The UK’s National Theatre has been broadcasting live stage productions, and following up with the films being shown in other cities. We saw Macbeth yesterday; I was expecting a much better production, since Kenneth Branagh was in it, but it was pretty meh, for some reason. Alex Kingston was good as Lady Mac, but Branagh was rather flat, IMO.
We saw The Audience some weeks ago, with Helen Mirren as The Queen and a host of good actors as her PMs over the years. Very enjoyable.
And then today we saw Othello, starring Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear. Kinnear was nothing short of astounding as Iago, and the entire cast really gave a good showing. It was updated to present-day military uniforms and weapons, but the dialog was true to Willy Shakes. The direction was superb, with the actors actually reacting to each other. I usually need an interpreter for Shakespeare, but this was extraordinarily engaging and clearly spoken. Kinnear is also the star of Hamlet, but I think it’s sold out here.
If you haven’t seen any of these films, I highly recommend them (other than Macbeth).
I haven’t seen the ones you mentioned, but I will be seeing the televised live performance of Richard II starring David Tennant on Nov 13 and I am very much looking forward to it! (I don’t know where or if that will be shown in the US. I am actually seeing it while in London. I couldn’t get tickets to the actual show and this was the next best thing.)
The one to see is Frankenstein, starring TV’s Sherlock Holmeses, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller. Actually its the one to see twice, as there’s one version with BC as the monster and JLM as the doctor, and another the other way round.
I bagged the ‘where have we seen her before’ question with Emilia after watching her for about a minute. She’s Lyndsey Marshal, who played Cleopatra in HBO’s Rome.
The other one was Lady Macbeth, who is played by Alex Kingston, who was Dr. Corday in the TV drama ER.
