Martina Laird Stars In Cymbeline At Shakespeare’s Globe

Shakespeare’s Globe Cymbeline, directed by Jennifer Tang (Associate Director of The Young Vic Theatre, 2020–2022). Cymbeline runs from 10 January – 20 April. The cast comprises Aaron Anthony as Guiderius / Lord, Madeline Appiah as Woman / Cornelia / Belaria, Nigel Barrett as Lucius / Philario, Amanda Bright as Pisania, Gabrielle Brooks as Innogen, Silas Carson as Duke / Frenchman, Angelina Chudi as Ensemble / Cover, Nadi Kemp-Sayfi as Posthumus Leonata, Martina Laird as Cymbeline, Os Leanse as Ensemble / Cover, Jordan Mifsúd as Cloten, Pierro Niel-Mee as Iachimo, and Saroja-Lily Ratnavel as Lady Helen / Arviraga.

Martina Laird as Cymbeline. Photography by Marc Brenner.

Director Jennifer Tang says: “It is a privilege to be collaborating with such a talented, generous, and accomplished company of actors and artists to bring Cymbeline to life. What a wonderful opportunity to introduce new audiences to one of Shakespeare’s hidden gems or, for those who already know the play, I hope the unique approach we’re taking will offer fresh and surprising insights into the world of Cymbeline – and our own.

Cymbeline is designed by Basia Bińkowska, with Charlotte Vickers as Assistant Director, Azusa Ono as Candlelight Designer, Laura Moody as Composer, Rae and Roo for RC Annie as Fight and Intimacy Directors, Chi-San Howard as Movement Director, Si Trinder is Text Consultant, Charlie Hughes-D’Aeth as Voice Coach, and Carol Cumberbatch is Wellbeing Practitioner.

Cast biographies for Cymbeline are as follows:

Aaron Anthony will play Guiderius / Lord. Aaron trained at Bristol Old Vic. Previous work at the Globe includes Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing. Other theatre credits include: A Doll’s House (Sheffield Crucible); The Motive and the Cue (National Theatre); Yellowman (The Orange Tree); Lose Yourself (Sherman); Romeo and Juliet (Insane Root); A View from the Bridge, Macbeth (Tobacco Factory); Twelfth Night, Billy Liar (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Human Emotional Process (the Arts); Shakespeare in Love (Noel Coward Theatre). TV credits include:

The Pact, Behind Her Eyes, Emmerdale, The Other One, Shakespeare and Hathaway, Midsomer Murders, Delicious, Doctors, Outlaws, Witness, and Holby City.

Madeline Appiah will play Woman / Cornelia / Belaria. Theatre credits include: Kerry Jackson, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Here We Go, Welcome to Thebes (National Theatre); Tina Turner The Musical (Aldwych); Hamlet (Harold Pinter Theatre); The Hotel Cerise (Theatre Royal Stratford); Iyalode of Eti (Utopia Theatre / Rich Mix / Arcola); In The Next Room or The Vibrator Play (St James Theatre); The Duchess of Malfi (Old Vic); Speechless (Shared Experience); Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew (RSC); Off the Endz (Royal Court); Mother Goose

(Greenwich Theatre); It Felt Empty When the Heart Went at First… (Arcola / Clean Break); Arabian Nights (New Vic); Dionysis Unbound (Bridewell Theatre); 200 Years, Cinderella (Watford Palace); The Wedding Dance (Birmingham Rep / Tour); Restoration (Oxford Stage Company); I Have Before Me… (Calypso); Brezhnev’s Children (BAC); Ms Ross: The Lady and Her Music (Neptune Theatre). TV and Film credits include: Death in Paradise; Blood of My Blood; Black Mirror; Jungle; The Box; In the Long Run; Elephant; King for a Term; Partners in Crime; Doctors; Gavin and Stacey; EastEnders; The Bill; Holby City; Boogie Down; Fallout.

Nigel Barrett will play Lucius / Philario. Previous work at Shakespeare’s Globe includes Princess Essex and Taming of the Shrew. Other theatre credits include: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (Complicite); Julius Caesar, Kingdom Come, Richard III – An Arab Tragedy (RSC); Kidstown (National Theatre Wales); Little Bits of Ruined Beauty (Pentabus); Britannicus (Lyric Hammersmith); I Am Kevin, 100:Unearthed (Wildworks); Living Newspaper (Royal Court); Pops (Edinburgh / High Tide Festival); The Mysteries (Royal Exchange Manchester); Party Skills for the End of the World (Manchester International Festival / Shoreditch Town Hall); Margate / Dreamland (National Theatre / Shoreditch Town Hall); Get Stuff Break Free, The Eye Test (National Theatre); Attack of the Wolfdogs, The Show In Which Hopefully Nothing Happens, Baddies the Musical (Unicorn); Blasted (Barrel Organ / Styx); Everyone (Battersea Arts Centre); The Iphigenia Quartet (The Gate); The Body (The Barbican); Cyrano de Bergerac (Northern Stage Co); The Passion, Praxis Makes Perfect, Shelflife (National Theatre Wales / Berlin Festspiele); Madman (Theatre Royal Plymouth); There Has Possibly Been An Incident (Soho Theatre / Royal Exchange Manchester); A Speakers Progress (Peter Brook’s Bouffes du Nord Paris / Brooklyn Academy of Music); The Mirror for Princes (Barbican / Peter Brook’s Bouffes du Nord Paris / Brooklyn Academy of Music); Pericles (Regents Park Open Air Theatre); The Tennis Show, Tropicana, Amato Saltone, The Architects, The Boy Who Climbed Out Of His Face, The Shunt Lounge (Shunt / National Theatre). Film and TV credits include: One Hundred & Eighty (Dark Avenue Film Ltd); Doctors, Casualty, The Mysteries, Coast, The Lens, Crimewatch (BBC); Dream Agency (Forest Fringe / Arthaus); Cycles (Toynbee Films); The Gospel of Us (Welsh Film Council); Meet the Piltdowns (Kane Productions); Hairy Eyeball (Channel 4); England My England (Film 4); Robin Hood (Squint Opera); Better Than Life (Telecaster / Coney). Radio credits include: A Song For Edmond Shakespeare, The Influence, How To Survive The Roman Empire, Richard Tyrone Jones’ Big Heart, The Liberty Cap (BBC Radio 4).

Amanda Bright will play Pisania. Previous work at Shakespeare’s Globe includes Macbeth, Richard II, and Ralegh: The Treason Trial. Other theatre credits include: Romeo and Juliet (Almeida Theatre); Never Not Once (The Park Theatre); The Snail House (Hampstead); Meek (Headlong); To Kill A Mockingbird (Open Air Regents Park / The Curve); Let Me Play The Lion Too (Barbican / Told By An Idiot); The Government Inspector (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Dragon (National Theatre of Scotland); True (Deafinitely Theatre); The 24 Hour Plays (Old Vic); Henry V (Orange Tree Theatre); Obama-ology, AchidiJ’s Final Hours (Finborough Theatre); Called to Account (Roundhouse); and Bloody

Sunday (Tricycle Theatre). TV credits include: The Buccaneers (Apple TV+); In From The Cold (Netflix), Breeders (Sky);

Casualty (BBC); Marley’s Ghosts (BBC); Coronation Street (ITV); Topsy & Tim (BBC); Euphoria (HOT); Midsomer Murders (Bentley Productions); Doctors (BBC) Prime Suspect 7 (Granada Television); Making it at Holby (BBC). Film credits include: Ride or Die, The Lennox Report, Dear Afro (Team Sass Productions); Christmas at the (Snow) Globe, All The World (Shakespeare’s Globe); Stripping the Illusion (Object); Silent Voices (Quick & Dirty Productions).

Pierro Niel-Mee as Iachimo and Gabrielle Brooks as Innogen in Cymbeline at Shakespeare’s Globe (c. Marc Brenner) (2)

Gabrielle Brooks will play Innogen. Gabrielle is perhaps best known for playing the role of Rita Marley in Get Up Stand Up, for which she was nominated for an Olivier award. On screen, Gabrielle can be seen playing the role of Nadia in Shadow and Bone for Netflix. Previous work at the Globe includes Comedy of Errors. Other theatre credits include:

The Big Life (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Mlima’s Tale (Kiln Theatre); Once on This Island (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); J’Ouvert (Harold Pinter Theatre); Anna Bella Eema (Arcola Theatre); Midsummer Nights Dream (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Our Lady of Kibeho (Royal and Derngate); Twelfth Night (Young Vic); The Way of the World

(Donmar Warehouse); The Wizard of Oz, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Sheffield Crucible Theatre); Queen Anne

(RSC / Theatre Royal Haymarket); Lazarus (Kings Cross Theatre); Synergy Play (Theatre 503); The Strangers Case (Liverpool Everyman); Red Snapper (Belgrade Theatre); The Book of Mormon (Prince of Wales); Our House (Savoy); Hairspray (UK Tour: Stage Entertainment); Avenue Q (UK Tour: Cameron Mackintosh). TV and film credits include: Shadow and Bone (Netflix); J’Ouvert (BBC Four); Coming Down the Mountain, Grangehill (BBC); Notes on A Scandal.

Silas Carson will play Duke / Frenchman. Previous work for Shakespeare’s Globe includes Romeo & Juliet (2021) and The Captive Queen (2018). Other theatre credits include: Did I Wake You? (Young Vic); Run Sister Run (Paines

Plough / Sheffield Crucible / Soho Theatre); The Forest, Occupational Hazards, Drawing The Line (Hampstead Theatre); Half Life (Theatre Royal Bath); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Northampton); The Prophet (Gate Theatre); The Comedy of Errors (National Theatre); Ruined, Macbeth (Almeida Theatre); Arabian Nights (RSC); Much Ado About Nothing

(Regent’s Park); Baghdad Wedding (Soho Theatre); Homebody/Kabul, A Doll’s House (Young Vic); A View From The Bridge (The Crucible); and Shakuntala (Gate Theatre). Film credits include: Phantom Thread; The Corrupted; Postcards From London; Miss You Already; Blood Cells; Dying Of The Light; Locke; Clean Skin; Franklyn; Flawless; Hidalgo; Star Wars – The Phantom Menace / Attack Of The Clones / Revenge Of The Sith; Fever Pitch. TV credits include: Out There;

Virdee; Broken News; The Gold (S1, S2); Professor T; Beyond Paradise; Father Brown; FBI International; Dalgliesh; Grace; Des; Strike – Lethal White; The Other One; The Accident; Sick Of It; Silent Witness; Trust; New Blood;

Unforgotten; Indian Summers; The Casual Vacancy; The ‘C’ Word; Glue; Transporter; Strikeback; Holby City; How Not To Live Your Life; The Philanthropist; Bonekickers; Outnumbered; The IT Crowd; Hustle; The Ten Commandments; Spooks; Absolute Power; The Grid; Waking The Dead; The Project; A&E; Metrosexuality; Innocents; Cold Lazarus.

Martina Laird as Cymbeline and Silas Carson as Duke in Cymbeline at Shakespeare’s Globe (c. Marc Brenner)

Angelina Chudi will play Ensemble / Cover. Angelina is an actor, voice actor, puppeteer, and occasional writer from East London. Theatre credits include: Twine (The Yard); Midnight Tattoos (The Drayton Arms Theatre); Dead Girls Rising (Northern Stage); A Christmas Carol – A Ghost Story (Nottingham Playhouse / Alexandra Palace); Alice in Wonderland (New Vic Theatre); Henry VI: War of the Roses, Henry VI: Rebellion (RSC); Dear Elizabeth (Gate Theatre); Patricia Gets Ready (For A Date With The Man That Used To Hit Her) (Pleasance Theatre London / Edinburgh Fringe / Vaults Festival / White Bear Theatre); Messiah (Holm / Bear Trap Theatre); Welcome to Thebes (Filter Theatre); Galvanise (Vaults Festival); A Christmas Carol (RABBLE / Reading Between the Lines); The Caucasian Chalk Circle (RCSSD / Engineer Theatre); The Sound and The Fury (RCSSD / Complicité); Her Naked Skin (Royal School of Speech and Drama); My Beautiful City (National Youth Theatre); Lie With Me (Talawa Theatre Company). Screen credits include: Joan (ITV); Doctors (BBC). Angelina Chudi trained at Royal Central Speech and Drama.

Nadi Kemp-Sayfi will play Posthumus Leonata. Previous work for Shakespeare’s Globe include: Hakawatis: Women of the Arabian Nights, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, and Hamlet (2022); and Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2021). Other theatre credits include: The Whip, A Museum in Baghdad, King John (RSC); 101

Dalmatians, Between the Two, Three Wheels on the Wagon, The Witches’ Promise, Under The Stars (Birmingham Rep); Tender, Hijabi Monologues (The Bush Theatre); Macbeth (ETT); and Bedroom Farce (Queens Theatre Hornchurch). TV credits include: Eastenders (BBC). Radio credits include: The Archers and Words and Music (BBC).

Martina Laird will play Cymbeline. Previous work at Shakespeare’s Globe includes All’s Well That Ends Well and Romeo and Juliet. Other theatre credits include: The New Real, Coriolanus, The White Devil, Three Hours After Marriage, Troilus & Cressida (Royal Shakespeare Company); The Five Wives of Maurice Pinder, Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (National); Who Cares, Breath Boom (Royal Court); Meetings (Orange Tree); The Animal Kingdom (Hampstead Theatre); 15 Heroines (Jermyn Street Theatre); Shebeen (Nottingham Playhouse); Bad Blood Blues, King Hedley II (Theatre Royal, Stratford); Othello, Shakespeare Trilogy: Julius Caesar, Henry IV, The Tempest (Donmar Warehouse); The House That Will Not Stand (Tricycle); Hopelessly Devoted (Birmingham Rep); Inheritance (Live!); All the Little Things We Crushed (Almeida); Mules (Young Vic); Arabian Knights (West End / International tour); Hyacinth Blue (Clean Break); Macbeth (Southwark Playhouse); Venetian Heat (Finborough); Hungry Ghosts (Tabard); Vibes From Scribes (Double Edge); and The Wax King (Man in the Moon). TV credits include: Unforgotten; Dreamland; Sense and Sensibility; The Count of Monte Cristo; Dreaming Whilst Black; Pinch of Portugal; Casualty; Shakespeare and Hathaway; The Bay; Eastenders; Jericho; The Dumping Ground; London’s Burning; Coronation Street; Doctors; My Family; Missing; Shameless; Free Agents; Monday Monday; Little Big Mouth; A Touch of Frost; Always & Everyone; The Bill; A Wing & a Prayer; Peak Practice; Jonathan Creek; Dangerfield; Thief Takers; The Knock; The Governor; One for the Road; Little Napoleons; Harry; West Indian Women at War; EastEnders; Epiphany. Film credits include: The Little Mermaid; Boxing Day; Summerland; Shrike; The Last Dance; 10 Swords & The Moon; Blitz; Forget Me Not; The Hurting; Dead Meat.

Os Leanse will play Ensemble / Cover. Ensemble / Cover. Os Leanse trained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he was one of the Spotlight Prize Finalists. Work in theatre includes: Much Ado About Nothing (Ramps on the Moon at Sheffield Theatres). Screen work includes: Stranger Things: The First Shadow; Trigger Point (ITV); and Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One.

Jordan Mifsúd will play Cloten. Jordan is a Maltese-British actor with a variety of credits spanning across TV, Film, and Theatre. He graduated from The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, followed by RADA in London.

Previous work at Shakespeare’s Globe includes Much Ado About Nothing. Other theatre credits include The Silver Tassie (National Theatre) and 55 Days (The Hampstead) both directed by Howard Davies; The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd, Misalliance, and While The Sun Shines, (The Orange Tree Theatre, directed by Paul Miller). Jordan also starred in Pride and Prejudice (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, directed by Deborah Bruce). On the big screen, Jordan starred alongside Jamie Dornan and Mark Strong in The Siege of Jadotville (Netflix) and Matthew Vaughn’s spy actioncomedy film Kingsman: The Golden Circle. TV credits include: Whitstable Pearl (Acorn TV); British crime drama The Bay (ITV); and The Looming Tower (Hulu). Jordan recently appeared in much loved detective drama Sister Boniface Mysteries (BBC Studios, S3) and will next be seen in Karen Pirie (ITV, S2).

Pierro Niel-Mee will play Iachimo. Theatre includes: A View From The Bridge (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Machinal (The Old Vic); The Great Christmas Feast (The Lost Estate); The Tempest (Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath); Wendy And Peter Pan (Leeds Playhouse); Once Upon A Time In Nazi Occupied Tunisia (Almeida Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regents Park Open Air Theatre); Ghosts (Royal And Derngate); Shakespeare In Love (Theatre Royal Bath, UK Tour); Imperium, The Hypocrite, Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies (RSC); Travesty (Fight In The Dog); Kenny Morgan (Arcola Theatre); Dirty Hearts, The Spring Tide (Old Red Lion). Television includes: Andor (Disney+); Amadeus (SkyTV); Slow Horses (Apple TV); Harlots (Hulu); The Bastard Executioner (FX); Casualty (BBC); Lewis, Bouquet Of Barbed Wire (ITV); Little Crackers – First Kiss (Channel 4/Sky). Film Includes: The Tale Of Bad Anton; Death Of A Farmer; City Of Life.

Saroja-Lily Ratnavel will play Lady Helen / Arviraga. Saroja-Lily trained at LAMDA and Durham University. Previous credits at the Globe include Romeo & Juliet. Other theatre credits include: The Hypochondriac (Sheffield Crucible); The

Swell (Orange Tree Theatre – Olivier Award nominated production for “Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre”);

Chasing Hares (Young Vic); Electric Rosary (Royal Exchange Theatre); The Key Workers Cycle: The Social Care Workers Play and Name, Place, Animal, Thing (Almeida Theatre). TV credits include: Doctors (BBC); Bravo Two Charlies (BBC Wales). Film credits include: We Live in Time (StudioCanal); The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hynde (Maximum Effort). Radio credits include: My Type on Paper, Wood Wide Web, Dr Dr (Seagull Productions) and D for Dexter (BBC Radio 4).