Full Hamlet cast announced!

Fresh off the press!

Michael Sheen, one of the finest actors of his generation, plays Hamlet under the direction of one of Britain’s leading directors Ian Rickson (Jerusalem), who makes his Shakespearean debut with this electrifying new production.

The world-class creative team includes designer Jeremy Herbert (The Glass Menagerie; Young Vic), costume designer Nicky Gillibrand (Government Inspector; Young Vic, Anna Nicole; ROH) and Punchdrunk associate director Maxine Doyle (Masque of the Red Death; BAC) who will choreograph.

They are joined by a stellar cast drawn from the worlds of film, musicals, theatre and TV including:

• Guildenstern/Francisco: Adeel Akhtar (Faisal in Chris Morris’s Four Lions)
• Horatio: Told by an Idiot co-founder Hayley Carmichael (Sweet Nothings; Young Vic)
• Claudius:  James Clyde (Peter Hall’s Twelfth Night; NT, Neil Bartlett’s Romeo & Juliet; RSC)
• Gertrude: Sally Dexter (Mother Superior in Sister Act, Mrs Wilkinson in Billy Elliot; West End) 
• Marcellus: Callum Dixon (Government Inspector; Young Vic)
• Barnardo: Pip Donaghy (The Deep Blue Sea/ Rattigan’s Nijinsky; Chichester Festival Theatre)
• Polonius: Michael Gould (Earthquakes in London, Our Class, Women of Troy; All NT)
• Ophelia: Vinette Robinson (Tender Napalm; Southwark Playhouse, Welcome to Thebes; NT, Sugar Mummies; Royal Court and BBC’s Sherlock)
• Rosencrantz: Eileen Walsh (Disco Pigs; Bush Theatre and film The Magdalene Sisters)
• Laertes: Benedict Wong (whose films include Ridley Scott’s upcoming Prometheus, Duncan Jones’ Moon and Danny Boyle’s Sunshine)

More tickets on sale soon… sign up to our e-list to be the first to find out the details!

Michael Sheen is Hamlet

Yesterday, we were with Michael Sheen in Toronto doing a photoshoot for Hamlet (starts 28 October)! Here’s a sneak peek of some of the shots. A huge thanks to our great photographer Steve Carty. Check out more of his works here.

Michael Sheen, Hamlet (c)Steve Carty

Michael Sheen, Hamlet (c)Steve Carty

Tidying Michael's beard! (c)Steve Carty

 

 

 

 

2011-2012 Season Now on Sale to Friends!

It’s a truly unmissable year….

• The Mighty Boosh’s Julian Barratt in Government Inspector
• Return of the sell-out hits The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Evening Standard Award-winning musical Street Scene
• Hamlet starring Michael Sheen
• Patrick Stewart as William Shakespeare in Bingo

Friends: now / Priority Pass: 8 Feb / All: 15 Feb

Exciting… check it out now!

Michael Sheen to play Hamlet

If you haven’t heard, Michael Sheen will be at the Young Vic playing Hamlet next Winter!

This past weekend, he did a piece on Radio 4 titled “Playing the Dane”. Check it out here. Listen to it before it expires on Sat 30 Oct, 2010 (at 9.02pm to be exact).

“In anticipation of his own stage Hamlet in 2011, Michael Sheen looks back at classic productions of the play and the many different interpretations of a young actor’s most coveted role.

The last few years have seen a glut of high-profile Hamlets in the British theatre, culminating recently with Rory Kinnear at the National Theatre in London and John Simm at Sheffield Crucible.

Michael Sheen, who is due to play the role at the Young Vic in 2011, asks why Shakespeare’s play remains very much the thing for 21st century audiences.

He considers the rich archive of Hamlets from the theatre, cinema and radio archives, starting with Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in 1908 and journeying to the present-day, taking in the interpretations of John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton, Jonathan Pryce, Kenneth Branagh and David Tennant, as well as female Hamlets, Sarah Bernhardt and Frances de la Tour.

Michael explores the challenges of a role that has become a rite-of-passage for leading actors, arguing that Hamlet is the most dangerous play that exists, but that our culture has made it safe.

He examines the changing political, social and psychological interpretations of the role that holds a mirror up to history, from the Edwardian stage through Freud, Modernism and two World Wars, to Thatcherism and New Labour.

Michael is joined by other famous Hamlets, who reflect on the challenges of bringing something fresh and unexpected to some of the most famous lines in English literature.

Produced by Emma Harding.”