Performance artist Meow Meow will make her Shakespeare’s Globe debut this summer, when she plays Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the first production to be directed by Emma Rice as Artistic Director of the iconic venue.
Tara Fitzgerald and Ray Fearon will also take to the open air stage this summer, playing ambitious power couple the Macbeths in Shakespeare’s famous tale of murder, witches and power lust.
Meow Meow, who previously worked with Rice on Kneehigh production The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg, will play the fairy queen in the Bard’s magic-filled romantic comedy from 30 April. She is joined in the cast by a trio of performers who also have Kneehigh credits on their CVs, Evan Wardrop, Katy Owen and Nandi Bhebhe. The cast will also include Anjana Vasan, Ankur Bahl, Ncuti Gatwa, Edmund Derrington and Lucy Thackeray.
Voices On The Wind and Sanctuary playwright Tanika Gupta has also joined the production, to work as dramaturg.
Fans of Macbeth’s bloody intrigue have to wait a little later in the summer to see Royal Shakespeare Company regular Fearon (Hecuba, Pericles, Othello) and Game Of Thrones star Fitzgerald, who boasts stage credits including The Misanthrope and A Doll’s House, on the Globe’s stage. Macbeth, which is directed by Iqbal Khan, begins its run on 18 June.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth are joined in Rice’s inaugural Globe season by The Taming Of The Shrew, 946 The Amazing Story Of Adolphus Tips, Imogen and The Merchant Of Venice.