Simon Oskarsson will be D’Artagnan in The Three Musketeers for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Told by an Idiot, with Laura Rogers as Milady and Aitor Basauri as The Plot Teller. The full company is now in place for the Christmas show in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Simon Oskarsson, who appeared in Hadestown at the Lyric Theatre and at Carré, and sings on its original West End cast recording, makes his RSC debut as D’Artagnan in The Three Musketeers. Laura Rogers plays Milady and Aitor Basauri, also new to the company, is The Plot Teller. The three complete a principal line-up that already had Ayesha Antoine as Porthos, Patricia Rodríguez as Aramis and Sophie Russell as Athos.
The production runs in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, from Saturday 28 November 2026 to Saturday 9 January 2027, and press night is Tuesday 8 December. Paul Hunter, co-founder and artistic director of Told by an Idiot, has adapted Alexandre Dumas’ novel and directs it.
Basauri comes to Stratford with a long record in clowning, as a performer and as a teacher of it. He co-founded Spymonkey and is its artistic director, and with that company he co-created and performed in Stiff, Cooped, Zumanity (for Cirque du Soleil), Bless, Moby Dick, Love In, Oedipussy and The Frogs; he has also played in The Servant of Two Masters at Sheffield Crucible. His directing work includes Pirates of Penzance and Orpheus in the Underworld at the Volksoper Vienna, Rakkaudesta Sähköön at the Finnish National Theatre, Fanny and Alexander and I Turku at the National Theatre of Finland, Hairy for Polka Theatre and WTM, and Fun’s a Popping for The National Clown Orchestra of Ireland. He was also Director of Physical Comedy on Chichester Festival Theatre’s Mack & Mabel, which starred Michael Ball, and teaches clowning around the world.
Oskarsson’s stage credits also take in North by Northwest for the Emma Rice Company on tour in the UK and US, The Book Thief at Leicester Curve, Assassins at the Watermill and Nottingham Playhouse, Kiss Me, Kate at Sheffield Crucible, To Paint the Earth at Southwark Playhouse and Dear Evan Hansen at Intiman Teatern, as well as Robin Hood. The Legend. Re-written, 101 Dalmatians and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Regent’s Park. He features on the cast recording of The Book Thief, appeared on television in So Awkward for CBBC and trained at Arts Educational Schools London.
The rest of the company is:
- Kimmy Edwards as the Abbess and Landlady
- Jasmine Elcock as The Queen
- Michael Elcock as Rochefort
- Matt Gavan as The King
- Nick Haverson as Cardinal Richelieu and Jean Claude
- Martin Hyder as Monsieur Treville and Landlord
- Natalie Kimmerling as Kitty
- David Olaniregun as Buckingham
- Tanvi Virmani as Constance
- Greg Bernstein, Kelise Gordon-Harrison and Theo Reece in the ensemble
Hunter’s creative team brings together Michael Vale (set and costume design), Aideen Malone (lighting), Ian Ross (composer), Tingying Dong (sound), Jennifer Jackson (choreography), Jos Houben (physical comedy consultant) and Stewart Pringle (dramaturg), with casting by Matthew Dewsbury CDG.
Dumas’ adventure opens in 1625, when the green D’Artagnan heads for Paris intent on joining the Musketeers. He lands in a city of plots: the young King Louis XIII has only a loose hold on his crown and his marriage, and Cardinal Richelieu and the mysterious Milady mean to make the most of it. With his sweetheart Constance abducted and a price on his own head, he finds three allies in Athos, Porthos and Aramis, sworn to “One for all, and all for one!”. Told by an Idiot, whose work is built on visual and physical comedy, are giving the story a festive staging for the Royal Shakespeare Theatre’s Christmas slot.
