Shakespeare’s Globe is delighted to announce full casting for Michael Longhurst’s forthcoming ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, opening in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on 28 October.
Designed by Alex Lowde and composed by Simon Slater, this new production of John Ford’s blackly sensual and viscerally violent play will find a perfect home in the shadowy intimacy of the candlelit Playhouse. Max Bennett and Fiona Button star as Giovanni and Annabella, the siblings whose doomed incestuous passion both threatens and throws into relief the incense-laden hypocrisy of the Italian court.
Full cast includes Max Bennett, Stefano Braschi, Fiona Button, Sam Cox, Philip Cumbus, Noma Dumezweni, James Garnon, Michael Gould, Alice Haig, Dean Nolan, Jethro Skinner, Daniel Rabin, Morag Siller & Edward Peel.
Michael Longhurst’s 2012 Royal Court production of Nick Payne’s Constellations, starring Sally Hawkins and Rafe Spall, transferred to the West End, winning the Evening Standard Award for Best Play and receiving four Olivier nominations. Constellations transfers to Broadway, with Jake Gyllenhaal taking the role of Roland, later this year. Michael has developed and directed several new plays across the UK including Adam Brace’s Stovepipe; a promenade co-production with the National Theatre that featured in the Sunday Times’ ‘Best Theatre of the Decade’ list. He is also a recipient of the Jerwood Directors Award at the Young Vic (Dirty Butterfly) and a Fringe First (Guardians), and is currently an Associate Director for Nuffield Theatre.
Max Bennett recently played Edmund in Chichester Festival Theatre’s New York transfer ofKing Lear with Frank Langella. His other recent theatre credits include Relatively Speaking(Wyndhams), A Time to Reap and In Basildon (Royal Court) and Luise Miller (Donmar). He also played Harry Villiers in the West End transfer of Lyndsey Turner’s Posh. Max’s film credits include Anna Karenina and The Duchess.
Fiona Button recently starred in Wendy and Peter Pan at the RSC and in Lucy Bailey’s King Lear at the Theatre Royal, Bath. Her other recent theatre credits include Heartbreak House(Chichester Festival Theatre), An Ideal Husband (Vaudeville) and Posh (Royal Court). Her television credits include We’ll Take Manhattan, How Not to Live Your Life and Outcasts.
Olivier Award-winning actress Noma Dumezweni takes the role of Hippolita. Noma most recently starred in the critically-acclaimed A Human Being Died That Night at the Hampstead Theatre. Her other theatre credits include Feast and A Raisin in the Sun (Young Vic), Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar (RSC) and Michael Grandage’s Henry V (Noël Coward Theatre).
Friar Bonaventure will be played by stage and screen actor Michael Gould. Michael’s recent theatre credits include A View From the Bridge and Hamlet (Young Vic), Damned by Despairand Earthquakes in London (National Theatre), and Othello (RSC). His extensive television work includes the recent BBC film The Conversation, directed by Dominic Savage, Lucan,Silk and The Thick of It.
