Kenneth Branagh to play Macbeth among church-goers Manchester festival has honour of actor's first Shakespeare role in 10 years in 'immersive' staging within deconsecrated church (THE GUARDIAN)

Sir Kenneth Branagh performs the lead in Richard III at the Crucible in Sheffield in 2002. Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Unless you count his performance of "the isle is full of noises" speech from The Tempest at the Olympics opening ceremony, it has been a decade since Kenneth Branagh played a Shakespeare role on the stage: that was Richard III at the Crucible in Sheffield.

Next year, however, the actor is to take on one of the most testing parts in the repertoire: Macbeth. And he will do it in the intimate circumstances of a deconsecrated church in Manchester, to an audience of not more than 300 at a time. According to Alex Poots, the director of the Manchester international festival: "It will certainly not be the audience observing the action from a distance, behind the proscenium arch. They'll feel very involved. It will be an immersive experience."

The festival, said Poots, had tempted Branagh through its experience of making work in unconventional spaces and unexpected ways, citing two projects conceived for the 2009 festival: the architect Zaha Hadid designed a pavilion specially for performances of Bach, and It Felt Like A Kiss, a dystopian vision of America, was performed in a derelict office block by theatre company Punchdrunk and documentary maker Adam Curtis.

Rob Ashford, behind acclaimed productions of Anna Christie and A Streetcar Named Desire at London's Donmar Warehouse, is to co-direct Macbeth, along with Branagh, who was knighted this month. In fact intimacy might be regarded as a keynote of the first shows announced for the 2013 festival, which runs from 4 to 21 July.

READ MORE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/nov/14/kenneth-branagh-macbeth-church-manchester