Full Cast Set For the RSC's 2026 HAMLET Tour

Full casting has been announced for the Royal Shakespeare Company's forthcoming touring production of Hamlet which visits Truro, Bradford, Norwich, Nottingham, Blackpool, Newcastle upon Tyne, York and Canterbury between 24 February – 25 April 2026.  A full list of venues and dates is at the end of the release. 

The production, originally directed by Rupert Goold and directed on tour by Sophie Drake, visits eight venues in England in 2026 with a new cast, after originally opening in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon in 2025.

Joining the previously announced Ralph Davis (who plays the title role of Hamlet), are: Rob Alexander-Adams (Voltemand), Richard Cant (Polonius), Kat Collings (Ensemble), Raymond Coulthard (Claudius), Maximus Evans (Marcellus), Ian Hughes (Ghost/Player King), CJ Johnson (Player Queen), Julia Kass (Guildenstern), Poppy Miller (Gertrude), Georgia-Mae Myers (Ophelia), Mark Oosterveen (Cornelius/Priest), Djibril Ramsey (Barnardo), Colin Ryan (Horatio), Jonathan Savage (Ensemble), Jamie Sayers (Rosencrantz), Leo Shak (Francisco) and Benjamin Westerby (Laertes).

An accomplished classical actor, Ralph Davis has already played several leading men. He was nominated for the 2023 Ian Charleson Award for playing Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, appeared as Edmund in King Lear (both at Shakespeare's Globe), and most recently played Iago in Othello at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, for which he came second in the 2025 Ian Charleson Awards. As well as other theatre credits at the Almeida, Chichester Festival Theatre, Ustinov Studio and elsewhere, Ralph's RSC credits include Tamburlaine, Timon of Athens, Richard III and King John.

Ralph co-wrote, created and starred in Film Club for the BBC which came out in 2025. His other screen credits include House of the Dragon for HBO, Big Boys for Channel 4, SAS: Rogue Heroes, Life After Life and Steve McQueen's Small Axe for the BBC.

Raymond Coulthard plays Claudius.  His previous RSC credits include Cyrano de Bergerac, Heresy of Love, Measure for Measure and The Merchant of Venice 1936.  Other theatre credits include Summerfolk, Troilus and Cressida, The Merchant of Venice, The Coast of Utopia, The Relapse and Women Beware Women (National Theatre).  On screen he has appeared in The Muppets Christmas Carol, The English Patient, Red Joan, Hotel Babylon, Emmerdale and Extras.

Poppy Miller plays Gertrude. Her previous RSC credits include Bartholomew Fair and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Other theatre credits include: The Hunt, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Almedia Theatre), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (West End and Broadway) and Richard III (Globe). Screen credits include: The Second Best Marigold Hotel, Sex and Drugs and Rock & Roll, Death In Paradise and Line of Duty.

Georgia-Mae Myers plays Ophelia. Her previous RSC credits include: Henry VI: Rebellion and Wars of the Roses. Other theatre credits include: Henry VIII, All's Well That Ends Well,  Titus Andronicus (Globe), The Da Vinci Code (Wiltshire Creative & Mercury Theatre), Frankenstein (Leeds Playhouse & ITD) and Dismissed (Soho Theatre).

In each venue the tour visits there will be a programme of participatory work, with members of the local community creating their own responses to the play. 

Hamlet - Shakespeare's epic family drama of deceit and murder - is directed by multi award-winner Rupert Goold. Rupert's theatre credits include celebrated productions of Dear England (National Theatre), and Romeo and Juliet and The Merchant of Venice (RSC).  In 2026 Rupert will take up the role of Artistic Director of The Old Vic after 13 years at the Almeida Theatre.  He has received Olivier, Critics' Circle and Evening Standard awards for Best Director twice and won a Peabody Award in 2011 for Macbeth. In 2017 he received a CBE in the New Year's Honours for services to drama.  

Rupert Goold, Director, said, “Hamlet is a play about the inevitability of death - the death of fathers, the death of kings, the mortality facing each and everyone of us, but it is also a play about how to live, what makes a good life and a just one too, however brief our allotted time. Our production is set aboard a ship but one that is soon to founder, going down with all hands. Its inspiration comes from the most famous sinking in history, and just as that icy tragedy came to pass in a little over two and a half hours our play takes place in real time and for about as long, as much catastrophic thriller as poetic meditation. It's a production that asks what it means to be human and decisive when time is running out.”

Sophie Drake, Revival Director, said, “I'm so looking forward to taking this exciting show on the road. We've assembled a wonderful cast, led by Ralph Davis, who promises to make a great Hamlet.  It's probably Shakespeare's most famous play, but I'm sure no one will have seen a Hamlet like this before. I can't wait for audiences to see it.”

Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark. After the death of Hamlet's father, his uncle, Claudius, marries his mother and takes the throne for himself. In one of the most famous scenes in Shakespeare, Hamlet's father appears to the young prince as a ghost, telling his son that he was murdered by Claudius.  Seeking vengeance, he wants Hamlet to kill Claudius, setting off a tragic chain of events.