Alex Kingston is to appear alongside Kenneth Branagh in the Manchester International Festival production of Macbeth, which has already sold out.
It will be directed by Rob Ashford and Branagh and be performed in a deconsecrated Manchester church.
Kingston has won critical acclaim for her numerous television roles including Dr Elizabeth Corday in ER and River Song in Doctor Who. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing in Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear and Love’s Labours Lost amongst others, she was recently seen on the London stage in the sold-out Luise Miller at the Donmar Warehouse.
Branagh has long been lauded as one of the great Shakespearean interpreters and last performed Shakespeare when he played Richard III at Sheffield Crucible in 2002. His recent stage performances as Edmund at the National Theatre and Ivanov for the Donmar played to great acclaim. In 2011, Branagh completed a sell-out run of the hit comedy The Painkiller at the Lyric Theatre in his native Belfast.
Manchester International Festival 2013 will run from 4 July 4 to 21. On July 20 there will be a big screen relay of Macbeth in the Bridgewater Hall car park.