RSC ANNOUNCES FULL CASTING FOR THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI
- JOINING MARK GATISS ARE BAFTA-AWARD WINNING ACTOR, WRITER & COMEDIAN MAWAAN RIZWAN (JUICE) AND KADIFF KIRWAN (SLOW HORSES) IN THEIR RSC DEBUTS
- JANIE DEE, CHRISTOPHER GODWIN AND LJ PARKINSON MAKE THEIR RETURN TO THE RSC
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The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) today announces full casting for its 2026 production of Bertolt Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, starring double Olivier award-winning actor Mark Gatiss in the title role of the notorious gangster and small-time crook, with big boss ambitions.
The production sees BAFTA award-winning actor and comedian Mawaan Rizwan make his RSC debut in the role of violent gang member Giri, alongside Kadiff Kirwan as Arturo Ui’s faithful henchman Roma. They will be joined by double Olivier award-winner Janie Dee as Betty Dullfeet, Christopher Godwin as Dogsborough and LJ Parkinson in the role of master manipulator Givola.
The full cast includes Joe Alessi (Butcher/Dullfeet/Prosecution), Valerie Antwi (Ensemble/Swing), Mark Hammersley (Ensemble/Swing), Rebekah Hinds (Flake/Dockdaisy), Cameron Johnson (Mulberry/Jimmy Greenwool/The Judge), Samuel Nunes de Souza (Ensemble), Mahesh Parmar (Dogsborough's Son/Fish/Inna), Santino Smith (Sheet/Hook) and Amanda Wilkin (Clark/Ragg/The Woman).
Directed by Seán Linnen, in a new version by Stephen Sharkey, Brecht’s riotous ‘gangster spectacle’ – set in the back alleys of Chicago’s criminal underworld - offers a blistering satire on Hitler’s ascent to power and a chilling warning from history which continues to echo down the centuries.
Director Seán Linnen said: “To make my RSC directorial debut with The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui is an honour and a galvanising responsibility. Brecht’s play is a howl from history begging us to do things differently and reminding us that tyranny doesn’t arrive fully formed; it creeps in through charm, complicity and silence.
“What’s thrilling about bringing this production to the Swan is the chance to stage it, not as a history lesson, but as a living, breathing provocation to the world we are living in. With Stephen Sharkey’s razor-sharp version, Placebo’s darkly seductive score and this extraordinary company led by Mark Gatiss, we’re leaning into the play’s ferocious wit and theatricality, its music, its mischief, and its danger.
“As the threat from the far-right grows daily at home and abroad, it is our job as artists to speak up and out. There is no other play that interrogates the global political moment we are living through more than this one, and I'm so lucky to have such fearless and formidable collaborators to bring this production to life.”
The creative team includes: Director Seán Linnen; Set and Costume Designer Georgia Lowe; Lighting Designer Robbie Butler; Music Placebo – Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal; Sound Designer Johnny Edwards; Movement Director Jennifer Jackson; Fight Director Haruka Kuroda; Casting Director Christopher Worrall CDG; Music Director Richie Hart; Voice and Text Charmian Hoare; Costume Supervisor Harry Whitham; Assistant Director Mandeep Glover.
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui will play in the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, from Saturday 11 April – Saturday 30 May, with press night on Tuesday 21 April, marking another historic first for the Company, as the only staging of the play in the RSC’s history.
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Mawaan Rizwan is an award-winning actor, writer and comedian. His critically acclaimed BBC series, Juice saw him awarded the BAFTA for Male Performance in a Comedy and the RTS award for Comedy Drama.
Mawaan has recently starred in Mark Gatiss’ A Ghost Story for Christmas with previous screen credits which include HBO's Two Weeks to Live alongside Maisie Williams and Murdered By My Father (BBC). His writing credit on Netflix's multi-award-winning Sex Education earned him a spot on Forbes' 30 under 30 list.
As a comedian, Mawaan has appeared on Taskmaster (Channel 4) and Live at the Apollo (BBC). His live performances of his songs 'Mango' and 'Are You Checking Me Out or Are You Just a Racist?' both went viral.
Kadiff Kirwan makes his RSC debut following his recent work at Donmar Warehouse in Intimate Apparel; Sweet Charity; Teddy Ferrara, The Vote and City of Angels. Other theatre credits include The Hot Wing King; Home (National Theatre); Guys and Dolls (Sheffield Crucible); Queers (The Old Vic); Sister Act (Whoopi Goldberg & Stage Entertainment) and Black Snow (Moscow Art Theatre).
Kirwan’s television credits include Doctor Who; Slow Horses; Everyone Else Burns; This Is Going To Hurt; This Way Up; Time; The Stranger; I May Destroy You; Inside No.9; Death In Paradise; Fleabag; Timewasters; Flack; Informer; Zapped; Queers - Safest Spot In Town; Strike - The Cuckoo’s Calling; Chewing Gum; Drunk History; Black Mirror; Drifters; The Vote; Crims and Call The Midwife. His film work includes Elsinore; Supergirl; Ladies First; My Policeman; Detective Pikachu and Mary Queen of Scots.
Janie Dee’s extensive theatre credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream and All’s Well That Ends Well (Shakespeare’s Globe); Much Ado About Nothing (The Peter Hall Company, Theatre Royal Bath); Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Motive and the Cue (National Theatre); and Antony and Cleopatra (Globe at the Barbican and The Hollywood Bowl).
Further stage work includes Comic Potential (Lyric Theatre and Manhattan Theatre), for which she received the Olivier Award for Best Actress, the Evening Standard Award, the Critics’ Circle Award, and in New York the Obie Award and Theatre World Best Newcomer Award. Additional credits include Woman in Mind and House/Garden (Stephen Joseph Theatre, Vaudeville); Betrayal (Duchess Theatre/Tour); Old Times and Celebration (Gate Dublin; Albery/Tour); Design for Living and The Apple Cart (Theatre Royal Bath/Tour); Moonlight/Night School (Harold Pinter Theatre); Fallen Angels (Menier Chocolate Factory); Blithe Spirit (Gielgud); Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Theatre Royal Bath; Charing Cross); Hand to God (Vaudeville); Linda (Manhattan Theatre Club); The Seagull (Regent’s Park); NSFW (Royal Court); Noises Off (Old Vic, Novello); Shadowlands (Wyndham’s); and Three Sisters and A Month in the Country (Chichester Festival Theatre).
Her musical theatre work includes Old Friends (Gielgud); Follies (National Theatre), for which she won the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical Performance; A Little Night Music (Palace Theatre, Buxton Opera House, Holland Park Opera); Putting It Together (St James Theatre); Passion (Cantiere Festival, Montepulciano); Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in Concert (London Palladium); My One and Only (Chichester Festival Theatre, Piccadilly); Mack and Mabel (Criterion); The King and I and Hello, Dolly! (Curve Leicester), earning the UK Theatre Award for Best Performance; and Carousel (National Theatre), for which she won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical.
Her film and television appearances include The Burning Girls (Paramount+), You & Me (ITVX), Chimerica and Crashing (Channel 4), Official Secrets, P.D. James’s Death in Holy Orders and The Murder Room, and Me and Orson Welles.
For radio, she has appeared in Afterplay and in the BBC Radio 4 series of Ian Fleming’s James Bond dramas.
Christopher Godwin is a highly experienced stage and screen actor with an extensive career spanning classical theatre, contemporary drama and major film and television productions. His previous work for the RSC includes A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The City Madam, Cardenio, The Canterbury Tales, The Taming of the Shrew/The Tamer Tamed, Cymbeline, The Devil Is An Ass and The Relapse, among others.
Beyond the RSC, he has appeared in numerous acclaimed theatre productions nationwide, including Noises Off, Amadeus, This House (National Theatre, Chichester, West End), The Crucible (Old Vic), Versailles (Donmar), The Woman in Black (multiple productions), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Globe and US tour), The Price (New Vic), and many more across leading UK theatres.
His television credits include Dope Girls, Endeavour, Bodies, Anatomy of a Scandal, The Miniaturist, The Hollow Crown II, A Young Doctor’s Notebook, Land Girls, Waking the Dead, Doctors, Lead Balloon and Casualty. On film, he has featured in Venom 2, The Dig, Emma, Mary Poppins Returns, Scoop, The Avengers, A Handful of Dust, and Porridge, among others.
LJ Parkinson last appeared at the RSC playing the inimitable Charley Parkhurst in Charlie Josephine’s 2023 production of Cowbois. LJ’s wider theatre credits include The Merry Wives of Windsor (Shakespeare’s Globe), Modest (Middle Child/Milk Presents), Death Drop: Back in the Habit (Criterion Theatre) and Modest (Middle Child/Milk Presents) - for which LJ was nominated for Best Supporting Performance at the UK Theatre Awards. Screen work includes: Kaos (Netflix), The Man Who Fell to Earth (Paramount+), Strike: Lethal White (BBC).
They also perform internationally as the Drag King LoUis CYfer, whose work extends and reimagines the same rigorous approach to masculinity through live performance and cabaret.
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'This city’s sick. You need me. Arturo Ui'
A small-time crook with big boss ambitions.
While the Great Depression inflicts hardship across the nation, Chicago’s underworld festers with sex, scandal, violence and corruption. It’s the perfect storm for a schemer like Ui, his reputation as hot as hell.
Feeding on fear, Ui and his ruthless cronies make back-alley deals to protect the workers. So far, so bad. But his helpless targets watch on as Ui's influence gains dangerous momentum and his venom threatens to seep through the markets, politics and the law to seize the city – and beyond. This is a man on a mission for power. Will anyone stop him?
ENDS
For further enquiries, please contact: Kate Evans 07920 244 434, email: kate.evans@rsc.org.uk
X: @TheRSC
Instagram: @thersc
Royal Shakespeare Company incorporated under Royal Charter. Registered charity No. 212481
LISTINGS INFORMATION:
THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI
By Bertolt Brecht
Updated by Stephen Sharkey
Swan Theatre
11 Apr – 30 May
Tickets from £15
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
The RSC Acting Companies are generously supported by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation
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.
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Our transformative Creative Learning and Engagement programmes reach over half a million young people each year.
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