Theatre Royal Stratford East have announced full casting for The Village, the first production in Nadia Fall’s inaugural season as Artistic Director.
The Village is a new adaptation by April De Angelis of Lope de Vega’s Fuenteovejuna, transported to contemporary India. The play will star Anya Chalotra as Jyoti and Art Malik as The Inspector, along with Harki Bhambra, Sudha Bhuchar, Ameet Chana, Neil D’Souza, Souad Faress, Rina Fatania, Naeem Hayat, Scott Karim, Arian Nik, Humera Syed and Ragevan Vasan.
Village life for Jyoti is simple and beautiful. But when the Inspector and his men arrive back in town, things quickly begin to sour. The Inspector’s reign of terror sees him commit unspeakable acts against the village with young Jyoti in his sights, pushing everyone to breaking point. Will she dare scorn his advances?
The show tells a powerful story of community, solidarity and the lengths each of us are willing to go to protect ourselves from tyranny.
Fall said of the show: “The Village looks at the true cost of populism, how behind a smiling facade the manipulation and oppression of everyday people is taking place the world over. But there is a line when enough is enough, and what I love about this story is that it’s a young woman, an Indian village girl, a so called nobody, that cries out against the brutality and leads the uprising.”
Performances begin 7 September, playing until 6 October.