Oliver Cotton — after his stint as Spacey’s sometime father-in-law Seth Lord in The Philadelphia Story — will stay on at the venue as the Duke of Northumberland. Richard’s nemesis, Bolingbroke, will be played by Ben Miles, while Julian Glover (a former RSC Henry IV) will be John of Gaunt. The rest of the cast includes Peter Eyre as the Duke of York (Eyre recently co-starred in another historical epic, as the Grand Inquisitor in the Sheffield and West End Don Carlos), Susan Tracy as the Duchess of York, Sean Baker (Mowbray/Salisbury), Lewis Barfoot, Kieran Bew (Exton/Fitzwater), Naomi Capron, David Collings (Green/Surrey), David Dawson, Jack James, Oliver Kieran-Jones (Duke of Aumerle), David Leon (Percy), Disney Livingstone (Bishop of Carlisle), Ciaran McIntyre, Alastair Robins (Ross), Mark Tandy (Scroop), David Weston (Willoughby) and Glyn Williams.

Trevor Nunn is set to direct one of the relatively few Shakespeare plays he has never previously tackled. Hildegard Bechtler will design, with lighting by Peter Mumford, sound by Fergus O’Hare and video design by Dick Straker and Sven Ortel. A series of related workshops, films and Q&A events for younger audiences will run alongside the production.

For more information, call (0)870 060 6628 or visit www.oldvictheatre.com.