En Garde! RSC and Told by an Idiot announces principal casting for The Three Musketeers
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The RSC and Told by an Idiot today announce that Ayesha Antoine, Patricia Rodríguez and Sophie Russell will take up the titular roles of musketeers; Athos, Porthos and Aramis in a thrilling new take of Alexandre Dumas’s classic novel, opening in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from Saturday 28 November, with press night on Tuesday 8 December.
Adapted and directed by Told by an Idiot Co-founder and Artistic Director Paul Hunter, the production will see Ayesha Antoine as Porthos, Patricia Rodríguez as Aramis and Sophie Russell play Athos. Further casting will be announced later this year.
Director Paul Hunter said: "I'm delighted to be bringing together such an extraordinary group of performers for The Three Musketeers. Alexandre Dumas's story is one of the great adventures: full of friendship, courage, romance and reckless abandon. With Told by an Idiot's trademark blend of visual invention, physical comedy and joyful anarchy, we're creating a version that celebrates the sheer pleasure of live theatre.
“At its heart, The Three Musketeers is about people choosing loyalty, hope and togetherness in a world that often seems intent on division. It's gloriously funny, wildly theatrical and completely life-affirming. We can't wait to share it with audiences this festive season."
Ayesha Antoine's recent theatre credits include How The Other Half Loves (Old Vic), Eureka Day (Gate Theatre), Between Riverside and Crazy (Hampstead Theatre), Out West: Go, Girl (Lyric Hammersmith), Blank (Donmar Warehouse) and White Teeth (Kiln Theatre). Her previous collaborations with Told by an Idiot include Napoleon Disrobed and The Ghost Train. Other theatre work includes Hamlet (Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company at RADA), Life of Galileo (Young Vic), The Suicide (National Theatre), Red Velvet (Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company/Garrick Theatre) and Big White Fog (Almeida Theatre).
For television, Ayesha has appeared in Bergerac, Queenie, Grace, Endeavour, In the Long Run, Cursed, Malory Towers, The Long Song, Chewing Gum, Doctor Who and Skins. Her film credits include Artemis Fowl, Girl, This Time and Win.
Patricia Rodríguez is a performer, director and playwright, and co-founder of Little Soldier and Las Ganas. She has worked internationally for more than 30 years, creating and performing original work across theatre, comedy and devised performance.
Her theatre credits as a performer include The Tempest (Shakespeare's Globe), directed by Tim Crouch; Heads Will Roll and Get Happy (Told by an Idiot); Nothing Happens (Twice), Derailed, Don Quixote and You & Me (Little Soldier); Muckers (Conde Duque/Theatre Royal); and No Way Out (Flight of the Scales). Her writing and directing work includes Deadpan Karaoke, Orsai, caLORCAlor and Hamlet, the latter winning Best Family Show at the Almagro Festival in 2025.
Patricia has performed throughout Europe, North America and Asia, and has taught internationally at institutions including the Philippe Gaulier School, East 15 Acting School and the University of Leeds. She trained with Philippe Gaulier, Aitor Basauri, John Wright and Paul Hunter.
Sophie Russell returns to the RSC, where her previous credits include As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, The Drunks, American Trade and Oxygen.
Her theatre work includes The Merry Wives of Windsor, Titus Andronicus, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, Henry IV Parts One and Two, Henry V, Henry VI, Richard III and Emilia (Shakespeare's Globe); The Prudes, The Wolf from the Door and Collaborators (Royal Court Theatre); A Christmas Carol and Mrs Hudson's Christmas Corker (Spymonkey); Every Last Trick (Royal & Derngate, Northampton); You Can't Take It With You (Told by an Idiot/Manchester Royal Exchange); Spyski! (Lyric Hammersmith); The Good Soul of Szechuan (Young Vic); Get Happy (Told by an Idiot/Barbican) and Stories from an Invisible Town (Barbican).
Her television credits include I Hate Suzie, Kisses and Bumflicks, Living in Fear, Casualty and Wire in the Blood. Film work includes The Invisible Woman and How I Got Here.
Paul Hunter is co-founder and Artistic Director of Told by an Idiot. Paul has worked on all Told by an Idiot shows to date as director/writer/performer.
Directing credits include: The Cat and The Canary (Told by an Idiot / Chichester Festival Theatre); I A Thomas (Told by an Idiot / National Theatre of Scotland); The Ghost Train (Told by an Idiot / Royal Exchange, Manchester); Too Clever By Half (Told by an Idiot / Royal Exchange, Manchester); Every Last Trick (Royal & Derngate, Northampton); You Can’t Take It With You (Told by an Idiot / Royal Exchange, Manchester); The Mouse and his Child (RSC); Low Pay, Don’t Pay (Salisbury Playhouse); Senora Carrar’s Rifles (Young Vic); The Opium Eater and Light is Night (Brouhaha); The Underpants (Hope Street, Liverpool); One Set to Love (National Theatre, Hungary); Not With That Hand and Jiggery Pokery (Tour/BAC), Ordago (for Punto Finco in Bilbao).
As Associate Director at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton, Paul directed: The Venetian Twins, The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Best Production, Manchester Evening News award), Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Cleo, Camping Emmanuelle and Dick.
As an actor, Paul has performed at the RSC, Almeida Theatre, Young Vic, Old Vic and Shakespeare's Globe. His screen credits include Supergirl (Dir. Craig Gillespie); Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy (Dir. Michael Morris); Pan, Cryano, Princess and Peppernose (Dir. Joe Wright); Cinderella (Dir. Kenneth Branagh), A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (HBO) and Bridgerton (Shondaland/Netflix).
ENDS
For press enquiries, please contact: Olivia Scull, olivia.scull@rsc.org.uk
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Royal Shakespeare Company incorporated under Royal Charter. Registered charity No. 212481
LISTINGS INFORMATION
THE THREE MUSKETEERS
A co-production with Told by an Idiot
28 November 2026 – 9 January 2027
Press night: 8 December
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
It is 1625, or twenty-five past four.
When the innocent D’Artagnan sets off to Paris to become a Musketeer, a life of danger, romance and anarchy lies ahead.
Young King Louis XIII’s loose grip on power and his marriage is a delicious opportunity for the dastardly Cardinal Richelieu and mysterious Milady.
Landing in the centre of this cut-throat world, D’Artagnan races through the streets and the battlefields on the trail of his abducted sweetheart Constance, fighting for honour and dodging the target on his back.
But whenever strife is near, his new pals appear: The Three Musketeers. ‘One for all, and all for one!’
This Christmas, Told by an Idiot unleash their trademark visual comedy on Alexandre Dumas’ thrilling classic novel in a theatrical feast full of energy, joy and a raging zest for life.
NOTES TO EDITORS
The RSC is supported using public funding by Arts Council England
The work of the RSC is supported by the Culture Recovery Fund
The RSC is generously supported by RSC America
The work of the RSC is supported by Backstage Trust
With thanks to Season Supporter Charles Holloway OBE
Pragnell – Craft and Design Sponsor
The RSC Acting Companies are generously supported by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation
New Work at the RSC is generously supported by Hawthornden Foundation and The Drue and H.J. Heinz II Charitable Trust
Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences.
We invest public money from Government and The National Lottery to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. www.artscouncil.org.uk. Following the Covid-19 crisis, the Arts Council developed a £160 million Emergency Response Package, with nearly 90% coming from the National Lottery, for organisations and individuals needing support. We are also one of the bodies responsible for administering the Government’s unprecedented Culture Recovery Fund, of which we delivered over £1 billion to the sector in grants and loans. Find out more at www.artscouncil.org.uk/covid19.
Pragnell is a British family run jeweller, with a rich and royal heritage spanning over 170 years. As one of the UK’s last full-service jewellers, all Pragnell fine jewellery is handcrafted in British workshops by our highly trained craftspeople, using gemstones of exceptional beauty and quality. Pragnell showrooms are located in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Mayfair and Leicester. Discover Pragnell Stratford-upon-Avon showrooms in the heart of the town on Wood Street just a few minutes’ walk from the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Pragnell has proudly supported The King’s Trust since 2015, as a Patron, employing watch technicians through an apprenticeship scheme. Additionally, since 2023, Pragnell has partnered with The King’s Foundation and sponsors their Awards which support the protection and promotion of heritage craft skills.
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a leading global theatre company that sparks local, national and international conversations that build connections, create opportunities and bring joy.
We passionately believe that great storytelling can change the world, and that theatre offers its own unique form of storytelling: it’s live and shared, and transforms a group of strangers into audiences who, together, experience a story come to life in front of their eyes.
We collaborate with the most exciting artists to tell the stories of our time, and through a range of programmes we nurture the talent of the future.
We perform on three stages in our home in Stratford-upon-Avon, in London and in communities and schools across the country and around the world.
Our transformative Creative Learning and Engagement programmes reach over half a million young people each year.
Told by an Idiot is a critically acclaimed UK theatre company that explores the human condition through theatre that is ambitious but never pretentious, experimental but always accessible. We avoid boredom at all costs and are fascinated by the space between laughter and pain.
Our work is rooted in the live event and thrives on a sense of spontaneity and risk, celebrating the unpredictability of performance. Through anarchic physicality and a comedic sensibility, we create genuinely spontaneous experiences for audiences. We consistently experiment with what art can be and who can be involved and, in doing so, our work blurs the lines between artist, participant and audience.
Our commitment to accessibility informs the entwined relationship between our productions and our participation work. We nurture the skills and talents of emerging theatre makers through our Taught by an Idiot artist development programme and our work excludes no one. It simulates and challenges people across the world and we remain committed to making theatre for anyone who breathes.
www.toldbyanidiot.org
Artistic Director Paul Hunter
Executive Director Jennifer Holton
Finance Manager Julie Renwick
General Manager Kitty Kong
Associate Producer Maria Laumark
Board of Trustees: Sophie Scott (Chair), Stephen Burr, Rebekka Dickinson, Joanna Dong, Cynthia DuBerry, Matt Hassall, Claire Huxley, Helen O'Hanlon, Sophie Mercell, Alison Paines.
‘Their work is never less than sublime’ The Independent
‘Theatre about as inventive, imaginative and fantastical as it gets’ Time Out
Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences.
We invest public money from Government and The National Lottery to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. www.artscouncil.org.uk. Following the Covid-19 crisis, the Arts Council developed a £160 million Emergency Response Package, with nearly 90% coming from the National Lottery, for organisations and individuals needing support. We are also one of the bodies responsible for administering the Government’s unprecedented Culture Recovery Fund, of which we delivered over £1 billion to the sector in grants and loans. Find out more at www.artscouncil.org.uk/covid19.
