Theatre News

Plays Cast: Grandage’s Farewell Richard II, Old Vic Noises

Full casting has been announced for Richard II, Michael Grandage’s final production as artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse.

As previously announced, Red star Eddie Redmayne will return to play the title role, and he’ll be joined by several fellow Donmar alumni, including King Lear cast members Ron Cook (Duke of York), Pippa Bennett-Warner (Queen Isabel), Michael Hadley (John of Gaunt/Gardener/Keeper), Harry Attwell (Exton), Ashley Zhangazha (Aumerle/Groom) and Stefano Braschi (Green/Scroop/Gardener’s Man).

Other Donmar returnees include Andrew Buchan (Henry Bolingbroke), who previously appeared in The Man Who Had All the Luck, Ben Turner (Mowbray/Salisbury), who previously worked at the Donmar in Caligula, and Sean Jackson (Fitzwater), who was a member of the Hamlet company in the Donmar West End season.

Sian Thomas (Spring Awakening, Fram) will make her Donmar debut as the Duchess of Gloucester/Duchess of York, as will recent drama school graduates Daniel Easton (Bagot) and Michael Marcus (Bushy/Abbot of Westminster).

The cast is completed by Daniel Flynn (Emperor and Galilean, The White Guard) as the Earl of Northumberland, Joseph Timms (Twelfth Night, NT) as Harry Percy and Phillip Joseph (Danton’s Death) as Welsh Captain/Bishop of Carlisle.

Richard Kent designs – he is the associate designer to Christopher Oram; with lighting by David Plater, who has been chief electrician at the Donmar Warehouse for the past 16 years; and music and sound design by Grandage’s long term collaborator Adam Cork.


In other casting news, the principal company has been announced for Lindsay Posner’s forthcoming revival of Michael Frayn’s comedy Noises Off at the Old Vic.

The production runs from 13 December 2011 to 25 February 2012 (previews from 3 December), marking the popular play’s first major London revival since Jeremy Sams’ 2000 production at the National Theatre, which subsequently transferred to the West End and Broadway.

Celia Imrie, Janie Dee, Aisling Loftus, Jonathan Coy, Robert Glenister and Jamie Glover will lead the cast, according to the Daily Mail.

Imrie (recently seen on stage in Hay Fever, Plague Over England and The Rivals), and Dee (Private Lives, The King and I, Woman in Mind) are both Olivier Award winners who have appeared in a plethora of comedy roles.

Glenister is also a stage veteran, who has recently been seen in the popular BBC dramas Hustle and Spooks.

Jonathan Coy returns to Noises Off having played director Lloyd Dallas in a recent UK tour.