Berenice

Author Jean Racine, in a new version by Alan Hollinghurst

Overview

27 September 2012 - 24 November 2012

Berenice's long and patient wait is over. Her lover, Titus, is now Emperor of Rome and with his succession, she can become his Queen.

But the Roman people make their disapproval known and Titus must choose between love and responsibility.

Antiochus, Titus' best friend, is sent to comfort her, but reveals his own unrequited love for Berenice.

In Berenice, Racine created a perfect tragedy of unfulfilled passion. In his astonishing new version, Man Booker Prize winner Alan Hollinghurst anatomises the agony of love.

Run time: 1 hour and 40 minutes without an interval

Reviews

"No finer acting to be had on the London stage"

Sunday Telegraph

Cast & Creative Team

Stephen Campbell Moore - Read bio

Stephen Campbell Moore - Biography

TITUS

Theatre: includes Clybourne Park (Royal Court/Wyndham’s), All My Sons (Apollo), The History Boys (NT/New York), Much Ado About Nothing, Antony and Cleopatra (RSC), Death of a Salesman (Compass Theatre Company), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Albery), Richard II, Coriolanus (Almeida at Gainsborough Studios).
Film: includes Complicit, Johnny English Reborn, Season of the Witch, A Short Stay in Switzerland, Sea Wolf, The Children, The Bank Job, Amazing Grace, The History Boys, A Good Woman, Bright Young Things.
Television: includes Hunted, Just Henry, The Titanic, Sleepyhead, Pulse, Ben Hur, Rough Crossings, Wallis and Edward, He Knew He Was Right, Byron.
Nigel Cooke - Read bio

Nigel Cooke - Biography

PAULINUS

For the Donmar: The Man Who Had All the Luck.
Theatre: includes Henry V, Dr Faustus (Globe), Habbaccuc Dreams (Bush), Lakeboat & Prairie du Chien (Arcola) A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky , Three Sisters (Lyric Hammersmith), Dreams of Violence (Out of Joint), King Lear (Liverpool Everyman/Young Vic), Pericles, The Winter’s Tale, Days of Significance (RSC), The Unthinkable (Sheffield Theatres), The Permanent Way, A Laughing Matter, She Stoops to Conquer (Out of Joint/NT), All My Sons (NT), Feelgood (Hampstead/Garrick), The Iceman Cometh (Almeida/Old Vic), Macbeth, An Inspector Calls (Garrick), Getting Attention, Serious Money, The Recruiting Officer , Our Country’s Good (Royal Court).
Opera: includes Gaddafi the Opera (ENO).
Television: includes Henry V, Luther, The Bill, Heartbeat, Oliver Twist, Casualty 1906, Sons and Lovers, Macbeth, Poirot, Silent Witness, Peak Practise, I Just Want to Kiss You, Casualty, Between the Lines, Hot Dog Wars, Why Lockerbie?, Death of a Son, The Chief, Galloping Galazies.
Radio: includes numerous recordings for BBC Radio 4.
Anne-Marie Duff - Read bio

Anne-Marie Duff - Biography

BERENICE

For the Donmar: Days of Wine and Roses.
Theatre: includes Cause Celebre (Old Vic), Saint Joan – Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Awards, King Lear, War and Peace , La Grande Magia (NT), Collected Stories (Theatre Royal, Haymarket), The Soldier’s Fortune, The Daughter in Law (Young Vic), Playboy of the Western World (Druid/tour), A Doll’s House, Mill on the Floss II (Shared Experience), Vassa (Almeida), Peter Pan (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Emma, Uncle Silas, Les Enfants du Paradis (Cambridge Theatre Company).
Film: includes Sanctuary, Nowhere Boy – Evening Standard, Film Critics’ Circle and British Independent Film Awards, The Last Station, Is Anybody There?, French Film, Born Equal, The Waiting Room, Garage, Magdalene Sisters, Enigma, Mild and Bitter.
Television: includes The Accused, Parade’s End, Margot, The History of Mr Polly, Elizabeth – The Virgin Queen, Shameless, Charles II, Wild West, Dr Zhivago, Sinners, The Way We Live Now, Aristocrats, Amongst Women.
Kurt Egyiawan - Read bio

Kurt Egyiawan - Biography

ARSACE

Trained: Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Theatre: includes Henry V, King Lear, The Frontline (Globe), Earthquakes in London (Headlong).
Film: includes SkyFall.
Derek Howard - Read bio

Derek Howard - Biography

RUTILUS

Theatre: includes Outward Bound (Finborough), Much Ado About Nothing (Wyndham’s), An Ideal Husband (Vaudeville), The Revenger’s Tragedy, Major Barbara, The History Boys (NT), Popcorn (UK tour), The Country Wife (Theatre Royal, Haymarket), Art (Middle East tour), The Solid Gold Cadillac (Garrick/Yvonne Arnaud), The Boys in the Band, Anna Christie (Manchester Library), Robbers (Tristan Bates), The Tempest (Creation), The Wizard of Oz (Seacombe), Treasure Island (Gardiner Arts), Torch Song Trilogy (Landor), Elegies… (Criterion), A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, Stags and Hens, Up ‘n’ Under (Queen’s, Hornchurch), The Undertaking (Gay Sweatshop), The Knocky (Royal Court).
Television: includes Cor Blimey, Harry & Cosh, Coogan’s Run, Luv.
Rosie Jones - Read bio

Rosie Jones - Biography

PHENICE

Trained: RADA
Theatre: includes Design for Living (Salisbury Playhouse), As You Like It, Merlin and the Woods of Time (Grosvenor Park), Daisy Pulls It Off (Watermill), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bolton Octagon), The Animals Lawsuit (Tara Arts), Rookery Nook, Murder at Midnight (The Charles & Imogen Vance Summer Plays Festival).
Television: includes Downton Abbey.
Dominic Rowan - Read bio

Dominic Rowan - Biography

ANTIOCHUS

For the Donmar: A Voyage Round My Father, Lobby Hero.
Theatre: includes A Doll’s House (Young Vic), The Village Bike, Way to Heaven, Forty Winks (Royal Court), Henry VIII, A New World, As You Like It (Globe), The Misanthrope (Comedy), The Spanish Tragedy (Arcola), After Dido (ENO/Young Vic), Under the Blue Sky (Duke of York’s), Happy Now?, Dream Play, Iphegina at Aulis, Mourning Becomes Electra, Three Sisters, The Talking Cure, Private Lives (NT), The Importance of Being Earnest (Oxford Playhouse), Sexual Perversity in Chicago (Sheffield), Merchant of Venice, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Talk of the City (RSC).
Film: includes Tulse Luper Suitcase.
Television: includes Restless, Henry IV, Law and Order, Catwalk Dogs, Baby Boom, Trial and Retribution, The Lavender List, The Family Man, Rescue Me, Lost World, Swallow, North Square, Hearts and Bones, A Rather English Marriage, Between the Lines, Devil’s Advocate, No Bananas, Emma, The Tennant of Wildfell Hall.

Director: Josie Rourke - Read bio

Josie Rourke - Biography

Josie is Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse.
Josie trained as the Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar Warehouse, was Trainee Associate Director at the Royal Court, Associate Director at Sheffield Theatres and Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre.
For the Donmar: Berenice, The Physicists, The Recruiting Officer, Frame 312, World Music, The Cryptogram.
As Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre: includes Sixty-Six Books, If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet, Apologia, Like a Fishbone, 2,000 Feet Away, Tinderbox, How To Curse.
Theatre: includes Much Ado About Nothing (Wyndham’s), Men Should Weep (NT), Here (Sky Arts), Twelfth Night, Taming of the Shrew (Chicago Shakespeare), Crazyblackmuthafuckin’self, Loyal Women (Royal Court), My Dad’s a Birdman (Young Vic), Believe What You Will, King John (RSC), World Music, The Unthinkable, Much Ado About Nothing, The Long The Short and The Tall, Kick for Touch (Sheffield Theatres).
Designer: Lucy Osborne - Read bio

Lucy Osborne - Biography

Trained: Motley Theatre Design School.
For the Donmar: The Recruiting Officer, Huis Clos (Trafalgar Studios).
Theatre: includes Love, Love, Love (Royal Court/Paines Plough UK Tour), The Roundabout Season 2012 (Paines Plough/Sheffield Theatres), Peter Pan (Sherman Cymru), Twelfth Night – Jeff Award, The Taming of the Shrew (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre), Plenty (Sheffield Crucible Studio), Here (Sky Arts), Anderson’s English, Dreams of Violence (Out of Joint), Precious Little Talent (Trafalgar Studios), Shades (Royal Court’s Young Writers Festival), Where’s My Seat, The Aliens, Like a Fishbone, The Whisky Taster, If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet, Wrecks, Broken Space Festival, Sea Wall, 2,000 Feet Away, Tinderbox, tHe dYsFUnCKshOnalZ! (Bush), Artefacts (Nabakov/Bush), The Long and the Short and The Tall, The Unthinkable (Sheffield Theatres).
Lighting Designer: Oliver Fenwick - Read bio

Oliver Fenwick - Biography

For the Donmar: Huis Clos (Trafalgar Studios).
Theatre: includes The Holy Rosenburgs, St Matthew Passion, Happy Now? (NT), My City, Ruined (Almeida), The Witness, Disconnect (Royal Court), The Taming of the Shrew, Julius Caesar, The Drunks ,The Grain Store (RSC), After Miss Julie (Young Vic), Saved, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lyric Hammersmith), A Number (Menier Chocolate Factory), The Beggar’s Opera (Regents Park), The Kingdom of Earth, Fabrication (The Print Room), The Madness of George III, Ghosts, Kean, The Solid Gold Cadillac, Secret Rapture (West End), The Kitchen Sink, The Contingency Plan, If There is I Haven’t Found it Yet (Bush), Private Lives , The Giant ,Glass Eels, Comfort Me With Apples (Hampstead), Hamlet, The Caretaker, The Comedy of Errors, Bird Calls , Iphigenia (Sheffield Theatres), Restoration (Headlong), Lady From The Sea, She Stoops To Conquer (Birmingham Rep), The Chairs (Gate), Henry V ,Mirandolina (Royal Exchange), ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, The Doll’s House, Hay Fever (West Yorkshire Playhouse).
Opera: includes The Merry Widow (Opera North/Sydney), Samson et Delilah, Lohengrin (ROH), The Trojan Trilogy, The Nose (Linbury, ROH), The Gentle Giant (Clore Studio, ROH).
Sound Designer: Emma Laxton - Read bio

Emma Laxton - Biography

For the Donmar: The Physicists, Making Noise Quietly, The Recruiting Officer.
Theatre: includes The Sacred Flame (ETT), Lady Windermere's Fan (Manchester Royal Exchange), Black T-Shirt Collection (UK tour/NT) Lay Down Your Cross, Blue Heart Afternoon (Hampstead) Invisible (UK tour/Luxemburg), The Westbridge, The Heretic, Off the Endz!, Faces in the Crowd, That Face (also West End), Gone Too Far!, Catch, Scenes from the Back of Beyond, Woman and a Scarecrow, My Name is Rachel Corrie (also West End/New York/Galway Festival/Edinburgh Festival), Terrorism, Food Chain (Royal Court), One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show (Sheffield Theatres/Eclipse), Much Ado About Nothing, Precious Little Talent, Treasure Island (West End), Where’s My Seat?, Like a Fishbone, The Whisky Taster, If There is I Haven’t Found It Yet, 2nd May 1997, Apologia, The Contingency Plan, Wrecks, Broken Space Season, 2,000 Feet Away, Tinderbox (Bush), Charged (Clean Break/Soho), Men Should Weep, Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat (NT), Travels with My Aunt (Theatre Royal, Northampton), Sisters, My Romantic History (also Bush),The Unthinkable (Sheffield Theatres), Ghosts, The Gods Are Not to Blame (Arcola), A Christmas Carol (Chichester Festival), Pornography (Birmingham Rep/Traverse/Tricycle), Europe (Dundee Rep/Barbican Pit), Other Hands (Soho), My Dad’s a Birdman (Young Vic).
Composer: Michael Bruce - Read bio

Michael Bruce - Biography

COMPOSER
Michael is Composer in Residence at the Donmar. He was previously Resident Composer at the Bush Theatre and the recipient of the Notes for the Stage Prize for song writing.
For the Donmar: Berenice, Philadelphia, Here I Come!, The Physicists, The Recruiting Officer.
Theatre: includes 24 Hour Musicals (Old Vic), Straight (Sheffield Theatres/Bush), Relatively Speaking (Theatre Royal Bath/UK tour), Events While Guarding the Bofors Gun (Finborough), Blue Heart Afternoon (Hampstead), Noises Off (Old Vic/Novello), 24 Hour Plays (Old Vic), Sixty-Six Books (Bush), The Piper and Musicians of Bremen (Roundhouse), Much Ado About Nothing (Wyndham’s), Men Should Weep (NT), Ed: The Musical (Edinburgh Fringe/Trafalgar Studios), Michael Bruce at the Apollo (Apollo), The Great British Country Fete (UK tour/Latitude Festival/Bush), Christmas in New York (Lyric/Prince of Wales).
Orchestrations and arrangements: includes Friday Night Is Music Night (BBC Radio 2), Ruthie Henshall in Concert (Guildhall), Helena Blackman: The Sound of Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Movement Director: Ann Yee - Read bio

Ann Yee - Biography

For the Donmar: Berenice, Philadelphia, Here I Come!, The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Novecento (Trafalgar Studios).
Theatre: includes The Country Wife, Sex, Chips & Rock ’n’ Roll (Manchester Royal Exchange), Torch Song Trilogy (Menier Chocolate Factory), The Duchess of Malfi (Old Vic), After Miss Julie (Young Vic), She Stoops to Conquer, The Comedy of Errors (NT), A Soldier in Every Son (RSC), God of Soho (Globe), Orpheus & Eurydice (NYT/Old Vic Tunnels), American Trade, Silence (RSC/Hampstead), King Lear (RSC/Roundhouse/ New York), The Secret Garden, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Birmingham Rep/West Yorkshire Playhouse), Ingerland (Operashots/Royal Opera House), Salome (Headlong/UK tour), Pericles, Much Ado About Nothing (Regent’s Park), Piranha Heights, Shraddha , This Isn’t Romance (Soho), Dance Radio, Mates (Latitude Festival/Drywrite), Eric’s (Liverpool Everyman), Romeo and Juliet (Middle Temple Hall), Oxford Street (Royal Court), Bad Girls the Musical (Garrick), Angels in America (Lyric Hammersmith/UK tour), Bent (Trafalgar Studios), Hair, Big Love (Gate), Woyzeck (New York/Gate), The Odyssey (Lyric Hammersmith/Bristol Old Vic), The Magic Carpet (Lyric Hammersmith), Food (Traverse/UK tour).