The Royal Shakespeare Company today announce principal casting for Yaël Farber’s upcoming production of The Winter’s Tale, opening in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from Saturday 12 July with press night on Tuesday 22 July at 7pm.  

The production will see Bertie Carvel return to the RSC in the role of Leontes alongside Madeline Appiah in the role of Hermione, Aïcha Kossoko as Paulina and John Light as Polixenes. Further casting will be announced later this month. 

Director Yaël Farber said: “Bertie Carvel is an extraordinary artist. In his hands the complexity, cruelty and pathos of Leontes feels exciting and possible. Equally - Madeline Appiah’s Hermione promises not just grace and empathy but ferocity. Portraying women in their complexity can be rare. This will be a Hermione for our times. To have an artist of John Light’s calibre playing Polixenes is a gift in a play where we witness not one, but two patriarchs fall prey to their own delusions of control. By contrast, Paulina is one of the most powerful women Shakespeare has conjured. Hers is a feminism of transformative, fireborne love and protection. And as a performer, Aïcha Kossoko brings many layers and worlds with her, laying bare how limited we can often be in understanding women in their full power. 

The Winter’s Tale is a beautiful and strange beast… a mystery to be solved in some ways. A fusion of gritty tragedy and leaps of faith for both the characters and the audience. We are in such a stark and brutal time in the world - and this story plunges us into the shadows of human nature from the start. The journey then expands into a space of miracles and wonder.  

I am drawn to stories that explore the shadows - but I am most interested right now in the possibility of redemption. A redemption that is earned.” 

Commenting on the production, RSC Co-Artistic Directors Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans added: “Having admired Yaël’s work for many years, we’re overjoyed to welcome her to the RSC to make her debut with us in 2025, alongside this extraordinary company of returning actors. There’s something about Yaël’s approach to directing that takes us beyond the here and now and instead, puts us in touch with the deeply primal, cosmic even. There’s a transcendent quality to her plays which, enhanced by her rich use of symbolism, produce an effect that’s at once utterly compelling and enigmatic. We cannot wait to see Yaël work her magic on Shakespeare’s late masterpiece, The Winter’s Tale”.