Further casting has been announced for Emilia, written by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and directed by Nicole Charles at the Vaudeville Theatre from 8 March to 15 June 2019, following its run at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2018.
The role of Emilia is played at different stages of her life by Saffron Coomber, Adelle Leonce and Clare Perkins. They are joined by an all- female company playing both hers and hims including Nadia Albina, Anna Andresen, Jackie Clune, Jenni Maitland, Carolyn Pickles, Sarah Seggari, Sophie Stone, Charity Wakefield, Amanda Wilkin and Tanika Yearwood.
Emilia Bassano was a writer, teacher, poet and mother said to have been ‘The Dark Lady’ of Shakespeare’s sonnets and one of literature’s first female voices – yet her story has gone untold for centuries until now.
Also in the creative team are: set and costume designer Joanna Scotcher, movement director Anna Morrissey, lighting designer Zoe Spurr, sound designer Emma Laxton, composer Luisa Gerstein and musical director Yshani Perinpanayagam.
Bios
Nadia Albina (Lady Katherine Howard/Desdemona/River Woman). Theatre credits include The Madness Of George III (Nottingham Playhouse); Emilia (Shakespeare’s Globe); Macbeth (National Theatre); Quiz (Chichester Festival Theatre); New And Now (Royal Court/Edinburgh); What If Women Ruled The World? (Manchester International Festival); Othello (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse); I Call My Brothers (Gate Notting Hill); Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe); Told From The Inside (Royal Court), Five Plays – You Are So Relevant (Young Vic); Robin Hood (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Hecuba (Rsc); Othello (Rsc); The Merchant Of Venice (Rsc) and A Stab In The Dark, A Series Of Increasingly Impossible Acts, Glitterland, Chamber Piece, A Streetcar Named Desire, Woyzeck (Secret Theatre Lyric Hammersmith).
Anna Andresen (Lady Mary Sidney/Margaret Johnson/Eve). Theatre credits include Still Alice (UK Tour); Emilia (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Mousetrap; The Frozen Scream (Birmingham Hippodrome/Wales Millenium Centre); The 39 Steps (Criterion Theatre); Above and Beyond, You Once Said Yes (Look Left Look Right); Into The Sunlit Uplands (Theatre 80 St Marks, NYC), Running On Empty, Lisa Is Looking Into The Mirror (Bennett Media Studio, NYC); Red Admiral (Soho Studio); The Bald Prima Donna (The Etc) and Crossed Wires (Theatre 503).
Jackie Clune (Lord Thomas Howard/Hester/Lady Helena). Theatre credits include Measure for Measure (Donmar Warehouse); Utility, Shakespeare Trilogy: The Tempest, Henry IV, Julius Caesar (Donmar King’s Cross), Henry IV (also St. Ann’s Warehouse, New York); Fallen Angles (Salisbury Playhouse); The Vote (Donmar Warehouse); Candide (Menier Chocolate Factory); 9 to 5 (UK Tour); Mogadishu (Lyric Hammersmith); Mamma Mia! (Prince Edward/Prince of Wales/International Tour); Billy Elliot the Musical (Victoria Palace); Julie Burchill is Away (Soho) and Showstopper (G & J).
Saffron Coomber (Emilia 1). Theatre credits include A New And Better You (Yard Theatre) and Sonnet Sunday (The Globe). Television credits include: Cuffs; EastEnders; Youngers; Holby City; Tracey Beaker Returns; Doctors; Runaway and The Bill. Film credits include Electricity and Dustbin Baby.
Adelle Leonce (Emilia 2). Theatre credits include Amadeus, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (National Theatre); Against (Almeida); Anatomy of a Suicide, Torn (Royal Court); In the Night Time (Gate); Tipping the Velvet, A Streetcar Named Desire, Woyzeck, Chamber Piece, Glitterland, A Series of Increasingly Impossible Acts, A Stab in the Dark (Lyric Hammersmith); Sing yer Heart out for the Lads, Hotel Baltimore (Avondale Theatre); The Dutch Courtesan (Shakespeare’s Globe) and They Shoot Horses Don’t They? (Edinburgh Fringe).
Jenni Maitland (Countess of Kent/Mary/Man at the Globe 1/Simon Forman). Theatre credits include Emilia, In Extremis (Shakespeare’s Globe); By Jeeves (Landor Theatre); Guys and Dolls (Cambridge Arts Theatre); The Rivals (Southwark Playhouse); A Little Neck (Goat and Monkey); Is Everything OK? (Nabokov); Hobson’s Choice (Chichester Festival Theatre); A Chorus of Disapproval (The Mill At Sonning); Northanger Abbey (York Theatre Royal/Salisbury Playhouse/UK Tour); Coram Boy (National Theatre); King Lear (Creation Theatre Company); Plastic Jesus (Old Vic); House and Garden, Fen, Sharp Relief (Salisbury Playhouse); Amadeus (York Theatre Royal); Blithe Spirit (Derby Playhouse) and Daisy Pulls It Off (Lyric Theatre).
Clare Perkins (Emilia 3). Theatre credits include Sweat (Donmar Warehouse); Mrs Dalloway (Arcola); Emilia (Shakespeare’s Globe); Genesis Inc (Hampstead); The Immigrant (Hoxton Hall); Daisy Pulls It Off (Park); Primetime, Mules (Royal Court); Roundelay (Southwark Playhouse); The Convert (Gate); Removal Men (The Yard); The House That Will Not Stand, Fabulation, How Long is Never (Tricycle); Welcome To Thebes (NT); Meridian (Contact Theatre); How To Be Immortal (Penny Dreadful); Little Revolution (Almeida); Our Country’s Good (Nuffield); Generations Of The Dead (Young Vic); Twelth Night (London Bubble); The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime (UK Tour); Neighbours (HighTide) and Ragamuffin (Double Edge).
Carolyn Pickles (Lord Henry Carey/Judith/Priest). Theatre credits include Moll Flanders (Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company); Rosmersholm (Cambridge Theatre Company); The Dillen (RSC); Wings (National Theatre); The Playboy of the Western World (Riverside Theatre); The Winter’s Tale (New Shakespeare Co at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Cherry Orchard (Sheffield Crucible Theatre); Larkin with Women (Leeds Playhouse); Bodycell (Soho Poly); Stepping Out (Albery Theatre); Way Upstream (Sheffield Crucible); The Schuman Plan (Hampstead Theatre); Fram (National Theatre); Beasts (Theatre503); Worst Wedding Ever (Salisbury Playhouse); King Charles III (Sydney Theatre Company) and Lost and Found (Spoken Word Centre).
Sarah Seggari (Lady Cordelia/Flora). Theatre credits include Emilia, Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe); Comedy of Errors (Sam Wanamaker Festival, Shakespeare’s Globe); Scan Artists (Bridge Theatre Company – The Yard/Brighton Fringe); Sonny (Andrew Lloyd Webber Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Catford Theatre) and Frontline (Andrew Lloyd Webber Theatre). Film credits include Artemis Fowl and Elsie 3.
Sophie Stone (Lady Margaret Clifford/Midwife/Drunk Man 1/Priest 2/River Woman). Theatre credits include Emilia (Shakespeare’s Globe); Midsummer Night’s Dream (Watermill Theatre); Jubilee (Lyric, Hammersmith/ Manchester Royal Exchange); The Government Inspector (Birmingham Rep/ UK Tour); Herons (Lyric, Hammersmith); Mother Courage and Her Children (National Theatre); Mine (Shared Experience); Frozen (Birmingham Rep); Two (Southwark Playhouse); The Bloody Great Border Ballad Project (Northern Stage); In Water I’m Weightless (National Theatre of Wales); Pandora (Arcola); Woman Of Flowers (Forest Forge/UK Tour); and Multiplex, Fen and You Make Me Happy (When Skies are Grey) (The Watermill).
Charity Wakefield (William Shakespeare/Drunk Man 2/Valentine Simmes/River Woman). Theatre credits include Othello (Shakespeare’s Globe); Seminar, The Blackest Black, No Naughty Bits (Hampstead Theatre); Candida (Bath Theatre Royal); These Shining Lives (Park Theatre); The Cherry Orchard (National Theatre); The Rivals (Southwark Playhouse – nominated for an Ian Charleson Award); The Circle (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Three Musketeers (Bristol Old Vic); Yesterday was a Weird Day (BAC); On the Waterfront (New Wimbledon Theatre) and The Graduate (New Vic Theatre, Stoke).
Amanda Wilkin (Alphonso Lanier/River Woman /Emilia in Othello). Theatre credits include White Teeth (Kiln Theatre); The Grinning Man (Trafalgar Studios); The 306: Day (National Theatre of Scotland); La Ronde (The Bunker Theatre); Pilgrims (Theatre Clwyd/HighTide Festival/The Yard Theatre); Emilia, Hamlet, Gabriel, The Tempest (Shakespeare’s Globe); Hopelessly Devoted (Paines Plough & Birmingham REP); Arabian Nights (Watermill Theatre); The Bacchae, Blood Wedding (Royal and Derngate); Marat/Sade, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC); Stamping, Shouting and Singing Home (Nuffield Theatre) and The Twits (Dukes Theatre).
Tanika Yearwood (Lady Anne Clifford/Lord Collins/Man at the Globe 2/River Woman). Theatre credits include As You Like It, Hamlet (Shakespeare’s Globe); Home and Everything in Between (Kali Theatre Company) and Tomorrow I’ll Be Twenty (Complicite).
