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Cast Set For MACBETH at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre

Macbeth opens on 5 March, with previews from 28 February and runs until 29 March 2025.

By: Jan. 15, 2025
Cast Set For MACBETH at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre  Image
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ETT has announced full casting for Artistic Director Richard Twyman’s version of Macbeth, which has been reworked for 2025 for a limited run at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. Joining the previously announced Alex Austin (Macbeth) and Lois Chimimba (Lady Macbeth) are Gabriel Akuwudike (Banquo), Bella Aubin (Malcolm), David Colvin (Lennox), Ammar Haj Ahmad (Macduff), Daniel Hawksford (Duncan), Bianca Stephens (Lady Macduff) and Sophie Stone (Ross).

Macbeth opens on 5 March, with previews from 28 February and runs until 29 March 2025.

Artistic Director Richard Twyman and Executive Producer Sophie Scull said today, “We feel very lucky to have been able to put together such an extraordinary team for our reworked Macbeth. It’s a real thrill that audiences in London will have a chance to see this production and the work of the brilliantly talented people involved in it. Audiences can expect a Macbeth that’s surprising, exciting, dangerous and playful. We’d like to thank all of the partners, actors, creatives, artists and freelancers involved in making and realising it for audiences across the UK, internationally, digitally and now in London.”

Rachel O’Riordan, Artistic Director and CEO of Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, added “I am thrilled to be welcoming English Touring Theatre’s production of Macbeth to the Lyric. We are delighted to bring this compelling and thought-provoking production to our stage in West London.”

A struggling and divided nation, tearing itself apart. So, when the Macbeths see their chance at the crown, why shouldn't they take it?

But things don’t go according to plan. Dreams quickly turn to nightmares, humanity erodes, nature stirs. As society strives to make sense of the darkness that sits inside it, how long will it take for people to fight back against the endless cycle of violence and corruption?

After a national and international tour Richard Twyman’s stylish, contemporary and gut-wrenching production is excitingly reworked for 2025 and explores why Macbeth has haunted our fears and nightmares for centuries.

Biographies

Gabriel Akuwudike plays Banquo. His theatre credits include Hamnet (RSC), King Lear (Shakespeare’s Globe), Blackmail (Mercury Theatre Colchester), Either (Hampstead Theatre), Time is Love (Finborough Theatre), Dealing with Clair (Orange Tree Theatre) and A Gym Thing (Small Things Theatre). His television credits include Screw, The Doll Factory, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Hana, Ridley Road, War of the Worlds, Cursed, Game of Thrones, Berlin Station, Brexit: The Uncivil War, The Bisexual and The Informer; and for film, his credits include The Beautiful Game and 1917.

Bella Aubin plays Malcolm. This marks her professional stage debut.

Alex Austin plays Macbeth. His theatre credits include As You Like It (Shakespeare’s Globe), Blackout Songs (Hampstead Theatre), LOVE (Park Avenue Armoury Theatre), Wuthering Heights, The Skriker (Royal Exchange Theatre), Ivan and the Dogs (Young Vic), The End of Eddy, Henry The Fifth, The Nutcracker, The Man With The Disturbingly Smelly Foot, How to Think the Unthinkable (Unicorn Theatre), A New and Better You (Yard Theatre), Gundog, Grimly Handsome, Primetime, Yen, Pigeons (Royal Court Theatre), Thebes Land (Arcola Theatre), Fury (Soho Theatre), Barbarians (Young Vic Theatre), Idomeneus (Gate Theatre), Hope, Light and Nowhere (Edinburgh Festival Fringe) and My City (Almeida Theatre). His television credits include Andor, The Mallorca Files, The Interceptor, New Tricks; and for film, The Bike Thief, Blood Out of a Stone, Legacy, The Christmas Candle, The Hooligan Factory, The World’s End and The Swarm.

Lois Chimimba plays Lady Macbeth. Her theatre credits include wonder.land, Common (National Theatre), Three Sisters (Almeida Theatre), Parliament Square (Royal Exchange Theatre, Bush Theatre) and Noises Off (Lyric Hammersmith Theatre). Her television credits include Cold Water, Still Up, Nightsleeper, The One (as series regular Hannah Bailey), Vigil, Avenue 5, The Outlaws, The Thief, His Wife and The Canoe, Doctor Who, Top Boy, Trust Me and A Discovery of Witches.

David Colvin plays Lennox. His theatre credits include Thunderstruck (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Scottish tour and Australian tour – winner of Herald Angel Award and Scottish Arts Club Award), Macbeth (Stafford Gatehouse Theatre), We’re Only Here Today (Pulse Festival, New Wolsey Theatre), Tam O’ Shanter (Edinburgh Festival Fringe), We Love You City (Belgrade Theatre Coventry), Hamlet (New Vic Theatre) and Black Watch (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, UK tour and International tour).

Ammar Haj Ahmad plays Macduff. His theatre credits include Returning to Haifa (Finborough Theatre), The Jungle (Young Vic Theatre, Playhouse Theatre, St Ann’s Warehouse), Love (National Theatre, Birmingham Rep), The Great Survey of Hastings (Ladie’s Parlour), Kan Yama (Cockpit Theatre), Mawlana (Mosaic Rooms), The Knight and the Crescent Hare (UK tour), Dmitry (Marylebone Theatre), Babel (Caledonian Park) and One Thousand and One Nights (The Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Opera Centre, Toronto / Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh). His television credits include Agatha Raisin and Letters from Baghdad; and for film, London Tomorrow, Wall, Round Trip, Maqha Almawt, Wada’an and Monologue.

Daniel Hawksford plays Duncan. His theatre credits include Nye (National Theatre and Wales Millennium Centre), Richard III (Rose Theatre Kingston and Liverpool Playhouse), Dmitry (Marylebone Theatre), A Pretty Sh*tty Love, Romeo and Juliet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Arms and the Man (Theatre Clwyd), Troilus and Cressida, Cymbeline, The School of Night (RSC), Swansea’s Three Day Blitz (Grand Theatre Swansea), Crouch Touch Pause Engage, Illiad, Praxis Makes Perfect, The Dark Philosophers (National Theatre Wales), The Distance (Sheffield Crucible, Orange Tree Theatre), Macbeth (Pontardawe Arts Centre), Macbeth, The Bible (Shakespeare’s Globe), The Dark Philosophers (National Theatre of Wales), Dancing at Lughnasa (Birmingham Rep), Judgement Day (Almeida Theatre), King Lear (South Bank), Memory (Clwyd Theatre and Pleasance Theatre), The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other (National Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The City of London Sinfonia), Jackets (Young Vic Theatre), The Pull of Negative Gravity (Colchester Mercury, 59E59 Theatre New York), The Taming of the Shrew (Colchester Mercury Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Exeter Northcott Theatre) and Lunch (King’s Head Theatre). His television credits include Hard Cell, Halo, Father Brown, Hetty Feather, Waking the Dead and Colditz; and for film, Pelican Blood and Little White Lies.

Bianca Stephens plays Lady Macduff. Her theatre credits include Shut Up I’m Dreaming (UK tour), 2:22 A Ghost Story (Noël Coward Theatre), Either (Hampstead Theatre), Soft Animals (Soho Theatre), The Burning Tower (Bush Theatre), Julius Ceasar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Storyhouse Theatre), Always Orange). Her television credits include PISTOL.

Sophie Stone plays Ross. Her theatre credits include The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mother Courage and Her Children (National Theatre), As You Like It (Shakespeare’s Globe), Emilia (Shakespeare’s Globe, Vaudeville Theatre), Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Multiplex, Fen and You Make Me Happy (When Skies are Grey) (The Watermill Theatre), Jubilee (Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and Royal Exchange Theatre), The Government Inspector (Birmingham Rep and UK tour), Herons (Lyric Hammersmith Theatre), Mine (Shared Experience), Frozen (Birmingham Rep), Two (Southwark Playhouse), The Bloody Great Border Ballad Project (Northern Stage), In Water I’m Weightless (National Theatre of Wales), Pandora (Arcola Theatre) and Woman of Flowers (UK tour). Her television credits include Shetland, The Chelsea Detective Reunion, Generation Z, This Way Up, Two Doors Down, Moonstone, Marchlands and Small World.

Richard Twyman took up the role of Artistic Director of ETT in November 2016. He was previously Associate Director (International) at The Royal Court Theatre, where he worked with playwrights across the world to develop their plays. Prior to this, he spent five years at the RSC working on fourteen productions, including the hugely acclaimed Histories Cycle, for which he directed Henry IV Pt II, which were honoured with three Olivier Awards, the Evening Standard Editor’s Choice Award and named by The Guardian’s Michael Billington as his production of the decade 2000-2010. Twyman has directed at The Royal Court Theatre: You for Me for You by Mia Chung, Torn by Nat Martello-White, Harrogate by Al Smith and The Djinns of Eidgah by Abhishek Majumdar. His other credits include Ditch by Beth Steel, which opened the Old Vic Tunnels; Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton at Theatre Cocoon, Tokyo/Osaka; Deliver Us and Stolen Ground by Anna Leader at Théâtres De La Ville Luxembourg; Give Me Your Hand (New York), nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Unique Theatrical Experience in 2012. For ETT, he has directed Martin Crimp’s Dealing with Clair at the Orange Tree Theatre, Samuel Adamson’s The Ballad of Hattie and James at Kiln Theatre and the critically acclaimed production of Othello, which toured the UK and internationally from 2017-2019. 

 




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