Niamh Cusack in Conversation with Rachel joyce

Join actor Niamh Cusack as she talks to playwright Rachel Joyce about acting, writing for the stage and their time together at the RSC. Niamh Cusack has performed many leading roles on the stage including Desdemona, Juliet and Lady Macbeth for the RSC, and has worked on some of the greatest Irish playwrights of the twentieth century including Beckett, Friel, O'Casey and JM Synge. Her work at the National Theatre includes lead roles in ‘His Dark Materials,’ and ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time,’ and she has worked with actors such as Judi Dench, David Suchet and Toby Jones. Rachel Joyce is the award-winning author of 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry,' 'The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy,' and 'Miss Benson’s Beetle.' Rachel wrote the screenplay for the film of ‘The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry’ as well as the book for the recent musical adaptation which transferred to the Haymarket Theatre in London in 2026.