Cast Set For MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING at Shakespeare's Globe

Shakespeare’s Globe has announced the cast of Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Associate Artistic Director Sean Holmes (The Comedy of Errors, Globe), with Ekow Quartey and Amalia Vitale as Benedick and Beatrice. The full cast comprises Jonnie Broadbent as Dogberry, Calum Callaghan as Borachio, Ryan Donaldson as Don Pedro, Emma Ernest as Margaret, Lydia Fleming as Hero, Colm Gormley as Antonio/Verges, John Lightbody as Leonato, Robert Mountford as Don John, Dharmesh Patel as Conrade/Friar Francis, and Adam Wadsworth as Claudio.

Performances run 25 April – 24 August.

Director Sean Holmes says: “I'm looking forward immensely to starting work on our production of Much Ado About Nothing. A cast full of comedic dynamism and emotional heft , a cracking creative team and the unique surroundings of the Globe will hopefully combine to produce a vibrant, raucous and complex Much Ado.”

Much Ado About Nothing will be designed by Grace Smart, with Grant Olding as Composer, 2023 Globe Resident Associate Director Naeem Hayat as Associate Director, and Tamsin Hurtado Clarke as Movement Director.

Biographies

Jonnie Broadbent will play Dogberry. Theatre credits include: Vardy V Rooney: The Wagatha Christie Trial (West End); The Comedy of Errors, The Tempest, Love for Love, Queen Anne, The Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe (RSC); Henry VI/Richard III, Henry IV/ Henry V (Shakespeare’s Globe); Humble Boy, The Double Dealer, Strange Orchestra (Orange Tree Theatre); The Wizard of Oz (Sheffield Crucible); The Norman Conquests (Chichester Festival Theatre); My Night with Reg (West End & Donmar); Grand Guignol (Theatre Royal Plymouth & Southwark Playhouse); Ghost Stories (West End); Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet (Rose Theatre, Bankside); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (West End, Filter Theatre & Lyric Hammersmith); Chekhov In Hell (Theatre Royal Plymouth & Soho Theatre); She Stoops To Conquer (Birmingham Rep); Twelfth Night (Filter Theatre/RSC/World Tour); The Dumb Waiter, The Turn of The Screw, Master Harold and The Boys (Bristol Old Vic & Southwark Playhouse); The Mill On The Floss (Nottingham Playhouse); The Three Birds (Gate Theatre); Peter Pan (National Theatre). TV includes: The Crown, Father Brown, Silent Witness, Eastenders, Gimme Gimme Gimme, Cold War, Alice in Wonderland, Thomas the Tank Engine. Film includes: Benediction (BFI & BBC Films); The Magic Flute, As You Like It (both directed by Kenneth Branagh).

Calum Callaghan will play Borachio. Theatre includes: Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe) Fisherman’s Friends (ROYO); Games For Lovers (James Seabright Productions); Abigail’s Party (ATG); Junkyard (Headlong); Cymbeline (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse); Wretch (Into The Wolf); Once A Catholic (Tricycle Theatre); Port (National Theatre); Olympic Opening Ceremony 2012 (Danny Boyle) Saved (Lyric Theatre); Belongings (Hampstead Theatre); Danny’s Deal (Old Vic/New Voices); Over Gardens Out (Riverside Studios); White Riot (YOCA); The Long Road, Lieutenant of Inishmore (Leicester Curve); Cell Begat Cell, After The Flood, Thinking The Deep Thoughts (Old Vic/Symposium: the Evolution Project); 24 Hour Plays: Old Vic New Voices (Old Vic); Animal Farm (West Yorkshire Playhouse); On the Middle Day (Old Vic/Imperial War Museum); The Baby & Fly Pie (Royal Exchange Manchester); Country Music (Royal Court Theatre) Citizenship (National Theatre) Food Chain (Royal Court Theatre); The Straits (Paines Plough); Hey Mr Producer (Cameron Mackintosh) Les Miserables - London (Cameron Mackintosh); Whistle Down The Wind – London (Really Useful Group) Oliver - London (Cameron Mackintosh). Television and Film includes: Small Axe, Black Mirror, Our World War, Mr Selfridge, Moley (animation), Holby City, Verbatim Riots, Silk, Tracey Beaker Returns, Casualty, Genie in the House, Torchwood, My Life As A Popat, To The Ends of the Earth, Heartbeat, Wall of Silence, Stitch Up!, Gypsy Girl, Ant & Dec Show, Black Hearts in Battersea, Scallagrigg, Hale & Pace. 

Ryan Donaldson will play Don Pedro. Ryan trained at LAMDA. Ryan recently played Edmund in an acclaimed production of King Lear at Shakespeare's Globe and last year played the title role in Tartuffe in a new version by Frank McGuinness at The Abbey Theatre. Ryan completed filming the role of “Lenny” in North Sea Connection, now showing on BBC iPlayer. Theatre credits include Alec in Owners (Jermyn Street Theatre), Tartuffe in Tartuffe (The Abbey Theatre) Michael Collins in The Chief (Decadent Theatre), Edmund in King Lear (Shakespeare’s Globe) Carlo in Captain Corelli's Mandolin (Harold Pinter Theatre) Matt Lynch in King Of The Castle (Druid Theatre Company), Thomas Magill in Misterman (Orange Tree Theatre), Autolycus in The Winter's Tale (Cheek by Jowl), David Craig in Observe The Sons Of Ulster Marching Towards The Somme (Headlong), Ned in Shakespeare In Love (Walt Disney/Sonia Friedman Productions).Television credits includes Lenny in North Sea Connection (RTÉ), Bar Man in Killing Eve (BBC).Feature film credits include Soldier in The Huntsmen Winters War  

Emma Ernest will play Margaret. Emma trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Previous work for Shakespeare’s Globe includes King Lear (2022) As You Like It, The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Globe on tour 2021). Television credits include: Juice (BBC3).

Lydia Fleming will play Hero. Theatre credits include Fury; Saturday, Sunday, Monday, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and Merrily We Roll Along all performed while studying at Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Television credits include Mary & George (Sky, AMC), In from the Cold (Netflix), Call the Midwife (BBC One) Jerk (BBC Three). Film credits include Last Swim (Caviar).

Colm Gormley will play Antonio/Verges. Colm trained at LAMDA and returns to the Globe after previously performing for the Globe on Tour, as well as numerous main stage productions. Previous work for Shakespeare’s Globe includes As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night and The Taming of the Shrew. Other theatre credits include Cowbois (RSC/Royal Court Theatre), Othello (National Theatre); Fighting Irish (Belgrade); The Winter’s Tale (RSC); Alice In Wonderland (Creation Theatre/Big Telly); Mother Courage And Her Children (Headlong/The Royal Exchange); The Country Girls (Chichester Festival Theatre); Warhorse (National Theatre); A Handful Of Stars (West End/Theatre 503); Twelfth Night (Sheffield Crucible/ETT); Dancing At Lughnasa (Royal And Derngate, Northampton/Oxford Playhouse); King Lear, All’s Well That End’s Well, I’ll Be The Devil (RSC); Melmoth The Wanderer (Lyric Theatre Belfast/Tron Theatre Glasgow); Truth & Reconciliation (Royal Court); Still, The Blackbird Sings (Playhouse Derry/Project Theatre Dublin); Arsenic And Old Lace (Salisbury Playhouse); Death Of Long Pig (Finborough Theatre With The Jerwood Space); Philidelphia Here I Come/Aristocrats (European Tour With Ourobourus); Twelfth Night (York Theatre Royal); The Boy With The Bomb In His Crisps (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry) The Time Step (Linda Marlowe Productions/Theatre 503); Smilin’ Through (The Drill Hall) The Ladies Cage (Manchester Royal Exchange/Finborough Theatre); The Water Harvest (State Of Play At Theatre 503); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Mercury Theatre Colchester); Merry Christmas Betty Ford (The Lyric Theatre Belfast); The Early Bird – By Leo Butler (Ransom Productions – National Tour); The Resistible Rise Of Artuo Ui, The Seagull, Twelfth Night, The White Devil, Three Sisters (The Mercury Theatre); Elizabeth (Kabosh); Tricky (Blood In The Alley); The Blind Bird (The Gate Theatre) and Kvetch (Artcore).Television includes Invisible (Mammoth Screen); McDonald and Dodds (ITV/Mammoth Screen); Victoria Season 2 (ITV); Officially Special (Sky); Locked Up Abroad (Channel 5, National Geographic); Titantic (Deep Indigo for ITV); River City (BBC Scotland); The Message (BBC Television); Ultimate Force (Bentley Productions). Film includes Downhill (Outsider); Jimmy’s Hall (16 Films) and Bloody Sunday (Paramount).

John Lightbody will play Leonato. John trained at Drama Studio London. Previous work for Shakespeare’s Globe includes: The Winter’s Tale (2023), Hamlet (2022), Richard III and Henry VI (2019). Other theatre credits include: The Lost Disc, Microcosm (Soho Theatre); Terror, Three Sisters (Lyric Hammersmith); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Filter/Lyric Hammersmith/Australia); Each His Own Wilderness (Orange Tree Theatre); 66 Books, The Strange Wife (The Bush); Ghost Stories (Duke of York’s Theatre, West End); The English Game (Headlong); Treasure Island (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Richard III (Southwark Playhouse); Jane Eyre (Shared Experience); A Dolls House, Twelfth Night, Huddersfield (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Measure for Measure, Richard III; Taming of the Shrew (RSC); Beautiful People (Stephen Joseph Theatre); A Christmas Carol, The Sea, Admirable Crichton (Chichester Festival Theatre); Incarcerator, As You Like It (BAC); As You Like It (National Theatre); My Fat Friend (Bill Kenwright Ltd); Romeo & Juliet (Stray Theatre Company); Mansfield Park (Triumph Proscenium); Services (Gate Theatre); A Little Princess (Yvonne Arnaud); She Stoops to Conquer (Northern Stage). Television includes: Treason (Netflix); Lockwood & Co (Netflix); Holby City, Doctors, EastEnders, The Musketeers, Father Brown, Dalziel and Pascoe (BBC); Wallander (Left Bank Pictures); Agatha Raisin (Sky 1); DCI Banks (Left Bank Pictures); The Mil (C4); The Bletchley Circle (World Productions); Midsomer Murders (ITV); The Bill (Thames Television); The Royal (Granada Television).

Film includes: A Fistful of Karma (Wild night films); The Flood (Flood Films); A Bunch of Amateurs (Isle of Man Films); How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (Paramount); Maybe Baby (BBC/Inconceivable Films); The Stick Up (Mermaid). Radio includes: Eleanor Rising (Duke William) and BBC Radio Rep (BBC Radio 4).

Robert Mountford will play Don John. Robert has just finished performing in Tom Littler’s sell-out production of She Stoops to Conquer at the Orange Tree Theatre. He recently played in The Habit of Art in New York City. Robert trained at RADA, where he won the Lilian Baylis Award and has worked in productions at the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre and London’s West End as well as making many television appearances. Last year, he starred alongside Jonathan Hyde in Howard Brenton’s Cancelling Socrates and was in the national tour of Ian Hislop and Nick Newman’s comedy Spike (Milligan). In 2017 he was nominated at the UK Theatre Awards for House and Garden. His Solo Show (Vagabonds – My Phil Lynott Odyssey) has played in Edinburgh, Dublin & London. He has regularly appeared for Read not Dead at Shakespeare’s Globe, has been a guest for acclaimed Shakespeare Impro Group The School of Night, and extensively toured the UK & United States. Selected theatre credits include Much Ado About Nothing (RSC/West End); The Merchant of Venice (RSC); The Habit of Art, Into The Night, The Haunting of Alice Bowles (Original Theatre); All’s Well That End’s Well, The Wind in the Willows (Jermyn St Theatre/GSC); The Odyssey (Jermyn Street Theatre), The Winter’s Tale, Romeo & Juliet (GSC); The Omission of the Family Coleman (Royal Theatre Bath); Anita & Me (Birmingham Rep); Betrayal (Salisbury Playhouse); Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Merlin, Hercules (Chester Open Air); Macbeth, The Tempest, Enemy of The People and The Merchant of Venice (Tara Arts); The Black Album (National Theatre); Tagore’s Women, Gandhi & Coconuts, Bitched (Kali Theatre); Hamlet, As You Like It, Winter’s Tale (USA tours); East is East (Leicester Haymarket). Screen credits include North Square (Channel 4); Holby City, Eastenders, Silent Witness, Torn, One Night, Casualty, Michael Wood’s History of India, Reverse Psychology (BBC); London’s Burning (LWT); A&E (Granada).

Dharmesh Patel will play Conrade/Friar Francis. Dharmesh trained at Hope St Physical Theatre School. Previous work for Shakespeare’s Globe includes: Henry V (with Headlong), The Captive Queen, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Tempest and Cymbeline. Other theatre credits include: Dear Octopus (National Theatre), Groan Ups (Mischief Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Creation Theatre), Duchess of Malfi (Creation Theatre), Wizard of Oz (Creation Theatre), Macbeth (Big Telly Theatre), Alice in Wonderland (Creation Theatre), A Belly Full (Theatre at the Mill), Double Dealer (Orange Tree), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lyric Theatre/Filter), Julius Caesar (RSC), Anthony and Cleopatra (RSC), Titus Andronicus (RSC), East is East (National Tour), Fever Dream Southside (Citizens Theatre), Albion (Bush Theatre), England Away (National Tour), Too Clever by Half (Manchester Exchange), The Snow Queen (Trestle), King Lear (RSC), Hamlet (Hamlet, RSC), Comedy of Errors (RSC), As You Like It (RSC), Romeo and Juliet (RSC), American Trade (RSC), The Grain Store (RSC), Morte Arthur (RSC), Happy and Married? (Freedom Studios), Satyagraha (Improbable/New York), Beauty and the Beast (Lyric, Hammersmith), Satygraha (Improbable/ENO), Coast (Contact, Manchester), Too Close to Home (Lyric Hammersmith/Tour), Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Octagon, Bolton), Slow Time (National Theatre), Silent Cry (Red Ladder Theatre Co.), The Happy Prince (Leicester Haymarket Theatre). Television credits include: Vera (ITV) Casualty (BBC), Doctors (BBC), Casualty (BBC), Ray’s Daze (BBC).

Ekow Quartey will play Benedick. Ekow most recently appeared in The Witches at The National Theatre and can be seen in Smothered (Sky) and Breeders (FX/Sky). Theatre credits include the title roles in Henry VIII, Macbeth (Shakespeare's Globe), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare's Globe), Barber Shop Chronicles (USA Tour/National Theatre), AMADEUS (National Theatre), People, Places & Things (National Theatre/Headlong/Exeter Northcott), Peter Pan (National Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theatre Royal Bath), As You Like It (National Theatre), Richard II (Shakespeare's Globe), The Absence of War (Headlong/UK Tour), Spring Awakening (Headlong/West Yorkshire Playhouse/UK Tour), Long Story Short (Pleasance Theatre) and Eye of a Needle (Southwark Playhouse). TV credits include Becoming Elizabeth (Starz), Trying (Apple TV+), This Way Up (Hulu/Channel 4), Shakespeare & Hathaway (BBC1), Call the Midwife (BBC1), The Valentine (Sky) and Enterprice (BBC3). Film credits include Lift (Netflix), The Current War (Weinstein Company). Ekow also starred in Titus Andronicus, a two-hander short film with Peter Capaldi for Shakespeare's Globe. Ekow was nominated for the prestigious 2015 and 2020 Ian Charleson Award.

Amalia Vitale will play Beatrice. Theatre credits include: Pandemonium (Soho Theatre); The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel (UK Tour); Two’s Company (Royal Court) Trap Street (Schaubuhne, Berlin); War Of The Worlds (New Diorama); Bon Ami (All In); Beginners (Unicorn Theatre); The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe (Leeds Playhouse); Beauty and The Beast (Cambridge Junction); Primetime (Royal Court);  Jeramee, Hartleby and Ooglemore (The Unicorn Theatre); The Light Princess (Tobacco Factory); Civilised (All In); Love Sick (All In); Hysteria (Theatre Royal Bath) Asylum (Theatre 503); Dangerous Mneumonics (Arcola); If A Ten Ton Truck (Theatre 503); The Brummie Patrocleia (The Arcola); The Toy Theatre (Birmingham Rep). TV credits include: Series regular in Big Mood (Channel 4); Beyond Paradise (BBC). Further TV Credits Willow (Disney+); Trying (BBC); Endeavor (ITV); Casualty (BBC); Midsomer Murders (ITV). Film credits include: Voice of Lula the Alien in Shaun the Sheep movie Farmageddon.

Adam Wadsworth will play Claudio. Adam trained at LAMDA. Theatre credits include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (West End) and Patterns (Leicester Curve). Television credits include Lewis (ITV); Marple (ITV) and My Phone Genie (CITV).

 

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