A theatre firm has condemned the “barrage of deplorable racial abuse” that has been directed at a forged member of a brand new manufacturing of Romeo & Juliet.
In an announcement on Friday, the Jamie Lloyd Firm stated the net abuse “should cease” and that additional harassment could be reported. It got here after the announcement of the total forged of the present, together with Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers as Romeo and Juliet, alongside Freema Agyeman, Michael Balogun, Tomiwa Edun, Mia Jerome, Daniel Quinn-Toye and Ray Sesay.
“Following the announcement of our Romeo & Juliet forged, there was a barrage of deplorable racial abuse on-line directed in direction of a member of our firm,” the assertion stated. “This should cease. We’re working with a exceptional group of artists. We insist that they’re free to create work with out going through on-line harassment.”
The corporate, run by the director Jamie Lloyd, stated it could “proceed to help and shield everybody in our firm in any respect prices. Any abuse won’t be tolerated and will probably be reported. Bullying and harassment haven’t any place on-line, in our business or in our wider communities.”
Its rehearsal room for the present was “stuffed with pleasure, compassion and kindness,” the corporate stated.
It added: “We rejoice the extraordinary expertise of our unbelievable collaborators. The Romeo & Juliet group will proceed to rehearse with generosity and love, and deal with the creation of our manufacturing.”
The play runs on the Duke of York’s Theatre from 11 Might – 3 August. Will probably be the Spider-Man star Holland’s first main theatre position since his debut in Billy Elliot: The Musical.
Final summer season, he stated he was taking a break from appearing after starring within the Apple TV+ sequence The Crowded Room, a psychological thriller that he additionally produced. The star has develop into certainly one of Britain’s best-known younger display screen actors however owes his profession to the stage.
Lloyd is thought for mounting daring, megastar-led variations of basic performs resembling Physician Faustus with Package Harington, Betrayal with Tom Hiddleston and The Seagull with Emilia Clarke. His new manufacturing of the musical Sundown Boulevard, with Nicole Scherzinger, lately ended a sold-out run at London’s Savoy theatre and is transferring to Broadway in September.
Final yr Lloyd directed Taylor Russell and Paapa Essiedu in a revival of Lucy Prebble’s play The Impact on the Nationwide Theatre, earlier than opening on the Shed in New York final month.
Romeo & Juliet is billed as “a pulsating new imaginative and prescient of Shakespeare’s immortal story of wordsmiths, rhymers, lovers and fighters”. It’s Lloyd’s first Shakespeare manufacturing since he staged Richard III at Trafalgar Studios in 2014, with Martin Freeman within the lead position.
