The Royal Shakespeare Company has released the first production photos of Middlemarch, Nina Raine's two-part stage version of the George Eliot novel, which opens at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon on Wednesday 28 October.
The pictures, by Johan Persson, cover both halves of the production. Jeremy Herrin directs, and the show is co-produced with Second Half Productions, the company Herrin co-founded in 2020. It runs at the Swan until Saturday 16 January 2027, with tickets from £15.
Nia Towle plays Dorothea Brooke. Ian Drysdale doubles as Mr Casaubon and Caleb Garth, Andrew Richardson is Tertius Lydgate, Emma McDonald is Rosamond Vincy and Rory Alexander is Will Ladislaw. Amanda Root plays George Eliot, as well as Mrs Cadwallader: Raine's script puts the author on stage among the people she invented, telling their story and advising them as it unfolds.
The rest of the company are Lizzie Annis (Celia Brooke / Mary Garth), Emma Bown (Mrs Hackbutt / Clerk), Gunnar Cauthery (Mr Farebrother / Sir James Chettam), Steven Dykes (Dr Wrench), Dave Fishley (Mayor Vincy / Bambridge / Thesiger), Peter Forbes (Mr Brooke / Featherstone / Raffles), Ebenezer Gyau (Fred Vincy), Mackenzie Heynes (Joshua Rigg / Mr Hawley), John Hodgkinson (Mr Bulstrode / Borthrop Trumbull), Penny Layden (Mrs Bulstrode / Mrs Garth / Lady Chettam / Mrs Waule / Mrs Dollop / Tantripp), Anita Reynolds (Mrs Vincy / Mrs Mawmsey / Mrs Abel) and Molly Watton Williams (Martha / Jonas).
Eliot's novel follows the private lives of a Midlands town at a moment of political reform and social change, welcomed by some of its residents and resisted by others. Raine has compressed it into a single play in two parts. The RSC suggests seeing them in order, either on the same day or on separate visits.
Raine's earlier plays include Consent, Tribes and Tiger Country. Herrin, an Olivier Award winner, directed Every Brilliant Thing and the Wolf Hall trilogy, and Second Half's London slate includes August: Osage County and Amadeus, both at the Noël Coward Theatre. The Stratford photos follow the RSC's first look at Jonathan Groff as Rosalind in As You Like It at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre earlier this month.
Set and costumes are by Grace Smart, lighting by Ben Jacobs, music by composer Paul Englishby and sound by Nicola T. Chang. Lucy Cullingford is movement director and Rebecca Latham dramaturg. Casting is by Charlotte Sutton CDG and Christopher Worrall CDG, with Clare Foster as intimacy director, Nathan Feeney as music director, Emma Woodvine on voice and dialect and Molly Stacey as associate director.
A creative team talk takes place on Saturday 24 October 2026, and a post-show talk on Thursday 26 November 2026. Captioned performances are on Saturday 14 November 2026 (Part 1 at 1.15pm, Part 2 at 7.15pm), Wednesday 2 December 2026 (Part 1, 7.15pm), Thursday 3 December 2026 (Part 2, 1.15pm) and Friday 18 December 2026 (Part 1 at 1.15pm, Part 2 at 7.15pm). Audio-described performances, each with an 11.15am touch tour, are on Friday 4 December 2026 and Saturday 9 January 2027 (Part 1 at 1.15pm, Part 2 at 7.15pm). Chilled performances are on Thursday 7 January 2027 (Part 1, 1.15pm) and Friday 8 January 2027 (Part 2, 7.15pm).
