Donmar regulars Harry Attwell, Ron Cook and Michael Hadley will join Hollywood star Jude Law in Henry V later this year, bringing the Michael Grandage Company’s star-studded season of five plays to a close.
Cook and Attwell, who performed alongside the Anna Karenina actor in Grandage’s production of Hamlet at the Wyndham’s theatre in 2009, will reunite with the director alongside Hadley for another Shakespearean offering following their work together on King Lear during Grandage’s tenure as Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse.
The trio, who have all appeared in numerous productions at the acclaimed Covent Garden venue – Cook most recently appearing in Trelawny Of The Wells, Hadley having appeared in Piaf and Othello and Attwell having starred in Grandage’s farewell production of Richard II – will be joined by a host of actors, including Jason Baughan, Jessie Buckley and Ian Drysdale, all of whom join the cast of the Bard’s great history play following recent performances at the capital’s most iconic Shakespearean venue.
Buckley and Baughan both starred alongside Olivier Award winner Roger Allam in Shakespeare’s Globe’s production of The Tempest earlier this summer, while Ian Drysdale was seen in the acclaimed productions of Richard III and Twelfth Night at the Bankside venue last year prior to their West End transfer.
Other cast members well acquainted with the Bard’s works are James Laurenson and Prasanna Puwanarajah, who both starred in the National Theatre’s 2010 production of Hamlet, and Matt Ryan, who appeared alongside Law and Cook in Grandage’s West End production of Hamlet.
Completing the cast of the highly anticipated production are Norman Bowman (Macbeth at the Manchester International Festival), Richard Clifford (Cause Célèbre at the Old Vic), Noma Dumezweni (Belong at the Royal Court), Edward Harrison (The Rivals at the Theatre Royal Haymarket), Christopher Heyward (Propeller’s The Taming Of The Shrew) and Ashley Zhangazha (Fences at the Duchess theatre).
Shakespeare’s well-known play about one of our country’s greatest monarchs, which plays from 23 November (press night 3 December) to 15 February at the Noël Coward theatre, will follow the recently opened production of much-loved comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream starring double Olivier Award winner Sheridan Smith and comedian David Walliams, which plays until 16 November.