Jude Law, Tom Hiddleston and Rory Kinnear will vie for the best actor prize at this year’s Olivier Awards in a battle of Shakespeare’s great heroes and villains.

The trio have been nominated for their performances on the West End stage last year.

Law played the title role in Henry V at the Noel Coward Theatre, while Hiddleston had the starring role in Coriolanus at the Donmar Warehouse. Kinnear played Iago in Othello at the National Theatre, opposite Adrian Lester.

The sell-out productions were hailed as evidence that we are living through a new golden age of Shakespeare, although the starry casting was also a factor – Hiddleston was besieged by adoring fans each night as he left the theatre, and a security guard was posted at the stage door to marshal excitable females. […continued]