Kenneth Branagh to Make New York Stage Debut in ‘Macbeth’

WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Pia Catton
August 20, 2013

Kenneth Branagh will make his New York stage debut in June 2014, but don’t look for him on Broadway: His “Macbeth” is heading to the Upper East Side’s Park Avenue Armory.

The production originated in England at the Manchester International Festival, which co-commissioned the play with the Park Avenue Armory. Branagh starred as Macbeth and directed the play with Rob Ashford (“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”). Starring opposite Branagh in New York will be former Royal Shakespeare Company member Alex Kingston (“ER”) as Lady Macbeth.

In Manchester, the production took place in a deconsecrated church, with several parts of the space used. In New York, it will be adapted to the 55,000-square-foot drill hall, but is likely to replicate the runway stage and the intensity of the original. “The action happens so fast. The battles are right on top of you,” said Rebecca Robertson, president and executive producer of the Park Avenue Armory. “The production elements are simple, but it’s so stark and you just feel a part of it.”

READ MORE HERE: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/08/20/kenneth-branagh-makes-new-york-stage-debut-with-macbeth/

Sir Kenneth Branagh's Macbeth impresses in Manchester (BBC NEWS)

Sir Kenneth Branagh's first appearance as Macbeth has confirmed him to be an "intemperately exciting Shakespearean actor" in what is a "great" production of the play, critics have decided.

Macbeth is Sir Kenneth's first Shakespeare role on stage for 11 years.

It is being staged in a 281-capacity deconsecrated church in Manchester.

The Guardian critic Michael Billington said: "The highest compliment I can pay him is that at times he evoked golden memories of Olivier in the role."

The play begins with a full-blooded battle scene in driving rain, in which sparks fly as the warriors clash swords.

The stage - essentially a mud-filled trough - runs the length of the church, with the audience close to the action on banks of benches on either side.

Spectators were warned not to wear their "best, light coloured, dry-clean only" clothes in case they got splattered by the mud from the earthy and violent production, which is part of the Manchester International Festival.

Mr Billington wrote that "we seem to be in the thick of the rain-soaked, mud-spattered opening battles".

"This is an exciting production that shows why Branagh is such a fine Shakespearean actor," he told newspaper readers. "He can do the soaring vocal cries but he is also sensitive to the minutiae of language."

Alex Kingston and Kenneth Branagh

Dominic Cavendish
The Telegraph
The actor also "conveys the desolation and despair of a man who has sold his soul only to be confronted by the hollowness of tyrannical power", he wrote.

In The Telegraph, critic Dominic Cavendish declared it a "thrilling, cinematically fluid account" of Macbeth that "doesn't hold back in plunging us into the harrowing grime of battle".

"As the earthy playing-area turns into a bog, as drums beat and swords clash, something stirs in the memory. Oh yes, Shakespeare can be really exciting, can't he?" he wrote.

Sir Kenneth "shows us the vestigial civilisation beneath the martial exterior", according to his five-star review.

"This is a Macbeth, though, that won't just go down as a highlight of the Manchester International Festival but as one of the Scottish Play's great revivals.

"It's a phoenix-like feather in the cap of Sir Ken, too, comeback Shakespearean king.


READ MORE HERE:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23210168

The man who would be king: Kenneth Branagh makes a long-awaited return to Shakespeare (INDEPENDENT) BY PAUL TAYLOR

It's 10 years – if you exclude his rendering of the "isle is full of noises" speech from The Tempest at the Olympics opening ceremony – since Kenneth Branagh trod the boards in Shakespeare. That was in Michael Grandage's acclaimed production of Richard III at the Sheffield Crucible. And before that he hadn't appeared on stage at all for more than a decade. So his appearance as Macbeth – in the hotly anticipated production that he is co-directing with Rob Ashford in a deconsecrated church as part of this year's Manchester International Festival – must be deemed a major event.

Once again, one of the foremost Shakespearean actors of his generation has chosen to stage a rare live brush with the Bard at a venue outside London and, on this occasion, he has set his face against doing any promotional interviews. But his American collaborator, Ashford – an award-winning director/choreographer on both sides of the Atlantic (he picked up the Olivier gong for his Donmar revival of Anna Christie) – is eloquent on the subject of how the intimate site-specific location has helped to shape the production (which is set in primitive times).

"At first, the Weird Sisters seem out of place in a church. The journey – a conversation and struggle between good and evil – is to make the place feel more like a home to them. And we earn the right to do so by being very specific about when good turns to evil and why."

READ MORE: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/the-man-who-would-be-king-kenneth-branagh-makes-a-longawaited-return-to-shakespeare-8675491.html

Kenneth Branagh's Macbeth at MIF gets two extra performances (MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS) By Deanna Delamotta

The special preview shows will be available exclusively to Greater Manchester residents and will go on sale at 1pm tomorrow

It was the hottest ticket in town – selling out in minutes to the disappointment of thousands of theatre fans.

But now Greater Manchester people who missed out on the chance to see Macbeth starring Sir Kenneth Branagh have been given a second chance to see the landmark show.

The hotly-anticipated highlight of this year’s Manchester International Festival signals a return to Shakespeare after more than a decade for thespian and film director Sir Kenneth – and it will be the first time he has played the Scottish king.

Add to this the fact that the performances will take place in an as yet unnamed deconsecrated central Manchester church and the buzz surrounding this production on the global arts stage is reaching fever pitch.

Festival organisers have now decided to throw open the church doors to Greater Manchester residents with two extra performances of the play, which also stars former ER actress Alex Kingston as Lady Macbeth.


READ MORE: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/theatre/kenneth-branaghs-macbeth-manchester-international-2991985

Doctor Who’s Alex Kingston Joins Kenneth Branagh in Manchester Macbeth LONDON BUZZ By Marc Snetiker (BROADWAY.COM)

Doctor Who star Alex Kingston is set to join Kenneth Branagh as Lady Macbeth in the Manchester International Festival production of Macbeth this summer, reports The Daily Mail.

The show will be performed in a run-down church in the city center, beginning July 5 and running for two weeks. There will also be a live broadcast of the play on July 20.

Directed by Rob Ashford, the Bard’s tragic tale follows a Scottish general who becomes consumed by ambition after receiving a prophecy from three witches that he will one day become King of Scotland. What follows is a murderous spree of arrogance, madness and bloodbath in what is one of William Shakespeare’s most memorable works.

READ NOW: http://www.broadway.com/buzz/168710/doctor-whos-alex-kingston-joins-kenneth-branagh-in-manchester-macbeth/

Hugh Bonneville: Ovation Premieres Ben Hur Easter Weekend Miniseries Event Sunday, March 31 At 8 pm ET Ovation Also To Air Special, The Making Of Ben Hur, Across All Content Platforms Including SD and HD Channels, OvationTV.com, YouTube, VOD & TVE

SANTA MONICA, Calif., March 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- On the heels of its ratings success with original series Song by Song, Ovation, the only network dedicated to the arts, will launch an Easter weekend event with the premiere of its four-hour miniseries BEN HUR, Sunday, March 31 at 8:00 pm ET.


Based on the Lew Wallace novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ, the miniseries stars Joseph Morgan (The Vampire Diaries) as Judah Ben Hur and Emily VanCamp (Revenge) as Esther. BEN HUR's multi-talented cast also includes Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey), Kristin Kreuk (Beauty and the Beast), Stephen Campbell Moore (Titanic mini-series), Simon Andreu (The Cold Light of Day), James Faulkner ( Bridget Jones ' Diary), Alex Kingston (ER), Ray Winstone (Great Expectations) and Ben Cross (William & Kate).

Written by Alan Sharp and directed by Steve Shill , the miniseries follows Judah Ben Hur , a wealthy Jewish prince betrayed by his childhood friend, Messala.  Eventually enslaved, Ben Hur becomes a hero and receives new wealth and power when he saves the life of a Roman leader. His ultimate quest is to deliver vengeance upon Messala for the destruction of the Ben Hur family.

Ovation will also feature The Making of Ben Hur special across all of its content platforms, including SD and HD channels, OvationTV.com, Ovation's 'YouTube channel, VOD and TV Everywhere.

read more: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ovation-premieres-ben-hur-easter-weekend-miniseries-event-sunday-march-31-at-8-pm-et-199524891.html

Upstairs Downstairs axed as BBC admits defeat in battle of the Sunday night dramas MAIL ON-LINE

(Buh - Bye)

Upstairs Downstairs was revived in 2010 after 40 years off screen The second six-part series drew 6.5 million viewers when it began in January But within a week 700,000 had switched off and by the time the series ended last month, just 4.45 million were watching. By LAURA GOULD and CHRIS HASTINGS

It was billed as the BBC’s big-budget fightback in television’s Sunday night ratings battle. The Corporation hoped its lavish new version of Upstairs Downstairs would serve up the same sort of success enjoyed by ITV’s country house saga Downton Abbey. But after two series it seems the BBC has admitted defeat – axeing the revived period drama because of falling ratings.

Turn-off: Keeley Hawes and Ed Stoppard as aristocratic Hollands 

 Yesterday it was confirmed that there would not be a third series after more than two million viewers turned off between the first episode and the last. The decision comes despite attempts to ‘sex up’ the plot with the introduction of lesbian archaeologist Dr Blanche Mottershead, played by ER and Moll Flanders star Alex Kingston. She was seen in bed with her bisexual lover, played by Emilia Fox.


READ MORE:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2133318/Upstairs-Downstairs-axed-BBC-admits-defeat-battle-Sunday-night-dramas.html?ito=feeds-newsxml