Ronke Adekoluejo, James Northcote & More to Lead PRIDE & PREJUDICE at Sheffield Theatres

Artistic Director Daniel Evans today announces the cast for Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, dramatised by Simon Reade. Tamara Harvey directs Ronke Adekoluejo (Jane Bennet), Leona Allen (Kitty Bennet), Matthew Aubrey (Mr Collins), Michele Austin (Mrs Bennet), Adam Buchanan (Mr Bingley), Grace Chilton (Mary Bennet), Nell Hudson (Lydia Bennet), Isabella Laughland (Elizabeth Bennet), Emma McDonald (Georgiana Darcy),Abigail McKern (Lady Catherine de Bourgh), James Northcote (Mr Darcy), Sam Parks (Sir William Lucas / Mr Reynolds), Royce Pierreson (Mr Wickham), Corinna Powlesland (Mrs Gardiner), Ruby Thomas (Caroline Bingley), Howard Ward (Mr Bennet) and Eleanor Yates (Charlotte Lucas). They will be joined by members of the Sheffield Peoples' Theatre to complete the company.

Daniel Evans said today, "Tamara Harvey has assembled a strong and diverse cast to take on Jane Austen's most famous novel. This production continues our commitment to redress the gender balance in our programmed work. In Pride & Prejudice, Austen wittily comments on her own society and I'm thrilled that our production will celebrate Austen's work whilst reflecting our own community."

Elizabeth Bennet is quick witted, intelligent and idealistic. In a society bound by class and wealth, she longs to break free from expectation and marry for love, not for financial convenience.

When a wealthy young bachelor and his society friends arrive in the village, her world is turned upside down. Whilst her sister appears to make an instant match, Lizzie's happiness seems out of reach.

Can she find love or will her own prejudices get in the way?

Jane Austen's beloved story is filled with wit and passion - a perfect escape for summer.

Simon Reade's work for the Royal Shakespeare Company includes Epitaph for the Official Secrets Act, Tales from Ovid, Midnight's Children; for Bristol Old Vic, Private Peaceful, The Mozart Question, The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark, Aladdin & The Enchanted Lamp, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Not the End of the World. His other work includes Twist of Gold (Polka), Toro! Toro! (Salisbury Playhouse), Strindberg's Apartment (The Faction) and The Scarecrow & His Servant (Southwark Playhouse). He directed and co-wrote the screenplay for Filter Theatre's What You Will and wrote the critically acclaimed screenplay of Private Peaceful. His books include Dear Mr Shakespeare: Letters to a Jobbing Playwright.

Ronke Adekoluejo plays Jane Bennet. Her theatre work includes The House That Will Not Stand, The Colby Sisters (Tricycle Theatre), Anon (Welsh National Opera) and Random (Crooked Path). For television, her work includes Suspects; and for film, Nothing Like This.

Michele Austin plays Mrs Bennet. Her theatre work includes The House that Will Not Stand, The Riots (Tricycle Theatre), I Know How I Feel About Eve, Out in the Open (Hampstead Theatre), To Kill a Mockingbird (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre), Sixty-Six Books (Bush Theatre), Generations (Young Vic),Breath Boom, Been So Long (Royal Court) and Our Country's Good (Out of Joint/Young Vic). For television, her work includes Casual Vacancy, Death in Paradise, Harry & Paul, Secret Life, The Canterbury Tales and Gimme Gimme; and for film, Parking Wars, Another Year, The Infidel, Valentine's Day, All or Nothing and Secrets and Lies.

Isabella Laughland plays Elizabeth Bennet. Her theatre work includes King Lear (Chichester Festival Theatre / BAM, New York), The Same Deep Water as Me (Donmar Warehouse), Hard Feelings (Finborough Theatre), The Last of the Haussmans, Greenland (National Theatre) and Wanderlust (Royal Court). For television her work includes In Deep, Coming Up, Black Mirror, The Hollow Crown: Richard II and The Inbetweeners; and for film, Urban Hymn, Now is Good, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

Abigail McKern returns to Sheffield Theatres to play Lady Catherine de Bourgh. She previously appeared in True West and Suddenly Last Summer (also Albery Theatre). Her other theatre work includes The Importance of Being Ernest, Travesties (Birmingham Rep), Bus Stop (New Victoria Theatre),Lingua Franca (Finborough/New York), La Cage Aux Folles (West End), The Winslow Boy, Relative Values (Salisbury Playhouse), and Nicholas Nickleby(Gielgud/West End/Canada), Death of a Salesman, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (Lyric, West End). For television, her credits include Life Begins, Swallow,Nicholas Nickleby, Psychos, A Respectable Trade, Daphne and Apollo, Pie In The Sky, Talking To Strange Men, Harnessing Peacocks, Rumpole of the Bailey, Medics, Twelfth Night, Wish Me Luck, The Charmer, Raspberry Ripple, Ladies Night, Angels and Fame Is The Spur.

James Northcote returns to Sheffield Theatres to play Mr Darcy. He previously appeared in Translations as part of The Brian Friel Season. His other theatre credits include Lizzie Siddal (Arcola Theatre), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Changeling (Southwark Playhouse) and Sixty-Six Books (Bush Theatre). For television, his work includes Life in Squares, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Endeavour and Silk; and for film, Patient Zero, The Imitation Game, Nymphomaniac, Belle, Anna Karenina and Wuthering Heights.

Howard Ward plays Mr Bennet. His theatre work includes Jack and the Beanstalk (Lyric Hammersmith), for the National Theatre - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (also Apollo Theatre), London Road, War Horse (also New London Theatre); The Changeling (Young Vic), A Walk on Part(Soho Theatre), Wanderlust (Royal Court), and Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing (RSC). For television, his work include Lady Chatterley's Lover, Downton Abbey, Hidden, Parade's End, The Government Inspector and Absolute Power; and for film, London Road, The Broken and Cash Back.

Tamara Harvey directs. Her credits include Breeders (St. James Theatre), In The Vale of Health - a cycle of four plays by Simon Gray, Hello/Goodbyeand Blue Heart Afternoon (Hampstead Theatre), From Here To Eternity (Shaftesbury Theatre), The Kitchen Sink, Sixty-Six Books, Where's My Seat?, The Contingency Plan and tHe dYsFUnCKshOnalZ! (Bush Theatre), bash (Trafalgar Studios), Where the Mangrove Grows (Theatre503), Who's the Daddy?(King's Head), Plague Over England (Finborough Theatre, Duchess Theatre), Whipping It Up (New Ambassadors), One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest(Gielgud Theatre / Garrick Theatre), Dancing at Lughnasa (Birmingham Rep), Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare's Globe), Bedroom Farce (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Closer (Theatre Royal, Northampton) and Something Cloudy, Something Clear (Finborough Theatre). She directed the Shakespeare scenes that form an integral part of Anonymous, the feature film by Roland Emmerich; has twice been on the panel of the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright, is a Trustee of the Peggy Ramsay Foundation and a selector for the National Student Drama Festival.

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