Top actors return to RSC for 2019

Caroline Quentin will return to the Swan Theatre to play Lady Fanciful in Philip Breen’s new production of John Vanburgh’s restoration comedy The Provoked Wife.

Caroline was last seen at the RSC starring as Lady Sarah Hotham alongside Mark Addy as Sir John Hotham in Philip Breen’s 2017 production of The Hyprocrite in a co-production with Hull Truck as part of Hull’s UK City of Culture. The Men Behaving Badly (TV/BBC) and Jonathan Creek (BBC) actor first appeared at the RSC in the original production of Les Misérables (1985).

Joining Caroline on stage in the role of Lady Brute is RSC Associate Artist Alexandra Gilbreath, who returns to the RSC following her appearance as feisty courtesan Angellica Bianca in the RSC’s 2016 production of The Rover by Aphra Behn.

Lady Brute is tired of her tedious, loveless marriage and her tedious, drunk husband. When she decides to spice up her love life with a younger man, scandal threatens to ruin her.

The production is directed by Phillip Breen (The Hypocrite, The Shoemaker's Holiday, The Merry Wives of Windsor).

Following her roles in A Life of Galileo, Written on the Heart and Measure for Measure, Jodie McNee will play Belvidera in a new version of Thomas Otway’s Venice Preserved, a savage political thriller and a love story of breath-taking intensity which will be directed by Prasanna Puwanarajah.

Jonathan Slinger, RSC Associate Artist, will be playing Sir John Brute.

Driven by love and revenge, two disaffected noblemen join a revolutionary movement to overthrow the corrupt leaders of their failed city state. But the conspirators they join are as corrupt as those in power, and their friendship is torn to pieces in the furnace of love in this fast-paced new version of Otway’s restoration tragedy.

Both productions run from May 2019.