Netflix has found the main cast for its series The Decameron, set in 14th century Italy at the time of the bubonic plague pandemic known as the Black Death.
It’s a dramedy.
The series, from creator/showrunner Kathleen Jordan and executive producer Jenji Kohan, will star Tony Hale, Zosia Mamet, Tanya Reynolds, Amar Chadha-Patel, Leila Farzad, Lou Gala, Karan Gill, Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Douggie McMeekin and Jessica Plummer. Netflix describes The Decameron as “a soapy period dramedy that aims to examine the timely themes of class systems, power struggles and survival in a time of pandemic with a touch of levity.”
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The show takes place in 1348, with a group of nobles being invited, along with their servants, to leave Florence for a countryside villa to wait out the disease. As social rules wear thin, what starts as a wine-soaked sex romp in the hills of Tuscany descends into a scramble for survival. The series takes its title from the 14th century work of author Giovanni Boccaccio, which was previously the basis for a 1971 film by director Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Chadha-Patel (Willow) plays Dioneo, a physician whose profession puts him in limbo between the upper and lower classes. Farzad (I Hate Suzie) is Stratilia, the steady backbone of Villa Santa who works to stay out of the fray. Gala will play Neifile, a God-fearing, libidinous woman of paradoxes. Gill (I May Destroy You) plays Panfilo, the son of a prominent political family in Florence. Hale (Veep) plays Sirisco, the affable but ill-prepared steward of Villa Santa.
Jackson (Derry Girls) will play Misia, the servant of Pampinea (Mamet, Girls), the soon-to-be lady of the villa. The two have a codependent relationship. McMeekin (Harlots) will play Tindaro, a wealthy noble from a prominent family (and also an insufferable boor). Plummer (The Girl Before) will play Filomena, a spoiled oddball and the last surviving child of her noble family. Reynolds (Sex Education) is Licisca, a servant whose life has been defined by devotion to the family she serves — until now.
Jordan (Teenage Bounty Hunters) is the creator, writer and showrunner of The Decameron. She executive produces with Orange Is the New Black creator Kohan, Blake McCormick and Tara Herrmann of Tilted Productions and Michael Uppendahl, who will direct four of the eight episodes.
