Casting Announced for THE VILLAGE at Theatre Royal Stratford East

Theatre Royal Stratford East is pleased to announce the full cast for the world premiere of The Village, a new adaptation by April De Angelis of Lope De Vega's Fuenteovejuna and the first production in Nadia Fall's inaugural season as Artistic Director. The Village stars Anya Chalotra as Jyoti and Art Malik as The Inspector, they will be joined by Harki Bhambra, Sudha Bhuchar, Ameet Chana, Neil D'Souza, Souad Faress, Rina Fatania, Naeem Hayat, Scott Karim, Arian Nik, Humera Syed and Ragevan Vasan. Musicians include Nawazish Ali-Khan (Vocals, violin and harmonium), Robinkumar R Christian (Bansuri) and Keval Joshi (Percussion).

Transported to contemporary India, The Village is a powerful story of community, solidarity and the lengths each of us are willing to go to protect ourselves from tyranny. Vega's masterpiece is given renewed urgency and was previously performed by Joan Littlewood and the Theatre Workshop in 1955.

Village life for Jyoti is simple: the people work hard, sing and live off the earth. She would much rather devour a delicious meal than think about a suitable partner. But when the Inspector and his men arrive back in town, things quickly begin to sour. The Inspector's reign of terror sees him commit unspeakable acts against the village with young Jyoti in his sights, pushing everyone to breaking point. Will she dare scorn his advances?

Artistic Director, Nadia Fall, said: "The Village looks at the true cost of populism, how behind a smiling facade the manipulation and oppression of everyday people is taking place the world over. But there is a line when enough is enough, and what I love about this story is that it's a young woman, an Indian village girl, a so called nobody, that cries out against the brutality and leads the uprising."

To celebrate the opening of the new season and continuing Theatre Royal Stratford East's commitment to accessibility and welcoming new audiences into the building we are pleased to be announcing a new preview ticket initiative. During previews all seats for The Village and The Wolves will be priced at £10 and £5 for Newham residents.