Playful Productions and the Royal Shakespeare Company have announced final full casting for The Mirror and the Light in the West End.
The third and final novel in the Wolf Hall trilogy has been adapted for the West End stage by Dame Hilary Mantel and Ben Miles.
Jeremy Herrin, who was nominated for an Olivier Award, a Tony Award and won the Evening Standard Award for the first two productions, returns to direct. The world premiere will run at the Gielgud Theatre from Thursday 23rd September for a strictly limited season until Sunday 28th November, with an Opening Night on Wednesday 6th October.
New names added to the cast are: Melissa Allan (Princess Mary), Samuel Awoyo (Ensemble), Ian Drysdale (French Ambassador), Jo Herbert (Lady Rochford), Andrew Hodges (Ensemble), Niamh James (Ensemble), Umi Myers (Helen Sadler / Dorothea Wolsey), Liam Smith (Walter Cromwell) and Nicholas Tizzard (Ensemble).
They will join the previously announced returning cast members Ben Miles (Cromwell), Nathaniel Parker (Henry VIII), Nicholas Boulton (Duke of Suffolk), Matt Pidgeon (Stephen Gardiner) and Giles Taylor (Archbishop Cranmer) and new to the trilogy: Rosanna Adams (Anna of Cleves), Paul Adeyefa (Christophe), Aurora Burghart (Elizabeth Seymour), Terique Jarrett (Gregory Cromwell), Jordan Kouamé (Rafe Sadler), Geoffrey Lumb (Thomas Wriothesley), Olivia Marcus (Jane Seymour) Tony Turner (Kingston), Leo Wan (Richard Riche) and Nicholas Woodeson (Duke of Norfolk).
Seven members of the company are making their West End debuts, three of which are also making their professional debuts: Melissa Allan, Olivia Marcus, Umi Myers, Niamh James – with professional debuts for Rosanna Adams, Jordan Kouame and Samuel Awoyo.
The play is the concluding chapter of Mantel’s multi award-winning novels about the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, all commissioned and developed for the stage by Playful Productions. The acclaimed Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies were hailed as landmark and must-see theatrical events and sold out their London runs in 2014 after premiering at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.
Mantel recently received the prestigious Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for The Mirror and the Light, which she also won for Wolf Hall in 2010. Wolf Hall won the Man Booker Prize in 2009, and Bring Up the Bodies won in 2012, making Mantel the first woman ever to have received the award twice. Bring Up the Bodies also won the Costa Novel Award, the first time the same novel has won both this and the Man Booker.
The trilogy charts the riveting rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell in the ruthless court of Henry VIII.
England, 1536. Anne Boleyn’s fate has been sealed by the executioner. Jane Seymour must deliver King Henry a healthy heir. And to the disgust of Henry’s nobles, Thomas Cromwell continues his ruthless ascent from the gutters of Putney to the highest rank beside his master. But Cromwell is vulnerable and his enemies are poised to strike.
The production features scenic and costume design by Christopher Oram who won both Olivier and Tony Awards for his work on Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, lighting design by Jessica Hung Han Yun, music by Stephen Warbeck, with sound design by Nick Powell, movement direction by EJ Boyle and casting by Helena Palmer CDG.
