Casting has been announced for the return season of Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt which will run at Wyndham’s Theatre from 7 August 2021.
The cast of Leopoldstadt includes Cara Ballingall (Jana), Arty Froushan (Leo) Aidan McArdle (Hermann) and Macy Nyman (Hermine) join original cast members Sebastian Armesto (Jacob/Nathan/Ludwig), Jenna Augen (Rosa), Rhys Bailey (Young Nathan), Faye Castelow (Gretl), Joe Coen (Policeman/Zac), Felicity Davidson (Hilde), Mark Edel-Hunt (Civilian/Fritz), Clara Francis (Wilma), Ilan Galkoff (Pauli), Caroline Gruber (Emilia), Sam Hoare (Percy), Natalie Law (Hanna), Avye Leventis (Sally), Noof Ousellam (Otto), Dorothea Myer-Bennett (Eva), Jake Neads (Mohel/Policeman), Aaron Neil (Ernst), Alexander Newland (Kurt), Sadie Shimmin (Poldi), Griffin Stevens (Aaron) and Eleanor Wyld (Nellie).
The children’s cast comprises Noa Alberts, Rocco Brenner, Atticus Collier, Willa Collier, Aidan Greenberg, Mae Sarner Henson, Aidan Herrmann, Lexi Hudaly, Audrey Kattan, Ollie Kohn, Max Lester, Mace Phoenix, Leo Roberts, Osian Salter, Raphael Shbero and Shoshana Shbero.
At the beginning of the 20th Century, Leopoldstadt was the old, crowded Jewish quarter of Vienna. But Hermann Merz, a manufacturer and baptised Jew married to Catholic Gretl, has moved up in the world. Gathered in the Merz apartment in a fashionable part of the city, Hermann’s extended family are at the heart of Tom Stoppard’s epic yet intimate drama. By the time we have taken leave of them, Austria has passed through the convulsions of war, revolution, impoverishment, annexation by Nazi Germany and – for Austrian Jews – the Holocaust in which 65,000 of them were murdered. It is for the survivors to pass on a story which hasn’t ended yet.
Leopoldstadt received its world premiere on 25 January 2020 at Wyndham’s Theatre. As initial casting was announced the run was extended due to public demand and was scheduled to play a 20-week run until 13 June 2020. The final performance before lockdown was 14 March 2020.
Set designs are by Richard Hudson, with costume designs by Brigitte Reiffenstuel, lighting by Neil Austin, sound and original music by Adam Cork, and movement by EJ Boyle. Casting is by Amy Ball CDG, with children’s casting by Verity Naughton.
