This play will be performed at the Swan Theatre in Stratford on the 22nd of May 2002.

The Nick Hern Books RSC Classics - a series of rarely performed plays from the 16th and 17th centuries, published alongside their resurrection by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon and the West End.

The Roman Actor is Philip Massinger's chilling play of revenge, lust and murder.

Domitian, the tyrannical and insanely jealous Roman Emperor, wreaks havoc and bloody revenge for his wife's infidelity with Paris, the Roman actor of the title.

Regarded as Massinger's finest play, The Roman Actor is both a condemnation of tyranny and a defence of the then despised profession of acting.

This edition of the play is edited with an introduction by Martin Butler and preface by Gregory Doran.

The plays in the RSC Classics series reflect the diversity of styles, themes and subjects of the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage, and include a 'new' addition to the Shakespeare canon.