There he is. Amidst a chorus of sword crashing against sword in a scene only hinted at by the Bard, there he is, the man we’ve come to see: Sir Kenneth Branagh.
In the darkened Michigan Theater, my date and I squeal in excitement as this native of Northern Ireland dominates the screen with his rugged beard and flashing eyes. Yes, I do mean squeal, and yes, I am unabashedly a fanboy. I’m sure you can imagine my excitement at getting to watch him star as Macbeth in a live broadcast from the performance in Manchester that boasts of selling out in a mere nine minutes!
But perhaps you are wondering who this theatrical titan is, and I will endeavor to tell as best I can. If you watched the London 2012 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony, then in addition to seeing the Queen become one of the newest Bond girls, you would have seen Branagh (in what might be confused for Abraham Lincoln-esque attire) delivering a speech from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. It is likely apparent by now, as it is by perusing his performance history, that Branagh and the Bard have quite the intimate relationship. In fact, Branagh’s role as Henry V in the movie he directed of the same name was what made me fall in love with him. Especially, though by no means limited to, his rendition of the well-known St. Crispin’s Day speech, which I memorized for a Speech class in high school after watching this video on repeat (half of the views are probably mine).
Branagh’s Henry V, for which he received Oscar nominations for best leading actor and best director, served as his first directing project for the Renaissance Theatre Company, which he formed with David Parfitt after leaving the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has gone on to direct seventeen films, including Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and As You Like It. NonShakespearean projects of Branagh’s that are recognizable include directing the first Marvel Thor movie, voice acting for Miguel in DreamWorks’s The Road to El Dorado, and making appearing as Professor Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Recently Brannagh was being considered to replace Sir Nicholas Hynter as artistic director of the National Theatre in London, but the position will ultimately be going to Rufus Norris. While Branagh might not get to fulfill his “pathetic urge at some stage in [his] life to be able to pull out [his] wallet and pull out a little card on which it would say Kenneth Branagh, artistic director,” just yet, it’s comforting to me to know that he’ll still be free to keep making movies. Two of his current projects to look forward to include Jack Ryan, Shadow Recruit, which is in post-production, and Cinderella, which is still being filmed.
In describing working with Shakespearean material, Branagh says that: “it’s like going back to some great piece of music. It is dramatic poetry, so each time you hear it, it reacts on you in a different, usually a richer way. It’s like a wonderful dog that gives you much more than you’ll ever give it. There’s unconditional love in there; he never lets you down and he’s never sentimental; he’s always bracing because he’s so very, very realistic about families and love and all the normal human stuff.” This definitely came through in his performance last night as we witnessed Macbeth’s internal struggle with evil and ambition, paralleling his dramatic transformation from dutiful soldier to murderous usurper and ultimately to mad tyrant.
It remains my hope that Branagh continues to find inspiration in the Bard, and to bring these supremely human stories to life on both the stage and screen.
Sources
What: Live Broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera’s Production of The Nose