Actress Kathryn Hunter has resigned from the Royal Shakespeare Company long ensemble currently presenting a season of work at London’s Roundhouse.
The acclaimed actress had been playing the Fool opposite Greg Hicks in King Lear and Cleopatra in Antony And Cleopatra, but has now been replaced by fellow ensemble members Sophie Russell (Fool) and Katy Stephens (Cleopatra).
A statement released jointly by Hunter and RSC Artistic Director Michael Boyd states: “We have not been able to achieve together the full range of ambitions that we shared. We share the disappointment that Kathryn will not be with the company for the Roundhouse season and for the remaining life of the company, and continue to share a mutual regard and respect.”
The announcement comes just days before King Lear is due to stage its London press night on 25 January. The season, which included six shows performed in rep by the RSC’s long ensemble, comes to a close on 5 February, before the company returns home to Stratford, where King Lear will play alongside Romeo And Juliet in the newly reopened Royal Shakespeare Theatre. The company then leaps across the Atlantic, taking its work to New York.
Hunter, who won a Laurence Olivier Award in 1991 for her performance in Friedrich Durrenmatt’s The Visit, is noted for her physicality as a performer, recently playing an ape in Kafka’s Monkey. She was made an Artistic Associate of the RSC in 2008.
MA