Clive Wood, Eve Best Take Title Roles In ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA At The Globe. From May 17

Shakespeare's Globe has announced full casting for Jonathan Munby's Antony & Cleopatra. Clive Wood will take the role of Marc Antony and Eve Best will play the alluringly ambiguous Cleopatra. The production also stars Jolyon Coy as Octavius Caesar, Phil Daniels as Enobarbus and Sirine Saba as Charmian.

One of Shakespeare's most magnificent tragedies, Antony & Cleopatra explores what happens when the unstoppable force of sexual desire meets the immovable object of imperial power. Its burnished poetry and cinematic shifts from sensual Alexandria to austere Rome are matched in scope and grandeur only by the two characters at the heart of the play and their desperate, doomed love.

Eve Best returns to the Globe, having made her directing debut at the helm of last year'sMacbeth. She also appeared as a much-lauded Beatrice in the Globe's 2011 production of Much Ado About Nothing. She played the eponymous Duchess in The Duchess of Malfi at the Old Vic and Wallis Simpson in the Oscar-winning film The King's Speech. Eve won the Olivier Award for Best Actress for her performance in the title role in Hedda Gabler at the Almeida in 2005. She is also a two-time winner of the London Critics' Circle Award for Best Actress, for Hedda Gablerand Mourning Becomes Electra at the National Theatre, and a two-time nominee of the Tony Award for Best Actress.

Clive Wood studied drama at LAMDA and first came to notice in the late 1970s playing the title role in Henry V at the Bristol Old Vic. He spent several years as a member of the RSC, touring the United States and, more recently, taking leading roles in Twelfth Night, Richard II and Henry IVparts 1 and 2 among others. His other theatre credits include Trevor Nun's Flare Path and The Tempest (Theatre Royal Haymarket) and Michael Attenborough's King Lear and Filumena(Almeida). His television credits include A Touch of Frost, Endeavour and The Bill.

Jolyon Coy recently appeared in the BBC film The Whale alongside Martin Sheen. His other film credits include The Fifth Estate and The Deep Blue Sea, and his theatre credits include Posh(Royal Court and Duke of York's), Edward II (Royal Exchange, Manchester) and The Prince of Homburg (Donmar Warehouse).

Phil Daniels first came to fame in the cult film Quadrophenia. His recent stage credits include The Knight of the Burning Pestle (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse), This House (National Theatre) andThe Beggar's Opera (Regents Park Open Air Theatre). He was the voice of the Blur single Parklifeand appeared in the song's music video.

Sirine Saba won critical acclaim for her performance as Hermione in last year's The Winter's Taleat Regents Park Open Air Theatre, where she has also played Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew and Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Her work for the RSC includes Midnight's Children, Pericles and Tales from Ovid, and her National Theatre credits include Our Town,Sparkleshark and Pillars of the Community.<Antony & Cleopatra

17 May - 24 August

Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Jonathan Munby
Designed by Colin Richmond
Composed by Jules Maxwell

Full cast: Ignatius Anthony, Peter Bankolé, Eve Best, Jonathan Bonnici, Philip Correia, Jolyon Coy, Phil Daniels, Kammy Darweish, Paul Hamilton, James Hayes, Rosie Hilal, Daniel Rabin, Sirine Saba, Obioma Ugoala, Clive Wood