Cast and Creative Team Set for TWELFTH NIGHT at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre has revealed the full cast for Twelfth Night or What You Will, Shakespeare’s comedy of mistaken identities directed by Owen Horsley and set against the heat of the Mediterranean sun. The production runs 3 May – 8 June 2024.

Horsley will direct Raphael Bushay (Orsino), Richard Cant (Malvolio), Sally Cheng (Querelle), Andro Cowperthwaite (Sebastian), Anna Francolini (Olivia), Nicholas Karami (Antonio/Captain), Julie Legrand (Feste), Michael Matus (Toby Belch), Evelyn Miller (Viola), Anita Reynolds (Maria), Matthew Spencer (Andrew Aguecheek), Katherine Toy (Valentine/Priest), Jon Trenchard (Fabian/Musical Director), and Harry Waller (Curio/Officer).

The production marks the first production of Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s summer season, and features new original songs in addition to the numerous songs in the text of Twelfth Night or What You Will.  

Basia Binkowska (Set Designer); Rachel Bown-Williams and Ruth Cooper-Brown for Rc-Annie (Fight and Intimacy Directors); Ryan Dawson Laight (Costume Designer); Kate Godfrey (Voice and Text Director); James Hassett Associate Sound Designer); Daniel Hay-Gordon ( Movement Director); Lotte Hines (Casting Director); Cory Hippolyte (Associate Director); Owen Horsley (Director); Sam Kenyon (Composer & Musical Supervisor); Aideen Malone (Lighting Designer); Max Pappenheim (Sound Designer)

‘What country, friends, is this?’

At a moonlit cafe surrounded by the sea, Olivia sings a lament to her lost brother, watched on by faded crowd.

When a shipwreck catapults Viola into their world of abandoned festivities, a web of disguise and deception begins. This new injection of life rocks this melancholic community to the core, but can she finally shake them from their languor and get the party started again? 

Set against the heat of the Mediterranean sun, Shakespeare’s comedy of mistaken identities is a glorious celebration of love. Directed by Owen Horsley (Henry VI: Rebellion, Wars of the Roses, Royal Shakespeare Company) in a marriage of happiness, nostalgia and riotous partying.

 

CAST

Raphael Bushay, Orsino

For Regent’s Park: Peter Pan and Henry V 

Theatre includes: The Crucible (National Theatre and West End); Oklahoma! (Young Vic and West End); Don Quixote (RSC); Red Riding Hood (Theatre Royal Stratford East); The Tempest and Henry V (Shakespeare’s Rose); Queen of Chapeltown (West Yorkshire Playhouse); As You Like It (Lamb Players); Fantastic Mr Fox (UK and UAE tour); and Kampala (Arcola). 

Television includes: Holby City. 

Richard Cant, Malvolio

Theatre includes: What It Means (The Lot at Wilton’s); The Vortex (Chichester); Orlando (Garrick); The Normal Heart (National); Handbagged/ Wife (Kiln); After Edward (Sam Wanamaker); Henry Sixth Rebellion/Maydays (RSC); Stella (LIFT); Medea (Almeida); Saint Joan/My Night With Reg (Donmar); Salome (Headlong); Cymbeline; As You Like It (Cheek by Jowl); Other People (Royal Court)

Television includes: It’s A Sin; The Crown; Taboo; Mapp & Lucia; Bleak House; Gunpowder, Treason & Plot; The Way We Live Now; Midsomer Murders.

Film includes: Stan & Ollie, Mary Queen Of Scots.

Sally Cheng, Querelle

Theatre includes: The Wizard of Oz (The Watermill Theatre); Tony! The Rock Opera (London and UK Tour); Richard II (GSC); A Christmas Carol (RSC); The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13, 3/4 The Musical (Queen’s, Hornchurch); The Play that Goes Wrong (West End); A Christmas Carol, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Scoot Theatre); The Wind in the Willows (Jermyn Street/GSC); The Last of the Pelican Daughters (The Wardrobe Ensemble/ Complicite/Bristol Old Vic); A Christmas Carol, The Emperor and the Nightingale (Theatre by the Lake); For Services Rendered (Jermyn Street); Shadowlands (Chichester Festival Theatre); A Christmas Carol(RSC); Macbeth (Watermill Theatre); Twelfth Night (RSC); Love’s Labour’s Lost, Robin Hood (Guildford Shakespeare Company); Footprints on the Moon (Finborough Theatre); Singin’ in the Rain (Bolton Octagon/ Salisbury Playhouse/New Vic Theatre). 

Andro Cowperthwaite, Sebastian

Theatre includes: Dead Hot (Quay Street Productions); Thong for Europe (Royal Court Liverpool); Incompleteness Theorum (Soho Theatre); Dorian (Reading Rep); Lion Witch and Wardrobe (Bridge Theatre); Salome, Dido: Queen of Carthage (RSC).

Film and Television includes: Cold Blow Lane (Feature); The Agency (Short); Caterpillar (Short film); Lord Of The Rings; Rings of Power (Amazon Prime TV Series);Red, White and Royal Blue (Amazon Prime Feature).

Andro was previously a member of Brit Award Winning music collective JUNGLE. Now a solo artist with two independent released EPs, with support from BBC Sounds, BBC Music Introducing Featured Artist, CLASH and Wonderland magazines and more.  

Anna Francolini, Olivia

Theatre includes: Tom Fool (Orange Tree); Strictly Ballroom (Piccadilly Theatre); Peter Pan (National Theatre), Wonder.land (National Theatre & Theatre Du Chatelet), Assassins (Menier Chocolate Factory); Our Town (Almeida Theatre); That Day We Sang, A View From The Bridge (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Mare Rider, How The World Began, Anatol (Arcola Theatre); Victor/Victoria (Southwark Playhouse); Onassis, Daisy Pulls It Off, Mahler's Conversion (West End); Taking Steps (Orange Tree Theatre); The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Royal & Derngate Theatre, Northampton/ Edinburgh); Awaking Beauty (Stephen Joseph Theatre); Wolves at the Window (Arcola/59E59 New York); Three Sisters on Hope Street, In The Club (Hampstead Theatre); Into The Woods (Royal Opera House); Caroline, Or Change (National Theatre); Six Pictures of Lee Miller (Minerva Theatre, Chichester); Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight (Soho Theatre); The Ballad of Little Jo, Floyd Collins, Saturday Night (Bridewell Theatre); Merrily We Roll Along, Company (Donmar Warehouse),  Oliver (Palladium); Godspell (National Tour).

Television includes: House of the Dragon (HBO); Sex Education S4 (Netflix); Call The Midwife (BBC); Surface (Apple); Too Much (Netflix); The Diplomat (Netflix); The Ipcress Files (ITV); The Man Who Fell to Earth (Showtime); Roadkill (BBC); Homeland (Showtime); Vera (ITV); New Tricks (ITV); Pixelface (BBC);  Rome (HBO); Jonathan Creek (BBC). 

Film includes: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny; Emma; Solo, a Star Wars Story; Gun Shy; The Kill Team; The Christmas Candle; Topsy Turvy. 

Anna won the TMA Award for Best Performance in a Play for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and received an Olivier Award nomination for her role in Caroline, Or Change. She has also worked extensively in radio drama. 

Nicholas Karami, Antonio/Captain

Trained at Rose Bruford College.

For Regents Park: A Tale of Two Cities

Theatre includes: Arabian Nights (Bristol Old Vic); Henry VI (parts 2&3); RSC, Adventures with the Painted People (Pitlochry Festival Theatre); The Twilight Zone (West End); A View from the Bridge (Theatre Royal York and Royal and Derngate Theatres, Northampton); The Comedy of Errors (Royal Shakespeare Company); Macbeth, An Oak Tree, Everyman, War Horse (National Theatre and West End); The Arabian Nights (Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh); The Kite Runner (West End, Nottingham Playhouse and Liverpool Playhouse); Any Means Necessary (Nottingham Playhouse); Lardo (Old Red Lion Theatre); The Hairy Ape (The Old Vic);Titus Andronicus (Shakespeare’s Globe); Damascus Aleppo (National Theatre of Scotland at Òran Mór, Glasgow, and Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh); Game of Life (The Yard); The Double (Theatre Royal Bath); I Was A Beautiful Day, Outward Bound and The Fear of Breathing (Finborough Theatre); The Pearl Fisher and Nova Scotia (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh); Mother Courage (Benchtours); The Dead Fiddler (New End Theatre, Hampstead).

Film includes: Saving Christmas Spirit; Medusa Deluxe (EMU/BFI).

Television includes: The Witcher (Netflix); You Don’t Know Me (BBC/Netflix); Surface (Apple TV)

Radio includes: Welcome To Iran (BBC Radio 3).

Julie Legrand, Feste

For Regent’s Park: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Importance of Being Earnest.

Theatre includes: An American in Paris (The Dominion); Gypsy, Fiddler on the Roof (The Savoy); Wicked (The Apollo, Victoria); My Fair Lady (Naples Opera House); Romeo and Juliet, Cymbeline, The Revengers Tragedy, Oedipus, Beauty and the Beast (all for The Royal Shakespeare Theatre); The Duchess of Malfi, The Cherry Orchard, Remembrance of Things Past, Way Upstream, Don Quixote (all for The National Theatre); Arcadia (The Haymarket); See How They Run (The Duchess); The House of Bernarda Alba (The Gielgud).

TV includes: Ludwig; Romantic Getaway; Doctor Who; Call The Midwife; Footballers’ Wives.

Films include: One For The Road; Prick Up Your Ears.

Michael Matus, Toby Belch

Training: RADA.

For Regent’s Park: The Sound of Music.

Theatre includes: 42nd Street (Crossroads Live); Aspects of Love (Lyric Theatre); HEX (National Theatre); Singing in the Rain (UK Tour); La Cage aux Folles (Park Theatre); King Lear (West End); Richard III (Headlong); Broken Glass (Watford Palace); The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s Theatre); The Return of the Soldier (Jermyn Street Theatre); The Baker’s Wife (The Union); Lend Me a Tenor (West End); ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore (West Yorkshire Playhouse); A Christmas Carol (West End); Oklahoma! (Chichester); The Canterbury Tales and Eastward Ho! (RSC in the West End); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Timon of Athens (Globe); Rough Crossings (Headlong); Imagine This (New London); The Comedy of Errors and The Wizard of Oz (Sheffield Crucible); Martin Guerre (West End).

Television includes: Suspect (Disney+ / ITV); The Lazarus Project (Sky); Endeavour (ITV);  The Split (ITV); Shakespeare and Hathaway: Private Investigators(BBC); EastEnders (BBC); Invasion (Apple TV); Marilyn Monroe (Netflix).

Film includes: The Crying Game;  A Muppet Christmas Carol.

Michael has been nominated for a TMA Award, a WhatsOnStage Award, a Helen Hayes Award, a BroadwayWorld Award and an Off West End Award, and jointly won an Olivier for Best Acting Ensemble with RSC.

Evelyn Miller, Viola

Theatre includes: Patriots (Noel Coward Theatre); Cyrano de Bergerac (Harold Pinter Theatre / BAM, New York); Deep Night, Dark Night (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse); The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, Comedy of Errors, Pericles (Shakespeare’s Globe); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Sheffield Crucible); Jane Eyre (National Theatre, UK Tour); Richard II, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, Henry V, The Famous Victories of Henry V (RSC); Swallows and Amazons (Bristol Old Vic); Peer Gynt (Barbican); Romeo and Juliet (Orange Tree Theatre); The Little Prince (Royal Opera House).

Television includes: The Lovers (Drama Republic/Sky); Foundation (Apple TV), Flowers in The Attic – The Origin (A&E Studios/CBS); Doctors (BBC); Holby City (BBC).

Anita Reynolds, Maria

Theatre includes: Romeo & Julie (NT/Sherman); The Importance of Being Earnest (ETT) A Monster Calls (Old Vic/UK/US Tour); The Merry Wives of Windsor/Bartholomew Fair (Shakespeare's Globe); Ear For Eye (Royal Court); Absolute Hell (National Theatre); Hang (The Other Room); The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (Sherman Theatre); Arabian Nights (Sherman Theatre); Horrible Histories (Sherman Theatre); Speechless (Shared Experience); Romeo and Juliet (Sherman Theatre); Measure for Measure (Sherman Theatre); The Move (Made in Wales); Carers (Turning Point); Cinderella (Unicorn Theatre); Forbidden Fruit(Nottingham); Wishful Thinking (Hijinx); Dealing with Feelings (London Theatre); How High is Up (Theatre Centre); Mirror Mirror (Theatre Centre).

Television includes: The One That Got Away; Mother's Day; The Light In the Hall; Somewhere Boy; The Pembrokeshre Murders; In My Skin; Relik; Keping Faith;Casualty; Stella; Holby City; Gwaith Cartef; Talking to the Dead; Being Human; Caerdydd; Belonging; Dau Dy A Ni; Nice Day for a Welsh Wedding; Doctors; The Story of Tracy Beaker;  Does;  Bay College; Nuts and Bolts; Pobol Y Cwm; The Bench; The Hull Project.

Film includes: Grappling; G Flat; Wild Geese; I Used To Be Famous; Telling Tales; Sweet 16; Rain; Paradise Grove.

Radio includes: The Garden Centre; Station Road.

Matthew Spencer, Andrew Aguecheek

Matthew trained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and he has worked extensively throughout Theatre and Screen. His credits include:

Theatre includes: The White Factory (Marylebone Theatre); The Woman in Black (West End, Fortune Theatre); Animal Farm (Birmingham Rep); Amadeus (National Theatre); 1984 (Playhouse Theatre and  International Tour); This Happy Breed (Theatre Royal, Bath); The Invisible Man(Queen’s Theatre); Macbeth (Orange Tree Theatre); Sleuth (Watermill Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (Headlong); The Busy Body (Southwark Playhouse); Tartuffe (Watermill Theatre and Tour); War Horse (National Theatre).

Television includes: Trying (BBC studios/Apple TV); The Girlfriend Experience (Amazon Prime).

Film includes: Magpie (55 films); The Man You’re Not (FMW Films); Alice (Ruby Films/Film 4); The Runner (Emperor’s New).

Katherine Toy, Valentine/Priest

Theatre includes: The Borrowers (Theatre by the Lake, Keswick); The Man in the White Suit (Wyndhams and Bath); Much Ado about Nothing (Rose Theatre, Kingston); Coriolanus, Vice Versa, Salome (RSC); As You Like it, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Stig of the Dump (Storyhouse Chester); The Snow Queen (New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme); Cinderella (Derby Theatre); Brief Encounter (Torch Theatre, Milford Haven); Merlin (Theatre Royal, Northampton); The Goodenoughmumsclub (UK tour); Suitcase 1938 (Hope Street Productions); 3Witches (Hoopla and Belgrade Theatre, Coventry); Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cyrano de Bergerac (Grosvenor Park, Chester); The Prince and the Pauper (Unicorn Theatre); Treasure Island (Watermill Theatre, Newbury); Caucasian Chalk Circle (Shared Experience); Macbeth (Southwark Playhouse); Pool Piece (Oily Cart); Life of Galileo, Cyrano de Bergerac, The False Servant (National Theatre); Wild Orchids(Chichester Festival Theatre).

Music includes: The Virtuosos; Nicetoy; Ideal Condition tour with Paul Hartnoll; The Shtetl Superstars; Table for Sinners; The Johnson Famiy and Anna 254 and the Gardenists.

Jon Trenchard, Fabian/Musical Director

Training: London Academy of Performing Arts

Theatre includes: The Comedy About A Bank Robbery (Mischief Theatre); Vice Versa, Salome, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC); Two Noble Kinsmen (Shakespeare’s Globe); She Stoops To Conquer, A Government Inspector (Northern Broadsides); The Bolds, Baddies The Musical (Unicorn Theatre); Fiddler On The Roof (Music & Lyrics); Swallows & Amazons, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bristol Old Vic); Oh What A Lovely War! (Northern Stage); Sunset Boulevard, Mack & Mabel (The Watermill Theatre); The Taming Of The Shrew, Twelfth Night, The Merchant Of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Comedy of Errors, Richard III (Propeller).

TV/Film includes: The Da Vinci Code, My Family.

Harry Waller, Curio/Officer

Theatre includes: Oliver! (Leeds Playhouse); Love’s Labour’s Lost, Much Ado About Nothing (RSC/West End); The Christmas Truce, Wendy & Peter Pan (RSC); Puffs (New World Stages, Off-Broadway); America is Hard to See (Life Jacket Theatre, NYC/Underbelly, Edinburgh); King Lear (Shakespeare Forum, NYC); The Way of the World, Hobson’s Choice (Sheffield Crucible); Miss Nightingale (New Wolsey Theatre & tour); Parkway Dreams, The Brontës of Dunwich Heath & Cliff (Eastern Angles); The History Boys (West Yorkshire Playhouse & UK tour); Sondheim’s Saturday Night (Jermyn Street Theatre/Arts Theatre). 

Harry is a Co-Founder of Bard City, with Owen Horsley. Alongside running Shakespeare workshops there, he has composed music for several Shakespeare in a Week projects. 

Voiceover credits include: Talking Bulldog (Bulldog Skincare USA "Goodest Man" commercials).

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