The Shakespeare plays everyone's talking about in 2024

Bridgerton's Luke Thompson will star in Love's Labour's Lost

(Image credit: Seamus Ryan)

published 13 February 2024

From a Spider-Man Romeo to a chopped-down "As You Like It", this summer's most exciting Shakespeare productions are nothing if not a break from the past.

Romeo and Juliet

Tom Holland will be "trading his Spidey-senses for the sweet sorrow" from 11 May, said Hayley Maitland in British Vogue, after he landed the star role in Jamie Lloyd's adaptation of the greatest tragedy ever told. "With apologies to those hoping to see Holland in breeches", this production looks set to be "something closer to Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film than John Gielgud's '30s production at the New Theatre". No "traditional Elizabethan staging" to be seen here. This will be Holland's first appearance in a Shakespearean role, though as a 12-year-old he played the title role in "Billy Elliot". The Marvel Cinematic Universe will just have to wait.

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"Outrage immediately ensued" when it was announced that the London Globe's artistic director Michelle Terry would be taking on the role of King Richard III, said Lauren Smith at Spiked. The Disabled Artists Alliance called it "offensive and distasteful" for the character to be portrayed by someone who is not physically disabled. Richard, described by Shakespeare as "deformed, unfinish’d", had scoliosis, or curvature of the spine. Yet most disabled actors who have played the role do not suffer from the same condition, argued Smith. Surely, "according to the logic of the disability activists", none of these actors should play the king, either? "Enough with this pig-headed literalism. Let actors act."

The decision to cast the dashing Luke Thompson in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre's new staging of "Love's Labour's Lost" was canny. Best known as Benedict from the Netflix smash-hit period drama "Bridgerton", Thompson has been "cast as a 'tech bro' modelled after Elon Musk" in Emily Burns's "contemporary take" on the comedy, said The Independent. What is "incredible" about Shakespeare's plays, said the RSC's co-artistic director Daniel Evans, "is their protean nature so that they're always able to be reinvented, rewritten, and reimagined".

Former game-show host and actor Les Dennis, 70, will make his Shakespearean debut playing Malvolio in the new production of "Twelfth Night" at the Shakespeare North Playhouse in June. He said he was "tickled" to be following in the footsteps of comic Sir Ken Dodd, who played the role at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1971, reported comedy news site Chortle. The role of Malvolio, who is "a pompous puritan who acts foolishly when he believes that the wealthy Olivia is in love with him", is one that Dennis has had his eye on since childhood. "Ever since I went to Stratford with the school and saw it I have always wanted to do it."

The RSC is staging "compact" Shakespeare plays in an "attempt to woo tourists who do not have time for a full-length production", said Anita Singh in The Telegraph. This summer's outdoor production of "As You Like It" will last 80 minutes, as opposed to three hours, making it appealing to families too. And a TikTok sponsorship deal means tickets for under-25s can be bought for just £10. A new "squished" play can't come too soon, said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian. "There can be an exhilarating focus to a short show." The Elizabethans, who were "far from reverential, chatting, eating, drinking, and walking in and out", are unlikely to have objected.

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