Photo Flash: First Look at THE LIGHTNING CHILD at Shakespeare's Globe

THE LIGHTNING CHILD by Ché Walker and Arthur Darvill and directed by Matthew Dunster runs now through 12 October 2013 as Shakespeare's Globe's first-ever musical. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in the photos below!

History, sex, funk, gender schism, politics, repression, addiction, envy, tragedy and more sex collide in a psychedelic, anarchic remix of The Bacchae for the Globe's first musical. Where are we? Everywhere. All at once.

In ancient Thebes - or is it contemporary London? - worshippers gather to join the orgiastic rites honouring Dionysus. Only the disapproving, woman-hating Pentheus seeks to put a stop to the fun. Elsewhere, in this ancient/modern city, the addicts Drax and Shug and the musician Louise and her flatmate Antonia are drawn towards their own forms of retribution.

From the inventive and anarchic team who brought The Frontline to the Globe in 2008 and 2009 comes a modern take on Euripides' The Bacchae, combining crossdressing, drug abuse, internet porn and classical myth, all told with a Shakespearean disregard for the usual conventions of time and place.

The creative team includes designer Paul Wills and choreographer Charlotte Broom. In the cast are: Moyo Akandé as Castor Semenya Sheila Atim as Maenad; Geoff Aymer as Cadmus/Lester Young; Bette Bourne as Teirisias; Jonathan Chambers as Ladyboy Herald; Tommy Coleman as Dionysus; Phil Cumbus as Drax/Shepherd; Harry Hepple as Shug/Neil Armstrong; Jess Murphy as Louisa; Colin Ryan as Soldier; Coral Messam as Maenad; Clifford Samuel as Pentheus; Cat Simmons as Billie Holiday/ Maenad; Clemmie Sveaas as Antonia; Finty Williams as Agave/Sports Doctor.

Photo Credit: Roy Tan

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