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| | | Actor Kathryn Hunter: 'I gravitated towards male roles because men are given more interesting things to do' | | by Kate Kellaway Dec 12, 2021 | | The theatre star on the car crash that transformed her life, changing her name for work – and playing all three witches in Joel Coen’s new film of Macbeth Kathryn Hunter, 64, is an actor who has done more than make a name for herself in theatre. In shows for Complicité, Shared Experience and the RSC she has, with physical virtuosity, extended the reach of what theatre can do. She has played great Shakespearean male roles – Lear, Timon of Athens and Richard III – and is now starring in Joel Coen’s film The Tragedy of Macbeth, alongside Denzel Washington as Macbeth and Frances McDormand as Lady Macbeth. Hunter plays all three witches as thrilling, crow-like contortionists with voices that stir, disinter and reverberate. She lives in London with her husband, Marcello Magni, co-founder of Complicité. How did the idea of playing all three witches come about?
Joel emailed me – we’ve known each other a long time and he and Fran [the actor Frances McDormand, also Coen’s wife and a producer of the film] have come to see shows I was in. He asked if I’d like to play a witch. It’s been a lifelong dream to work with Joel and Fran, so that was an immediate yes. We started talking about the how – and there were many experiments in my kitchen. I’d think: OK, the witch is a scavenger on the battlefield – she carries dead bodies around. Continue reading... | | | | | It's a family show: actors with new babies job-share leading roles | | by Vanessa Thorpe Dec 12, 2021 | | Demand is growing to allow flexible working for cast as well as crew in the theatre industry If disaster strikes in the theatre, an understudy replaces a leading actor, sometimes even during the interval. Audiences adapt and occasionally a star is born. Yet performers, on stage or screen, are still seen as the last people who should be asking for flexible working. Instead they are expected to give their all, until their all gives in. Now, calls to allow job-sharing among casts, as well as for members of the backstage crew, are growing louder, in an attempt to make entertainment a better working environment. Leading the campaign are many new mothers, who argue there is no real reason why the burden of long hours and late evenings cannot be borne by two pairs of shoulders. Continue reading... | | | | | |
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