British actress Sophie Okonedo will take the leading role in the Greek tragedy Medea at a new London theatre.
The 54-year-old Hotel Rwanda star said she is “excited and nervous” to play the title character, who seeks revenge on her husband, Jason of the Argonauts, after he leaves her for another woman.
Olivier Award-nominated actor Ben Daniels, 58, will play all of the male characters – Jason, Creon and Aegeus – in the @sohoplace production of the play by Euripides.
Director Dominic Cooke said he is looking forward to seeing Daniels, whose credits include The Crown and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and Okonedo’s “explosive on-stage partnership” yet again.
The acting pair co-starred in Haunted Child, a play at the Royal Court, in 2011, and, more recently, the BBC’s The Hollow Crown, which was directed by Cooke.
Olivier Award-winner Cooke, 56, said: “I have been friends with Sophie Okonedo since we were in our teens.
“We’ve worked together many times, including on Arabian Nights at The Young Vic in 1998 and The Hollow Crown: Wars Of The Roses for the BBC in 2015.
“Sophie is one of our most visceral, emotionally connected actors, and I have long thought she’d be a brilliant Medea. I am over the moon that it’s now happening.”
Okonedo, who has been nominated for an Oscar and won a Tony award, said: “I am really excited and a touch nervous to be playing Medea.
“I’m buoyed by the fact I’m working with two of my closest friends and long-term collaborators, Dominic Cooke and Ben Daniels.”
The 602-seat @sohoplace is the first new theatre to open in the West End for 50 years.
Okonedo added: “I was lucky enough to have (owner) Nica Burns show me around the new @sohoplace theatre while it was still being built, and I was so impressed by the space that I signed up immediately to perform there.”
– Tickets costing £25 go on sale on Wednesday for Medea, which is set to run from February 11 to April 22 2023.