Plays Cast: Tricycle Black & White, Court, Donmar
Full casting has been announced for the Tricycle Theatre’s forthcoming Not Black and White season, which will premiere work by three of the country’s leading black contemporary playwrights (See News, 11 Aug 2009).
The acting company that will perform all three works comprises: Jimmy Akingbola (Othello, Look Back in Anger), Aml Ameen (Kidulthood), John Boyega , Karl Collins, Sharon Duncan-Brewster (Let There Be Love), Abhin Galeya, Jaye Griffiths, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Death and the King’s Horseman), Simone James, Amelia Lowdell, Cecilia Noble (In The Red and Brown Water), Rebecca Scroggs and Robert Whitelock.
Category B, directed by Paulette Randall, opens the season on 12 October (previews from 8 October). It’s then joined in rep by Seize the Day, directed by Kwei-Armah, from 2 November (previews from 22 October), and finally Detaining Justice, which is directed by Indhu Rubasingham and opens on 30 November (previews from 25 November).
In other play casting news, the Royal Court has announced additions to the casts of its autumn season productions of Michael Wynne’s The Priory and Mike Bartlett’s Cock (See News, 9 Jun 2009).
Alastair Mackenzie (BBC’s Monarch of the Glen) and Charlotte Riley (The Take, ITV’s recent Wuthering Heights) have joined the cast of comedy The Priory, which opens in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs on 26 November (previews from 19 November),
They join the previously announced Jessica Hynes (née Stevenson) and Rachael Stirling in the play, which focuses on a group of successful thirty-somethings who retreat to a converted rural priory to celebrate New Year (See News, 18 Aug 2009).
In the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Andrew Scott has joined the cast of Cock by Mike Bartlett, which opens on 18 November (previews from 13 November) and stars Ben Whishaw as a man who takes a break from his boyfriend, only to meet the girl of his dreams. James Macdonald, who was associate director of the Royal Court from 1992 to 2007, directs.
The Donmar Warehouse is staging rehearsed readings of two of Tennessee Williams’ lesser-known plays to complement its current run of A Streetcar Named Desire, which stars Rachel Weisz and Elliot Cowan (See 1st Night Photos, 29 Jul 2009).
On 14 September, Alun Armstrong, Felicity Jones, Alison Steadman, Denis Lawson, Obi Abili, Tom Riley, Tim Steed and Una Stubbs will perform Williams’ final play A House Not Meant to Stand (1982), directed by Donmar associate director Jamie Lloyd.
Then, on 15 September, Róisín McBrinn will direct Nigel Harman, Claire Foy, Christian Contreras, Nigel Cooke, Garry Cooper, Nicky Henson, Rory Keenan, Lauren O’Neil, Con O’Neill, Robert Rees, Stark Sands, Paul Shelley, Sara Stewart and Benny Young in a reading of Williams’ second full-length play Fugitive Kind, written in 1937.
