Friday 1st July to Saturday 6th August
Deborah Warner’s inaugural season as Artistic Director of the Ustinov Studio in Bath opens with an epic new production of The Tempest by William Shakespeare appearing from Friday 1st July to Saturday 6th August.
Set on an enchanted island, Shakespeare’s last play deals with magic, love, treachery, transformations, transmutations, the visible and the invisible. In Caliban, Ariel, and of course Prospero, Shakespeare created three of his most memorable and enigmatic characters. As with all his ‘late plays’, man’s complex and troubled journey from the desire for revenge to the path of mercy is centre stage. When Prospero takes his enemies hostage, the scene is set for a traditional revenge drama, but instead ends in redemption, restoration and renewal.
Led by Nicholas Woodeson as Prospero and Dickie Beau as Ariel, the fourteen-strong cast includes William Chubb as Gonzalo, Derek Hutchinson as Alonso, Gary Sefton as Stephano, Edward Hogg as Caliban, Stephen Kennedy as Trinculo, Finbar Lynch as Antonio, Pierro Niel-Mee as Ferdinand, Tanvi Virmani as Miranda, Luke Mullins as Sebastian, Natalie Winsor as Francisca, Ben Jones as Adrian and Andrew Speed as Boatswain.
Nicholas Woodeson has performed in numerous productions in the West End and on Broadway. His stage career started at Liverpool’s Everyman in the 1970s alongside Julie Walters and Pete Postlethwaite. He joined the RSC in 1981, where he performed for eight years and was Olivier Award nominated. His screen credits include the Bond film Skyfall, The Pelican Brief, The Avengers, The Danish Girl, Topsy-Turvy, Taboo, Rome and guest roles in series ranging from Miami Vice to Shameless. Amongst his five previous productions at Bath’s Theatre Royal, Nicholas starred as Willy Loman in Death Of A Salesman in 2017.
Dickie Beau’s film roles include playing Kenny Everett in Bohemian Rhapsody and Georges Wague in Colette. With an international reputation for his solo performance work, Dickie has toured extensively with his repertoire of theatre shows.
This is William Chubb’s tenth production at the Theatre Royal; he played Bath most recently in Racing Demon in 2017 and This House in 2018. His many screen credits include Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, The Ambassador, The Buddha Of Suburbia, and House Of Cards. He has performed on many occasions at the National Theatre, London’s Old Vic and in the West End.
Derek Hutchinson has played the Theatre Royal in six previous productions, including King Lear in 2011, and performed extensively at the RSC and National Theatre. His recent television credits include Doctors and Vera.
Edward Hogg was last seen at Bath’s Theatre Royal in The Pillowman in 2005. He has recently appeared on television in Pennyworth, The Irregulars and Silent Witness. His theatre credits include productions at the National Theatre, Donmar Warehouse and Shakespeare’s Globe.
Stephen Kennedy has previously performed at the Theatre Royal in 2008 in the National Theatre’s adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Waves. Stephen is well known on radio as Ian Craig in Radio 4’s The Archers. His television credits include The Salisbury Poisonings, On Home Ground and Ballykissangel. Finbar Lynch has performed in numerous productions at the National Theatre, the RSC, in the West End and at Dublin’s Gate Theatre. He has previously appeared at the Theatre Royal Bath in The Portrait Of A Lady and A Doll’s House in 2008 for The Peter Hall Company season, and in The Birthday Party in 2005.
Pierro Niel-Mee starred in the title role in the 2018 production of Shakespeare in Love which opened at Bath’s Theatre Royal. He has also appeared in the RSC’s multi award-winning stage productions of Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies in both the West End and on Broadway, as well as The Hypocrite and Imperium at the RSC. Luke Mullins has won several awards for his theatre performances in Australia including a Sydney Theatre Award and the prestigious Helpmann Award for Waiting For Godot. Tanvi Virmani, whose credits include Romeo and Juliet and Pride and Prejudice, recently graduated from Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Deborah Warner CBE is a British director working internationally in theatre and opera. Her work in the UK includes productions for the National Theatre, English National Opera, Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne, Opera North, Barbican, Old Vic,
Almeida Theatre and London’s West End. She has twice won the Olivier Award for Best Director. Her many previous Shakespeare productions include Julius Caesar at the Barbican and across Europe starring Simon Russell Beale and Ralph Fiennes; productions of King Lear starring Glenda Jackson and Brian Cox and a ground-breaking production of Richard II in which Fiona Shaw played the title role.
Deborah Warner is joined by some of Europe’s finest creative talent, including designer Christof Hetzer whose opera designs have been seen around the world, including Tosca at the National Opera de Paris, Rigoletto in Vienna, Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman in Malmo and Eurydice for De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam. Lighting designer Jean Kalman has created the lighting for countless theatre and opera productions in France, Japan, Great Britain, Holland, Brussels, Italy and New York since 1979. He has worked with numerous directors including Peter Brook and worked extensively with the late artist Christian Boltanski. Sound designer Mel Mercier began his illustrious theatre career with Deborah Warner and Fiona Shaw’s Medea at Dublin’s Abbey Court and has since worked across the UK and on Broadway.
The Tempest appears at the Ustinov Studio at the Theatre Royal Bath from Friday 1st July to Saturday 6th August 2022. To book tickets contact the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844 or book online at www.theatreroyal.org.uk
photo credit: Hugo Glendinning
