Cast Set For PLAYING SHAKESPEARE WITH DEUTSCHE BANK: ROMEO AND JULIET

Shakespeare’s Globe has announced the cast of this year’s Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank production, Romeo and Juliet. This gripping 90-minute production set in the present day is created especially for young people and designed to support the curriculum. The production will be directed by Director of Education, Lucy Cuthbertson, Director of Olivier award-nominated Midsummer Mechanicals (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, 2022).

The cast includes Gethin Alderman, Sharon Ballard, Ashley Byam, Simeon Desvignes, Marième Diouf, Miriam Grace Edwards, Felixe Forde, Owen Gawthorpe, Liam King, Hayden Mampasi and Saroja-Lily Ratnavel. Biographies are listed below.

Public performances from 19 March until 13 April run alongside the previously announced schools’ project, supported by Deutsche Bank, as part of their global youth engagement programme ‘Born to Be’. There are over 26,000 free tickets for pupils aged 11-16 at London and Birmingham state schools, with subsidised tickets for schools nationwide and a range of accessible performances including Integrated BSL. 

Alongside the production, workshops on Romeo and Juliet will run throughout the Easter Holidays, including practical drama activities and games for young people to attend alone or with their families. 

Director Lucy Cuthbertson says: “It’s a privilege to be directing this production of Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare’s Globe. For 18 years, our flagship education project has been enabling hundreds of thousands of students to experience theatre for free, made possible by the support from Deutsche Bank’s Born to Be programme. There is no place like the Globe to see Shakespeare. We hope this contemporary vision for one of the world’s most famous stories will resonate with our young audiences and indeed anyone coming to Shakespeare for the first time.”

 

Gethin Alderman will play Capulet. Gethin is an actor, clown and creature performer/movement specialist. Theatre credits include Starcrossed (Wilton's Music Hall), Henry V (Donmar Warehouse), Mold Riots (Theatr Clwyd), Incident at Vichy, Geography of Fire (both Finborough Theatre), Seagulls (Volcano Theatre), Finding Home (Mercury Theatre Wales), Nineveh (Riverside Studios), The Princess and The Pea/Y Dywysoges a'r Bysen Fechan Fach (Sherman Theatre), Hamlet (Secret Theatre London) and The Last March (Tinder Theatre). TV credits include The Great (Hulu/Channel 4), Somewhere Boy (Channel 4), Wolf, Casualty, Doctors, I Am Einstein, The Outlaws (all BBC), The Winter King (ITV) and Star Wars: Andor (Disney+). Film credits include The Boys in the Boat (MGM), The 355 (Universal Pictures) and Ammonite (BBC Film/BFI).

Sharon Ballard will play Lady Capulet. Sharon began her professional career as a child actor in the Seychelles whilst training at the National Conservatoire for Performing Arts, and continued her training at The BRIT School For Performing Arts. Theatre credits include Superyou (Lyric Theatre), Mother Goose (West End/UK Tour), Jungle Rumble (Fortune Theatre), One Night Of Tina (European Tour), Quiz (Noel Coward Theatre), David Gest’s – Time Of My Life (Arena Tour), Sleeping Beauty (Hackney Empire), A&E (Lost Theatre), A Hard Working Bus (RADA Studios), Peter Pan (Wimbledon Theatre), Dick Whittington (Wycombe Swan), Blues Brothers (UK and European tour), Buddy Holly (Arena Tour), Cinderella (New Theatre, Cardiff), In Bed (Questors Theatre), All Bobs Women (Arts Theatre), Godspell (UK No 1 Tour), Discotivity (Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Festival) and Solid Gold Soul (European Tour). TV credits include Pennyworth (Expix/HBO Max), The Feed (Virgin Media/Amazon Prime), Delicious (Sky 1), Good Omens (Amazon Prime/BBC Two), Trauma (ITV), The Royals (E!), Sherlock, Eastenders (BBC One). Film credits include Watch What I Do (Fully Focused Productions), Me Before You (Warner Brothers) and Delicious (Delicious the Film). Sharon has also worked extensively as a voice/recording artist.

Ashley Byam will play Mercutio. Ashley graduated from Oxford School of Drama. Theatre credits include Fourplay (Above The Stage Theatre). TV credits include Eastenders, Death in Paradise (BBC), Giri/Haji (Netflix), The Legend of Tarzan (Warner Brothers), and Legend (Studio Canal). Film credits include the award winning German short film Different Bayern. He played the lead role (for which he won Best Actor at the Hidden Film Festival) in the award-winning short film Lessons directed by Sam Seccombe. 

Simeon Desvignes will play Paris. Simeon trained at Arts Ed and The BRIT School. Theatre credits include The Wolf, The Duck and The Mouse (Unicorn Theatre; The Poel Workshop (National Theatre), Hamlet Primary (National Theatre). Credits whilst in training: Divine; Chaos; RED; Hamlet; In The Red and Brown Water; Blank; They’ll Love You (Short Film).

Marième Diouf will play Friar. Theatre credits include Get Dressed (Unicorn Theatre), Nothing in a Butterfly (Omnibus Theatre), The Hoes (Hampstead Theatre), Offside (Futures Theatre), A Tale of Two Cities (Regent’s Open Air Theatre), King Lear (RSC), Hamlet (RSC), Cymbeline (RSC), Liberian girl (Royal Court). Film credits include Tarzan (Warner Brothers). TV credits include Outlander (Starz). 

Miriam Grace Edwards will play Nurse. Theatre credits include The Empress (Royal Shakespeare Company and Lyric Hammersmith), Mlle F (Belgrade Theatre), The Gunpowder Plot (Layered Reality), Brassed Off (National Tour), Help Me, Cried The Sea (Talking Birds), Twelfth Night (Globe Theatre, Neuss & International Shakespeare Festival, Serbia), The Hundred Years War (National tour), Powder, People and Breathe (Theatre Absolute) The Sisterhood, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Sisters, Over The Top and numerous Christmas seasons (Belgrade Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Core Theatre), Luminous, Disorder  (Birmingham Rep), Go Down Swinging, (Standing 8/Royal & Derngate), First Do No Harm (National Tour)

Felixe Forde will play Juliet. Theatre credits include Henry VI: Rebellion & Henry VI: Wars of the Roses (RSC), Pride and Prejudice* (*Sort of) (Bristol Old Vic & UK Tour), The Afflicted (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Petroleuse (Lyric Hammersmith/Evolution Festival). TV credits include The Chelsea Detective (Acorn TV), Midsomer Murders (ITV), Death in Paradise, Doctors (BBC). 

Owen Gawthorpe is The Cyclist. Owen Gawthorpe is a professional trials cyclist athlete and performer. He has competed for GB cycling for 10 years all over the globe, most recently last summer at the Glasgow UCI World Championships. He has also been a professional trials stunt performer for the past 10 years, performing hundreds of shows to audiences all over the UK andEurope. Performance credits include Elekron, an large scale arena show in Studio City, Macau  and the Justice in Motion 2023 tour of CODE, a hard-hitting outdoor theatre show about the impacts ofgang life and knife crime which merged his cycling and performance skills  with parkour. 

Liam King will play Tybalt. Liam graduated from LAMDA in 2019. Theatre credits include Macbeth (RSC); An Edinburgh Christmas Carol (Royal Lyceum Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Pulp Rocket Theatre); Mrs Puntila and her Man Matti (Royal Lyceum Theatre); Caligula, Tender Napalm, Pinocchio, The Duchess of Malfi (Citizens Theatre).

Hayden Mampasi will play Romeo. Hayden Mampasi trained at the Drama Studio London, graduating in 2021. Theatre credits include Passion Fruit (New Diorama); Ben Butler (English Theatre Of Hamburg); Unlocking Cannons House (Attic Theatre Company); The Story Of Yara (Greenwich Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (Guildford Shakespeare company); Macbeth (Guildford Shakespeare Company) Cuffed (Alinement Productions) and The Tempest (Guildford Shakespeare Company). Hayden won the 2022 Black British Theatre award for Best Supporting Male in a play for Passion Fruit,  which was his theatre debut. 

Saroja-Lily Ratnavel will play Benvolio. Saroja-Lily trained at LAMDA and Durham University. Theatre credits include The Hypochondriac (Sheffield Crucible), The Swell (Orange Tree Theatre), Chasing Hares (Young Vic), Electric Rosary (Royal Exchange Theatre), The Key Workers Cycle: The Social Care Workers Play and Name, Place, Animal, Thing (Almeida Theatre).TV credits include Doctors (BBC) and Bravo Two Charlies (BBC Wales). Film credits include We Live in Time (StudioCanal). Radio credits include My Type on Paper, Wood Wide Web, Dr Dr (Seagull Productions) and D for Dexter (BBC Radio 4). 

 

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