Pop-Up Globe Star-Studded Cast Announced

Pop-Up Globe Star-Studded Cast Announced

Opens in 10 Days

Five new plays:

A Midsummer Night's Dream | The Merchant of Venice |
Macbeth | The Comedy of Errors | Julius Caesar

Create history with us. Are you ready for our next journey?

'The best night of theatre ever' Australian Stage
‘’ Limelight Magazine
'Mind-blowing' The Australian

Producers of the homegrown international smash-hit theatre Pop-up Globe today announce that one of New Zealand’s most exciting actresses will play THE most powerful female character in literature, Lady Macbeth, in a star-studded summer of Shakespeare.

Amanda Billing, better known as Dr Sarah Potts on Shortland Street, will play the conniving
Lady Macbeth – considered Shakespeare's most famous and frightening female character.

Billing is no stranger to playing hard-arse female characters. Her eight-year reign on Shortland Street drove New Zealand’s favourite drama to some of its highest ratings ever and saw her nominated for and win multiple television awards. Ultimately, her character who enjoyed a tumultuous relationship with TK Samuels (Benjamin Mitchell) departed the show, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. It was her portrayal of this condition that earned her huge accolades, with sufferers and health advocates praising her for bringing the illness to such a high-profile.

Billing, who also won praise for her roles in the television series Find Me A Maori Bride, The Brokenwood Mysteries and Power Rangers has an impressive theatre background, having performed for the prestigious Silo and Auckland Theatre companies.

Her first Shakespearean role was Rosalind in As You Like It at the Parnell Rose Gardens, right back at the beginning of her acting life.

15 years on, it would be an understatement to say she’s excited about bringing Macbeth and The Comedy of Errors to life at Pop-up Globe as part of the Southampton’s company.
“Lady Macbeth is an ambitious, sometimes vicious and, ultimately, tortured soul,” says Amanda. “I know now that she loves her husband with a passion stronger than she can bear, and that she seeks desperately to feel like she is going to be okay - and that she will whatever it takes.”

Amanda says she will bring understanding, love and commitment to her portrayal of Lady Macbeth – the ruthless wife of nobleman Macbeth who she goads into committing regicide on her journey to become queen of Scotland.

Amanda will join a stellar cast performing at Pop-up Globe this summer, including the extraordinarily talented Jason Te Kare who has directed and performed on stages in England, Canada, Hawaii and all over New Zealand. He directed the first Māori play to win Production of the Year at the Wellington Theatre Awards. Other credits include Most Promising Male Newcomer, Best New Director, Director of the Year, as well as Best Drama at the NZ Radio Awards. His credit extend to the silver screen, having also appeared in Eagle v Shark and King Kong. He will play Oberon and Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Morocco in The Merchant of Venice.

A star of stage, film and television, Peter Daubé brings to life Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and Egeus/Quince in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Peter’s credits include the recurring role of Fraser McKenzie in Shortland Street, General Grix in Legend of the Seeker, Slim in The Brokenwood Mysteriesand Eric Shipton in Hillary.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream will also feature the amazing talents of Te Kohe Tuhaka as Associate Director who played Othello in Season 2 of Pop-up Globe and reigning actress of the year, Miriama McDowell as consulting producer, whose adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing saw Pop-up Globe seasons in Auckland and Melbourne continuously sold out.

Thousands of actors from all over the world applied to be part of this prestigious theatre company. Final lists, including actors from New Zealand, Australia, the USA, and the United Kingdom are as follows:

Buckingham’s cast list:
A Midsummer Night's Dream
& The Merchant of Venice
- Jason Te Kare (NZ)
- Reuben Butler (NZ)
- Max Loban (UK)
- Peter Daubé (NZ)
- Patrick Griffin (USA)
- Cameron Moore (AU)
- Josh Cramond (NZ)
- Mike Edward (NZ)
- Edward Peni (NZ)
- Will Alexander (NZ)
- Kevin Keys (NZ)
- Thomas Wingfield (UK)
- Patrick Carroll (NZ)
Pembroke's cast list:
Julius Caesar
- Alison Bruce (NZ)
- Serena Cotton (NZ)
- Erina Daniels (NZ)
- Karen Ellett (NZ)
- Bronwyn Ensor (NZ)
- Anthea Hill (NZ)
- Sebastien Holland Dudding (NZ)
- Sheena Irving (NZ)
- Andrew Laing (NZ)
- Jessie Lawrence (NZ)
- Donogh Rees (NZ)
- Neenah Dekkers Reihana (NZ)
- Hannah Grace (NZ)

This summer, join us on an adventure to discover the lost secrets of the greatest theatre in history, Shakespeare’s theatre, the second Globe.

Season 3 will feature better special effects, more laughter, more battles and blood. More elaborate sets and costumes. More productions. And of course, more of the storytelling of Shakespeare’s masterworks.

From 7 December, Pop-up Globe will roar back into life at Shakespeare Gardens at Ellerslie Racecourse – the location of 100,000 attendances earlier this year. We’ll be presenting five new productions of Shakespeare’s most popular plays to thrill audiences all summer long. Fans and Pop-up Globe first timers will enjoy this third season alike.

It will begin with one of the greatest stage comedies of all time, A Midsummer Night's Dream -- Shakespeare’s take on love and obsession, directed by Pop-up Globe CEO, artistic director and founder Dr Miles Gregory and featuring specialist actors from the Buckingham’s Company. There will be 10 special evening performances in the lead up to Christmas.

Opening on 11 January is the tragedy Julius Caesar by the Pembroke's Company -- a new company of 11 women and 2 men performing a gender-reversed Julius Caesar; and the very next day, the dark comedy The Merchant of Venice, to be performed in repertory by the Buckingham’s Company.

Rounding out this extraordinary festival will be the tragedy Macbeth opening on 8 February and the farce, The Comedy of Errors, delighting audiences from 22 February.

This isn’t dusty old Shakespeare. This is bawdy, hilarious, brutal and bloodsoaked.

Pop-up Globe will pop down. Enjoy it while it's up.

The game’s afoot…

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Justly regarded as Shakespeare's comic masterpiece, A Midsummer Night's Dream enchants audiences with a brilliant mix of hilarious comedy and beautiful poetry. See Pop-up Globe's all-male Buckingham's Company in beautiful bespoke costumes transport you to an enchanted world where anything is possible and nothing is what it seems.
Directed by Dr Miles Gregory

Julius Caesar

In a world where ambitious politicians vie for the ultimate prize, sometimes the only way to stop your rival is by revolution. But what is the price of revolt? Shining a mirror on dirty politics, Pop-up Globe's gender-reversed Pembroke's Company draws back the veil to show the darkness within in the gripping tragedy of Julius Caesar.
Directed by Rita Stone

The Merchant of Venice

Friendship, forbidden love, cunning disguises and ancient rivalry build to a nail-biting conclusion in Shakespeare's most controversial comedy, The Merchant of Venice. Witness Pop-up Globe's all-male Buckingham's Company take on this powerful and gripping drama.
Directed by David Lawrence

The Comedy of Errors

Presented by Pop-up Globe's mixed Southampton's Company, Shakespeare's most hilarious farce The Comedy of Errors brings together two sets of twins in a wild romp. See chaotic confusion and unlikely plot twists come together in a side-splitting finale that cannot be missed.
Directed by Dr Miles Gregory

Macbeth

A haunting and timeless tragedy that explores the darkest corners of the human mind set in a world where the supernatural is real and the quickest way to the top is by murder. Macbeth, presented by Pop-up Globe's mixed Southampton's Company sees darkness, chaos and conflict unfold.
Directed by Tom Mallaburn

ENDS

About Pop-up Globe

Pop-up Globe aims to rediscover and bring back to life the extraordinary experience of Shakespeare’s own audiences through his own work performed in the space and style his own company did.

Pop-up Globe is a three-storey, 16-sided, 900-person capacity theatre. It unites cutting-edge scaffold technology with a 400-year-old design to transport audiences back in time. No matter where they sit or stand in the theatre, audience members are never more than 15 metres from the heart of the action on stage. Sometimes they’ll even find themselves in the play.

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