Oscar Isaac will soon be asking, "To be or not to be?" The rising Hollywood star will play Hamlet in a new off-Broadway production of Shakespeare's famous play in 2017.
Isaac's Hamlet will be staged by the Theater for a New Audience (TFNA) at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn, New York. It is directed by Sam Gold, who won a Tony Award in 2015 for his work on musical Fun Home.
Having cemented himself as one of a new generation of Star Wars protagonists, the actor's next project may seem a little unlikely. But the 37-year-old, who played Poe Dameron in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, has strong roots in theater—he played Romeo in a 2007 Shakespeare in the Park production of Romeo and Juliet before gaining global attention.
"Oscar is celebrated for the honesty, authenticity, and intensity of his performances and Hamlet marks his long-desired return to theater after an impressive series of starring film and television roles," said TFNA artistic director Jeffrey Horowitz.
Isaac is coming off a slew of impressive movie roles, including parts in Ex-Machina, Inside Llewyn Davis and The Force Awakens. He'll next be seen as villain Apocalypse in X-Men: Apocalypse in May before returning to the Star Wars universe for Episode VIII, due for release in 2017.
He's also commanded the small screen in the HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero, for which he earned a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Miniseries in January.
Hamlet is due to begin previews on June 4, 2017, before opening on June 22. It will run through the end of July 2017.
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