First Preview Performances of THE HAMLET PROJECT Will Launch New RADA Residencies Programme

RADA and Trish Wadley Productions have announced Sinéad Rushe's polyphonic production of The Hamlet Project will have a week of previews at RADA to pilot a new RADA Residencies programme. This new Academy initiative launches with the production directed by Rushe (Lead Acting Tutor) and includes a series of wraparound events including A Conversation with RADA President David Harewood on Reimagining Shakespeare. This project marks the first of RADA's artist-in-residence projects that aim to bring fresh professional insight to students and audiences alike.

Following the success of Rushe's Othello at Riverside Studios, this companion piece The Hamlet Project sees Hamlet performed by an ensemble of three actors and features live music composed by Michael Fox (Michael & Michelle). Rushe directs Nina Bowers, Max Ferguson and Freddie MacBruce (Hamlet), Gretchen Egolf (Gertrude), Emma Harrison (Ophelia/Rosencrantz), Gareth Kennerley (Polonius/Laertes) and Nathaniel Martello-White (Claudius).

Sinéad Rushe said today, ‘We're exploring how a person's psychology is made up of different parts or roles, in the theatrical sense of the term. People have public and private selves. The voices jostle, argue and occasionally concur with each other, and when a person is in crisis, like Hamlet, this inner dialogue becomes fragmented and cacophonous. In The Hamlet Project, we're staging this inner conflict, literally turning the character inside out.'

The run of The Hamlet Project will be accompanied by a series of wraparound events including:

• Reimagining Shakespeare: A Conversation between Sinéad Rushe and RADA President David Harewood, who will lead the upcoming Othello at Theatre Royal Haymarket. Chaired by Mark Lawson
• Q and A with Rushe's The Hamlet Project and Othello companies
• Considering Character: An acting masterclass with Sinéad Rushe for RADA alumni

Following work in progress industry showings at RADA Studios last summer, supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, this production sees Sinéad Rushe renew her collaboration with many of the production team of Othello alongside a cast filled with some of RADA's established and emerging talent. Rushe's ambition is to perform the two plays in repertory in the future.

The inaugural event of its new Artist in Residence programme, RADA and the producer of the acclaimed sell-out productions of Othello at Riverside Studios and The Shape of Things at Park Theatre, present this innovative new production of The Hamlet Project featuring Hamlet performed by an ensemble of three actors and live music composed by Michael Fox.

Prince Hamlet comes home to find his father dead, his place usurped and his life in crisis. Upstaged by his uncle, he no longer knows what part he's meant to play, or how to play it.

Sinéad Rushe's raw new production dramatises this famous uncertainty in a striking new way by dividing the central role across a fluid ensemble of three actors. Their voices jostle, argue and diverge; unity of purpose is a fragile achievement. This approach to character also exposes the contested role of king or ruler as just a role and shows how political power is itself a ‘play' – a play of ruthless force and devious stagecraft. 

Nina Bowers plays Hamlet. Her theatre credits include English Kings Killing Foreigners (Soho Theatre, also co-writer), Our Cosmic Dust (Park Theatre), As You Like It, The Henrys (Shakespeare's Globe), Girl on an Altar (Kiln Theatre, Abbey Theatre Dublin), Crave (Barbican Theatre), Dear Elizabeth, Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 (Gate Theatre), The Magic Flute (English National Opera, London Coliseum), The Empress (RSC) and The Wolves (Theatre Royal Stratford East). Her television credits include The Diplomat and Lockwood & Co.

Gretchen Egolf plays Gertrude. Her theatre credits include The Autumn Garden (Jermyn Street Theatre), A Streetcar Named Desire (Guthrie Theater), Ring Round the Moon (Lincoln Center), Betrayal (Huntington Theatre), Jackie (Belasco Theatre, Queen's Theatre), Arcadia (ACT), A Midsummer Night's Dream (The Old Globe), Design for Living (Shakespeare Theater), Titus Andronicus (NY Shakespeare Exchange), Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Candida (Pittsburgh Public), Private Lives, Much Ado About Nothing, Faith Healer (Barrington Stage). Her television credits include Hijack, Pennyworth, Doctor Who, Journeyman, Elementary, Law and Order and Law and Order: SVU (as recurring character Kendra Gill), The Good Wife, Blue Bloods, Criminal Minds, NCIS, Martial Law, Roswell; and for film, The Son and The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Max Ferguson plays Hamlet. His theatre credits include To Kill a Mockingbird (Gielgud Theatre), Felt (Southwark Playhouse, Vaults Festival), ECCE Homo (The Wardrobe Ensemble) and Growing Nowhere (Hot Coals Theatre). His screen credits include The Bay, Dating Horror Stories, Pops, SOS… But Don't Worry If Not, Department of They.

Emma Harrison plays Ophelia, Rosencrantz. A recent graduate of Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, her theatre credits include Cuckoo (Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool Everyman). Her television credits include Babies (BBC).

Gareth Kennerley plays Polonius, Laertes. His theatre credits include The Bear, The Importance of Being Earnest (Play in the Park), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Australian Shakespeare Company), Great Expectations (Mercury Theatre), Trouble in Butetown (Donmar Warehouse), Othello, The Corn is Green, Saint Joan (National Theatre), The Tragedy of Macbeth (Almeida Theatre), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace Theatre), House and Garden (Watermill Theatre), Five Guys Chillin (King's Head Theatre), Stand Up, Carmen (Stephen Joseph Theatre), The Comedy of Errors, Richard II (Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory), Rush, Pavement (Theatre West), Sweeney Todd (Dundee Rep), Cloud Sensation (Curving Road), Doctor Faustus, The School for Scandal (Greenwich Theatre), War Horse (National Theatre, New London Theatre), Under Milk Wood (Kiln Theatre), The Pendulum (Jermyn Street Theatre) and Fiddler on the Roof (Sheffield Theatres, Savoy Theatre). His television credits include Professor T; and for film, My Policeman.

Freddie MacBruce plays Hamlet. He is a recent graduate from RADA. His professional debut performance was in The Little Foxes (Young Vic Theatre).

Nathaniel Martello-White plays Claudius and is a RADA graduate. His theatre credits include People, Places & Things (National Theatre, Trafalgar Theatre, St. Ann's Warehouse), Who Cares, Gastronauts, The Internet Is Serious Business, Collaboration, Oxford Street (Royal Court Theatre), Edward II (National Theatre), Marat/Sade, A Midsummer Night's Dream, City Madame (RSC), Knives and Hens, Innocence (Arcola Theatre), Bad Blood Blues (Theatre Royal Stratford East) and Romeo and Juliet (UK tour). His television credits include Nicole Lecky's Wild Cherry, The Winter King, Deceit, I Hate Suzie, Small Axe, Kiri, Collateral, Guerrilla, Silk, Fleabag, Misfits, Katy Brand's Big Ass Show, Comedy Lab, Mongrels, Coming Up, Roman Mysteries, The Brothers Size and Party Animals; and for film, Daddy's Head, Daphne, Life Just Is, Hard Boiled Sweets, Invisible, Heat, Red Tails, Sisterhood of The Travelling Pants 2, Deadmeat and Moonwalkers. Nathaniel is also a writer of an anthology of poetry, A Western Nightmare, the award-winning plays Blackta (Young Vic) and Torn (Royal Court), feature film The Strays released on Netflix (2023) and the short film Cla'am (Best UK short Award at Raindance).

Sinéad Rushe is director. She is an Olivier Award nominated theatre director and acting coach. Her theatre work includes Who's There (UC Davis, USA), Othello (Riverside Studios), AntigoneNOW (Cairo International Festival of Experimental Theatre, Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center), Loaded (Old Rep Birmingham, The Place), Concert (Barbican Theatre, New York and international tour), Night Just Before the Forests (Macau Arts Festival China), Diary of a Madman (Sherman Cymru and international tour), and Out of Time (Barbican Theatre, New York and international tour – Olivier Award nomination). She is the Artistic Director of Creative Actor Training and Lead Acting Tutor at RADA. She is the author of Michael Chekhov's Acting Technique: A Practitioner's Guide, and co-translator into French of four plays by Howard Barker.