PRINCIPAL CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR RSC’S HAMLET DIRECTED BY MULTI AWARD-WINNING RUPERT GOOLD
BAFTA AWARD-WINNING JARED HARRIS (CHERNOBYL, MAD MEN) TO RETURN TO THE RSC TO PLAY CLAUDIUS
OLIVIER AWARD-WINNING ACTORS NANCY CARROLL (AFTER THE DANCE, MURDER IN PROVENCE) AND ELLIOT LEVEY (CABARET, COLD WAR) RETURN TO RSC TO PLAY GERTRUDE AND POLONIUS
RSC ASSOCIATE ARTIST ANTON LESSER (ENDEAVOR, GAME OF THRONES) TO PLAY THE GHOST / FIRST PLAYER
INTRODUCING NIA TOWLE AS OPHELIA IN HER RSC DEBUT SEASON
THEY JOIN THE PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED LUKE THALLON WHO MAKES RSC DEBUT IN THE TITULAR ROLE
DOWNLOAD IMAGES HERE
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) today announce further casting for Hamlet, directed by the multi award-winning Rupert Goold and running in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from Saturday 8 February – Saturday 29 March 2025, with press night on Tuesday 18 February 2025.
Principal cast comprises Nancy Carroll (Gertrude), Jared Harris (Claudius), Anton Lesser (Ghost/First Player), Elliot Levey (Polonius), Kel Matsena (Horatio), Lewis Shepherd (Laertes) and Nia Towle (Ophelia).
They join the previously announced Luke Thallon, who will make his RSC debut in the titular role.
Rupert Goold, Director, said: “I am thrilled to announce the principal cast for Hamlet. I have admired Jared Harris for years as a fantastic actor on both stage and screen and to bring him back to the RSC after over 40 years is incredibly exciting. I am equally delighted to work with Elliot Levey again after Cold War and with Nancy Carroll and Anton Lesser both of whose work I have adored over many years.
“Nia was exceptional in A View From The Bridge, and I know her Ophelia will be just as arresting. I worked with Kel and Lewis on Dear England and am thrilled to be coaching them as part of this team too. They join Luke whom I directed on Cold War and Patriots, and on his debut in Albion. His grace and sensitivity have always marked him as a future Hamlet and it’s a privilege to be working with him again.
“Returning to the RSC for me is a homecoming of sorts and to lead a world class classical ensemble in Stratford remains as magical a prospect as it did when I first joined the company.”
Nancy Carroll will play Gertrude. Nancy’s RSC credits include Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Henry IV parts 1 and 2, The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, Winter’s Tale. Other theatre includes The Cabinet Minister (Menier Chocolate Factory), Marjorie Prime (Menier Chocolate Factory), Rock n Roll (Hampstead Theatre), Betrayal (Theatre Royal Bath), Manor, The Magistrate, After The Dance, The Enchantment, Man of Mode, The Voysey Inheritance, The False Servant, The Talking Cure (National Theatre),The Moderate Soprano (Hampstead and Duke of Yorks), Closer, The Recruiting Officer (Donmar Warehouse) House of Games, Waste, King Lear (Almeida), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Sheffield Crucible), You Never Can Tell (Garrick) See How They Run (Duchess), The Duck House (Vaudeville) and Still Life/Astonished Heart (Liverpool Playhouse).
Television credits include Dalgleish, Ghosts of Beirut, Father Brown, The Crown, Murder in Provence, Stephen, Will, Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, Lewis, Silent Witness, Agatha Raison, Queens of Mystery, Call the Midwife and Cambridge Spies. Film includes Magic Mike -The Last Dance, The Gathering Storm, Iris and An Ideal Husband.
Jared Harris will play Claudius. His previous RSC credits include Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, A Clockwork Orange and The Silent Woman. Other theatre includes The Homecoming (The Young Vic), A Period Of Adjustment (Almeida), Hamlet (NJ Shakespeare Festival), Humble Boy (Theatre for A New Audience, NYC), More Lies About Jerzy (The Vineyard, NYC), Ecstasy (The New Group, NYC) King Lear, Tis Pity She’s a Whore and Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 (NY Shakespeare Festival).
His television credits include The Beast Must Die, Chernobyl, The Terror, The Crown, Mad Men and The Two Of US. Film credits include Reawakening, Lincoln, Brave The Dark, Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Happiness, & I Shot Andy Warhol, Animation: The Sea Beast and The Boxtrolls.
Anton Lesser will play the Ghost/First Player. Anton is an Associate Artist of the RSC where his previous credits include The Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline, The Taming of the Shrew, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Two Shakespearean Actors, Richard II, Some Americans Abroad and Richard III.
Other theatre includes The Pope (Theatre Royal and Derngate), A Doll’s House (Donmar Warehouse), The Vertical Hour (Royal Court Theatre), Julius Caesar (Barbican/tour), Lucky Ones (Hampstead Theatre), Art (Wyndham’s Theatre), Private Lives, Mutabilitie, Wild Oats and The Birthday Party (National Theatre).
Television credits include Andor, 1899, Better, The Trial of Christine Keeler, Endeavour, Game of Thrones, The Crown, Will, Hooten & The Lady, Dickensian, The Hollow Crown, Wolf Hall, The Game, The Musketeers, Father Brown, Atlantis, The Escape Artist, Ripper Street, Mad Dogs, Spies of Warsaw, The Hollow Crown: Henry V, Secret State, The Scapegoat, The Man Who Crossed Hitler, The Hour, Garrow’s Law, Primeval: Webisodes, Five Daughters, Holby City, Casualty 1909, Little Dorrit, Dickens, Invasion Earth, Lorna Doone, Perfect Strangers, The Politician’s Wife, The Scarlet Pimpernel and Vanity Fair. Film includes The Yellow Tie, Benediction, Charlotte Gray, Imagining Argentina, Girl in the Café, Miss Potter, Einstein and Eddington, River Queen, The Kaiser’s Last Kiss, Flutter, On Chesil Beach, Closer To The Moon, Gatecrash, Kindred, The Courier and Disobedience.
Elliot Levey will play Polonius. His previous RSC credits include The Comedy of Errors. Elliot’s previous theatre includes his Olivier award-winning performance as Herr Shultz in Cabaret, other credits include Cold War, Nine Lessons and Carols, The Three Sisters (Almeida); Good, Mary Stuart, The Ruling Class, Much Ado About Nothing (West End); Snowflake (Kiln); St Joan, Coriolanus (Donmar); The Mighty Walzer (Royal Exchange); Kafka’s Dick (Theatre Royal Bath); Canvas (Chichester Festival Theatre); Danton’s Death, The Habit of Art, All’s Well That Ends Well, England People Very Nice, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, His Dark Materials (National); Beasts and Beauties (Bristol Old Vic); How Much Is Your Iron, Monkey! (Young Vic); Loves Work (Gate); On Ego, On Religion (Soho); Take Flight (Menier Chocolate Factory); The Tempest (British Council Tour/A&BC); Three Sisters on Hope Street (Hampstead/Liverpool Everyman); Tonight We Fly (Trestle) and The Warp (Ken Campbell Company).
Television credits include Bookish, We were the lucky ones, Queenie, Anne, This Way Up, The Amazing Mr. Blunden, Endeavour, Life, Truth Seekers, Quiz, Martin’s Close, The State of the Union, Peaky Blinders, Press, Watergate, Black Earth Rising, Silent Witness, Man Down, The Child in Time, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Wrong Mans, Ripper Street, Jamaica Inn, New Tricks, Truckers, Da Vinci’s Demons, Parade’s End, A Touch of Cloth, Casualty, Amnesia, Beau Brummel, Eastenders, Fat Friends, Holby City, Hotel Babylon, Lump in my Throat, Robin Hood, Sex, the City and Me, Sirens and Jason and the Argonauts. Film includes Murder on the Orient Express, Denial, Fallen, The Master of York, Florence Foster Jenkins, The Lady in the Van, Spooks, Philomena, The Wall, The Queen, Filth and Wisdom, Song of Songs, Supertex and Book of John.
Kel Matsena will play Horatio. His previous RSC credits include Pericles. Other theatre credits include Dear England (West End and National Theatre), Shades of Blue (Matsena Productions / Sadler’s Wells), Joseph K and the Cost of Living (National Theatre Wales), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Director - Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama), A Monster Calls (Old Vic and US tour) and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby Part 1 & 2 (Bristol Old Vic/BOVTS).
Television credits include Mixtape, Galwad, The Light, Brothers in Dance: Anthony and Kel Matsena and Doctors. Film includes Mad Heidi and Are You Numb Yet?
Lewis Shepherd will make his RSC debut as Laertes. Other theatre credits include Dear England (National Theatre), I Fucked You In My Spaceship (Vaults Festival) and Super High Resolution (Soho Theatre). Film includes10 Swords and The Moon. Lewis is the Founder and Artistic Director of Incept Collective.
Luke Thallon will make his RSC debut as Hamlet. His other theatre credits include Cold War, Patriots, Nine Lessons & Carols, Albion (Almeida Theatre), Patriots, Leopoldstadt, Pinter at the Pinter (West End), Camp Siegfried, Present Laughter (The Old Vic), After Life, Bent (National Theatre), Cock (Chichester Festival Theatre) and The Inheritance (Young Vic).
Luke was listed by The Stage in 2022 as one of the top twenty-five theatre makers of the future. He won the Clarence Derwent Award for his performance in Leopoldstadt in the West End, and an Evening Standard Award nomination for his performance in Albion at the Almeida.
Nia Towle will make her RSC debut as Ophelia. Her theatre credits include A View From The Bridge (Theatre Royal Haymarket in a transfer from the Theatre Royal Bath), The Crucible (Gielgud Theatre) and The Ocean At The End of the Lane (Duke of York's Theatre). Screen credits include Persuasion, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Late, Sparklers and They Found Her In A Field.
Rupert Goold is Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre, founding Artistic Director of Headlong (2005 to 2013), Associate Director at the RSC and Artistic Director of Northampton Theatres (2002 to 2005).
His previous RSC credits include The Merchant of Venice; Romeo and Juliet and Speaking Like Magpies. For the Almeida his credits include Cold War; Women, Beware the Devil; Tammy Faye (also Broadway); Patriots (also West End/ Broadway); Spring Awakening; Albion; The Hunt (also St. Ann’s Warehouse, New York); Shipwreck; Richard III; Medea; The Merchant of Venice; The Last Days of Judas Iscariot; American Psycho (also Broadway); Ink; King Charles III (also West End/ Broadway).
Other theatre includes: Dear England (National Theatre/ West End); The 47th (The Old Vic); The Effect; Earthquakes in London (Headlong/ National Theatre); Time and the Conways (National Theatre); The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Kensington Gardens); Enron (Headlong/ West End/ Broadway); Made in Dagenham; Oliver!; The Glass Menagerie; No Man’s Land (West End); King Lear (Headlong/ Liverpool Everyman/ Young Vic); Six Characters in Search of an Author (Headlong/ West End); Macbeth (Chichester Festival Theatre/ West End/ Broadway). Screen credits include Judy; True Story, Macbeth; King Charles III and Richard II.
Rupert has received Olivier, Critics’ Circle and Evening Standard awards for Best Director twice and won a Peabody Award in 2011 for Macbeth. Rupert received a CBE in 2017 New Year’s Honours for services to drama.
Directed by Rupert Goold, set design is by Es Devlin, costume design by Evie Gurney, lighting design by Jack Knowles, music and sound design by Adam Cork, movement by Hannes Langolf, video design by Akhila Krishnan and casting by Charlotte Sutton CDG.
ENDS
For Hamlet media enquiries, please contact Bethany Arnold (Senior Publicist) on 07827824327. Email: bethany.arnold@rsc.org.uk
X: @TheRSC
Instagram: @thersc
LISTINGS INFORMATION
HAMLET
By William Shakespeare
Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Saturday 8 February – Saturday 29 March 2025
Press Night: Tuesday 18 February at 7pm
Tickets from £10
Box Office: www.rsc.org.uk Tel: 01789331111
‘Drown the stage with tears.’
Grief can play tricks on the mind, even conjure ghosts. But when Hamlet’s dead father appears to him one night, he signals murder, not madness.
Hamlet’s mother has married his uncle, and at a less than decent interval too. As he pulls at the threads of his not-so-happy new family, Hamlet unravels a web of deceit and immorality that leads to the ultimate crisis of conscience.
Following their hugely successful recent collaborations on Cold War and Patriots, multi award-winner Rupert Goold (Dear England, National Theatre; Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice RSC), directs Luke Thallon as Hamlet in this new production of Shakespeare’s family saga.
ASSISTED PERFORMANCES AND PUBLIC EVENTS
Chilled and Captioned Performance: Saturday 1 March, 1pm
Captioned Performance: Friday 7 March, 7pm
Audio Described Performances: Saturday 8 March, 1pm and Thursday 13 March, 1pm
Handheld Captioned Performance: Wednesday 19 March, 7pm
Integrated BSL Performance: Friday 21 March, 7pm
Chilled, Handheld Captioned and Integrated BSL Performance: Thursday 27 March, 1pm
Director Talk: Monday 17 February, 5 – 5.45pm
Post Show Talk (BSL Interpreted): Friday 21 March
NOTES TO EDITORS
The RSC is supported using public funding by Arts Council England
The work of the RSC is supported by the Culture Recovery Fund
The RSC is generously supported by RSC America
With thanks to Season Supporters Backstage Trust and Miranda Curtis CMG
RSC £10 Tickets for 14-25s supported by TikTok
The RSC Acting Companies are generously supported by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s mission is to bring people together to experience stories that deepen our understanding of ourselves, each other and the world around us, and that bring joy. Shakespeare’s restless exploration of all of human nature is our inspiration and touchstone.
The Company’s roots lie in the bold vision of a local brewer, Edward Fordham Flower, who in 1879 established a theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon with his son Charles. The RSC as we know it today was formed by Sir Peter Hall, whose ambition was to produce new plays alongside those of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. We continue this today across our three permanent theatres in Stratford – the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the Swan Theatre and The Other Place – and indeed online and around the globe. We believe everybody’s life can be enriched by culture and creativity. Our transformative Creative Learning and Engagement programmes reach over half a million young people and adults each year. We have collaborated with generations of the very best theatre makers and we continue to nurture the talent of the future.
Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. We invest public money from Government and The National Lottery to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. www.artscouncil.org.uk. Following the Covid-19 crisis, the Arts Council developed a £160 million Emergency Response Package, with nearly 90% coming from the National Lottery, for organisations and individuals needing support. We are also one of the bodies responsible for administering the Government’s unprecedented Culture Recovery Fund, of which we delivered over £1 billion to the sector in grants and loans. Find out more at www.artscouncil.org.uk/covid19.
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