The Cast
The Cast
Mark Rylance Johnny "Rooster" Byron
Training: RADA under Hugh Cruttwell. The Glasgow Citizens’ Theatre gave him his first job in 1980, a year in repertoire, a trip to the carnival in Venice with Goldoni, and an Equity card. His subsequent and ongoing vocal training has been with Barbara Bridgemont and Stewart Pearce.
Theatre includes: Jerusalem (Royal Court, West End and Broadway), Valere in La Bete directed by Matthew Warchus (The Comedy and The Music Box, Broadway), Hamm in Endgame directed by Simon McBurney (The Duchess with Complicite), Robert in Boeing Boeing directed by Matthew Warchus (The Comedy and The Longacre, Broadway), Peer Gynt directed by Tim Carroll (Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis). In 2007, he wrote his first play, I Am Shakespeare, which premiered at the Chichester Festival Theatre, directed by Matthew Warchus. He has worked for the RSC, RNT, the Bush, The Tricycle, Shared Experience, TFANA (New York), and for his own companies, The London Theatre of Imagination and Phoebus Cart. He was the Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (1996-2006) and during his career has acted in 48 productions of plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
Film and television include: Anonymous, The Government Inspector; The Grass Arena; Intimacy; Angels and Insects, Nocturne, and Institute Benjamenta by the Brothers Quay.
Mark is an honorary bencher of the Middle Temple Hall, chairman of The Shakespearean Authorship Trust, an ambassador of Survival, and a patron of Peace Direct, working for non-violent resolution of conflict.
Photograph by Anton Corbijn