Cast: Anita Dobson’s RSC debut & Macbeth at the Crucible

Dobson first found fame playing Angie
Watts in EastEnders in the 1980s and has since
appeared in a number of television dramas and sitcoms, including
The Bill, Red Dwarf and
Holby City.

Highlights of her stage career include
being nominated for the 2003 Olivier Award for best actress for her
role in Frozen at the National Theatre and
appearing in Calendar Girls at the Noel Coward
Theatre in 2009. In 2005 she played Gertrude in English Touring
Theatre’s production of Hamlet. The Merry Wives of Windsor
will be Dobson’s debut with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Desmond Barrit, whose varied stage career includes having played Hector in The History Boys, the Wizard in Wicked! and numerous roles at the RSC and NT, will play Falstaff.

Geoffrey
Streatfeild and Claudie Blakley have been cast in Macbeth,
the first production in the autumn season at the Sheffield Crucible.
The play opens on 5 September and runs until 6 October.

Streatfeild,
who appeared at the Crucible most recently in Michael Frayn‘s
Copenhagen, will play the title role, while
Blakley portrays his wife. She returns to the theatre following her
appearance in its 2005 production of Edward Bond‘s Lear.

Streatfeild
has performed at the National Theatre in Earthquakes in
London and The History Boys and with the
RSC in Henry
V, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 and Henry
VI Parts 1 & 2. His television work includes
Spooks and The Thick of It.

Blakely
appeared in The Comedy of Errors and The
Cherry Orchard at the NT last year and is known from her
appearances in the BBC series Cranford and
Robert Altman‘s 2001 film, Gosford Park.

Daniel
Evans, artistic director at the Crucible, will direct,
supported by designer Richard
Kent,
lighting designer David
Plater
and composer and sound designer Richard
Taylor.