Former Kennet School and Newbury College actor to star with Tracy-Ann Oberman in West End Shakespeare
Great news for actor and friend of @newburytoday Joseph Millson – who grew up in Bucklebury – as it’s just been announced that he will join Tracy-Ann Oberman in the West End in the critically-acclaimed The Merchant of Venice 1936.
The critically acclaimed production will have a strictly limited West End season at the Trafalgar Theatre (December 28 – January 25). This groundbreaking production will then embark on a second UK tour for eight weeks visiting Liverpool, Bath, Leeds, Salford, Fareham, Cardiff and Southend, culminating in Birmingham on April 5 - allowing audiences all over the UK the opportunity to experience what the Daily Telegraph described as “The most important Shakespeare production of the year”.
And Tracy-Ann Oberman has been singing joe’s praises: “Having Joe join the cast of MOV36 as the merchant Antonio is the dream.
“He’s such a wonderful actor with a great Shakespearean pedigree and I’ve always admired his work.
“He’s not only a great friend but also an actor who I love being on stage with and I cannot wait to see what happens when my Shylock meets his Antonio in the East End of London, 1936.”
Joe, a former Kennet School and Newbury College student, is an RSC Associate Artist and best known for his award-winning theatre roles and many film and television roles including Casino Royale, The Last Kingdom, Holby City Peak Practice and his critically acclaimed performance as Soames in The Forsyte Saga.
The production is back by popular demand following a sold-out run at the Criterion Theatre earlier this year.
Shakespeare’s enduring classic is transported to 1930s East London against a backdrop of political unrest and the Battle of Cable Street (when the people of the East End halted the march of Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts through Stepney).
Ambition, power and political unrest explode onto the stage in this production adapted by Brigid Larmour and Tracy-Ann Oberman.
With the city on the brink of political unrest, fascism sweeping across Europe and Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists threatening a paramilitary march through the Jewish East End, strong-willed single mother Shylock runs a pawnbroking business from her house in Cable Street where Mosley will march. When charismatic, antisemitic aristocrat Antonio comes to her for a loan, a high-stakes deal is struck. Will Shylock take her revenge, and who will pay the ultimate price?
Joe plays Antonio alongside Tracy-Ann’s Shylock. This smash hit production also welcomes Georgie Fellows as Portia, Evie Hargreaves as Mary / Nerissa, Mikhail Sen as Lorenzo / Maharajah and Elly Roberts as Stefania / Blackshirt. Reprising their roles are Gavin Fowler as Bassanio, Grainne Dromgoole as Jessica, Xavier Starr as Gratiano, and Alex Zur as Yuval / The Duke / Blackshirt.
Joe told @newburytoday he was “Absolutely delighted and honoured to join such an important and exciting production.
“I saw the show in its very first week some time ago and knew it would be a success.
“Tracy and I were together on Noises Off in the West End a while ago, so we are both looking forward to working together again.“
Visit the website: Merchantofvenice1936.co.uk for booking information
