(January 2, 2015 – Vancouver, BC) We recently reported on an outstanding effort by Ontario`s Stratford Shakespeare Festival to produce high-definition videos of every play the world`s greatest playwright ever wrote. In Vancouver at the VIFF-Vancity Theatre, their “Shakespeare`s Globe On Screen” returns for January and February with a trio of filmed productions including Twelfth Night, The Tempest and The Taming of the Shrew.This is taken from a publicity release and it perfectly sums up what Shakespeare`s Globe On Screen is all about: “Bringing the pinnacle of English theatre to cinema audiences around the world, Globe on Screen presents brand new productions of Shakespeare`s plays presented in the famous Globe theatre in London, recreating the space and audience experience the Bard would have envisaged.
Mark Rylance, winner of multiple Olivier and Tony Awards, and Stephen Fry star in the production of Twelfth Night, directed by Tim Carroll. It was one of London theatre`s biggest hits in the summer of 2012, completely selling out all
of its performances at the Globe and creating queues around the block in the West End. Critics raved that Mark Rylance`s “dazzling high definition performances” lifted the production “into the sublime”. Stephen Fry`s turn as Malvolio — his first return to the stage in 17 years — won him huge acclaim from critics and audiences and a WhatsOnStage Award for Best Supporting Actor, voted for by 60,000 members of the public. The all-star cast also includes the multi-talented Johnny Flynn, a successful singer-songwriter and a talented actor who was nominated for an Olivier Award for his performance in the smash hit Jerusalem, and Roger Lloyd Pack, who played Barty Crouch in the film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Twelfth Night is an all-male Globe ‘Original Practices’ production that aims to replicate as closely as possible the music, costumes, dance and scenery of Shakespeare`s time. It screens on Sunday, January 4th.
The Tempest will screen on both Monday, January 12 and Sunday January 18. Inspired by reports from the first English colonies in the West Indies and imbued with a spirit of magic and the supernatural, The Tempest is Shakespeare`s late great masterpiece of forgiveness, generosity and enlightenment. Double Olivier Award-winner and renowned stage and screen actor Roger Allam returns to the Globe as Prospero, Duke of Milan, usurped and exiled by his own brother, who holds sway over an enchanted island. He is comforted by his daughter Miranda, played by Jessie Buckley, and served by his spirit Ariel (Colin Morgan — BBC`s Merlin) and his slave Caliban (James Garnon). When Prospero raises a storm to wreck his perfidious brother and his confederates on the island, his long-contemplated revenge at last seems within reach. Described by the Independent as “The funniest and most touching Tempest I can recall”, The Tempest also stars Sam Cox as Stephano and Jason Baughan as Antonio.
Last but not least, Shakespeare`s notorious battle of the sexes, The Taming of the Shrew gives us one of theatre`s great screwball double-acts in the shape of Katherina and Petruchio — a couple hell-bent on confusing and outwitting each other right up to the play`s controversial conclusion. Director Toby Frow gives us “a riotous mixture of verbal dexterity and slapstick” in an exhilarating production that delighted audiences at the Globe. Katherina is played by the Olivier Award-winning Samantha Spiro.
