Tom Hiddleston to play Hamlet on stage

Following the footsteps of his good friend Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston will be seen playing the role of Hamlet on stage in London. The Night Manager star will take on one of the Shakespeare’s most iconic roles to help raise £20 million, in order to regenerate RADA’s Chenies Street site in London. The stage production will run for only three weeks. Kenneth Branagh, Hiddleston’s Thor colleague, will direct the adaptation whose Olivier Award-winning theatre company will join forces with RADA for the production. The play will be staged from September 1 to 23, at RADA’s 160-seat Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre. Tom Hiddleston said, “Hamlet presents almost limitless possibilities for interpretation. I can’t wait to explore them with this great cast at RADA. Kenneth Branagh and I have long talked about working on the play together, and now felt like the right time and the right place. To be guided through it by him as a director, an expert and a friend, is our great good fortune.” “The performing arts exist to bring people together, not to break or keep them apart. I hope the funds raised by the production will help RADA continue to provide a wider field of equal opportunity to train actors, stage managers and technical theatre artists from every background, to a standard of excellence and professionalism. We need to keep the doors open for everyone,” he added. Kenneth Branagh said, “I believe Shakespeare and RADA are very good things. This production celebrates both. We bring actors, writers, directors and technicians from last year’s KBTC Garrick season, and team them with RADA graduates past and present, together with artists from the larger creative world to explore Shakespeare’s Hamlet.”