'Completely thrilling': Hamlet comes to Nottingham courtesy of the RSC
The Royal Shakespeare Company is bringing Hamlet to Nottingham – with a highly acclaimed actor in the lead role.
Hamlet will be played by 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.
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.
Talking about playing Hamlet, Ralph Davis said: "I am feeling galvanised as hell!
"Hamlet changed my life as a little boy. I used to make the pilgrimage to Stratford-upon-Avon – which was 10 minutes down the road from where I lived – every few years to watch various heroes of mine climb the mountain of the part and explore the depths of this great, great play. It’s a beast. The most exciting story, compelling characters and the most penetrating and beautiful of words. The fact that I am going to get to go on that journey every evening whilst travelling round the country at the same time, is just completely thrilling."
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.
Shakespeare’s epic family drama of deceit and murder is directed by multi award-winner Rupert Goold. He 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.”
Joining Ralph Davis 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).
Raymond Coulthard’s previous RSC credits include Cyrano de Bergerac, Heresy of Love, Measure for Measure and The Merchant of Venice 1936. Poppy Miller’s previous RSC credits include Bartholomew Fair and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Georgia-Mae Myers’s previous RSC credits include Henry VI: Rebellion and Wars of the Roses.
Hamlet runs at the Theatre Royal from Tuesday March 17 to Saturday March 21. Visit www.trch.co.uk 0115 989 5555.