Lauded actress Ella Smith, who won a brace of awards for her 2008 breakthrough performance in Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig, is to appear at Shakespeare’s Globe later this summer in Nell Leyshon’s new play Bedlam.
Smith, who collected both the Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Best Newcomer awards for her Fat Pig performance, joins a cast which also includes Jason Baughan, Patrick Brennan, Daon Broni, Phil Cheadle, Sam Crane, Christopher Godwin, Sean Kearns, James Lailey, Danny Lee Wynter, Kevork Malikyan, Barbara Marten, Lorna Stuart, Joseph Timms and Jade Williams, who are all currently appearing in Henry IV Part 1 and Part 2.
Smith is not the only non-Henry IV interloper in the ensemble. Sophie Duval returns to Shakespeare’s Globe following her 2009 appearance in As You Like It, while fellow newcomer Rose Leslie was recently seen in Andersen’s English at the Hampstead theatre and Finty Williams starred in the West End run of Bedroom Farce.
A fictional portrayal of a London hospital for the insane, Bedlam is set in the 18th century, in a London full of binge drinkers, gin sellers and ballad singers. Bedlam is run by a prejudiced doctor and his imbecile son, but with the arrival of a new governor and country girl May, their inhuman regime begins to crumble.
Bedlam, which runs from 5 September to 1 October, is the final production in Shakespeare’s Globe’s 2010 summer season entitled Kings And Rogues, following Macbeth, Henry VIII, Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part 2, Anne Boleyn and The Merry Wives Of Windsor.
MA