Michael Sheen to star in 'Hamlet'

Michael Sheen has signed up to star in a production of Hamlet at London's Young Vic theatre.

The Welsh actor, who has previously played Tony Blair, David Frost and Brian Clough on the big screen, will appear in the new Shakespeare project in 2011.

Ian Rickson, whose stage credits include Jerusalem, will direct the play.

"It's the most dangerous play that exists, yet our culture has made it safe. It has become a rite of passage play for actors," said Sheen.

"But it is about the very nature of life, death and reality. What I want is to make it difficult and jagged again, unsettling and uncomfortable and disorienting for the audience."

Rickson added: "[Michael is] fantastically intelligent, but at the same time very alive emotionally. He has a certain maleness, combined with a poeticism, on stage. And he is suitably fearless in terms of going into the darkness in this play."

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