Queens of the RSC

As we prepare to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of our Patron, Her Majesty the Queen, we look back at some of the queens of the RSC stage.

Shakespeare's plays are full of royal dynasties, queens and kings, with some of theatre's greatest actors treading the boards as everyone from Titania, Queen of the Fairies, to Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. See pictures from some of these productions below, as well as queens from plays by modern writers and Shakespeare's contemporaries.

And don't forget to join us this week for our Platinum Jubilee celebrations, running from Wednesday 1 to Saturday 4 June.

Her Majesty the Queen visited Stratford-upon-Avon in 2011 to open our transformed Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

Photo by Stewart Hemley © RSC Browse and license our images

Minnie Gale is Queen Margaret in our current production of Wars of the Roses, having played the role in both our Henry VI Part One Rehearsal Room Project and Henry VI: Rebellion. She will continue to portray the royal in our upcoming production of Richard III.

Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC Browse and license our images

Beatie Edney played Queen Victoria in our 2013 production of Tanika Gupta's The Empress. Directed by Emma Rice, the play begins in 1887, the year of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, and explores the monarch's relationships with her servant Abdul Karim and Rani Das, an Indian nanny.

Photo by Steve Tanner © RSC Browse and license our images

Josette Simon played two queens in Michael Boyd's 1999 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. On the left, she is Titania, Queen of the Fairies, alongside Nicholas Jones as Oberon. On the right, she is Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons.

Photos by Donald Cooper © RSC Browse and license our images

In the 2016 Erica Whyman production A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Play for the Nation, Ayesha Dharker played Titania alongside a host of performers from local amateur groups around the UK as Bottom and Shakespeare’s Mechanicals.

Photo by Topher McGrillis © RSC Browse and license our images

Emma Cunniffe played the titular role in Queen Anne, both in Stratford-upon-Avon (2015) and London (2017). The play told the story of one of England’s little-known sovereigns, her friendship with the Duchess of Marlborough and the birth of the free press in England at the turn of the 18th century.

Photo by Manuel Harlan © RSC Browse and license our images

Tanya Moodie took the role of Gertude in the 2016 production of Hamlet, directed by Simon Godwin. Other RSC actors who have played the Queen of Denmark include Penny Downie, Jane Lapotaire and Marty Cruickshank.

Photo by Manuel Harlan © RSC Browse and license our images

In the same production, Doreene Blackstock performed as the Player Queen alongside Kevin N Golding as the Player King. The Players are brought in by Hamlet to stage a show designed to expose the guilt of his uncle Claudius, the new king.

Janet Suzman as Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, in 1972 in the production directed by Buzz Goodbody, Trevor Nunn and Euan Smith. The show featured Richard Johnson as Antony, as well as performances from Corin Redgrave and Patrick Stewart. Other RSC Cleopatras have included Harriet Walter, Sinéad Cusack, Helen Mirren and Josette Simon.

Chipo Chung took on the role of Dido, Queen of Carthage, in the Swan Theatre in 2017. Marlowe's rarely performed first play tells the story of a woman of strength and brilliance who refuses to be silenced.

Jane Lapotaire as Queen Isobel in Gregory Doran's 2015 Henry V. The production in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre marked the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt and featured Alex Hassell in the title role.

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Queens of the RSC

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