Cast announced for Stafford Festival Shakespeare's Macbeth

Stafford Festival Shakespeare (SFS) have announced Nabil Stuart will be the star of the performance as the Scottish tyrant, Macbeth. The actor with Scottish heritage has starred in a host of acclaimed productions including The Tempest at the Barbican in London, Blood and Gifts at the National Theatre, and Black Watch at the National Theatre Scotland, which won five Oliver awards. He has also appeared in the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks.

Rosie Hilal will play Lady Macbeth after becoming familiar with Shakespeare from performing in numerous Royal Shakespeare Company productions including Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well and As You Like It, as well as Anthony and Cleopatra and Measure for Measure at Shakespeare’s Globe.

She has also appeared in the National National Theatre Artistic Director, Rufus Norris’, recent art film, London Road.

Daniel Cahill and Ceri-Lyn Cissone will be taking on the roles of Macduff and Lady Macduff. Daniel, who has previoulsy worked with National Theatre Scotland, is trained in martial arts and parkour. While Scottish actress Ceri-Lyn was a finalist for Michael Bryant Award for verse-speaking at the National Theatre.

The three witches witches will be played by Sian Mannifield, Nicola Jo Cully and Mairi Hawthorn.

Nicola is well known for TV shows including Doctors, Taggart and Casualty, while Mairi recently appeared in HBO TV series Game of Thrones.

Howard Chadwick, who played Brabantio in the 2016 performance of Othello, and Morgan Philpot, who played Antonio in The Tempest last year, will be returning to the castle this summer playing Seyton/The Porter and Banquo respectively.

Elsewhere in the show, King Duncan will be played by Greg Powrie, with his sons Malcolm and Donalbain played by Samuel Pashby and Blair Kincaid respectively.

Ewan Somers will take on the role of Ross, David Colvin will play Siward and finally Mathew Tomlinson will star as Angus.

Stafford Festival Shakespeare spokesman, Thomas Waldron, said: “What an incredible cast we have lined up for this truly medieval production of The Scottish Play. Indeed, we have tried to keep it very authentic this year and have sought to cast Scottish actors for many of the roles – however, no doubt local audiences will spot a couple of familiar faces from productions past.

"Rehearsals get underway in a matter of weeks and all of us at Stafford Festival Shakespeare can’t wait to see how this show is going to shape up. We have some amazing plans in store for audiences this summer so make sure you don’t miss it.”

Clare Prenton will be directing while production designer Simon Kenny will make his SFS debut after returning from his work on the Off-Broadway production of Sweeney Todd.

Craig Adams will be replaced as music director by David Hewson, who is well known to local audiences following his work on last year’s Stafford Gatehouse Theatre Summer School production of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Macbeth will open on June 28 and run until July 14 at Stafford Castle, with tickets available from £14.

Full ticket information can be obtained from the box office on 01785 619080 or by clicking here