FULL CAST ANNOUNCED FOR MEDEA @SOHOPLACE THEATRE

Posted on by Amy Rye

FULL CAST ANNOUNCED FOR

MEDEA

STARRING SOPHIE OKONEDO AND BEN DANIELS

DIRECTED BY DOMINIC COOKE

@SOHOPLACE THEATRE

  • Sophie Okonedo and Ben Daniels will be joined byMarion Bailey, Penny Layden, Jo McInnes and Amy Trigg in Robinson Jeffers’ adaptation of Euripides’ MEDEA, directed by Dominic Cooke.
  • Opening @sohoplace theatre on 17 February 2023, with previews from 10 February.
  • The production will run until 22 April 2023 in a strictly limited 10-week season.
  • MEDEA is the second West End production forFictionhouse, run by Dominic Cooke and Kate Horton. 
  • Fictionhouse’s first West End production, GOODstarring David Tennant, is concluding its record breaking, extended run to sold out houses at The Harold Pinter Theatre on 7th January.
  • Tickets for MEDEA are on sale now. 

Fictionhouse Limited, Nica Burns and Kate Pakenham Productions today announce full casting for MEDEA, adapted by Robinson Jeffers from the play by Euripides, directed by Dominic Cooke. The production stars the previously announced Sophie Okonedo (Medea) and Ben Daniels (Jason/Creon/Aegeus). They will be joined by Marion Bailey (Nurse), Penny Layden (3rd Woman of Corinth), Jo McInnes (1st Woman of Corinth) andAmy Trigg (2nd Woman of Corinth) with understudies Alicia Charles, Leda Hodgson and Tom Peters. MEDEA opens at @sohoplace theatre on 17 February, with previews from 10 February, and runs until 22 April 2023.

MEDEA sees Dominic Cooke reuniting with long-term collaborators Sophie Okonedo and Ben Daniels, most recently with BBC’s The Hollow Crown – Wars of the Roses, in addition to working together across multiple stage productions since the 1990s.

What could turn a woman from a lover into a destroyer of love?

MEDEA tells the story of a woman laid bare by grief and rage, and her terrible quest for revenge against the men who have abandoned her.

Sophie Okonedo brings her visceral, mercurial brilliance to literature’s most titanic female protagonist, whose complexity and contradictions have kept audiences on the edge of their seats, unable to look away, for almost 2,500 years.

Design                                 Vicki Mortimer

Lighting                               Neil Austin

Sound                                  Gareth Fry

Casting Director               Amy Ball

Children’s Casting            Amy Ball and Verity Naughton

Movement Director        Lucy Cullingford

Associate Director           Tanuja Amarasuriya

Production Manager       Igor 

Costume Supervisor         Helen Johnson

Wigs Designer                   Sam Cox

Props Supervisor              Mary Halliday

Vocal/Dialect Coach        Jeannette Nelson

Produced by Kate Horton for Fictionhouse Limited, Nica Burns and Kate Pakenham Productions

www.sohoplace.org/whatson/medea

BIOGRAPHIES

Sophie Okonedo
Theatre credits include: Antony and Cleopatra(National Theatre – Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress; and nominated for Best Actress Olivier Award); The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia? (Theatre Royal Haymarket); The Crucible (Walter Kerr Theatre, New York – Nominated for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play, Tony Awards);A Raisin In The Sun (Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York – Tony Award for Best Performance By An Actress In A Featured Role In A Play and Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut Performance Award); The Haunted Child, Night Songs and I Just Dropped By To See The Man (Royal Court Theatre); Troilus and Cressida and Money (National Theatre); and The Arabian Nights(Young Vic).

Television credits include: Slow Horses; Inside No. 9 The Wheel of Time; Modern Love; Britannia; Criminal(Nominated for Best Supporting Actress, BAFTA);Ratched (Nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress In a Drama Series, Emmy Award); Chimerica; Flack; Wanderlust; Undercover (Royal Television Society Programme Award for Best Actress); The Hollow Crown; The Escape Artist; Mayday; Sinbad; The Slap; Criminal Justice (Nominated for Best Supporting Actress, BAFTA); Father & Son; Oliver Twist; Celebration and Tsunami: The Aftermath (NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Actress in a TV Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special Category, and nominated for Best Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture for Television, Golden Globe Awards).

Film credits include: Raymond & Ray, Catherine, Called Birdy, Death on the Nile, Wild Rose, War Book,Mrs Mandela (Nominated for Best Actress BAFTA and TV Collective Award for Best Actress), Skin, The Secret Life of Bees (Hollywood Film Award for Best Ensemble Acting of the Year), Martian Child; Stormbreaker, Hotel Rwanda (Nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Academy Awards) and Dirty Pretty Things.

Ben Daniels
Theatre credits include: The Normal Heart (National Theatre – Winner of Best Actor, Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards, Nominated for Best Actor, Olivier Awards),Therese Raquin, Iphigenia at Aulis, Three Sisters and All My Sons (Olivier Award and a Whatsonstage Award for Best Supporting Actor) National Theatre; Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Roundabout Theatre Company New York- Theatre World Award for Breakthrough Broadway Performance, Tony Nomination for Best Actor, Drama Desk and an Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Actor) ; The Haunted Child(Royal Court Theatre); Don’t Dress For Dinner(Roundabout Theatre, New York); Luise Miller, The Wild Duck, The God of Hell and Tales From Hollywood(Donmar Warehouse); As You Like It (Sheffield Theatres – TMA Supporting Actor award nomination);Martin Yesterday (Royal Exchange M.E.N. nomination for Best Actor); 900 Oneonta (The Old Vic/Ambassadors Theatre – Nominated for Best Actor Award, Evening Standard Awards); Never the Sinner(Playhouse Theatre – Olivier Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor).

Television credits include: Foundation, Jupiter’s Legacy; The Crown, The Exorcist, The Simpsons, Jesus Christ Superstar Live, The Hollow Crown, Flesh and Bone, Jamaica Inn, The Paradise, House of Cards, Merlin, Law and Order: UK, Cutting It, Conspiracy, Aristocrats, The State Within, Elizabeth – The Virgin Queen, Real Men.

Film credits include: Argylle, Benediction, Captive State, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Exception, The Wipers Times, Locke, Luna; Doom, Fogbound, Married Unmarried, Fanny and Elvis, Madeleine, I Want You, Passion in the Desert, Beautiful Thing.

Marion Bailey

Theatre credits include: The Deep Blue Sea, Blurred Lines, Grief, Black Snow, Man Beast and Virtue, (National Theatre); Handbagged (Kiln Theatre/ West End); A Kind of Alaska (Bristol Old Vic); Time of My Life (Watford Palace); Death of a Salesman (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Empty Bed Blues (Lakeside Nottingham); Mine, War and Peace, Kinder Transport– TMA Awards Nomination (Shared Experience/Hampstead Theatre); Incomplete and Random Acts of Kindness, Blest be the Tie, This is a Chair, Falkland Sound, Panic, Hush, Beside Herself(Royal Court Theatre); The Arab Israeli Cookbook and Dance of Death (Tricycle); Holes in the Skin(Chichester Festival Theatre); Normal, All of You Mine(Bush Theatre); Cloud Nine (The Old Vic); Bad Blood(Gate Theatre); A Delicate Balance (Nottingham Playhouse); Where There is Darkness, Favourite Nights (Lyric Hammersmith); Raspberry (Soho Poly);Lazy Days Ltd. (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Loving Women (Arts Theatre); A Doll’s House (Edinburgh Lyceum), extensive work in repertory theatre with seasons at Oldham, Canterbury, Sidmouth and Theatre North and work in fringe theatre including the Edinburgh Festival, Croydon Warehouse, The Old Red Lion and the Bridewell.

Television credits include: All the Light We Cannot See, Damage, Shakespeare and Hathaway, The Dreamer, Endeavour, This is Going to Hurt, The Crown: Series 3 and 4 (Screen Actors Guild Award Winner 2020 and 2021), Temple, Britannia Series 2, SSGB, The Trials of Jimmy Rose, Case Histories, Him and Her, Being Human, Monday Monday, New Tricks, Midsomer Murders, Derailed, Holby City, Cherished, Micawber, Shades, The Thing About Vince, Under the Sun, Dalziel and Pascoe, Shine on Harvey Moon, V, Casualty, Dangerfield, The Bill, A Touch of Frost, Boon, The Bretts, To Have and To Hold, Reservations, Charlie, Miracles, Just Deserts, Raspberry, Woycek, Jury, Inspector Morse, No More Dying Then, Reflections of Evil, Big Deal, Casualty, Stay Lucky, Poirot.

Film credits include: Brighton, Peterloo, Dead in a Week: Or Your Money Back, Allied, Lady in the Van,Mr Turner (Nomination, London Critics Circle Film Awards), Toast, I’ll Be There, Vera Drake, All or Nothing, Nasty Neighbours, Don’t Get Me Started.

Penny Layden

Theatre credits include: The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Paradise, Jellyfish, Macbeth, My Country: A Work in Progress, Another World: Losing Our Children to Islamic State, An Oak Tree, Everyman, Edward II, Table and Timon of Athens (National Theatre); The Tempest, Roberto Zucco and Measure for Measure (RSC); Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (Rose Theatre), Seeds (Tiata Fahodzi/Soho); Cleft (Rough Magic/Galway Festival); Sketching (Wilton’s Music Hall); Dr Seuss’ The Lorax, Cinderella (The Old Vic); Bright Phoenix (Liverpool Everyman); Beryl (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Nora (Belgrade, Coventry); Jellyfish, 66 Books (Bush Theatre); Incoming(Hightide Festival); Lidless (Trafalgar Studios/Hightide Festival/Edinburgh); Draw Me Close, Vernon God Little,  The Art of Random Whistling (Young Vic); The Bacchae, Mary Barton, Electra, Mayhem (Manchester Royal Exchange); Dancing at Lughnasa (Birmingham Rep); The Spanish Tragedy (Arcola); Romeo and Juliet, The Antipodes, Hamlet (Shakespeare’s Globe); Comfort Me With Apples (Hampstead Theatre/Tour);Assassins (Sheffield Crucible);  Seasons Greetings, Popcorn (Liverpool Playhouse); The Laramie Project(West End); Romeo and Juliet (Southwark Playhouse);The Recruiting Officer (Lichfield Garrick);  A Passage to India, The Magic Toyshop, Jane Eyre (Shared Experience); Maid Marian and her Merry Men (Bristol Old Vic) and What I Did In The Holidays, The Plough And The Stars, Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Dangerous Corner, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (New Vic, Stoke).

Television credits include: Father Brown, Belgravia,Casualty, My Country: A Work in Progress,Grantchester, Dark Angel, EastEnders, Doctors, Prisoner’s Wives, Call the Midwife, Land Girls, Sirens, South Riding, Doctors, Silent Witness, Poppy Shakespeare, Bad Mother’s Handbook, Waterloo Road, No Angels, The Bill, Murphy’s Law, Fat Friends, Outlaws and M.I.T. 

Film credits include: Broken and The Libertine.

Radio credits include: Second Chance, Uganda and Crime and Punishment.

Jo McInnes

Theatre credits include: The Corn is Green, The House Of Bernarda Alba, The Children’s Hour (National Theatre); The Jungle (The Young Vic, Playhouse Theatre and St Ann’s Warehouse); 4.48 Psychosis (St Ann’s Warehouse); Wastewater, Fleshwound, Bluebird, 4.48 Psychosis (Royal Court); The Herbal Bed, As You Like It, General from America (Royal Shakespeare Company); Uncle Vanya (Young Vic); M.A.D (Bush); On Blindness, Dirty Butterfly (Soho Theatre); Edward II (Sheffield Crucible)

Television credits include: This England, Eternal Law, Five Daughters, Material Girl, Recovery, Afterlife, Sorted, The World Of Impressionists, Spooks, Living It, Playing The Field.

Film credits include: Me and Orson Welles, The New Romantics, My Wife is an Actress, Birthday Girl, Gangster No. 1

Amy Trigg

Theatre credits include: Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me (Kiln Theatre/Tour, Paines Plough); The Taming of the Shrew (RSC); Measure for Measure(RSC); Goth Weekend (The Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough/Live Theatre, Newcastle); The Who’s Tommy (Tour); The Glass Menagerie (Nottingham Playhouse); Shakespeare Within The Abbey(Westminster Abbey with Shakespeare’s Globe); The Sonnet Walks (Shakespeare’s Globe); Fusion (Lilian Baylis Theatre, Sadler’s Wells); The Joy of Dance(Lyric Hammersmith) and Sadler’s Wells Takeover Weekend (National Theatre’s River Stage).

Television credits include: The F**k It Bucket,Unforgotten, Casualty, The Other One, Such Brave Girls, Feel Good, Unprecedented, Stella and Doctors.

Film credits include: Street Dogs, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and Pas De Deux.

Audio credits includes: Found, Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me and The A-Z of Things: A is for Award.

Amy is also a writer for theatre, TV and radio. Writing work includes Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me (joint winner of The Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2020),Ralph and Katie, The A-Z of Things: A is for Awardand It’s Not Like It’s Illegal (Theatre Royal Stratford East).


Dominic Cooke (Director) is a highly accomplished theatre, film, and television director based in London. Dominic was Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre from 2007 to 2013. During his tenure at the Royal Court he directed Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris, for which he was nominated as Best Director for the Evening Standard Awards. He won the 2018 Critic’s Circle Best Director Award for his National Theatre production of Follies starring Imelda Staunton. The show was also nominated for ten Olivier Awards, winning two, including Best Musical Revival and returned for a second run in 2019. His previous production, August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, also at the National Theatre, won an Olivier Award for Best Revival. More recently he directed Good (Fictionhouse – West End), The Normal Heart (co-produced with Fictionhouse) andThe Corn Is Green at the National Theatre. He has successfully moved over to television and film. In 2015 he scripted and directed the BAFTA nominated series of Shakespeare history plays The Hollow Crown – Wars of the Roses, which was produced by Sam Mendes and featured Benedict Cumberbatch, Dame Judi Dench, Hugh Bonneville, Andrew Scott, Michael Gambon, Sally Hawkins and Sophie Okonedo. Dominic’s first feature film, based on Ian McEwan’s Booker Prize nominated novel On Chesil Beach, starred Saoirse Ronan and Emily Watson. Variety’s review of the film said it “marks one of the most impressive debuts of a director since Tom Ford made A Single Man.”

He is an Associate at the National Theatre, a lifelong Associate Artist at the Royal Shakespeare Company and a trustee of Kiln Theatre. He was awarded a CBE for services to Drama in 2015. His most recent film, The Courier, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Jessie Buckley and Rachel Brosnahan achieved box office success when it was released in 2021.

Robinson Jeffers (1887 –1962) was an American poet and writer. His poetry volumes include Flagons and Apples, Tamar and Other Poems and The Double Axe and Other Poems. His adaptation of Medea was first produced on Broadway in 1947.

Fictionhouse Limited

Established by Dominic Cooke and Kate Horton, Fictionhouse is an independent producing company, developing and making drama for television, film and theatre.

Central to the idea of Fictionhouse is the Directors’ relationships with top writing, acting and directing talent, alongside their skill in developing and producing distinctive drama. Fictionhouse is developing projects with a range of artists, including Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA, Olivier and Tony award winning writers and actors across film, television and theatre projects.

Company directors Dominic Cooke and Kate Horton’s working relationship began in 2001 at the Royal Shakespeare Company and developed into a celebrated partnership at the Royal Court Theatre, where they produced over 100 new plays, which were nominated for 210 major awards, winning 59 and their partnership saw the discovery and launch of an exciting new generation of playwrights such as Mike Bartlett, Bola Agbaje, Anupama Chandrasekhar, DC Moore, Lucy Kirkwood and the UK launch of Bruce Norris.

They developed the commercial arm of the Royal Court and transferred work to the West End and Broadway with great commercial and critical success, including Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem, Lucy Prebble’s ENRON, Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park, Nick Payne’sConstellations, Laura Wade’s Posh, Mike Bartlett’s Cock, April de Angelis’s Jumpy and Polly Stenham’s That Face. They also introduced Theatre Local, a ground-breaking initiative to take work direct to new audiences, firstly at Elephant and Castle shopping Centre and then converting the Bussey Building in Peckham, presenting work by Rachel De-lahay, debbie tucker green, Bola Agbaje, Hayley Squires.

Fictionhouse’s first production for the West End, C.P. Taylor’s Good, starring David Tennant, finishes its record breaking, extended run on 7th January,after playing to sold out houses at The Harold Pinter Theatre. The Music Man (Broadway), starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster, produced by Barry Diller, David Geffen, Kate Horton and Fictionhouse, concludes its multi record breaking run at The Winter Garden Theater on 15th January.

Recent projects include The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer (NT, London) and The Narcissist (Chichester Festival Theatre). Fictionhouse is in partnership with Ringside Media, the investment arm of television drama production company Ringside Studios.

www.fictionhouse.co.uk

Nica Burns

Nica Burns OBE is a multi-award winning theatre producer.  She is Chief Executive of Nimax Theatres Limited and co-owns six London theatres. Nica has spent twelve years building the new @sohoplace theatre in partnership with Derwent London.  Her hit musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie will start its second UK tour in 2023.

Kate Pakenham Productions

Kate Pakenham Productions is an independent production and consultancy company run by producer Kate Pakenham. 

Previous productions include the Olivier-Award-winning Emilia by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm (West End, 2019); Hamlet, directed by Yael Farber and starring Ruth Negga (St. Ann’s Warehouse, NY, 2020); Kaleider’s The Money (London’s County Hall, 2021); and Jade Anouka’s debut play Heart (The Minetta Lane Theater, NY, and for Audible, 2022).

Kate also acts as an executive and creative consultant across the cultural sector.  Clients include Digital Theatre, The WOW Foundation, Fictionhouse and multiple subsidised producing theatres. From 2012-2018 Kate was Executive Producer of the Donmar Warehouse producing 40+ productions, many of which transferred to the West End, New York, or onto screen. Previously, Kate was Producer at The Old Vic Theatre for 11 years. Her career began in television, researching and directing programmes for BBC, ITV and Channel 4.

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