Romeo and Juliet, with "Heroes" Star Cabrera and Rylance, Opens at Middle Temple Hall Aug. 26

By Mark Shenton
26 Aug 2008

Santiago Cabrera, best known for playing the role of Isaac Mendez in the TV series "Heroes," plays Romeo opposite Juliet Rylance as Juliet in a new production of Romeo and Juliet, opening at Middle Temple Hall Aug. 26 (following previews from Aug. 20) for a run to Sept. 13.

Cabrera, born in Venezuela of Chilean parents, trained as an actor at London's Drama Centre, and made his professional stage debut in a production of Othello at Northampton's Royal Theatre. He has also appeared on U.K. TV in "Battles of Britain," "Judge John Deed," "Spooks" and "As If" and starred opposite Brittany Murphy and Matthew Rhys in the film "Love and Other Disasters." On American TV, he has appeared in "Empire," playing Octavius, Julius Caesar's teenage nephew.

Rylance, the stepdaughter of Mark Rylance, former artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe who is currently starring on Broadway in Boeing-Boeing, is co-founder and joint artistic director of Theatre of Memory, the theatre company (formed in January 2007) who is producing Romeo and Juliet. The company previously produced Neil LaBute's bash at the Trafalgar Studios.

Also in the cast are Ann Mitchell as Nurse, RSC actor Nicolas Tennant as Friar and Will Kemp (seen in the West End and on Broadway in Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake) as Mercutio.

According to press materials, the production invites audiences into a modern world where the Renaissance was not forgotten. Audience and actors share the same light as they enter into a world with whispered hints of doublet and hoes, of ruffs and sweeping gowns, where all the men know how to wield a sword and the women how to dance through the night.

Romeo and Juliet is directed by Tamara Harvey (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in the West End) and features live music composed by Rylance's mother Claire van Kampen, and costumes by designer Jenny Tiramani.

To book tickets contact the box office at 0845 120 7543 or visit www.barbican.org.uk.