Jeremy Irons prefers Shakespeare to 'Abbey' Gary Levin, USA TODAY

The actor is among the stars who will delve into the Bard's most compelling characters for PBS.

PBS is telling tales behind some of Shakespeare's greatest plays.

Shakespeare Uncovered, produced by New York's WNET, is a three-week, six-episode project featuring stars who've played celebrated characters exploring what's behind them. It kicks off Jan. 25 with Ethan Hawke exploring Macbeth and Joely Richardson delving into the playwright's comedies. Jeremy Irons tackles Henry IVand V on Feb. 1, and other episodes feature Hamlet, The Tempest and Richard II. Each episode mixes performances, history, analysis, and the actors speaking passionately about their roles as they trek to sites imagined or visited by the author.

"One of the reasons why Shakespeare shines as the greatest dramatist of all time is he was writing about the human condition," Irons says. "Jealousy, envy or unrequited love, or the relationship between family members. It's something that hasn't changed. So when we see those plays now they still speak to us, they have a resonance, (while) hundreds of plays written since then don't."


READ MORE: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2013/01/15/jeremy-irons-pbs-shakespeare/1836523/

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

Helen Mirren enjoys her return to a Shakespearean role

By Alice T. Carter, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Last updated: 11:48 am

Actress Helen Mirren places "The Tempest" high on her list of the films she wants to be remembered for.

Even though it's been almost two years since the filming of her performance as a cross-gendered Prospera in Julie Taymor's film of the classic Shakespeare drama and 10 months since the film's release, Mirren still has an interest in the movie's future.

She agreed to an interview to help promote Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre's benefit screening of the film this Saturday at Alumni Hall in Oakland.

Lynn Hendee, producer of "The Tempest" and president of Chartoff Productions, will introduce the film and attend a "meet-the-producer" reception that follows the screening.

Although there are some early 20th-century short versions of "The Tempest" and a number of video versions that have been televised, this version of "The Tempest" is the only full-length color version to play in theaters.

That makes it one for the ages, Mirren says.

"It's a film I want people to see and be aware of," she says during a phone interview. "The wonderful thing is that it doesn't matter how much money a Shakespeare film makes in the first two weeks. ... Shakespeare films last forever, and it's wonderful to be a part of that library of films. It has never been filmed before and that's a fantastic thing. There will be generations after generations of people discovering Shakespeare (through this film) and getting blown away by it."

In Taymor's version of what arguably is Shakespeare's last play, "The Tempest" takes place on an infrequently visited island where Prospera and her daughter, Miranda, have spent more than a dozen years after being exiled by Prospera's brother.

The isolated, magical island is home to the monstrous, devious Caliban, and Prospera uses the skills of wizardry that she has honed through study and practice to subdue and control Caliban. Her conjuring ability also comes in handy when she creates a storm that shipwrecks her enemies, and provides her with an opportunity for revenge.

"It's one of the biggest challenges of my career," says Mirren, who likes roles that take her out of her comfort zone.

"It's an incredibly complicated text, difficult to learn, and when you do a film, you have no rehearsal time," she says.

For Mirren, the 2007 best actress Oscar winner for "The Queen" and multiple-Emmy winning star of the long-time "Prime Suspect" British TV series, "The Tempest" was a chance to return to her roots in Shakespearean theater.

"I started in Shakespeare and wanted to come back to Shakespeare," says Mirren, who early in her career spent four years acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company in England. "It's great to have this great Shakespeare role as part of my CV (resume)."

Also, she adds pragmatically: "As you get on in life, there are less and less roles for women."
Among the other joys of working on the film was the opportunity to work with Taymor and a cast of performers Mirren calls "iconic." They include Alan Cumming, Alfred Molina. Djimon Hounsou, David Strathairn, Chris Cooper, Russell Brand and Reeve Carney.
Theater buffs know Taymor for her creative work on the Broadway musicals "Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark" and "The Lion King," but she's also well known as the director of movies that include "Frida" and "Titus," her film adaptation of Shakespeare's gory tragedy "Titus Andronicus."
"She's got immense energy and great vision," she says. "What surprised me is how girlie she is. She's a very womanly woman."
Although Taymor transgendered Shakespeare's male Prospero into the female Prospera that Mirren played, the actress says the change created little controversy beyond "a few fuddy-duddy theater people who might have harrumphed a bit."
In fact, Mirren says: "I suspect if women had been able to perform on stage, Shakespeare would have written it for a woman. I think it works brilliantly."



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Helen Mirren - Dame Helen Mirren Struggled With Tempest Script

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21 September 2011 19:11

Picture: Helen Mirren Screening of 'The Debt' held at the Tribeca Grand Hotel - Outside Arrivals New York City, USA -....

Dame Helen Mirren Struggled With Tempest Script

Dame Helen Mirren struggled to memorise her lines for the big screen adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest and took two months tackling the "hardest" task of her career.

The veteran British actress tackled the traditionally male role of Prospero in the 2010 movie, but quickly realised she had taken on a mammoth challenge when it came to remembering the words.

The Queen star admits that despite her extensive stage work in classical productions, sifting her way through the script was a struggle.

She tells The Huffington Post, "Learning The Tempest was the hardest thing. I knew I had to learn the whole thing before I shot any film, so I learned the whole play. It took me about two months of solid learning every day. You just sit down and do it.

"It's time consuming, you just go over it and over it and over it. Eight-year-old children learn the Quran by heart. The human brain has the capability of doing it. It's just a matter of knuckling down and doing it."

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