KING JOHN Cast Announced at Rose Theatre Kingston

Rose Theatre Kingston today announces cast for King John. Trevor Nunn returns to the Rose to direct Jamie Ballard as King John, Howard Charles as Philip the Bastard, Lisa Dillon as Constance and Maggie Steed as Queen Eleanor.

The cast is completed by Ignatius Anthony (Austria/Bigot), Joe Bannister (Lewis The Dauphin), Burt Caesar (Pandolph), Tom Chapman (Robert Faulconbridge/Prince Henry), Elisabeth Hopper (Blanche), Stephen Kennedy (Hubert), Dominic Mafham (Salisbury), Chris Andrew Mellon (Citizen), Dale Rapley (Philip Of France) Miles Richardson (Pembroke), Carmen Rodriguez (Lady Faulconbridge), David Shelley (Chatillion/ Melun), Jon Tarcy (Messenger/Monk), Harry Marcus and Sebastian Croft (Prince Arthur). The production marks Shakespeare's 400th anniversary and will be the penultimate play in Nunn's undertaking to direct all 37 of Shakespeare's plays. King John opens on 18 May at Rose Theatre Kingston, with previews from 13 May, until 5 June 2016.

Richard the Lionheart is dead. His youngest brother John has become King of England despite claims from the French that the throne should go to his nephew, Prince Arthur. As war is declared between England and France an inheritance dispute is brought before the King by Richard's illegitimate son, Philip the Bastard.

With scheming, ruthless politics and some of Shakespeare's most striking characters - this is a classic that feels contemporary in its strong parallels to modern day Britain. A unique opportunity to see this rarely performed history play brought to life on the stage.

Howard Charles plays Philip the Bastard. His theatre credits include Blackta (Young Vic), Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice (RSC), Enron (Headlong, Royal Court, Chichester Festival Theatre, West End), Painting a Wall (Finborough Theatre), The Hounding of David Olawale (West Yorkshire Playhouse & tour), Three Sisters (Royal Exchange Theatre). His television credits include The Musketeers, Switch, The Warm Up Guy, Candy Chops, Beautiful People. His film credits include &Me, Sound, Black Forest, Standing By, Panik.

Jamie Ballard plays King John. His theatre credits include The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure, Written on the Heart, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, King John, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Sweet Charity (RSC), In the Vale of Health (Hampstead Theatre), Macbeth (Trafalgar Studios), Scenes from an Execution, Antigone, Emperor and Galilean, Some Trace of Her, War Horse, Saint Joan (National Theatre) and All's Well That Ends Well (Young Vic). Television credits include Penny Dreadful, Ripper Street, The Hollow Crown, Sons of Liberty, Father Brown, The Crimson Field and The Great Fire. Film credits include Suffragette, X & Y, Kittiwakes, A Poet in New York, The Comedian and Black Death.

Lisa Dillon plays Constance. Her theatre credits include Hapgood (Hampstead Theatre), The Roaring Girl, The Taming of the Shrew, Othello, Iphigenia (RSC), Birthday, Design for Living, Private Lives (Royal Court), Happy New (Trafalgar Studios), A Flea in her Ear, When the Rain Stops Falling, The Hour we Knew Nothing of Each Other, Period of Adjustment, Hedda Gabler (Almeida), Present Laughter (National Theatre), The Cherry Orchard, As You Like It (Sheffield Crucible) and The Master Builder (Albery Theatre). Television credits include Lucky Man, Black Work, Cambridge Spies, Hawking, Cranford, Midsomer Murders, Dirk Gently and The Jury. Film credits include Suffragette, The Beat Beneath My Feet and Bright Young Things.

Maggie Steed plays Queen Eleanor. Her theatre credits include Richard III (Trafalgar Studios), Birthday Party (Royal Exchange Theatre), Trelawney of the Wells (Donmar Warehouse), School for Scandal Uncle Vanya, Waltz of the Toreadors (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Belle's Stratagem (Southwark Playhouse), 24 Hour Plays / Big Bird (The Old Vic), Hayfever (West Yorkshire Playhouse), The History Boys (National Theatre/Tour), The Heiress (National Theatre/Tour), The Storm (Almeida Theatre), Cloud Nine, Women Beware Women (Royal Court), Small Change, Whale, Game of Love & Chance (National Theatre), The War Plays, Crimes in Hot Countries, The Comedy of Errors, Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing (RSC). Television credits include Chewing Gum, Stella, 32 Brinkburn Street, Whites, My Family, Larkrise to Candleford, Coco Chanel, Jam & Jerusalem, Sensitive Skin, French & Saunders, Meat Extract, Let Them Eat Cake, French & Saunders, Inspector Morse, Pie in the Sky, Martin Chuzzlewit, The Scott Enquiry, Shine on Harvey Moon, The History Man, Clapperclaw, Brideshead Revisited, Hard Cases, All Change, Blood Rights, Lovejoy, Gravy Train, Growing Rich, Little Richard Wrecked my Marriage and Red Dwarf.

From 1968 to 1986, Trevor Nunn was the youngest ever Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, directing over thirty productions, including most of the Shakespeare canon, as well as Nicholas Nickleby and LES MISERABLES. From 1997 to 2003, he was Director of the National Theatre, where his productions included Troilus and Cressida, Oklahoma!, The Merchant of Venice, Summerfolk, My Fair Lady, A Streetcar Named Desire, Anything Goes and Love's Labour's Lost. He has directed the world premieres of Tom Stoppard's plays Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia and Rock n Roll, and of Cats, Sunset Boulevard, Starlight Express and Aspects of Love by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Other theatre includes Timon of Athens, Skellig (Young Vic); The Lady From The Sea (Almeida); Hamlet, Richard II, Inherit the Wind (Old Vic), A Little Night Music (Menier Chocolate Factory & New York), Cyrano de Bergerac, Kiss Me Kate (Chichester Festival Theatre); Heartbreak House, Flare Path, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Tempest (Theatre Royal, Haymarket); Scenes from a Marriage (Coventry & St James), All That Fall (Jermyn Street & New York); A Chorus of Disapproval and Relative Values (West End). He is soon to direct Pericles in Brooklyn (Theatre for a New Audience). Work for television includes Antony and Cleopatra, The Comedy of Errors, Macbeth, Three Sisters, Othello, The Merchant of Venice and King Lear, and on film, Hedda, Lady Jane and Twelfth Night.