Mark Quartley to join Simon Russell Beale in The Tempest

Actor Mark Quartley will star as Ariel in the Royal Shakespeare Company's upcoming production of The Tempest.

Quartley joins the already announced Simon Russell Beale, who plays Prospero, in Greg Doran's production. The show is a collaboration between the RSC and The Imaginarium Studios – the company founded by Andy Serkis which was behind motion capture for films such as The Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Star Wars: Force Awakens.

Quartley will wear a motion capture suit on the Royal Shakespeare Theatre for the first time, which will allow his movements to be projected around the stage. His Ariel will fly and morph into different versions of the spirit with the help of Intel technology. His previous credits include Written on the Heart and Measure for Measure for the RSC, Macbeth (Trafalgar Studios), Ghosts (Rose Theatre Kingston) and TV series Hoff the Record.

It will be the first time Russell Beale has performed with the company in 23 years. The show has been in development since September 2015 and will be the first live motion-capture performance featured in a major classical stage production.

The Tempest runs at the RST from 17 November to 21 January.