Full casting announced for The Cherry Orchard at Bristol Old Vic and Manchester’s Royal Exchange
Casting news
FULL casting has been announced for Michael Boyd’s much anticipated production of The Cherry Orchard, which runs at Bristol Old Vic from March 1 to April 7, and Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre from April 19 to May 19, 2018.
Rory Mullarkey’s brand-new translation will be directed by Michael Boyd, celebrated former Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). Having studied Russian and trained as a director in Moscow, he will be directing Chekhov – the literary love of his life – for the first time.
Chekhov’s final masterpiece is full of wild humour and piercing sadness in this fresh, funny and honest new translation. A portrait of changing times, it maps the bittersweet tensions between the desperate longing to hold onto what is familiar, and the restless lure of the new. Revolution hangs in the air, the poor and hungry are pushing at the doors, and a civilised and complacent culture is on the brink of collapse…
Leading the ensemble will be Kirsty Bushell and Jude Owusu.
Kirsty Bushell plays Ranyevskaya, a woman whose liberal world of privilege and pleasure is beginning to show cracks while she and her family live on in denial. Bushell was recently seen on television in BBC’s Motherland, but it is on stage where she has earned her renowned reputation.
Her career is one of dynamic variety, spanning roles from Olivia in the RSC’s Twelfth Night and Juliet for Shakespeare’s Globe to Vittoria in The White Devil (RSC), the title role in Hedda Gabler, and the recent “pitch-perfect” Regan opposite Ian McKellan’s King Lear. Her career also spans new works such as the recent Boys will Be Boys (Headlong/Bush), Torn (Royal Court) and Disgraced (The Bush). She regularly works with some of the leading directors in the world, including Ivo Van Hove, Michael Grandage and Maria Aberg, appearing regularly with the RSC, National Theatre and Royal Court.
Jude Owusu plays the successful businessman Lopakhin, who has loved Ranyevskaya since childhood and now hopes to be her salvation. Owusu’s recent theatre work includes A Tale of Two Cities (Regent’s Park), Gregory Doran’s Julius Caesar, Tim Crouch’s I, Cinna (both RSC/West End) and The Comedy of Errors (National Theatre). His television work includes the acclaimed The Hollow Crown series for BBC.
They will be joined by Simon Coates as Ranyevskaya’s well-intentioned but delusional brother Gayev, Togo Igawa as Gayev’s elderly servant Firs, Julius D’Silva as landowner Pischik, Éva Magyar as Charlotta, Jack Monaghan as the clerk Yepikhodov, Emma Naomi as the family’s maid Dunyasha and Enyi Okoronkwo as the eternal student Trofimov.
Completing the cast will be Verity Blyth as Ranyevskaya’s daughter Anya, Rosy McEwan as Varya, Hayden Mclean as Yasha, Joseph Hardy and Harry Humberstone.
The Cherry Orchard will be designed by Tom Piper.