Sophie Okonedo and Ben Daniels to star in ”Medea” in the West End
© David Gordon
New West End venue @sohoplace will host a new staging of Medea, adapted by Robinson Jeffers from the play by Euripides.
Dominic Cooke (The Normal Heart) will direct the show with Sophie Okonedo as Medea and Ben Daniels as Jason/Creon/Aegeus, with full cast to be announced.
Telling the story of a woman who flies into a rage over the actions of men, the new production marks a new production for long-term collaborators Okonedo and Daniels.
Okonedo said today: “I am really excited and a touch nervous to be playing Medea. I’m buoyed by the fact I’m working with two of my closest friends and long-term collaborators, Dominic Cooke and Ben Daniels. I was lucky enough to have Nica Burns show me around the new @sohoplace theatre
while it was still being built, and I was so impressed by the space that I signed up immediately to perform there!”
The revival is designed by Vicki Mortimer, with lighting by Neil Austin and sound by Gareth Fry.
Cooke added: “I have been friends with Sophie Okonedo since we were in our teens. We’ve worked together many times including on Arabian Nights at the Young Vic in 1998 and The Hollow Crown: Wars of the Roses for the BBC in 2015. Sophie is one of our most visceral, emotionally connected actors and I have long thought she’d be a brilliant Medea. I am over the moon that it’s now happening as the second West End production for Fictionhouse, run by Kate Horton and myself.
“I’m also really looking forward to working again with the super talented Ben Daniels after our hugely fulfilling collaboration on The Normal Heart at the National Theatre. Ben and Sophie have been an explosive onstage partnership in the past and I can’t wait to see them playing these iconic
roles together in Nica Burns’ thrilling new auditorium @sohoplace.”
The production opens at @sohoplace on 17 February, with previews from 11 February, and runs until 22 April 2023. Further casting is to be announced, with tickets on sale today.
