Globe's summer season to launch with production of Hamlet

Fresh out of Rada, Joshua McGuire, 23, didn't expect to land the role of Hamlet on the Globe's UK and European tour so fast. The small-scale production, directed by the Globe's artistic director Dominic Dromgoole, uses an Elizabethan-style booth stage. The production will also launch the Globe's summer season on Shakespeare's birthday, 23 April. It concludes its tour at Denmark's Kronborg Castle, in Elsinore, where Shakespeare's Hamlet is set.

The newcomer, who was in Posh at the Royal Court last year while in his final year at Rada, tried to ask advice from another young Hamlet, Ben Whishaw, who played in Trevor Nunn's 2004 Old Vic production, but to no avail. McGuire stars alongside Whishaw in Abi Morgan's new BBC series The Hour, set in a 1950s broadcast newsroom, with Dominic West.

McGuire explains: "I said to him: 'Do you think I should do it?' He said: 'Of course you should.' I said: 'Any tips?' He said: 'I can't remember it.' I totally understand that. Once you've played a part, you put it in the bin. The feelings you have, especially when they are as intense as Hamlet's, you can't explain to anyone, unless you are currently doing it."

'Hamlet' tours from 13 April to 12 August (www.shakespeares-globe.org)