Michael Sheen to play Hamlet

Michael Sheen to play Hamlet

MICHAEL Sheen is to take on the most career-defining of all roles next year, he has announced – playing Hamlet at London’s Young Vic theatre.

The Port Talbot actor, made famous by his uncanny performances as Tony Blair, Brian Clough and David Frost, will go back to his Shakespearean roots to perform under the directorship of Ian Rickson.

It will make him the third high-profile Hamlet in as many years after former timelord David Tennant and Jude Law won high praise for their performances under directors Gregory Doran and Michael Grandage.

Before winning fame as a film and TV actor, Sheen, 41, was an accomplished Shakespearean actor who performed in highly acclaimed productions of Romeo and Juliet and Henry V.

He said: “It's the most dangerous play that exists, yet our culture has made it safe. It has become a rite of passage play for actors. But it is about the very nature of life, death and reality. What I want is to make it difficult and jagged again, unsettling and uncomfortable and disorienting for the audience.

“One of the advantages of coming at it at this end of my career is that I am less concerned with establishing myself as an actor. I’ve done enough things to realise that unless the whole piece is working, it doesn't matter whether your part is big or small.

“I worked with Ian on Betrayal for a tribute to Pinter at the National Theatre. I liked the way he worked, we worked well together and I love the fact that he doesn't really do classical stuff.

“I had seen Jerusalem at the Royal Court, and thought: ‘This is the guy for me’. I asked him if he'd do Hamlet, and he said he’d go away and think about it, reread the play. I loved that he didn't say yes right away. If he was going to do it, it was because he really wanted to do it.”

Sheen will also perform with the National Theatre of Wales next year in a version of Port Talbot’s traditional mystery plays created with poet Owen Sheers.