Nominees for the 2024 Ian Charleson Awards have been revealed, with the award ceremony set to take place on 26 May. Designed to celebrate the best performances by actors under 30 in a classical role (written pre-1918), the awards are presented in partnership with the National Theatre and The Times.
This year’s winners will join a long legacy or previous winners including Rebecca Hall, Rory Kinnear, David Oyelowo, Tom Hollander, Cush Jumbo and Rilwan Abiola Owokoniran, who won first prize for his role as Algernon in English Touring Theatre’s production of The Importance of Being Earnest last year.
The 2024 winners will be chosen by a judging panel including actors Emma Fielding and Ashley Zhangazha; Sheffield Theatres artistic director Robert Hastie, and Alastair Coomer, the head of casting at the National Theatre from the nominees listed below:
- Shyvonne Ahmmad, 29 – Macbeth (Royal Shakespear Company – RSC)
- Jonathan Case, 29 – Macbeth (Wessex Grove/Underbelly Touring)
- Joséphine Callies, 22 – Henry V (Shakespeare’s Globe and Headlong)
- Samuel Creasey, 27 – The Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare’s Globe, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse)
- Amber James, 29 – Cymbeline and Fair Maid of the West (RSC)
- Shalisha James-Davis, 28 – Romeo & Juliet (Royal Exchange Theatre)
- Toheeb Jimoh, 26 – Romeo & Juliet (Almeida Theatre)
- Tyreke Leslie, 22 – As You Like It (RSC)
- Francesca Mills, 27 – A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe)
- Taheen Modak, 27 – Pygmalion (Old Vic)
- Danielle Phillips, 27 – The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare’s Globe)
- Joseph Payne, 29 – The Tempest (RSC) and Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe)
- Anna Russell-Martin, 25 – Macbeth (RSC)
- Kibong Tanji, 26 – Titus Andronicus (Shakespeare’s Globe, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse)
Recipients receive a cash prize, as do runners-up and third-place winners.
The annual awards are given in memory of British actor Ian Charleson who died of AIDS in 1990 aged 40. They were launched in 1991 by Sunday Times chief drama critic John Peter who reviewed Charleson’s 1989 performance as Hamlet at the National Theatre, given (unbeknownst to the audience) during the last weeks of his life while he was seriously ill with AIDS. Charleson died eight weeks after his final performance.