Elizabeth Debicki is set to become the first female to play Richard II in a Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production. The Emmy and Golden Globe-winning Australian actress, best known for starring in The Night Manager and playing Diana, Princess of Wales in the final two seasons of The Crown, will make her RSC debut next year.
The 36-year-old will play a gender-swapped Richard II, representing the monarch as a woman. The production, directed by Daniel Raggett, will run at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from April 10 until May 22 2027.
Historic casting
Debicki will be the first female in the RSC's history to take on the titular role, which has previously been performed by actors including David Tennant, Sir Derek Jacobi, Jeremy Irons, Michael Redgrave, Sam West and Alan Howard.
The company's co-artistic directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey said: “Having admired Elizabeth’s work on stage and on screen, and her ability to match immense vulnerability with deep courage, we are hugely excited by the prospect of her playing Richard at the RSC.”
They added that Raggett and Debicki had discussed working together “for a number of years” and they were “delighted when they agreed to be part of our forthcoming season”. “Both are fascinated by what this play might reveal to us about leadership and the tension that exists between the symbolic roles we occupy in public and our private selves,” they continued.
Director's praise
Raggett, whose previous RSC credits include the 2025 production of Macbeth featuring Sam Heughan and Lia Williams at The Other Place and Edward II at the Swan Theatre, said: “It is beyond my wildest dreams to be returning to the RSC for a third time, and I feel incredibly proud and grateful.
“Personally, Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey have done so much to guide me and champion my work. They have made the RSC a home where I can realise my most ambitious ideas, whilst nurturing my craft and providing me with the platform to collaborate with absolute best, and most diligent and skilled, artists and craftspeople.
“Under their leadership the RSC is once again cementing itself as the place where the greatest actors in the world come to play Shakespeare, and that is why I am so excited to be working with Elizabeth Debicki on one of his most enigmatic and psychologically complex roles.”
Summer 2027 programme
The announcement comes as the RSC also revealed the full details of its Summer 2027 programme, which comprises four Shakespeare plays and two world premieres inspired by novels from Virginia Woolf and Susanna Clarke.
The season will open with Coriolanus, starring Bergerac and Two Weeks In August's Damien Molony. The RSC said it “examines Shakespeare’s political tragedy through the lens of contemporary populism, societal instability and elemental scarcities in a turbulent world, as power struggles surface, old hierarchies crumble and the race to control critical resources begins”.
Other productions include Joanna Bowman's Romeo And Juliet, and Born With Teeth – which replaces the previously scheduled Othello, which was postponed after its star Sharon D Clarke was diagnosed with cancer and undergoes treatment.
The world stage premiere of Woolf's Mrs Dalloway – adapted by Zoe Cooper – is also on the schedule. It will be followed by the world stage premiere of Piranesi, based on the novel by Clarke and adapted for the stage by Sami Ibrahim. The season will be rounded out by The Comedy Of Errors, directed by Francesca Goodridge, which will go on to visit partner schools and theatres across England.
Priority booking for members and supporters for all new productions opens from 10am on Monday October 5, with public booking opening from Wednesday October 21.
