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The Royal Court Theatre in London has announced casting for its forthcoming premiere of Cow | Deer.

Cow | Deer is playing at the Royal Court from 4 September until 11 October 2025

The show is a bold new experiment in performance from visionary director Katie Mitchell (Bluets, Anatomy of a Suicide), writer Nina Segal (Shooting Hedda Gabler, Big Guns), and sound artist Melanie Wilson (Oracle Song, Opera for the Unknown Woman).

Cow | Deer is told entirely through sound and without words, in a one-of-a-kind production that invites audiences to experience the lives of two animals – a cow and a deer – as a quartet of performers and foley artists conjure their world through immersive, atmospheric soundscapes.

The cast will feature experienced foley artists and performers Tom Espiner (Witness For The Prosecution, County Hall) and Ruth Sullivan (Die Zauberflöte/The Magic Flute), alongside actors Tatenda Matsvai (Dark Matter, Gate Theatre) and Pandora Colin (Abigail’s Party, Stratford East).

The show is a major international co-production with the National Theatre of Greece, and the creative team also features design by Alex Eales, lighting design by Prema Mehta, and casting by Saffeya Shebli.

Cow | Deer runs from 4 September 2025 until 11 October 2025 at the Royal Court Theatre, London.

Book tickets to Cow | Deer at the Royal Court Theatre London

More about the cast of Cow | Deer

Pandora Colin (she/her)

Theatre includes: Abigail’s Party (Stratford East); Dear Octopus, After The Dance, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Some Trace of Her, Women of Troy (National); Antigone, Our Town (Regent’s Park); Bach and Sons (Bridge); No Particular Order, Top Trumps, Natural Selection (Theatre 503); 8 Hotels (Minerva, Chichester); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesar, The Country Wife (Sheffield Crucible); Beginners (Unicorn); The Vote (Donmar); Cornelius – Brits off Broadway (59E59 Theatre, New York); The Dark Earth & The Light Sky, House Of Bernada Alba (Almeida); Sixty-Six Books, If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet (Bush): Stephen & The Sexy Partridge (Old red Lion/Trafalgar Studios); Serious Money (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Kindertransport, The Kiss (Hampstead); You Might As Well Live (New End Theatre/ Pleasance, Edinburgh); Mariana Pineda (Arcola); Much Ado About Nothing (Salisbury Playhouse); Design For Living, Fight for Barbara (Theatre Royal Bath); Man of Mode (Northcott Theatre Exeter); Buddy’s Song (New Victoria Theatre)

Television includes: Eric, The Diplomat, Andor, Flatshare, Tom Jones, Master of None, Chernobyl, Delicious, Line of Duty, Count Arthur Strong, Penny Dreadful, Toast of London, Mr Selfridge, Doctors, Titanic, Hotel Babylon, Life Begins, Coupling, NY-LON, Black Books, Watermelon, Comedy Lab: The Pooters, The Dark Room, Extremely Dangerous, Close Relations, The Peter Principle, Wycliffe, Casualty, In Your Dreams, The Bill, Tears Before Bedtime.

Film includes: Earwig And The Witch, Aftermath, Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool, The Lady In The Van, I Give It A Year, A Bunch Of Amateurs, Run, Fat Boy, Run, Max, What Rat’s Won’t Do.

Radio includes: Mueller: Trump Tower Moscow, Words and Music – Gratitude, The Amateur Marriage, With Great Pleasure, The Art of Deception – Women’s Hour, Book at Bedtime – Summer Crossing, The Happiness Foundation.

Pandora also performs cabaret as drag king, Ray Jissues (say it all together).

Tom Espiner (he/him)

As performer, theatre includes: Boys On The Verge Of Tears (Soho Theatre); Witness For The Prosecution (County Hall), Life of Pi (Sheffield Crucible/ West End); Berberian Sound Studio (Donmar); Macbeth, Twelfth Night, The Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory); Anything Goes, Love’s Labour’s Lost (National); The Firework Maker’s Daughter (Told by an Idiot/Lyric Hammersmith); Peggy for You (Hampstead/West End); Tombstone Tales (Arcola); The Magic Flute (Complicite/Dutch National Opera); Caucasian Chalk Circle, Britain’s Best Recruiting Sergeant (Unicorn); An Oak Tree (Traverse); Ether Frolics (Sound&Fury with artists from Shunt); Kursk (Sound&Fury/Young Vic/Sydney Opera House); Going Dark (London Science Museum/Sound&Fury).

As performer, television includes: Industry, Chloe, The Crown, Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire, Without Motive, Casualty, The Bill.

As performer, film includes: Anybody’s Nightmare, Stoned.

Foley design and consulting includes: Berberian Sound Studio (Donmar), When Winston Went To War With The Wireless (Donmar), The Walrus Has a Right To Adventure (Liverpool Everyman), The Fir Tree (How it Ended/Arts Depot), The Magic Flute (Complicite/DNO 2012), The Boy Who Always Looked Up (Ryan Gander/2 Willow Road).

Foley for Film & Television includes: Numerous Natural History films (Natural World Series, Amazing Animals), Stagefright, Rex the Runt (Aardman Animations), King Rollo Films, Dirty Bomb, Lawless.
As co-creator and performer, for Sound&Fury Theatre Company: War Music, The Watery Part of the World, Ether Frolics, Kursk, Going Dark, Charlie Ward.

Puppetry with Blind Summit includes: The Table (Spoleto festival USA and European tour); The Puppeteer (Lorca Institute, Granada, Spain/ Il Funaro/ Pleasance); Madam Butterfly (ENO); Danny Boyle’s London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony.

Puppetry direction includes: Great Apes (Arcola); Meet Fred (Hijinx).

Tatenda Matsvai (they/them)

Theatre Includes: Dark Matter, Hot in Here (Gate); Hot Orange (Halfmoon Theatre).

Awards include: VAULT Festival Origin Award for Outstanding New Work (Dark Matter).

Ruth Sullivan

As Foley Artist, Television includes: The Lawyer (Shardlake), Top Boy, The Lazarus Project, The Long Shadow, The Great, The Gold, Inside No. 9, The Capture, Peaky Blinders, Silent Witness, Feel Good, Bodyguard, Killing Eve, The Durrells, Jamestown, Black Mirror, Poldark, Fearless, Rillington Place, Dickensian, Downton Abbey, The Musketeers, The Casual Vacancy, Any Human Heart.

As Foley Artist, Film includes: My Sister’s Bones, The Critic, The Full Monty 23, The Wonder, Scrapper, Hamlet, Above the Clouds, Peterloo, Ophelia, Dead in a Week (Or Your Money Back), The Death of Stalin, Golden Years, Desert Dancer, 28 Days Later, Creation, The Boat that Rocked, Mamma Mia!, The World is Not Enough, Eyes Wide Shut, Running Free, Proof, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, My House in Umbria, The Hours, In America, The Four Feathers, Enigma, Still Crazy, Twin Town.

Live Foley for Theatre includes: Die Zauberflöte/The Magic Flute (Dutch National Opera, Amsterdam/ ENO London/ The Metropolitan Opera, New York/ Aix-en-Provence Festival/ Bergen National Opera/ Palau de Sophia, Valencia); Storm Exercise; dir. Janina Lange (Turf Projects, Croydon); To Hull and Back (Hull City Hall); Lea e il Gomitolo (Royal College of Art, London); Wunschloses Unglück (A Sorrow Beyond Dreams) (Burgteater, Vienna); Cabaret (Royal Danish Theatre, Copenhagen); The Hush (The Shed/ National); The Rings of Saturn (Die Ringe des Saturn) (Halle Kirk, Schauspiel Cologne & Gymnase du lycée Aubanel, Avignon Festival).

As Foley Consultant, theatre includes: Die Zauberflöte (Basal Opera); Brief Encounter, Spike (Watermill Theatre/National Tour); Sensory Stories: Journey to the Cornfield (National Gallery art project for Tyne and Wear Museums); Edmond de Bergerac (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); The Yellow Wallpaper (Die gelbe Tapete) (Schaubühne, Berlin); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Storyhouse, Chester).

As Director, theatre includes: The Worst Witch (Tower Theatre); hang by debbie tucker green (Tower Theatre); Bouncers and Shakers, Air, Charles III (Tower Theatre); Air Tower Theatre as part of the Love [and Survival] in a Time of Covid festival); Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Gatehouse); The Maids, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Theatro Technis); Macbeth (Shoreditch Church/Jardin Shakespeare, Paris); The Last Five Years (Courtyard Theatre); The Sea (Bridewell Theatre).

As Sound Designer, theatre includes: A Dream Play, Leave Taking, Bouncers and Shakers, Tituba, Mules, Bouncers and Shakers, King Charles III (Tower Theatre); A Westminster Story (Waterloo East); The Net (Tristan Bates Theatre); The Winter’s Tale (Bridewell Theatre & Jardin Shakespeare, Paris); Di and Viv and Rose, Frozen (Theatro Technis); The Ladykillers by Graham Linehan, One Man, Two Guv’nors, Time and the Conways (Gatehouse); Might Never Happen (King’s Head Theatre & UK Schools Tour); The Accrington, Gomenghast (Bridewell Theatre).

As actor, theatre includes: Twelfth Night, Kingdom, The Norman Conquests, Happy Days (Tower); 1984, Nancy (Theatro Technis); Evelyn – Kindertransport (Theatro Technis / Gatehouse).

Awards include: Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (The Life and Death of Peter Sellers), Verna Fields Award (The Pride of Wade Ellison)

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Main photo: Cow - Deer at the Royal Court Theatre - Casting. Pandora Colin, Tom Espiner, Tatenda Matsvai and Ruth Sullivan

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