Casting Announced For HAMLET at Shakespeare's Globe

Shakespeare's Globe has announced the full cast of Hamlet which will be performed for the very first time in the candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse by the Globe Ensemble, directed by Associate Artistic Director Sean Holmes.

In a world of surveillance and counter-surveillance, Hamlet is horrified by the role he seems required to play as madness threatens to rip apart the lies around him and expose the truth beneath. Sean Holmes' production explores Shakespeare's iconic tale of manipulation, disruption and coercion for the first time in the intimate Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

Sean Holmes returns to the Playhouse after directing the ensemble productions of Henry VI and Richard III in the 2019 Winter Season. The role of Hamlet will be played by George Fouracres, who delighted audiences with his "deliriously funny" (Evening Standard) performances in the 2021 Summer Season productions as Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Aguecheek in Twelfth Night, also directed by Sean. George, an actor and comedian, is a member of the critically acclaimed sketch trio Daphne alongside Jason Forbes and Phil Wang.

The ensemble:

Peter Bourke will play Horatio. Peter recently performed in the Globe's 2021 Summer Season productions of Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night's Dream, a role he reprised from 2019. Other theatre credits include: The Sea (Chichester); The English Game (Headlong); Henry IV Parts I and II, Henry V, Perkin Warbeck (RSC) and The Browning Version & Harlequinade, The Elephant Man, The Provoked Wife, On the Razzle (National Theatre)

Rachel Hannah Clarke will play Ophelia. a??Rachel Hannah recently performed in the Globe's 2021 Summer Season productions of Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night's Dream, a role she reprised from 2019. Other credits include: You Remember? (Royal Court); Queens of Sheba - Winner of The Stage Award (Vaults Festival / Newa??Diorama Theatrea??/ Underbelly / Camden People's Theatre); Hatch (Talawa Theatre Company) and Best Friends (Ovalhouse).

George Fouracres will play Hamlet. George recently performed in the Globe's 2021 Summer Season productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night and is a member of critically acclaimed sketch trio Daphne. Other credits include Gentlemon (Fight in the Dog); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Filter Theatre/Lyric Hammersmith); Doctora??Faustus (Dot by Dot Theatre); Daphne's Second Show and Daphne Do Edinburgh (Edinburgh Festival).

Polly Frame will play Gertrude. Polly previously performed at the Globe in After Edward & Edward II in 2019. Other theatre credits include: I Think We Are Alone Now and Sometimes Thinking (Frantic Assembly); Solaris (Edinburgh Lyceum/ Lyric Hammersmith); Thick as Thieves (Clean Break Theatre); On The Exhale - Fringe First Winner (Traverse Theatre); Jekyll & Hyde (English Touring Consortium). TV includes: Meet the Magoons (Channel 4); Macbeth (BBC) and Half Light (Half-Light Productions).

Francesca Henry will play Rosencrantz. Francesca's previous theatre credits include: Our Town (Regent's Park Theatre); Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Tobacco Factory Theatres and Wiltshire Creatives); Germ Free Adolescent (The Bunker Theatre); Dear Elizabeth (Gate Theatre) and The Wolves (Theatre Royal Stratford). TV and Film credits include: Silent Witness, Doctors (BBC) and A Discovery Of Witches 3 (Bad Wolf for Sky1)

Nadi Kemp-Sayfi will play Laertes. Nadi recently performed in the Globe's 2021 Summer Season productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night. Other credits include The Whip, A Museum in Baghdad, King John (RSC); War with the Newts (Knaïve Theatre); Wake, Mittwoch Aus Licht, Life is a Dream (Birmingham Opera Company); 101 Dalmatians, Between The Two, Three Wheels on the Wagon, The Witches' Promise, Under The Stars (Birmingham Rep) and Hijabi Monologues (The Bush Theatre);

John Lightbody will play Polonius. John appeared in the Globe's 2019 Winter Season productions of Richard III & Henry VI. Other credits include: The Lost Disc and Microcosm (Soho Theatre); Terror, Three Sisters and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Lyric Hammersmith); Each His Own Wilderness (Orange Tree Theatre); 66 Books and The Strange Wife (The Bush); Ghost Stories (Duke of York's Theatre, West End).

Ciarán O'Brien will play Guildenstern / Ghost. Ciarán recently performed in the Globe's 2021 Summer Season productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night. Other credits include:a??Maz and Bricks - Best Actor at New York Origin Theatre Awards (Fishamble/59E59 Theatre and Edinburgh Fringe);a??The Plough and the Stars (Lyric Hammersmith/ Abbey Theatre); The Playboy of the Western World, Orson's Shadow (Southwark Playhouse); Of Mice and Men (Birmingham Rep); Translations (The Rose Theatre/Sheffield Crucible/ETT)

Irfan Shamji will play Claudius. Irfan returns to the Playhouse after recently performing in the 2021 production of Metamorphoses. Other credits include: The Living Newspaper (Royal Court); The Arrival (Bush Theatre); Hedda Tesman (Chichester Festival Theatre); Mayfly (The Orange Tree Theatre); One For Sorrow (Royal Court); Dance Nation (Almeida); and Hamlet (Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre).

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