Starting Friday, June 28, Sedona will have the chance to experience Shakespeare in three times and in three very different ways.
New ‘Taming of the Shrew’ puts women in charge
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s extraordinary new production of “The Taming of the Shrew” makes its Sedona big-screen debut on Sunday, June 30. The Sedona International Film Festival hosts the high-definition premiere of William Shakespeare’s renowned play from its home in Stratford-Upon-Avon. There will be one show at 3 p.m. at the festival’s Mary D. Fisher Theatre.
In a re-imagined 1590, women are in charge.
Women hold the power, control the state and own the property. In a society where men have no authority, Lady Baptista is selling off her two sons to the highest bidders. Cue an explosive battle of the sexes in this electrically-charged love story.
Director Justin Audibert turns Shakespeare’s fierce comedy of gender politics on its head in what the Evening Standard calls a “landmark production” that offers a fresh perspective on its portrayal of hierarchy and power.
Complete with a luxurious paneled Elizabethan set, exquisite traditional costumes, and a contemporary-meets-renaissance musical score, this is a joyous and entertaining production of Shakespeare’s fierce comedy of the sexes.
The Royal Shakespeare Company is one of the world’s best-known theatre ensembles. The company focuses on works by Shakespeare, other renaissance dramatists and contemporary writers. The Royal Shakespeare Company is dedicated to attracting and inspiring the best artists both on stage and behind the scenes, to produce performances of the very highest standard. So, wherever you experience the Royal Shakespeare Company, you experience work that is made in Shakespeare’s home town.
Shakespeare has been performed and celebrated in Stratford for centuries and the Royal Shakespeare Company has trained generations of the very best theatre makers since the company was founded in 1961. The company pioneers contemporary approaches to Shakespeare’s plays, as well as staging the work of those who inspired him and the work of today’s playwrights.
“The Taming of the Shrew” will be shown at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre on Sunday, June 30, at 3 p.m. Tickets are $15, or $12.50 for Film Festival members. Tickets are available in advance at the Sedona International Film Festival office or by calling 282-1177. Both the theatre and film festival office are located at 2030 W. SR 89A, in West Sedona. Visit SedonaFilmFestival.org for more information.
‘All is True’ portrays late William Shakespeare
The Sedona International Film Festival is proud to present the Northern Arizona premiere of the acclaimed new film, “All Is True,” showing Friday, June 28 through Wednesday, July 3, at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre.
“All Is True” stars Kenneth Branagh, who also directed the film, Judi Dench and Ian McKellen. In 1613 William Shakespeare retired. He still had one last story to tell — his own. Kenneth Branagh’s “All Is True” is a portrait of Shakespeare during the last three years of his life, as he leaves London and returns to his family in Stratford upon Avon. The film follows Shakespeare as he strives to bridge the distance between himself and his wife and two daughters, recover from the loss of his son and come to terms with his legacy as an artist.
Branagh and screenwriter Ben Elton start with the known facts about Shakespeare’s life during that time and attempt to fill in the gaps with what Shakespeare seemed to reveal about himself through his own writings.
In 1613, after a devastating fire destroys the Globe Theatre during the first production of Shakespeare’s play “All is True,” aka “Life of Henry VIII,” a distraught Shakespeare [Kenneth Branagh] returns to Stratford. As he saw his family infrequently during his two decades working in London, his wife Anne [Judi Dench] and daughters Judith [Kathryn Wilder] and Susanna [Lydia Wilson] are surprised, but hardly pleased, to hear he now intends to stay in Stratford.
Shakespeare, who is haunted by the death at age 11 of Judith’s twin brother Hamnet [Sam Ellis], attempts to ease his grief by planting a memorial garden for his son.
As the film progresses, the simmering tensions in the family that have been contained during Shakespeare’s absence, gradually surface.
Anne, who felt humiliated by her husband’s public display of affection in his sonnets, is not pleased when the man who may have inspired them, and to whom they are extravagantly dedicated, Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of Southampton [Ian McKellen], comes to pay a visit.
“All Is True” is a labor of love for Branagh, who has been fascinated with the life of Shakespeare since his teens. He has assembled a troupe of Shakespeareans, ranging from legends like Dench and McKellen, to longtime veterans of Branagh’s plays and films, to a young generation of actors drawn from his theatre company.
Just as Shakespeare used his brilliant imagination to create living portraits of kings and queens, Branagh and Elton present a multi-faceted and complex rendering of Shakespeare as a human being: a man with great creative strength, capable of sublime wisdom in his work, but an ordinarily flawed individual often struggling to apply those insights in his own life.
Told with warmth and wry humor, “All Is True” is a family drama, a detective story and a quiet reflection on a life dedicated to art. Ultimately, it is the uplifting tale of a man who journeys from darkness and loss to a renewed appreciation of the richness and value of life, allowing him to play out his final act in peace.
“All Is True” will be shown at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre June 28 through July 3. Show times will be 4 on Friday, Saturday and Monday, June 28, 29 and July 1; and 7 p.m. on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday, June 30, July 2 and 3.
Tickets are $12, or $9 for Film Festival members. Call 282-1177 for tickets and more information. Both the theatre and film festival office are located at 2030 W. SR 89A in West Sedona. Visit SedonaFilmFestival.org for more information.
‘King Lear’ at El Portal Hotel
Crooked Figure Theatre Company will present William Shakespeare’s tragic masterpiece “King Lear” at El Portal Hotel at 95 Portal Lane in Sedona at 6 p.m. on Friday, July 26, and at 6 p.m. on Saturday, July 27. Crooked Figure Theatre is NAU’s summer stock company. Its goal is to tell both old and new stories in culturally relevant and imaginative ways.
Nearing the end of his life, King Lear divides his kingdom in thirds between his daughters Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. banishing his youngest daughter.
While Goneril and Regan feign devotion prior to receiving their thirds, his youngest daughter Cordelia tells Lear she loves him no more and no less than her bond as his daughter. Enraged, he banishes her and divides her portion between her older sisters.
The play traces Lear’s descent into anxiety, paranoia and schizophrenia after banishing Cordelia. Meanwhile Goneril and Regan, now enriched with power and land treat Lear as a foolish old man and strip him of his retinue of 100 knights and deprive him of his wealth.
Goneril and Regan’s husbands are on the verge of civil war while a French army, commanded by Cordelia, prepares to invade England. The plays ends in tragedy for all.
Tickets for King Lear are a $20 suggested donation for the public and a $10 suggested donation for students and seniors.
King Lear performances are also at Lowell Observatory, 1400 W. Mars Hill Road, in Flagstaff at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 21, and at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 28.
The Crooked Figure Theatrseason opens at 7 p.m. Friday, July 12, with a staged reading of Carol Ann Duffy’s adaptation of the 15th century morality play, “Everyman,” at Arcosanti’s open-air amphitheater.
“In this high energy re-imagining of the medieval morality play, Everyman is forced to account for his materialistic, hedonistic lifestyle when confronted by Death,” Director Christina Gutierrez-Dennehy said. “Directly confronting our modern technology-driven lifestyles, the play asks highly current questions about morals and meaning.”
Tickets for Everyman are a $10 suggested donation at the door. Arcosanti is located at 13555 S. Cross L Road in Cordes Junction.
