Rufus Hound will join the previously announced Joely Richardson, Robert Sheehan and Kåre Conradi in the Rose Theatre Kingston’s autumn production of Shakespearean trilogy The Wars Of The Roses.
Playing from 16 September to 31 October, the trio of productions – Henry VI, Edward IV and Richard III – examines the essence of human conflict through tales of feuding families, murderous kings and adulterous queens.
Actor and comedian Hound, who made his stage debut in Utopia at the Soho Theatre before going on to star in West End productions of One Man, Two Guvnors and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels The Musical, will play Bedford and Bolingroke (Henry VI), Jack Cade (Edward IV) and Rivers (Richard III).
He is joined by Olivier Cotton, last seen on the London stage in the Maureen Lipman-led Daytona, and Alex Waldmann, whose most recent roles have seen him appear in King John, The Knight Of The Burning Pestle and The Duchess Of Malfi both indoors and outdoors at Shakespeare’s Globe.
Laurence Spellman (Emperor And Galilean, NT) and Susan Tracy (A Chorus Of Disapproval, Harold Pinter Theatre) will also star, with further casting still to be announced.
Adapted from a quartet of Shakespeare plays – Henry VI Parts I, II and III, and Richard III – The Wars Of The Roses is adapted by John Barton and Peter Hall, and was first and last staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company more than half a century ago.
The trilogy, which will play in rep, reunites Les Misérables and Cats collaborators, director Trevor Nunn and designer John Napier, to transform the Rose Theatre Kingston into a gripping, and inevitably blood-soaked, battleground.