After Sherlock Holmes as Hamlet, now Moriarty will take on the part. It has been announced that Andrew Scott is to follow Benedict Cumberbatch by tackling Shakespeare’s toughest role.
The Almeida Theatre in north London announced a 2016-17 season, with Scott playing Hamlet in a new production directed by Robert Icke.
Just as eye-catching is the announcement that Ralph Fiennes will play Shakespeare’s most notorious villain in a new production of Richard III in which Vanessa Redgrave returns to the stage as Queen Margaret.
Scott has become known for his portrayal of villains – including Moriarty in BBC’s Sherlock and the British security chief Max Denbigh in Spectre.
The Almeida’s Hamlet, to open in February 2017, will be directed by Icke, the theatre’s associate director, who will find out on Sunday if he has won an Olivier award for his production of Oresteia. Juliet Stevenson will play Gertrude.
A new Hamlet is always an event, though it will be difficult to match the hype that surrounding Cumberbatch turn in the role. His run last year at the Barbican was the fastest-selling play in London theatre history with crowds of adoring fans queueing for selfies and autographs at the stage door each night.
The Almeida’s artistic director, Rupert Goold, will direct Fiennes and Redgrave in Richard III, opening in June.
The two Shakespeare plays will book end a pair of new ones: They Drink it in the Congo, by Adam Brace, which explores the problems of doing something good about something bad; and Oil, by Ella Hickson, described as “an epic, hurtling crash of empire, history and family”.
Goold, currently directing American Psycho on Broadway, said all four were “big plays” that explored relationships between the individual and hierarchies of power.
He added: “We also wanted to touch base with the idea of the Almeida as an actors’ stage which it always has been with a history of heavyweight performances.”
• This article was amended on 4 April 2016. An earlier version incorrectly referred to Queen Margaret as Richard III’s mother.
