Globe comes full circle as Rylance returns to stage
SIR MARK RYLANCE is returning to Shakespeare’s Globe, the theatre he launched more than 20 years ago, to play Iago in a production of Othello.
Michelle Terry, the Globe’s new artistic director, is taking the company back to its roots by inviting her predecessor to be part of her first season in charge. His involvement was “the greatest endorsement” the theatre could have, Terry said, and comes after several turbulent years. Terry’s predecessor, Emma Rice, is departing after clashing with the board over her use of amplified sound and lighting rigs.
Rylance’s return will be a comfort for those who felt the company was losing its way. He was the Globe’s first artistic director, from 19952006, and last appeared on stage there in 2012. He has since become a Hollywood star, winning an Oscar for his performance in Bridge of Spies, the Steven Spielberg film, in 2016. He has retained strong links with the Globe, and described Rice’s exit as “a very painful situation”.
He will play Iago opposite Andre Holland’s Othello. Holland is best known for Moonlight, last year’s Oscarwinner for best picture.
Othello opens in July, while the season will open in April with Hamlet, for which Terry is mining a 400-yearold tradition. Instead of casting an A-list actor as the Dane, Terry will draw from the Globe’s ensemble – a throwback to the acting troupes who performed the plays in Shakespeare’s day.
The same ensemble will appear in a concurrent production of As You Like It. “Our theatre is one of the most democratic and egalitarian spaces that we’ve got, so it felt right to try the ensemble with those two plays,” said Terry.
Later in the season, Terry will mimic another Elizabethan tradition. Eight actors will learn The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew and Twelfth Night, and ticketholders will cast their vote at the beginning of the night on which play they would like to see performed.