Shakespeare’s Globe announces cast for Antony and Cleopatra

Shakespeare’s Globe has announced the cast for its upcoming production of Antony and Cleopatra, directed by Blanche McIntyre. The bilingual staging will feature both British Sign Language (BSL) and spoken English.

Nadia Nadarajah will play Cleopatra, with John Hollingworth as Mark Antony. The cast includes Mark Donald as Dolabella / Maecenas / Eros / Messenger from Sicyon, William Grint as Soothsayer / Clown / Diomedes / Antony’s Soldier, Nadeem Islam as Alexas / Mardian, Gabin Kongolo as Pompey / Decretas / Fourth Watch, Peter Landi as Lepidus / Canidius / Third Sentinel, Gabriella Leon as Iras / Octavia / Thyreus / Third Watch, Rhiannon May as Seleucus / Cover, Esther McAuley as Agrippa / Proculeius / Menas / Second Watch, Zoë McWhinney as Charmian, Daniel Millar as Domitius Enobarbus, Bert Seymour as Octavius Caesar, and Tom Simper as Second Sentinel / Messenger to Caesar / First Watch / Cover.

Director Blanche McIntyre said today: “I am so happy to be working on this extraordinary play with an equally brilliant cast. I hope that our bilingual production will shed light on the two cultures that the play presents us with and offers a new way of making theatre at the Globe.”

Associate Director Charlotte Arrowsmith added: “Antony and Cleopatra provides an insight to a bilingual world where two languages and cultures collide, but passion and love overrides. This play shows how hearing and deaf creatives as a collective can enrich ‘any story’ with representations of real life. We endeavour to prove a more unified world, where two languages and cultures come together, here at the Globe.”

The production team includes Simon Daw as designer, Mark Smith as choreographer, Tim Sutton as composer, Natalia Alvarez as costume supervisor and associate costume designer, Rae Bown-Williams and Ruth Cooper Brown of RC Annie as fight and intimacy directors, Giles Taylor as text consultant, Daryl Jackson as BSL consultant, and Ben Glover and Sarah Readman as caption designers.

Each performance will be captioned throughout, ensuring accessibility for all audience members. The rehearsal interpreters are Hahna Ahmed, Yasmin Al-Kalamchi, Jacqui Beckford, Chris Curran, Jemima Hoadley, Harry Jardine, Pascale Maloney, Louise Mitcham, Rebekah Spencer, Sharan Thind, Natasha Trantom and Beverly Wilson.