Brendan O’Hea returns to direct Globe on Tour, where a company of eight actors will once again offer audiences around the world a trio of plays which this year explore the themes of refuge and displacement. Continuing last summer’s experiment, which revived the Shakespearean tradition of allowing audiences to vote for the play they’d like to see, this year’s audiences will cast their votes for The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night or Pericles, all stories of lost families, new homes, and what it means to belong. The tour will return to the Globe stage for Refugee Week (17 – 23 June) as part of a wider programme of events in which refugee artists, performers and audiences will all share their stories.
Director Brendan O’Hea says, “I’m so pleased to be back on the road with the Touring Ensemble, transporting the spirit of the Globe around the world with simple, clear storytelling which brings Shakespeare to all. This year we’ll be setting out across the UK, Europe and beyond performing Shakespeare’s refuge plays: three stories of displacement, scattered families and what it means to be at home. At a time in which so many people, communities and whole countries are wrestling with their sense of belonging, there couldn’t be a better time to journey out with this particular trio of plays. And, like the Elizabethan touring players before us, we will leave the choice of play to the most powerful person in the room: the audience.”
A director, actor, and education practitioner, Brendan directed last year’s Globe on Tour, and has previously performed in a number of productions at Shakespeare’s Globe including Cymbeline (2015), Measure for Measure (2015) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2014). He is also directing Tom Stuart’s new play After Edward, opening in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on Thursday 21 March. Isabel Marr, who assistant directed last year’s tour alongside Brendan, returns this year as Associate Director.
Colin Campbell will play Sir Toby Belch and the Priest in Twelfth Night, the titular role in Pericles and Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors. Colin most recently appeared in Scotties at Theatre Gu Leor. After graduating from the Lír Academy in Dublin, Colin’s theatre credits include Disco Pigs(Trafalgar Studios, Irish Repertory Theatre, New York), Dublin by Lamplight (The Corn Exchange, Dublin) and East of Berlin (Project Arts Centre).
Mark Desebrock will play Malvolio and Antonio in Twelfth Night, Cleon and Simonides in Pericles and Egeon and Angelo in The Comedy of Errors. Mark’s stage credits include Beauty and the Beast (National Theatre), Cis and Barbiche (York Theatre Royal, UK and Australian tour) and Moliere, or The League of Hypocrites (Finborough Theatre). Mark was also the winner of the UK’s Monologue Slam in 2016 (Theatre Royal Stratford East). His screen credits include Fungus the Bogeyman (Sky) and Bright Star directed by Jane Campion.