The upcoming production of Medea at London's @sohoplace theatre has found its full cast. Previews for the tragedy will begin February 10 at the new West End theatre with a strictly limited 10-week engagement set to open February 17. Performances will run through April 22.
Previously announced Olivier nominee and Tony winner Sophie Okonedo (Antony and Cleopatra, A Raisin in the Sun) will lead the cast as Medea with Tony nominee Ben Daniels (All My Sons, Les Liaisons Dangereuses) as Jason, Creaon, and Aegeus. Joining them will be Marion Bailey (The Deep Blue Sea, Handbagged) as Nurse, Penny Layden (The Ocean at the End of the Line, The Tempest) as 3rd Woman of Corinth, Jo McInnes (The Corn is Green, The Jungle) as 1st Woman of Corinth, and Amy Trigg (Reasons You Should(n't) Love Me, The Taming of the Shrew) as 2nd Woman of Corinth. Alicia Charles, Leda Hodgson, and Tom Peters will serve as understudies.
Enraged, and grieving, Medea wants revenge on the men who have betrayed and abandoned her—including Jason, who left her and their two sons for a new wife. American poet and writer Robinson Jeffers adapted Euripedes' 2,500-year-old Greek tragedy Medea; the adaptation received its first Broadway staging in 1947, directed by John Gielgud who starred as Jason opposite Judith Anderson as Medea.
Helming the production will be director Dominic Cooke (Good, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom), who will lead a creative team comprising designer Vicki Mortimer, lighting designer Neil Austin, sound designer Gareth Fry, movement director Lucy Cullingford, associate director Tanuja Amarasuriya, production manager Igor, costume supervisor Helen Johnson, wigs designer Sam Cox, props supervisor Mary Halliday, and vocal and dialect coach Jeannette Nelson. Casting is by Amy Ball with children’s casting by Ball and Verity Naughton
Cooke has previously collaborated with Okonedo and Daniels, as the three worked together on stage productions throughout the 1990s and were most recently reunited for BBC's limited series The Hollow Crown - Wars of the Roses. Cooke directed three episodes of the television show which starred Okonedo as Margaret and Daniels as Buckingham in the adaptation of Shakespeare's Henriad tetralogy.
Medea is produced by Kate Horton for Fictionhouse Limited, which made its West End debut producing Good starring David Tenant, Nica Burns and Kate Pakenham Productions.
For tickets and more information, visit SohoPlace.org.
