EastEnders star Maddy Hill will make her professional stage debut in the title role of Imogen in Matthew Dunster’s reimaging of Cymbeline at Shakespeare’s Globe this summer.
Imogen will be the penultimate production to play as part of Emma Rice’s inaugural Wonder season at the iconic theatre, running from 17 September.
Best known for her long running role as EastEnders’ Nancy Carter, Hill will take on the role of the headstrong princess who defies her father, King Cymbeline, to marry Posthumous. As always in Shakespeare’s most harrowing dramas, the course of true love never does run smooth, and when rumours spread sullying her virtue, her husband decides she must die.
Bringing the play bang up to date, Olivier Award nominee Dunster’s production will be set in an urban world described as being “as strange, erotic and violent as Shakespeare’s ancient Britain”.
Commenting on the casting, Dunster said: “I’m delighted that Maddy Hill is playing Imogen. In refocusing Cymbeline and re-naming it Imogen, it was vital that we found an actress who we could build the production around.
“Maddy has a terrific contemporary bite, and her presence will help me to explore the play, to make it feel fresh and about London. Maddy is bursting with talent and has the technique to take on a role like Imogen, and excite the audience in a space like the Globe Theatre.”
While the role will mark Hill’s professional stage debut, she has already made waves in her screen career winning National Television and British Soap Awards for her role in the popular BBC soap opera. Away from Albert Square the actor has appeared in television shows including Father Brown, Whitechapel and The Great Sport Relief Bake Off.
Cymbeline plays as part of a season that also includes A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming Of The Shrew, Macbeth, 946 – The Amazing Story Of Adolphus Tips and The Merchant Of Venice.