Almeida Cast: Henshall as Satan & Rosmersholm
Douglas Henshall (pictured) will play Satan in the European premiere of American Stephen Adly Guirgis’The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, which runs from 3 April to 10 May 2008 (previews from 28 March) at the Almeida Theatre (See News, 30 Oct 2007).
The cast of the Headlong co-production – directed by Headlong artistic director Rupert Goold, who last month won his second Best Director gong for his Patrick Stewart-led Macbeth – will also feature Joseph Mawle (as Judas Iscariot), Gawn Grainger, Susan Lynch and, as Pontius Pilate, American actor, and like the author, a long-time member of New York’s LAByrinth Theatre Company, Ron Cephas Jones, who starred in the 2002 London premiere of Adly Guirgis’ Jesus Hopped the A Train at the Donmar Warehouse and in the West End.
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is comic courtroom drama where history’s most infamous betrayal is dissected by the forces of good and evil. Figures such as Pontius Pilate, Mother Theresa and Sigmund Freud are called to testify in a trial of God and the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth versus Judas Iscariot in a court that owes as much to the ghetto as the Gospels.
Henshall’s recent stage credits include The Cryptogram, Death of a Salesman, Darwin in Malibu, The Crucible and The Coast of Utopia. On screen, he’s been seen in Flying Lessons, This Year’s Love, Ripley Underground and current ITV series Primeval.
Grainger’s most recent stage credits include You Can’t Take It With You, Amy’s View, The Seagull and No Man’s Land. Lynch has starred in The Night Season, O Go My Man, The Clearing and, on Broadway, Translations. Mawle played Jesus in The Passion on television and has been seen onstage in Antony and Cleopatra, Love and Understanding and As You Like It.
The rest of the Judas Iscariot cast are Shane Attwooll, Amanda Boxer, Josh Cohen, Dona Croll, Edward Hogg (Jesus of Nazareth), Corey Johnson, Mark Lockyer, John MacMillan, Poppy Miller and Jessika Williams. The production reunites director Goold with his Macbeth creative team: designer Anthony Ward, lighting designer Howard Harrison and sound designer Adam Cork.
** Don’t miss our Whatsonstage.com Outing to The Last Days of Judas Iscariot on 31 March 2008 – including a FREE drink & post-show event! – all for just £28 – click here to book now! **
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is followed, from 22 May to 5 July 2008 (previews from 15 May), by Anthony Page’s revival of Ibsen’s 1886 classic Rosmersholm, in a new version by Mike Poulton, which as previously announced (See News, 30 Oct 2007), stars Helen McCrory, Paul Hilton and Malcolm Sinclair.
The suicide of his wife and the influence of the mysterious Rebecca West (McCrory) lead former clergyman Johannes Rosmer (Hilton) to pledge his support to a new libertarian movement, much to the anger of his brother-in-law Doctor Kroll (Sinclair), who tries to sabotage Rosmer’s revolutionary ways.
Also now confirmed for the cast are: Paul Moriarty (Ulrik Brendel), Veronic Qulligan (Mrs Helseth) and Peter Sullivan (Peter Mortensgaard). The production is designed by Hildegard Bechtler, with lighting by Peter Mumford.
Currently at the Almeida, artistic director Michael Attenborough’s just-opened revival of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, starring Kenneth Cranham and Jenny Jules, finishes its limited run on 22 March (See 1st Night Photos, 8 Feb 2008).
– by Terri Paddock
