Ian McKellen's Hamlet set to go ahead from next week despite roadmap delay
© Sean Gleason
The forthcoming staging of Hamlet starring Ian McKellen will go ahead, it has been confirmed.
The production, directed by Sean Mathias and starring McKellen in an "age-blind interpretation of the young Prince", will begin performances on 21 June 2021.
Produced by Bill Kenwright, Hamlet runs until 4 September and heralds Mathias' inaugural season at the venue. It will be followed by Martin Sherman's adaptation of Anton Chekov's The Cherry Orchard, with McKellen playing Firs the elderly manservant.
The cast for both plays also includes: Francesca Annis (Ghost & Ranevskaya), Steven Berkoff (Polonius), Emmanuella Cole (Laertes), Alis Wyn Davies (Ophelia), Jenny Seagrove (Gertrude), Ben Allen, Llinos Daniel, Ashley D Gayle, Nick Howard-Brown, Jonathan Hyde, Asif Khan, Lee Knight and Missy Malek.
The creative team also includes set designer Lee Newby, costume designer Loren Elstein, lighting designer Zoe Spurr and composer and sound designer Adam Cork.
The show said in a note today: "We are delighted to be going ahead with our re-opening on the 21 June. Performances of Hamlet will take place with social distancing measures up until 19 July – this means that there will be changes to some customers' bookings. We will try to accommodate as many customers as we can under the new measures, prioritising those who booked first. We will then look to move anyone unable to attend their original performance to a suitable alternative date.
"We will be in touch with all customers for the affected dates in due course and will be working through affected performances in chronological order. To assist us in processing this in a timely manner, we do politely request that you do not contact Box Office at this extremely busy time, we will contact customers either by email or phone as soon as possible."
