjoy a peaceful countryside setting with premium self-catering accommodation, while remaining close to the rich culture and attractions of the city.
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