June 9 - June 15, 2024
Othello 2030
Picture of the week
Jeremy O’Harris wearing a t-shirt from The Two Gentlemen of Verona musical.
“Angelo” is not a fun Shakespeare baby name
Ghostlight Film
In “Ghostlight,” O’Sullivan uses “Romeo and Juliet” as a canny entry point into multiple storylines. On the surface, it’s a local production of the iconic Shakespeare play that brings the emotionally distant Dan (Keith Kupferer) into the orbit of a local community theater group…
Sleep No More, No More
Every line of Macbeth, Punchdrunk’s leadership was fond of saying, could be found somewhere in the McKittrick: translated into a flock of dead birds in the Macduffs’ apartments, a hidden letter in an antique drawer, a secret room in the asylum where Lady Macbeth performs, wordlessly, a version of “Out, damned spot!” That meant that every moment of our show experience meant something
Othello 2030
Leon also teased that his next play “Othello” starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal will be set in 2030. “It’s in the near future, it’s not so far in the past that it feels old, and he’s not so far now that we think we have to include everything that’s in our lives now,” Leon says.
He went on to say, “I’m excited, I want to see Denzel and Jake together. We’re sitting in the palm of the universe, Denzel is the exact age, it’s the exact time for him to do it and it’s the exact time for Jake to do it. It’s the exact time for ‘Othello’ to happen, that doesn’t happen a lot when all of this comes together at the right time.”
From Uzhhorod to Stratford-upon-Avon: King Lear as a labour of love
While King Lear is a tragedy, it’s not comparable to the tragedy unfolding in their country. “A tragedy on paper, that’s one thing, but a tragedy in real life is absolutely different,” he says, His production is not a production about war; it exists in spite of the war. It’s a small act of resistance. Yehorov talks about this as the show’s – and his – mission. “We need to focus on breaking that negativity, and putting our thoughts and efforts into positivity, into good things.”
From the excellent Café Europa.
The Actor’s Nightmare
I went on, and I started . . . “To be, or not to be, that is the question/ Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer/ The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune/ Or– Or– Or– Or–”
Blinded to the astonishment of a thousand spectators by the force of the footlights, Jacobi realised he’d dried. Dried completely. It wasn’t like he’d forgotten the words. It was like he’d never known them. An entire minute of silence passed, until he was audibly given his line by Ophelia. Somehow, he got through the performance and the rest of the run. Afterwards, Jacobi didn’t go on stage again for two years.
The article has annoyingly gone behind a paywall. It is about the red book, originally owned by Johnston Forbes-Robertson, who you can hear as Hamlet below.
I’m so, so fond of Derek Jacobi as an actor but he’s on his Oxfordian kick again.
Portrayal of character in Steve Coogan’s film The Lost King is defamatory, judge rules
Having watched the film, Lewis concluded that the natural and ordinary meaning in respect of Taylor was “(a) The claimant knowingly misrepresented facts to the media and the public concerning the search for, and discovery of, Richard III’s remains. He did so by presenting a false account of the university’s role in the project, and marginalising Ms Langley’s role, despite her major contribution to the find. (b) The claimant’s conduct towards Ms Langley in respect of the project was smug, unduly dismissive and patronising.”
A Real Class Act
Over the next seven decades, Le Gallienne played numerous leading roles on Broadway, crisscrossed America in touring productions, performed scenes from Shakespeare as the “class act” in vaudeville shows, and appeared on radio, film, and television. She was mentored by Italian actress Eleonora Duse, the originator of naturalistic acting, whom she met during Duse’s final American tour.
“So I Learn F*ucking Shakespeare”
An ad for World Down Syndrome Day.
Take Your Children to Shakespeare
Liev Schreiber
“And then I saw a production of ‘Othello’ at the Delacorte in Central Park, and I think it was the moment after Raul Julia strangled Desdemona, this heron took off behind the stage. And it was one of those moments where I was like, ‘Wow, that’s really magical.’”
If you haven’t seen Raul Julia as Petruchio with Meryl Street as Kate, prepare thyself.
From 43 Tony Nominees and the Shows That Shaped Them. Also includes: Jeremy Stron on Lear, Celia Keenan-Bolger on Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Juliana Canfield on Twelfth Night.
Assad Zaman from “Interview with a Vampire”
The son of Bangladeshi immigrants, Zaman was first seduced by the theatre’s siren song as a teenager. “I know exactly when it happened. I was 15 or 16, and my school took a group of us to a show in Newcastle, which was an international telling of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was an RSC production, with an entire company of actors from the Asian continent, across East and South Asia, all speaking different languages. The whole play was done in every language they spoke but English, and it was so beautiful and physical. I was blown away by it, and seeing people who looked like me on stage.
Shakespeare and Power
Jordan Schneider over at ChinaTalk has a great interview with Eliot Cohen on Shakespeare and Power.
