Full Cast Announced for WOMEN, BEWARE THE DEVIL at the Almeida Theatre

Almeida Artistic Director, Rupert Goold (Tammy Faye, Patriots), directs this deadly new play of treachery and trickery by The Sunday Times Playwriting Award-winner Lulu Raczka (Antigone, Nothing).

The production will run Saturday 11 February - Saturday 25 March 2023.

Full casting includes Leo Bill (The Duchess of Malfi; Posh), Carly-Sophia Davies (Spring Awakening; The Eternal Daughter), Aurora Dawson-Hunte (Queens; Cherry Orchard) Ioanna Kimbook (The Duchess of Malfi; Bitter Wheat), Nathan Laryea (Spring Awakening; Tartuffe), Lydia Leonard (Little Eyolf; Wolf Hall), Alison Oliver (Best Interest; Conversations with Friends) and Lola Shalam, who is making her professional debut.

A war is brewing. Rumours are flying. A household is in crisis.

...and the Devil's having some fun.

For Lady Elizabeth nothing is more important than protecting her family's legacy and their ancestral home. When that comes under threat, she elicits the help of Agnes, a young servant suspected of witchcraft.

But Agnes has dark dreams of her own for this house.

Women, Beware the Devil is directed by Rupert Goold. Set design is by Miriam Buether and costume design by Evie Gurney, with lighting design by Tim Lutkin. Adam Cork is both sound designer and composer, and casting director is Amy Ball.

The Genesis Foundation Kickstart Fund has supported Lulu Raczka on the development of Women, Beware the Devil.

Lulu Raczka

is an award-winning writer for theatre, screen and radio. She started writing with the company Barrel Organ (Nothing, Some People Talk About Violence), and has since written for Unicorn Theatre (Gulliver's Travels), Gate Theatre (Clytemnestra), New Diorama Theatre (Antigone, A Girl in School Uniform) and Theatre503 (Grey Man), and her work has been performed at Leeds Playhouse, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester and Soho Theatre. In 2019 she won the Imison Award for her radio play Of a Lifetime. For television she has written an episode of the second season of Medici: Masters of Florence, with RAI and Netflix, and is developing work with Expanded Media, Drama Republic and Intaglio Films.

Rupert Goold

is Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre where he has previously directed Tammy Faye, Patriots (transfers to West End in May 2023), Spring Awakening, The Hunt, Shipwreck, Albion (broadcast on BBC Four), Ink (also West End and Broadway), Richard III (broadcast live to cinemas around the world), Medea, The Merchant of Venice, King Charles III (West End, Broadway, UK and international tour) and American Psycho (also Broadway). He was Artistic Director of Headlong from 2005 until 2013 where his work included The Effect, ENRON, Earthquakes in London and Decade. He has twice been the recipient of the Olivier, Critics' Circle and Evening Standard Awards for Best Director. He was Associate Director at the Royal Shakespeare Company from 2009 to 2012 and was Artistic Director of Northampton Theatres from 2002 to 2005. His feature film work includes Judy and True Story, and his other work on film includes the BAFTA nominated Richard II, part of The Hollow Crown, Macbeth for the BBC and Mike Bartlett's King Charles III for BBC Two. He was awarded a CBE for services to drama in 2017.

Leo Bill

Leo Bill's theatre credits include: The Duchess of Malfi; The Tragedy of King Richard the Second (Almeida Theatre); Mephisto [A Rhapsody]; Dear Elizabeth (Gate Theatre); Curtains (Rose Theatre Kingston); A Midsummer Night's Dream; The Glass Menagerie (Young Vic); Hamlet; School for Scandal (Barbican); Light Shining in Buckinghamshire; A Woman Killed with Kindness (National Theatre); Secret Theatre (Lyric Hammersmith); The Silence of the Sea (Donmar Warehouse); Posh (Royal Court/ West End).

His screen credits include: Flux Gourmet (Bankside Films); Cruella (Disney); Rare Beasts (Western Edge Pictures); Peterloo (Film4); In Fabric (A24); Alice through the Looking Glass (Disney); Mr Turner (Film4); A Long Way Down (Magnolia Pictures); The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Columbia Pictures); Kinky Boots (BBC Fikms); Vera Drake (Thin Man Films); 28 Days Later (DNA Film); Gosford Park (US Films); Funny Woman (Potboiler Television); Becoming Elizabeth (The Forge); War of the Worlds (AGC Television); The Long Song (Hayday Television); Strike (Brontë Film and Television); Taboo (Hardy Son & Baker); The White Queen (Company Pictures); Pramface (Little Comet); The Borgias (Myriad Pictures); Words of Captain Scott (ITV); Doctor Who (BBC); Home Time (BBC); Ashes to Ashes (BBC); Lead Balloon (BBC); Sense and Sensibility (BBC); Jekyll (Hartswood Films); Bash (BBC); A Very Social Secretary (Channel 4); Silent Witness (BBC); Messiah III (BBC); Beethoven's Eroica (BBC); Canterbury Tales (Ziji Films); Spooks (BBC); Midsomer Murders (ITV); Surrealismo (BBC); Attachments II (BBC); Crime and Punishment (BBC).

Carly-Sophia Davies

Carly-Sophia Davies's theatre credits include: Spring Awakening (Almeida Theatre); Pavilion (Theatr Clwyd). Her screen credits include: The Eternal Daughter (A24); Arwel's House (BBC); Midsomer Murders (ITV).

Aurora Dawson-Hunte

Aurora Dawson-Hunte's theatre credits include: The Mirror and the Light (RSC); Property (All Ignite Theatre); The Government Inspector (Bridewell Theatre/ Edinburgh Fringe); Cherry Orchard; Chekhov's Baby (OUDS); The Proposal; The Bear (Yaroslavl'State Demidov).

Her screen credits include: Morning song (Film Four); October Faction (Netflix); The Stranger (Netflix); There She Goes (BBC); Sex Education (Netflix).

Ioanna Kimbook's theatre credits include: "Daddy" A Melodrama; The Duchess of Malfi (Almeida Theatre); Bitter Wheat (West End); Much Ado About Nothing (National Theatre).

Her screen credits include: Inside No. 9 (BBC); Flatmates (Zodiak Kids Studio); Wedding Season (Samosa Stories).

Nathan Laryea

Nathan Laryea's theatre credits include: Spring Awakening (Almeida Theatre); Hamlet; Faith, Hope and Charity; Tartuffe (National Theatre); The 306 Dawn (National Theatre of Scotland); Her Naked Skin (Salisbury Playhouse); Romeo and Juliet (Exeter Northcott Theatre); Vernon God Little (The Space); Homo Sacer (The Old Vic 12).

His screen credits include: In Darkness (Vertical Entertainment); The Witcher (Netflix); Doctors (BBC) and Doctor Who (BBC).

Lydia Leonard

Lydia Leonard's theatre credits include: Little Eyolf (Almeida Theatre); The Meeting (Chichester Festival Theatre); Oslo (National Theatre/ West End); Wolf Hall (RSC/ Winter Garden Theatre, NYC, Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play); Onassis (West End); Time and the Conways (National Theatre); Let There Be Love (Tricycle Theatre); Frost/Nixon (Donmar Warehouse/ West End); Hecuba (RSC).

Her screen credits includes: Northern Comfort (Good Chaos); Last Christmas (Feigco Entertainment); The Fifth Estate (Dreamworks); The Big Picture (Aspen Film Society); Born of War (Vicky Jewson); Legendary (WWE Studios); Archipelago (Wild Horses Film Company); True True Lie (Castel Film Romania); The Crown (Netflix); Ten Percent (Bron Studios); Gentleman Jack (ITV); Quacks (BBC); Absentia (Masha Productions); Apple Tree Yard (Kudos Film); Life in Squares (EcosseFilms); River (Kudos); Lucan (ITV); Ambassadors (Bursa); Da Vinci's Demons (Phantom Four Films); Whitechapel (ITV); Law & Order (Kudos Film and Television); Spooks (BBC); Casualty 1909 (Stone City Films); The 39 Steps (BBC); Ashes to Ashes (BBC); Margaret Thatcher (Great Meadow Productions); Casualty 1907 (Stone City Films); A Line of Beauty (BBC); Jericho (CBS); Rome (BBC); Foyle's War (Greenlit Productions); Midsomer Murders (ITV).

Alison Oliver

Alison Oliver will be making her professional stage debut in Women, Beware the Devil. Her screen credits include: Best Interest (Chapter One); Conversations With Friends (Element Pictures). Lola Shalam will make her professional stage debut in Women, Beware the Devil.

ABOUT THE ALMEIDA

Since 2013, the Almeida has been led by Artistic Director Rupert Goold. During his tenure, notable productions have included American Psycho: a new musical thriller (transferred to Broadway); Ghosts (transferred to the West End and won three Olivier Awards); Chimerica (transferred to the West End and won five Olivier Awards); 1984 (transferred to West End, Broadway and Australia); King Charles III (transferred to the West End, won the Olivier Award for Best New Play, transferred to Broadway, toured the UK and Sydney, and was adapted for BBC television); Oresteia and Hamlet (both recently transferred to Park Avenue Armory, New York after successful West End runs); Mary Stuart (transferred to West End and toured UK) and Summer and Smoke (transferred to West End and won two Olivier awards including Best Revival). Recent highlights include The Doctor which ran in the West End in 2022, and Patriots which transfers to the West End in May 2023, as well as critically acclaimed productions of Spring Awakening, The Tragedy of Macbeth and Tammy Faye..

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