RSC to release The Whip audio drama based on 2019 stage production

The RSC will release an audio recording of Juliet Gilkes Romero's 2019 play The Whip to coincide with Black History Month.

Directed by Kimberley Sykes, the piece will re-unite the show's original cast and explores the nature of the slavery compensation bill, which compensated slavers rather than slaves.

The show will premiere on the RSC YouTube channel on 29 October, and has sound design by Claire Windsor with music by Akintayo Akinbode.

The 2014/2015 cast of Tom Morton Smith's Oppenheimer will also unite for a one-off reading on 15 October. The piece commemorates the 75th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Erica Whyman, RSC deputy artistic director said: "The epic nature of the subject matter and the broad sweep of narrative that Juliet Gilkes-Romero's The Whip and Tom Moreton-Smith's Oppenheimer deal with is something we have always encouraged in our commissioned new work.

"Telling untold stories, exploring issues of power, responsibility and personal identity through the lens of a group of remarkable human beings, navigating their own place within a changing world, is at the very heart of what Shakespeare wrote about. By continuing our commitment to new writing, we hope to channel that same enquiring spirit through some of the most promising voices of today."