Cast announced for Oresteia at Manchester Home

Casting has been announced for Blanche McIntyre's production of The Oresteia, which opens at Manchester's new Home venue next month.

Heading the cast will be Manchester-born Lyndsey Marshal, whose film credits include The Hours, as Clytemnestra, alongside Simon Trinder, whose stage credits include The Tempest with Pete Postlethwaite, as Orestes.

Joining them will be Gary Shelford (Agamemnon/Electra/Apollo), Hedydd Dylan (Cassandra), Daniel Millar (Leader of the Male Chorus/Servant) and Ronkẹ Adekoluejo (Leader of the Female Chorus).

The production will also feature 53 local non-professional performers, including 16 Manchester Metropolitan University drama students, who make up the Ensemble Chorus.

McIntyre said: "The Oresteia is epic in its themes, experimental in style and contemporary in its impact, and in the current situation of increased political engagement and in the context of the 'Northern Powerhouse' proposals, it feels right to work on a play in which the right to administer justice is transferred from a small family to the people."

The production runs from 23 October to 14 November 2015. It will be followed by Home's Christmas production, an adaptation of Cornelia Funke's bestselling novel Inkheart, which runs from 4 December to 9 January directed by artistic director Walter Meierjohann.