Cast announced for Much Ado About Nothing –

The Faction @ Selfridges

Selfridges & Co, 400 Oxford Street, London W1A 1AB

Rehearsals: Monday 18th July – Monday 22nd August 2016

Production: Tuesday 23rd August – Saturday 24th September 2016

Press Night: Friday 26th August, 7.30pm

This summer, Selfridges have joined forces with one of the most exciting emerging young British theatre companies in the UK, The Faction, to celebrate Shakespeare400 with a new staging of Much Ado About Nothing at The reFASHIONed Theatre.

Leading the cast of this ambitious production is Evening Standard Award nominee Daniel Boyd (Royal Shakespeare Company’s Oppenheimer; Headlong’s Romeo and Juliet; BBC’s The Hollow Crown) and star of the BBC hit Shetland Alison O’Donnell (Headlong’s Boys; Dolls at The National Theatre Scotland) as Beatrice and Benedick.

They will be joined by Caroline Langrishe (BBC’s Judge John Deed, Outnumbered and Lovejoy), Jude Owusu (Royal Shakespeare Company’s Julius Caesar; The Comedy of Errors at NationalTheatre; BBC’s Father Brown), Harry Lister Smith (Trevor Nunn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Posh, West End; BBC’s War and Peace), Tala Gouveia (Husbands and Sons at National Theatre; A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe), Christopher Hughes (an Off West End Best Actor nominee for title role in The Faction’s The Talented Mr Ripley), and Jamie Maclachlan who is best known for his lead role in the Emmy Award nominated film Four Minutes. Lowri Izzard makes her professional stage debut as Hero.

The production also sees a fantastic line-up of ‘digital cameos’ including Four Weddings and a Funeral star Simon Callow CBE, Rufus Hound (Royal Shakespeare Company’s Don Quixote), and Goodness Gracious Me actress Meera Syal CBE. These pre-recorded cameos have been created by digital content specialists Dusthouse, and will be projected into the space as news reports and CCTV footage as part of the 21st century refashioning of the production.
Co-director Rachel Valentine Smith comments, We are beyond excited to create Much Ado About Nothing with a company of such lively, intelligent, and playful actors. Everyone brings a unique experience and energy to the process, which is exactly what you need for a project like this. Creating this show for our wild and modern times for the Shakespeare Refashioned campaign with these actors is so joyful and we can’t wait to share this joy with our audiences.

The reFASHIONed Theatre, an intimate 122-seat auditorium with a traverse, raised stage, is not just any pop-up. This contemporary production of Much Ado About Nothing occupies a distinctly 21st century landscape of high style, tabloid journalism, CCTV and iconic events.

The Faction is part of the next generation of classical theatre making for both artists and audiences. They interpret classical texts with a contemporary aesthetic to engage and excite local, national and international audiences. Building a diverse ensemble with a rolling repertoire, The Faction is a sustainable arts organisation for the 21st century.

Unmistakably Shakespeare. Uniquely Selfridges. Let the performance begin.

Title Much Ado About Nothing
Open Rehearsals Monday 18th July – Monday 22nd August 2016
Monday to Saturday, 10am – 6pm
Show Dates Tuesday 23rd August – Saturday 24th September
Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm
Wednesday and Saturday matinees, 2pm
Running time 90 minutes

Twitter @FactionTheatre, @Selfridges, #GetTheeToASelfridges

Director Mark Leipacher
Co-director Rachel Valentine Smith
Set Designer George Glassby
Lighting Designer Chris Withers
Projection Designer Chris McGill for Dusthouse
Casting Director Ellie Collyer-Bristow
Make-up MAC
Location Selfridges & Co, 400 Oxford Street, London W1A 1AB
How to get there Selfridges is located in the heart of Oxford Street. The nearest underground stations are Bond Street (on the Central and Jubilee lines), Marble Arch (on the Central line), and Oxford Circus (on the Victoria, Central and Bakerloo lines). The nearest rail station is Marylebone.

Box Office Tickets are available from www.selfridges.com.

The Faction

The Faction is a Peter Brook Award-winning international ensemble producing bold, brave, contemporary interpretations of classic texts for diverse and new audiences. Since 2008, the company have created 28 productions for London, on national tours and international engagements, receiving critical acclaim and 19 awards and nominations for their work. In addition to their work on Shakespeare, they have presented the UK premieres of works by Schiller and Dario Fo, the world premiere of a new version of THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY, as well as new adaptations of Aeschylus, Chekhov, Euripides, Goethe, Gorky, Ibsen, Lorca, Pirandello and Strindberg.

Selfridges

The business was founded by American entrepreneur Harry Gordon Selfridge in 1909 and was widely regarded as the first and best example of a modern department store. Harry Gordon Selfridge ran the store himself until he retired in 1940. After several ownerships the company was de-merged from the Sears Group in 1998 and floated on the London Stock Exchange. In 2003 W. Galen Weston purchased Selfridges and under his ownership Selfridges has become an extraordinary global destination for fashion, luxury and retail theatre. In June 2010 Selfridges was named Best Department Store in the World for the first time by the IGDS (Intercontinental Group of Department Stores). The title, which Selfridges held until June 2012, is the industry’s highest accolade. Selfridges won the title again in June 2012, and again in 2014 for an unprecedented three times consecutively. Selfridges has four stores in London, Birmingham and Manchester (Trafford Centre, Exchange Square) and our international website now delivers within the UK and to over 130 countries, trading in eight currencies. Selfridges today, continues Harry Gordon Selfridge’s legacy – a shopping experience that promises to surprise, amaze and amuse its customers by delivering extraordinary customer experiences.

The Ultralounge

The Ultralounge is Selfridges 3,500 sqft dedicated special events and experiences space which, for the past nine years has played host to dozens of talked-about initiatives. These include young British artists’ shows curated by Kay Saatchi, exhibitions by the best Urban artists including Banksy, Vivienne Westwood’s iconic shoe exhibition retrospective, and an exclusive immersive 3D musical experience by iconic musician Brian Eno. The Ultralounge was also transformed into a late night concert venue with a fully licensed bar provided by the illustrious and now defunct Colony Room club where groups including The Slits and The Long Blondes performed during the month-long celebration of 30 years of Punk in 2006.

More recently, in 2013 The Ultralounge welcomed the temporary return of Selfridges’ legendary Silence Room, first conceived and opened in 1909 by Harry Gordon Selfridge, in 2014 it was transformed into a 60-seat luxury cinema, and currently, the space is a fully-functioning gym –hosting a residency by cult spin studio Psycle.