As above. Current actors you would like to see play roles in Shakespeare plays.

I’ll begin with;
Idris Elba – Othello, with Laurence Fox as Iago.

Bear with me on this one, but….Jonny Vegas as Falstaff. As he matures, and becomes a more mature character, he will begin to take on the mantle of “white hairs” on a “fool and jester”.

Special “In Memoriam” casting option – If only Alan Rickman had lived long enough to be old enough to play Lear.

GO!

Idris Elba – Othello

typecast, why dont you!

Check out Verdi’s Othello (Royal Opera co @ ROH) currently on BBC4. Iago steels the show.

I would like to see Iago played by Peter Mandelson. Othello played by Tony Blair, and Desdemona by Cherie. 😀

Rik Mayall as Bottom, natch

typecast, why dont you!

Whoever plays Othello is entirely dependent on the actor playing Iago to be good. Elba is just the right balance of roaring alpha male and beginning to go a little grey around the temples, while Fox has that wily, angular bearing that hints at the machinations that lie within.

I’d like to have seen James McAvoy as Hamlet, I think he brings a subtle sense of danger that, say, a David Tennant or a Cumberdict Bendebatch doesn’t really have. Probably a bit old but pop in McKellan as Hamlet Sr, Stewart as Claudius, then go Fassbender for Laertes and Famke Jansen as Gertrude, Scarlett Johansen as Ophelia, and there’s your Marvel-themed Hamlet. Jackman as gravedigger, Nicholas Holt as Horatio – job’s a good ‘un. 🙂

(Hadn’t intended the Marvel theme but I do like McAvoy and the rest (age apart) just follows)

Having seen Branagh play Hamlet at the RSC, I think we can safely pass on the Dane.

Tim Roth to play MacBeth. The right balance of early cunning and the ability to then unravel…. Keeley Hawes opposite as Lady MacBeth.

Meera Syal as Cleopatra – she has a voice and vocal style that would work really well to flip between the humorous/playful and instantly sour and aloof.

Good call on Jonny Vegas. For a slightly different take I think John Goodman would do well.

Actually, back to the Dane: Alex Macqueen as Polonious (am thinking of his obsequious Julius in the Thick of It).

Robert Carlyle as Richard III? Though since seeing the brilliant “Looking for Richard” years ago my default Richard is Al Pacino.

Tim Roth to play MacBeth.

You could explain Tim Roth to me from now until, ooo, the end of time, and I’d still say “don’t get it”.

typecast, why dont you

Ok, skirt that issue then. How about Jeanette Krankie in traditional blackface?

inspired!

With Barry Chuckle as Cassio?

With Barry Chuckle as Cassio?

Hamlet surely – ‘To me, or not to me’