Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Sigourney Weaver was eight the last time Shakespeare was performed at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, when the late Peter Brook directed John Gielgud in ‘The Tempest’ in 1957. A lot has happened to both Weaver and the theatre since then, but at the age of 75 the star of the ‘Alien’, ‘Ghostbusters’ and ‘Avatar’ films will make her UK stage debut in the first Shakespeare play to be staged at the venerable theatre for over half a century. It’s ‘The Tempest’ (again), with Weaver taking on the role of exiled magician Prospero in Jamie Lloyd’s revival, the first of two starry Shakespeares he’s directing there (the other, ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ starring Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell, will follow next year). She’ll be joined by a cast of Jude Akuwudike (Alonso), Jason Barnett (Stephano), Selina Cadell (Gonzalo), Mathew Horne (Trinculo), Mara Huf (Miranda), Forbes Masson (Caliban), Mason Alexander Park (Ariel), James Phoon (Ferdinand), Oliver Ryan (Sebastian) and Tim Steed (Antonio). Lloyd’s last couple of shows have made heavy use of live video and found spaces throughout the theatre, of which there would seem to be many at Drury Lane, though there appears to not be any camera operators billed. Design will be from Soutra Gilmour, who designs pretty much everything Lloyd does.

While Jamie Lloyd’s productions often involve mad celebrity casting of the sort you’d never have expected to see in your lifetime – see his imminent US production of ‘Waiting for Godot’ starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter – he also has go to actors, and it’s a pleasure to see two of them join forces for this middle-aged ‘Much Ado’. MCU veterans Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell have never actually shared the screen in any of the Marvel films, but they’ll share the stage nightly for a couple of months in the second half of Lloyd’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane season of Shakespeare, playing bickering lovers Benedick and Beatrice. Hiddleston previously starred in Lloyd’s revival of Pinter’s ‘Betrayal’ in the West End and Broadway; Atwell has been in two of Lloyd’s earlier productions, ‘The Faith Machine’ and ‘The Pride’.  We don’t specifically know what to expect beyond their casting, but it tends to be the way with Lloyd that the topline celebrities are the only ‘names’ in his casts; he’s also been going through something of a live video ‘phase’ (though to date that’s only actually been two shows). Further details including an on sale date are TBA.