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Barber and Findlay join Madame de Sade

Published 12 December 2008

Frances Barber and Deborah Findlay will join Judi Dench and Rosamund Pike in Madame De Sade, the third production in the Donmar West End season at the Wyndham’s theatre, which opens on 18 March (previews from 13 March).

Fiona Button and Jenny Galloway complete the cast of Yukio Mishima’s poetic play, which brings to life the story of notorious aristocrat the Marquis de Sade, told through the eyes of six remarkable women.

Barber, who plays the Comtesse de Saint-Fond, was last seen in London in the Royal Shakespeare Company productions of King Lear and The Seagull, which played in repertoire at the New London theatre last Christmas. Her extensive stage credits include Insignificance at the Donmar Warehouse, Antony And Cleopatra at Shakespeare’s Globe, Aladdin at the Old Vic and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest at the Gielgud theatre. On television she has been seen in Hotel Babylon, Beautiful People, Hustle and The IT Crowd.

Findlay (Baronesse de Simiane) is a Donmar Warehouse regular, having appeared at the Covent Garden venue in Artistic Director Michael Grandage’s productions of The Cut, The Vortex and John Gabriel Borkman. Findlay won a 1997 Laurence Olivier Award for her supporting performance in Stanley at the National Theatre, where she has also appeared in The House Of Bernarda Alba, The Mandate, Mother Clap’s Molly House and The Winter’s Tale. Findlay’s screen work includes Cranford, Torchwood, This Life – 10 Years On and Black Books.

They are joined by Button (Anne), who has recently been seen in Ring Round The Moon at the Playhouse theatre and Rock ‘N’ Roll at the Duke of York’s, and Galloway (Charlotte), who appeared in the Donmar productions of Nine, How I Learned To Drive and Electra.

The cast is led by the previously announced Pike as Renée, the titular Madame de Sade, and Dench as Madame de Montreuil. The pair previously starred together in James Bond film Die Another Day.   

The Donmar Warehouse began its year-long residency of the Wyndham’s theatre in September with Kenneth Branagh in Ivanov. The second production of the season, Twelfth Night, opened this week. Following Madame de Sade, the season continues with Jude Law in Hamlet. All four productions are directed by Grandage.

CB

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