Casting is today announced for Emilia, written by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and directed by Nicole Charles at the Vaudeville Theatre from 8 March – 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.
In August 2017 Shakespeare’s Globe Artistic Director, Michelle Terry, commissioned playwright Morgan Lloyd Malcolm to tell Emilia Bassano’s inspiring story. Weeks later, a female empowerment political movement swept across the Atlantic, uniting women to stand up and speak out, just like Emilia 400 years before. When the play opened a year later, this serendipitous meeting of an artistic idea and a social awakening sparked a flame within many women who identified with Emilia and embraced her story as their own. Thanks to them, what started as 11 performances at the Globe now blazes into the West End.
Emilia is presented in the West End by an all-female producing team: Eleanor Lloyd Productions, Kate Pakenham, Nica Burns, Eilene Davidson.
