Joseph Marcell and Paul Hunter are to return to Shakespeare’s Globe to star alongside Charles Edwards and Eve Best in Much Ado About Nothing from 21 May.
The pair previously appeared together in Under The Black Flag at the Globe in 2006.
Marcell, who plays Leonato in Shakespeare’s comedy of sparring lovers, is probably still best known for playing Geoffrey the butler in American sitcom The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. However the actor is a former Royal Shakespeare Company member with numerous stage credits to his name, including Coriolanus, also at the Globe, Let There Be Love and Radio Golf at the Tricycle theatre.
Hunter, who plays inept guard Dogberry, is the co-founder of theatre company Told By An Idiot. His return to the Globe stage comes following his co-conceived production And The Horse You Rode In On at the Barbican theatre later this month. His acting credits also include The Play What I Wrote and The Fantasticks in the West End.
Playing the role of evil Don John is Matthew Pidgeon, who starred in the Edinburgh Festival and Soho theatre hit play Midsummer, while Ewan Stewart (Major Barbara at the National Theatre) plays Don Pedro.
The cast also includes Joe Caffrey, Phillip Cumbrus, Marcus Griffiths, Adrian Hood, Lisa McGrillis, David Nellist, John Stahl, Ony Uhiara and Helen Weir.
Much Ado About Nothing opens to the press on 26 May and plays to 1 October, making it the Globe’s longest-running production of the summer. However Best, who plays Beatrice, will only remain with the production to 10 September, with further casting to be confirmed.
Directed by Jeremy Herrin in his Globe debut, Much Ado About Nothing forms part of the theatre’s The Word Is God season, which begins on 17 April with a full reading of The Bible.
CB