RSC to transfer Julius Caesar and Much Ado to West End in 2012
Story by Jack Foley
THE Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is to transfer two of its productions to the West End next summer (2012).
Gregory Doran’s Julius Caesar (pictured) and Iqbal Khan’s Much Ado About Nothing will run back to back at the Noel Coward Theatre from late August until October.
Both productions will premiere first in Stratford-upon-Avon in May and July as part of the World Shakespeare Festival before transferring to the West End for the London 2012 Festival.
According to the RSC, Doran’s Julius Caesar “finds dark contemporary echoes in modern Africa”. Its cast includes Adjoa Andoh, Ray Fearon (of Coronation Street fame), Paterson Joseph (Peep Show), Jeffery Kissoon and Joseph Mydell
Khan’s Much Ado, meanwhile, transposes Shakespeare’s unsettling comedy of love and deceit to an Indian setting.
Meera Syal takes on the role of Beatrice, with further casting still to be announced.
The production will mark Khan’s RSC directorial debut.
The West End transfers will come to London shortly after the RSC’s What’s Country Friend is This? season of The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night and The Tempest at Camden’s Roundhouse in June 2012.
Commenting on the tranfers, Vikki Heywood, RSC executive director, said: “I am delighted that the RSC is able to bring these two productions to the West End during the summer of 2012.”
The theatre company last performed at the Noel Coward theatre in 2004 with a Tragedies, season which included a production of Hecuba starring Vanessa Redgrave.