RSC ANNOUNCES NAOMI SHELDON TO JOIN COMPANY OF THE COMEDY OF ERRORS ON TOUR AND AT THE BARBICAN 2021
ON TOUR 22 OCTOBER – 6 NOVEMBER
BARBICAN 16 NOV – 31 DECEMBER
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) today announced that Naomi Sheldon will join The Comedy of Errors company to play the role of Adrianna on tour and at the Barbican this winter. Hedydd Dylan, who currently plays the role of Adrianna, will share the role with Naomi whilst the production is on tour, before leaving the company at the end of November to have her baby, when Naomi will take over permanently for the show’s run at the Barbican.
The production, directed by Phillip Breen (The Provoked Wife, The Hypocrite), opened to critical acclaim at the Lydia & Manfred Gorvy Garden Theatre in July this year and concluded its run in Stratford-upon-Avon earlier this week. The production will next open with indoor performances at The Theatre Royal, Nottingham (22-24 October), The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury (27-30 October), and the Alhambra Theatre, Bradford (2-6 November), before transferring to the Barbican for a strictly limited London run from Tuesday 16 November until Friday 31 December, with a Press Night on Tuesday 23 November 2021. The Comedy of Errors at the Barbican is sponsored by ICBC (London).
Naomi Sheldon says:
“I’m thrilled to be returning to the RSC in their production of The Comedy of Errors, and honoured to be sharing the role with Hedydd Dylan. Playing Adriana as pregnant not only has personal poignancy for me as a new mother of twins, but also adds new complexity and comedy to the role which this production explores so richly. I’m delighted to be job sharing with a mother to be, and this way of working feels very hopeful for working mothers in this industry. The company have been hugely welcoming and I can’t wait to get started on tour, before heading to the Barbican this winter.”
Director Phillip Breen says:
“In the early part of rehearsals we received the wonderful news that Hedydd Dylan, our Adrianna, is pregnant. We hadn’t considered a pregnant Adrianna before rehearsals, but when Hedydd, me and Designer Max Jones discussed the idea, we thought it worked rather well. It raises the stakes on elements of the relationship between Adrianna and Antipholus of Ephesus and accounts for some of the complexities in their relationship but also, ultimately, their great bond, too. It also gives an added dimension to the family reunion at the end. Hedydd and the company have had great fun incorporating this idea into the production. This also means that we have been able to welcome the brilliant Naomi Sheldon to the company on tour, when the two actors will job share before Hedydd leaves the company to have her baby and Naomi – herself a mother to one-year-old twins – takes over permanently for the Barbican. Job sharing like this happens more and more in the profession and is a very welcome development for actors with young families.”
Naomi Sheldon’s previous RSC credits include The Merry Wives of Windsor and The Mouse and His Child. Other theatre credits include: Good Girl (Trafalgar Studios/Roundabout/Old Red Lion); Partners in Crime (Queen’s Theatre); Don’t Waste Your Bullets on the Dead (Vaults Festival); Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Mischief Theatre); The Pride (ATG); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Royal & Derngate); Sex With a Stranger (Trafalgar Studios); Collery Row (Liquid Theatre); The Wind in the Willows (Watermill Theatre); Waiting for Lefty (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Reclining Nude with Black Stockings (Arcola); The Emperor Jones (National Theatre). On screen credits include Malory Towers, Whitstable Pearl, Casualty, Porters, Red Dwarf, Diaries of the Great War, The Hour, Doctors, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Ashes to Ashes, Cla’am and Hi-Lo Joe.
Naomi joins the company which includes; Toyin Ayedun-Alase (Courtesan), Jonathan Broadbent (Dromio of Syracuse), Antony Bunsee (Egeon), Alfred Clay (Dr Pinch), Hedydd Dylan (Adrianna), William Grint (2nd Merchant), Greg Haiste (Dromio of Ephesus), Avita Jay (Luciana), Zoe Lambert (Aemelia), Guy Lewis (Antipholus of Syracuse), Dyfrig Morris (2nd Merchant Bodyguard), Baker Mukasa (Angelo), Patrick Osborne (Balthasar), Rowan Polonski (Antipholus of Ephesus) Nicholas Prasad (Duke Solinus), Riad Richie (1st Merchant) and Sarah Seggari (Luce).