Michael Longhurst will direct a new production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, with the full cast now announced.
Running from 12 April to 24 May 2025, Longhurst’s interpretation sets Shakespeare’s comedy in the world of top-flight football, where scandal-filled rivalries threaten to undermine the final result.
Freema Agyeman will portray Beatrice, re-imagined as a football correspondent, while Nick Blood will play football player Benedick. Joining them are Eleanor Worthington Cox as Hero and Daniel Adeosun, making his RSC debut, as Claudio.
The cast also includes Azan Ahmed (Conrade), Gina Bramhill (Margaret), Nick Cavaliere (Verges), Flaminia Cinque (Sexton/Ensemble), Peter Forbes (Leonato), Tanya Franks (Antonia), Lydia Fraser (Ursula/Ensemble), Olivier Huband (Don Pedro), Megan Keaveny (Ensemble), Nojan Khazai (Don John), Antonio Magro (Dogberry), Posi Morakinyo (Balthasar/Oatcake/Ensemble), Jay Taylor (Borachio), and Arthur Wilson (Seacole/The Friar/Ensemble).
Longhurst expressed his excitement: “I’m delighted to be tackling this play for my RSC directing debut with such an amazing company of actors – a premier league of talent indeed! It’s an incredibly exciting time to be directing for the RSC, as part of Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey’s second season”
“I’m thrilled that Freema Agyeman will continue her remarkable foray into Shakespeare’s canon, returning to Stratford-upon-Avon to play Beatrice, and that the incredible Nick Blood joins her to make his RSC debut as Benedick. Like the standout talent from a football youth academy, Eleanor Worthington Cox steps back into the very RSC rehearsal room to play Hero, 13 years after her Olivier-Award winning performance as the eponymous role in Matilda The Musical.
“Much Ado About Nothing is about love: finding and accepting it – but its timeless investigation of masculinity and sex and gender power dynamics in a slander-fuelled plot – felt ripe for exploration in the contemporary setting of topflight football where WAGs and players behaving badly can enact a not-so-merry war.”
The creative team includes set and costume designer Jon Bausor, lighting designer Jack Knowles, sound designer Emma Laxton, choreographer and movement director Julia Cheng, video designer Tal Rosner, intimacy director Sara Green, and casting director Anna Cooper.
