Cast Revealed For AS YOU LIKE IT at Shakespeare's Globe

Shakespeare’s Globe has announced the cast of As You Like It, directed by Ellen McDougall (Watch on the Rhine, Donmar; Insurrection: A Work in Progress, Royal Opera House). Shakespeare’s joyous tale of all kinds of love, between all kinds of people, unfolds in the Forest of Arden, in this exuberant tale of community, romance and redemption. The cast of As You Like It comprises Isabel Adomakoh Young as Orlando, Emmanuel Akwafo as Amiens, Jessica Alade as Pheobe, Alex Austin as Jaques, Nina Bowers as Rosalind, Stephanie Jacob as Adam / Corin, Mika Onyx Johnson as Silvius, Tonderai Munyevu as Duke Senior, Jessica Murrain as Oliver, Tessa Parr as Touchstone, Dale Rapley as Duke Frederick, Hannah Ringham as Audrey and Macy-Jacob Seelochan as Celia. 

Director Ellen McDougall says: “As You Like It is full of love, transformation, and community, and it will be a joy to bring it to life in the open-air Globe this summer. I am so excited to be working with a brilliant company of actors, makers, and artists and can’t wait for audiences to come and enjoy those warm summer evenings with this joyous and exhilarating play.”

Cast biographies are as follows:

Isabel Adomakoh Young will play Orlando. Recent credits include Romeo and Juliet (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre – Isabel won Best Female Actor at the 2021 Black British Theatre Awards); Hamlet (Bristol Old Vic) and Heartstopper (Netflix). Previous theatre credits include Meatballs (Hampstead Theatre); Dear Elizabeth (Gate Theatre); The Provoked Wife, Venice Preserved (RSC); Living Newspaper (Royal Court). Isabel is a founding member of Pecs Drag Kings and recently completed a season as Guest Artistic Director at King’s Head Theatre.

Emmanuel Akwafo will play Amiens. Recent theatre credits include For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy (Apollo Theatre, Royal Court Theatre & New Diorama Theatre – winner: The Stage Debut Award for Best Performers in a Play, nominated: Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role). Other theatre includes Primary Playwrights (Soho Theatre); Jack and the Beanstalk (Lyric Hammersmith Theatre); The Bald Soprano (Leicester Square Theatre); The Spalding Suite (Southbank Centre & UK Tour); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Northfleet Theatre). Screen credits include Sex Education (Netflix); Eastenders (BBC); The Crown (Sony Pictures Television); 24: Live Another Day (Imagine Television Teakwood Lane Productions 20th); M.I. High (Recorded Picture Company); Grange Hill (CBBC); Now You See Me 2 (Summit Entertainment); Tarzan (Warner Bros). 

Jessica Alade will play Pheobe. Jessica trained at the Guildford School of Acting. Previous theatre credits include The Vortex (Chichester Festival Theatre); Orlando (Michael Grandage Company/West End); Hamlet (National Theatre); A Christmas Carol, The Tempest, The Merry Wives of Windsor (Open Bar Theatre). Television credits include Showtrial (BBC), Buffering (ITV), I Hate Suzie (Sky).

Alex Austin will play Jaques. Previous theatre credits include Blackout Songs (Hampstead Theatre); LOVE (Park Avenue Armoury Theatre, New York); Wuthering Heights, The Skriker (Royal Exchange); Ivan and the Dogs (Young Vic); The End of Eddy, Henry The Fifth, The Nutcracker, The Man With The Disturbingly Smelly Foot, How to Think the Unthinkable (Unicorn Theatre); A New and Better You (Yard Theatre); Gundog, Grimly Handsome, Primetime, Yen, Pigeons (Royal Court); Thebes Land (Arcola); Fury (Soho Theatre); Barbarians (Bad Physics / Young Vic); Idomeneus (The Gate Theatre); Hope, Light and Nowhere (Underbelly); My City (Almeida Theatre); Telling Tales and Encourage the Others (Almeida Young Friends). Screen credits includes Andor (Disney +); I Hate Suzie (Bad Wolf); Doctor Who, The Mallorca Files, Casualty, Holby City (BBC); The Bike Thief (Roman Holiday Ltd); Blood Out of a Stone (Watersmeet Productions / BFI Flare);  Legacy (Legacy Films); The Christmas Candle (Pinewood Films); The Hooligan Factory (Altitude HF Ltd.); The World’s End (Black Pictures Lts.); The Swarm (Stray Bear Productions); Liar (Brocess Ltd.); Sherlock (Hartswood); The Interceptor, New Tricks, The Musketeers, Misfits (Clerkenwell Films).

Nina Bowers will play Rosalind. Previous work for Shakespeare’s Globe includes Henry IV, part 1 & 2, Henry V, Henry VI and Richard III. Other theatre credits include Girl On An Altar (Kiln Theatre; Abbey Theatre, Dublin); Dear Elizabeth, Twilight: Los Angeles 1993 (The Gate Theatre), The Wolves (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Crave (The Pit, Barbican). Nina trained at Central School of Speech and Drama in partnership with Complicite and Simon McBurney.

Stephanie Jacob will play Adam / Corin. Previous work for Shakespeare's Globe includes Women Beware Women. 

Other theatre credits include Small Island, Absolute Hell, Saint George and the Dragon, Burnt by the Sun, Her Naked Skin, Major Barbara, Philistines, The Rose Tattoo, Stanley (National Theatre); As You Desire Me, Cyrano de Bergerac, Sweeney Todd (West End); Woman In Mind, Nicholas Nickleby (Chichester Theatre); The Winter’s Tale, The Beggar’s Opera, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Changeling (RSC); The Madness of George III (Nottingham Playhouse); The Strongbox (The Vaults); A Streetcar Named Desire (Young Vic and St Ann’s Warehouse, New York); Flare Path (Original Theatre Company); Dangerous Corner (Salisbury Playhouse); The Quick (Tristan Bates); Be My Baby (Soho Theatre); The Importance of Being Earnest (Watermill); Romeo and Juliet (English Shakespeare Company); Candida (Plymouth Theatre Royal). Screen credits include Black Cake, Maternal, Call the Midwife, Doctors, Genius: Einstein, Mr Selfridge, The Ones Below, Vincent Van Gogh: Painted with Words, The Crimson Petal and the White, Foyle’s War, Midsomer Murders, Daniel Deronda, EastEnders, Home Farm Twins, Casualty, In the Heart of the Sea, Sightseers, The Iron Lady and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Writing credits include Again (Trafalgar Studios), The Strongbox (Vault Festival), A Night Visitor (BBC Radio 4), Shifts (BBC Radio 3) and Three-Eyed Wolf.

Mika Onyx Johnson will play Silvius. Previous theatre credits include The Seagull (Harold Pinter Theatre); Cyrano de Bergerac (Playhouse, Harold Pinter, Glasgow Theatre Royal and BAM - NYC); Pink Lemonade (Bush); Dear Elizabeth (Gate); Michael X (Almeida). Screen credits include Newark, Newark; Screw; The Girlfriend Experience. Writing credits include What It Feels Like for a Girl (BBC); My White Best Friend (Bunker); Pink Lemonade (Bush); Queer Upstairs (Royal Court).

Tonderai Munyevu will play Duke Senior. Previous work for Shakespeare’s Globe includes The Two Gentlemen Of Verona. Other theatre credits include Mugabe, My Dad and Me (York Theatre Royal/ETT/ Brixton House); The Claim (Shoreditch Town Hall); Precipice (Grange Festival); 846 Live (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Sizwe Banzi Is Dead (Young Vic); Black Men Walking (Royal Court); Carmen (Grange Festival); Treasure Island (Birmingham Rep). Writing and directing credits include Mansfield Park (Watermill Theatre), Mugabe, My Dad and Me (York Theatre Royal/ETT) and The Moors (Tara Arts Theatre/ Two Gents.) Tonderai is a salaried theatre writer at Stockroom, a creative associate at Tiata Fahodzi, and is on commission to the RSC, Hampstead and BBC Radio 4.

Jessica Murrain will play Oliver. Previous work for Shakespeare’s Globe includes Macbeth. Other theatre credits include The Wife of Willesden (Kiln Theatre/US Tour); The Secretaries (Young Vic); The Last Dinosaur (The Herd Theatre); When the Daffodils (Orange Tree Theatre); ; A Christmas Carol (Royal Shakespeare Company); Peter Pan (Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre/National Theatre); King Lear (West End); DIGS (Theatre with Legs); Skate Hard, Turn Left (Battersea Arts Centre); The Long Trick (Wardrobe Theatre/Southwest Tour); Messiah (Bristol Old Vic). Screen credits include The Baby (Sky/HBO); Soulmates (Amazon Prime); I Used to Be Famous, The Sandman (Netflix); Blonde.Purple. (Amazon Prime). 

Tessa Parr will play Touchstone. Previous theatre credits include The Secretaries (Young Vic); There are No Beginnings (Leeds Playhouse); Be My Baby (Leeds Playhouse); Hamlet (Leeds Playhouse); Christmas Carol (Leeds Playhouse); Europe (Leeds Playhouse); Road (Leeds Playhouse); B!RTH (Royal Exchange Theatre); Frogman (Traverse Theatre); The Breakfast Plays (Traverse Theatre); Romeo & Juliet (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Playdough (Unlimited Theatre Co); The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz (Northern Stage); Theatre Uncut ’15 (Theatre Uncut); The Soaking of Vera Shrimp (Live Theatre/ Pleasance); Get Santa (Northern Stage); Dead To Me (Greyscale/Kitchings Co); Alice in Bed (Tender Buttons); Funny Not Funny (Drywrite/ Bush). Screen credits include Ladhood 2 (BBC), Love, Lies & Records (Rollem Productions), Father Brown, Parades End, Casualty 1909, Doctors (BBC). Tessa performs her own work as spoken word poet Johnny the Biblical Rapper and is a collaborator with Leeds based Glitterbomb Dancers. 

Dale Rapley will play Duke Frederick. Previous work for Shakespeare’s Globe includes The Merchant of Venice. Other theatre credits include Singin' in the Rain (Japan & UK Tour); Gypsy (Manchester Royal Exchange); The Bridges of Madison County (The Menier Chocolate Factory); Richard III (Shakespeare's Rose Theatre); King John (Shakespeare's Rose Theatre); Aladdin (Lyric Hammersmith); Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Playhouse Theatre); Addams Family (UK & ROI Tour); Dangerous Lady (Stratford East); Wicked (UK & ROI Tour); Hello Dolly (Leicester Curve); Romeo & Juliet (Shakespeare's Rose Theatre). Screen credits include This England (Sky Atlantic), Das Boot (SKY Atlantic), Silent Witness (BBC), Doctors (BBC), Casualty (BBC), EastEnders (BBC), Between the Lines (BBC), Birds of a Feather (BBC).

Hannah Ringham will play Audrey. Previous work for Shakespeare’s Globe includes All’s Well That Ends Well. Other theatre credits include Zoombird (Coventry City of Culture), The Mysteries (Manchester Royal Exchange), The Letters Project, The Unknown Island (The Gate), Islands (Bush Theatre), Cadaver Exquis (Kassy’s – European Tour), England  (with Tim Crouch; touring to New York, The Melbourne Arts and The Hong Kong Festivals, among others). Radio credits include Ropewalk House and Daphne and Apollo (BBC Radio 4). Other theatre work includes The Untethered Joke (DISRUPT Festival, CPT), Hannah Ringham’s Free Show (bring money) (British Council Showcase), I Want Love (Birmingham Rep), The Present (Unicorn Theatre) and Wedding (Shoreditch Town Hall) with Glen Neath. Hannah is co-founder of award-winning theatre collective SHUNT; shows and projects include including: The Boy Who Climbed Out Of His Face, Tropicana (with The National Theatre), Dance Bear Dance and The SHUNT Lounge community arts platform project. Awards for SHUNT work include The Peter Brook Empty Space Award, The Time Out Live Award and The Total Theatre Award. Hannah is also a recipient of the Arts in Mind Award from Kings College London for DIE OR RUN (created with Glen Neath).

Macy-Jacob Seelochan will play Celia. Previous theatre credits include Galatea (Brighton Festival); Groove (Shoreditch Town Hall); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Nottingham Playhouse); Don’t Smoke in Bed (Vaults Festival); Nevergreen (Arcola Theatre); Don’t Touch Me (Leicester Curve); and Dear Elizabeth (Gate Theatre). Screen credits include Shadow & Bone (Netflix); Plaggy Bag (British Film Institute & Opt8); Mundane Living, A Casting Room (self-produced). Writing credits include Jacob Wants His Grandad (Nottingham Playhouse, The Pleasance and Theatre Deli). MJ was also The Nottingham Playhouse’s Associate Artist for 2022. 

As You Like It was cast by Becky Paris, Head of Casting at Shakespeare’s Globe.

Creative team:

Associate Director – Indiana Lown-Collins

Composer – Michael Henry 

Costume Designer – Max Johns

Costume Supervisor – Jackie Orton

Designer – Wills (Paul Williams)

Fight Director – Kev McCurdy 

Globe Associate – Movement – Glynn MacDonald 

Movement Director – Bambi Jordan Phillips  

Text Associate – Marina Caldarone

Text Dramaturg – Madeline Sayet 

Voice – Tess Dignan  

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