Cast & Creative
Mark
Strong
Oedipus
Multi-award-winning actor Mark Strong returns to the stage. He previously appeared in A View from the Bridge directed by Ivo Van Hove (Young Vic, West End and Broadway—Olivier and Critics Circle Awards for Best Actor and Tony Award nomination); The Red Barn, Patrick Marber’s Closer, Death of a Salesman, Murmuring Judges, Fuente Ovejuna, Napoli Milionaria, King Lear and Richard III (National Theatre); Twelfth Night and Uncle Vanya (Donmar Warehouse—Olivier Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor); Speed the Plow (New Ambassadors Theatre); The Iceman Cometh (Almeida Theatre); The Thickness of Skin and The Treatment (Royal Court Theatre); Hess is Dead, The Plantagenets and The Man Who Came To Dinner (RSC).His television credits include Temple (also series Executive Producer); Deep State; Low Winter Sun; The Long Firm (Broadcast Guild Award for Best Actor and BAFTA nomination); Prime Suspect; The Jury; Anna Karenina; Our Friends in the North and the forthcoming Dune: Prophecy and The Penguin with Colin Farrell (HBO) as well as 9 Perfect Strangers (Hulu/Amazon).
An acclaimed film actor, he recently appeared in The Critic with Ian McKellen; Dead Shot with Felicity Jones; Nocebo with Eva Green; Murder Mystery 2 with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston (Netflix) and in The End We Start From with Jodie Comer; Shadow Force opposite Omar Sy and Kerry Washington and Atlas opposite Jennifer Lopez.
His other film credits include Todd Field’s Tar with Cate Blanchett; Sam Mendes’ 1917; Miss Sloane with Jessica Chastain; Cruella alongside Emma Stone; The Imitation Game with Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley; The Kingsman films with Taron Egerton and Colin Firth; Before I Go To Sleep with Nicole Kidman; Thomas Alfredson’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with Gary Oldman; Peter Weir’s The Way Back; John Michael McDonagh’s The Guard; Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood with Russell Crowe; Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law; Martin Campbell’s Green Lantern; The Young Victoria opposite Emily Blunt; Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty; Danny Boyle’s Sunshine; Stephen Gaghan’s Syriana with George Clooney; Roman Polanski’s Oliver Twist and Thomas Vinterberg’s It’s All About Love.
Lesley
Manville
JOCASTA
Lesley Manville is a multi awarding winning stage, film and television actress.
Her recent theatre has included Ghosts (Almeida, West End and BAM New York) for which she won a Best Actress Olivier Award and Critics Circle Award. She also received Best Actress Olivier nominations for Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Bristol Old Vic, Wyndhams, BAM New York and LA) and Grief (National Theatre). Other recent theatre includes The Visit at the National Theatre and Talking Heads at The Bridge.
Her early career was dominated by work at the Royal Court Theatre working on new plays including Top Girls, Serious Money, Rita, Sue and Bob Too and Borderline as well as classics such as Three Sisters, The Pope’s Wedding and Saved. For the RSC, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, As You Like It, The Philistines and The Wives Excuse. For the National Theatre, His Dark Materials, Pillars of the Community, Her Naked Skin and The Alchemist. For The Old Vic, All About My Mother and Six Degrees of Separation. In the West End, The Cherry Orchard and Some Girls.
Lesley received an Academy Award Best Supporting Actress and BAFTA nomination for her role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s film Phantom Thread. She played the title role in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. She has worked extensively with director Mike Leigh. Most notably on ANOTHER YEAR for which she won the prestigious NBR Best Actress Award, The Critics Circle Award and also received BAFTA and BIFA nominations. Other films with Mike Leigh are All or Nothing (Critics Circle Best Actress Award), Topsy-Turvy, Mr. Turner, High Hopes, Secrets and Lies, Vera Drake and Grown Ups. Other films include Back to Black, The Critic, Ordinary Love, Let Him Go, Misbehaviour, and Maleficent 1 & 2. Films still to be released include Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, Cold Storage, Winter of the Crow, Midwinter Break and Mr. Burton.
Lesley’s extensive television career has seen her work on many highly acclaimed and awarding winning shows. For her role as Princess Margaret in the final 2 seasons of The Crown, Lesley has received a Primetime Emmy and BAFTA nomination. Sherwood won her a BAFTA Supporting Actress nomination as did River. She did 3 series of the BBC’s Mum which won her an RTS Comedy Performance Award and 2 BAFTA nominations. Other TV includes Citadel, Magpie Murders, I Am Maria, Harlots, Save Me Too, Talking Heads, World on Fire, North and South, Cranford and Other People’s Children and Bodily Harm, receiving RTS Best Actress nominations for both. TV to come includes Alfonso Cuarón’s Disclaimer, Moonflower Murders, Citadel 2 and Ryan Murphy’s Grotesquerie.
Lesley was appointed an OBE in 2015 and promoted to CBE in 2021.
Robert
Icke
Writer and Director
Robert Icke is an award-winning writer and director, working in theatre and on screen. His recent productions include Judas, Children of Nora, and Oedipus at International Theater Amsterdam, where until 2023 he was Ibsen Artist in Residence. His adaptation of Animal Farm played an extensive national tour in 2022 and is slated for a London transfer. His monologue condensation of Enemy of the People starred Ann Dowd at Park Avenue Armory and was one of the first new pieces of theatre to play in New York post the shutdown. He is directing Ian McKellen in Player Kings at the Noël Coward Theatre, 1 April – 22 June 2024, previewing in Wimbledon and Manchester from March. In six years at the Almeida, five of his productions transferred to the West End, and four to New York. These included his adaptations of The Wild Duck, Mary Stuart (also West End and National tour), Uncle Vanya, Oresteia (also West End; Schauspiel Stuttgart; Park Avenue Armory), and 1984 (co-created with Duncan Macmillan, also Broadway; West End; national and international tours). As a director, his productions included Hamlet (also West End; Park Avenue Armory; and broadcast on BBC2); The Fever and Mr Burns. His final production at the Almeida was The Doctor, which played last summer at Park Avenue Armory, in the West End in 2022, and remains in repertoire at both the Burgtheater in Vienna and Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, as well as in numerous new productions across the globe. His awards include two Evening Standard ‘Best Director’ Awards; the Critics’ Circle Award, the Kurt Hübner Award (for his debut production in Germany); and the Olivier Award for ‘Best Director’, of which he was the youngest ever winner. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.