Nina Cassells: Defining Defiance on Stage

Send us Fan Mail As rehearsals continue for her highly anticipated Chichester Festival Theatre debut in Nina Segal’s *Antigone Exits*, Nina Cassells sat down with us for a deep, insightful conversation on her craft. Under the direction of Jeff James, Nina unpacks the visceral experience of bringing Sophocles' iconic heroine into a modern political sphere, exploring how she and the company are shaping the collective energy of the Chorus and navigating the intimate spatial mechanics of Chichester’s Minerva Theatre. We also trace Nina's artistic trajectory back to her training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, recalling her captivating, emotionally still turn in the title role of Lorca's *Yerma*. We discuss her knack for portraying resilient young women carving out autonomy against rigid social structures—from her raw, high-voltage performance as Zainab in Julia Grogan's *Playfight* at Soho Theatre alongside her Guildhall peer Sophie Cox, to her sparkling comic timing as Pauline Fossil in Kendall Feaver's *Ballet Shoes* at the National Theatre and her turn in *A Midsummer Night's Dream* at the Bridge Theatre.