The Royal Shakespeare Company will bring their critically acclaimed production of Hamlet to York Theatre Royal next month.
Shakespeare’s epic family drama of deceit and murder is coming to York Theatre Royal on Tuesday 14 to Saturday 18 April 2026.
The production is directed by multi award-winner Rupert Goold, whose recent work includes Dear England (National Theatre) and King Charles III (Almeida Theatre).
Hamlet’s mother has married his uncle, and at a less than decent interval since the death of his father. As he pulls at the threads of his not-so-happy new family, Hamlet unravels a web of deceit and immorality that leads to the ultimate crisis of conscience.
“Hamlet is a play about the inevitability of death,” said Rupert, “the death of fathers, the death of kings, the mortality facing each and everyone of us, but it is also a play about how to live, what makes a good life and a just one too, however brief our allotted time.
“Our production is set aboard a ship but one that is soon to founder, going down with all hands. Its inspiration comes from the most famous sinking in history, and just as that icy tragedy came to pass in a little over two and a half hours our play takes place in real time and for about as long, as much catastrophic thriller as poetic meditation.
“It’s a production that asks what it means to be human and decisive when time is running out.”
Accomplished classical actor, Ralph Davis will play the title role of Hamlet. He was nominated for the 2023 Ian Charleson Award for playing Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, appeared as Edmund in King Lear (both at Shakespeare’s Globe), and most recently played Iago in Othello at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, for which he came second in the 2025 Ian Charleson Awards.
His screen credits include Film Club for the BBC (which he also co-wrote), House of the Dragon for HBO, Big Boys for Channel 4, SAS: Rogue Heroes, Life After Life and Steve McQueen’s Small Axe for the BBC.
Alongside Ralph Davis as Hamlet the cast includes Rob Alexander-Adams (Voltemand), Richard Cant (Polonius), Kat Collings (Ensemble), Raymond Coulthard (Claudius), Maximus Evans (Marcellus), Ian Hughes (Ghost/Player King), CJ Johnson (Player Queen), Julia Kass (Guildenstern), Poppy Miller (Gertrude), Georgia-Mae Myers (Ophelia), Mark Oosterveen (Cornelius/Priest), Djibril Ramsey (Barnardo), Colin Ryan (Horatio), Jonathan Savage (Ensemble), Jamie Sayers (Rosencrantz), Leo Shak (Francisco) and Benjamin Westerby (Laertes).
The tour of Hamlet is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, which makes it possible for the RSC to expand its tour to work in partnership with more places across England.
Tickets start from £15 and are available via the York Theatre Royal website.
