Forgot to post this earlier but I was at the Barbican last Saturday to see Black Watch along with Sam West, Kenneth Branagh and John Sessions. Naturally they were not actually with me...just there at the same time *meep* for the matinee performance.

Sam and Kenneth were first on their feet for a standing ovation! First I have seen at any play and totally deserved for this one. If any one has a ticket or can get a ticket for Black Watch grab it...if it doesnt win a slew of awards at the end of the year then I will eat my dad's Red Hackle! I spent the whole of the last half hour in tears...knew I would do, but when they started to play the Black Bear, a tune that I have used as my mobile phone ringtone for years, I was a complete goner!

Further to my previous fangirling, I now feel ready to unleash my latest project on the world.

For all those interested in following the careers of the RSC's Histories ensemble now it's over, I present to you: Beyond the Histories. It's a blog, purposefully and solely for keeping track of 'em all.

Any info I find or have other people tell me about will go straight up. Thanks to my sources for helping me out so far, and thanks in advance to anyone who may help in future. ^_^

Crossposted to obasc and thisengland.

Just thought I should share the news -- Eddie Redmayne is going to be in a new play this fall at the Royal Court.

How do I know this? Because my school offered me £7 tickets. Thank you, school!

Attention Michael Sheen fans! BBC Two are repeating Fantabulosa! at 10:45pm tonight, which stars Michael Sheen as Kenneth Williams.

And on the subject of Michael Sheen, I recently discovered that he had a role in the 1995 film adaptation of Othello (ie: the one with Kenneth Branagh as Iago). Has anyone seen it, and could you possibly tell me how big/small his role is? I've just started studying Othello at school and assume that Lodovico doesn't have a huge role, but anyway...

American Consorts, we are in luck. There are going to be free screenings for Brideshead Revisited, featuring OBAs Ben Whishaw and Matthew Goode, soon.

Go here to sign up. I'll be at the Washington screening :)

(Um, so who knows if it'll actually be good, but I was going to see it anyway, so..)

Hamlet at Stafford Castle is running for the last few days. Joseph Millson as Hamlet is beyond brilliant...seriously outstanding. 6 of us met to see it last Saturday and all were in agreement. If you get the chance do see it...you wont be disappointed. flip18  and tormented_space  will testify as they saw it with me.

If you have kids, take them too. Its so exciting, energetic and funny that they will appreciate it and understand it.

Quick pic spam to help you along behind the cut! ( Read more... )

Come see Con O'Neill and the rest of the gang (Dame Eileen Atkins and OBFA's Anna Maxwell Martin and Sophie Thompson et al) in The Female of the Species from July 10th at the Vaudeville Theatre! I promise you, we kick ass!!



( obfa Anna under the cut )

I know you Brits have seen 'em all before, but the "new" episodes of "Inspector Lewis" are only just now coming on TV here in the USA.  And oh, I love Sgt. Hathaway.  (Again.)  I always loved Laurence Fox, and I was pleased to see him when the first episode came out in 2006, but now I'm seriously falling for Hathaway himself.  Tonight's episode was "Expiation."

Haha, Hathaway having trouble with contact lenses...
Lewis:  What's the matter with you?  You're crying!
Hathaway:  I always cry when I know I'm going to spend the day with you, sir.

I can has a Laurence Fox of my own, pls?

PS  I love Oxford too.

PPS  Eeek eeek!  William Houston is in it too!  MY Will, that I saw with the RSC as Prince Hal and Henry V!  Only... why does he never look as beautiful on screen as he did there, live, in person, on stage?  Oh WILL!!!

PPPS - The University Museum!  My old friend!!!

LOL - "I'm not smug, ma'am.  It's just the unfortunate shape of my face."

Oh Hathaway, I do love you.

PPPPS - Does anyone have any Laurence icons to share?  (Is that ok to ask?  I've asked before in some specific icon thread, but I don't think anyone ever responded.  WANT.)  Also, I remember y'all talking about things from Hathaway's past coming up, but I think now I've seen all the episodes, and I never got the big revelation I was expecting.  Was it just the episode that talked about his time in school?  NEVER MIND!  I realized that I haven't seen all the episodes after all, so don't give me any spoilers!

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, HUGO SPEER, STEVE PEMBERTON, JAMES LANCE, DAVID HAIG, RUSSELL TOVEY and TIM BROOKE TAYLOR will star in the second two-hour film of Marple: Murder is Easy (series four) for ITV1 starring Julia McKenzie as the sewing sleuth. They're currently in-production/on-location.

Read more about it here:
http://primetime.unrealitytv.co.uk/miss-marple-murder-is-easy%E2%80%A6/

Good evening (and hello) :-)

While everyone else was watching the DW finale last night, I was watching Damian Lewis as Soames Forsyte in the entire first season of 'The Forsyte Saga' and, consequently, rocking my world.

Has anyone else seen this? With Rupert Graves and Ioan Gruffudd as well? It's like high-grade OBASC crack.

Just a little Ben Whishaw snippet from The Independent; some more stuff about The Idiot and him basically waxing lyrical about books and film and music. He is adorable on toast, that boy.

Cultural Life: Ben Whishaw

Hi! By some strange force of nature, I was compelled to make a picspam of Hugh Dancy.
It will eat up your dial-up and there is one sort of NSFW image.
(Click me!)

Hello, everyone! I guess you could say that I'm a long-time lurker, but I've finally come out of the wood works due to the love I bear for William Houston (North & South, Casualty 1907). You can imagine how excited I got when seeing him on the "Gotham Cable News" as part of the marketing campaign for The Dark Knight which you can see here (it should be the video on the main page).

I got all happy and squeed quite a bit, so I thought I'd share in case there were any William Houston fans out there. Enjoy!

Riding home on the Northern Line just now, after a relatively dispiriting day at the office, I noticed Ben Whishaw was sitting about four seats away from me. He was dressed sortof like a Dickensian urchin -- but I mean that in a superfoxy way -- and reading a really-well-thumbed copy of Dostoevsky's The Idiot, which was the detail that slayed me the most. His eyes are so lovely and catlike, and overall he's just so vulnerable-looking, so thin and delicate-featured.

And, oh, the most amazing shaggy bedhead, it was all I could do not to plunge my fingers into his hair as we got off at the same stop and he walked up the stairs just directly in front of me.

I've seen him pass me on the street three or four times on Tottenham Court Road, near my work -- I reckon we're supposed to be best friends maybe? Maybe he and I could start a book club.....

I was meant to tread these boards
Of this much I am certain
-"I Was Meant For The Stage", the Decemberists

For some reason, this week and the rest of 2008 seems to see a good number of OBAs directly involved with ~*the stage*~.

* To wit: Anthony Weigh's 2000 Feet Away at the Bush Theatre, with Joe Fiennes and Ian Hart. That opened Monday, and it's completely sold out. I don't know how to get into sold out plays, besides knowing someone in the play/bein' famous, otherwise I would tell you.

Sidenote: a young man by the name of Kevin Trainor is apparently also in this. This is bizarre because for the first time ever I saw Hellboy, which he is briefly in (he plays the young Prof. Broom) and thought "Aww, that kid is lovely" and now he shows up everywhere. (By "everywhere" I mean "in a play, unsurprising as he is from freakin RADA".)
Anyway, first night photos are up on whatsonstage.com.

* Mark Rylance is confusing America, or educating America about prose poetry, take your pick! He won Best Actor at the Tonys the other day for the New York run of Boeing Boeing, so hoorah for him.

* Simon McBurney is directing a young unknown named Katie Holmes in All My Sons this fall/winter. Ticket prices will be exorbitant and I will be annoyed, even though it's not like I'm near New York anyway.

I'm sure there are more, but those are the ones I remembered off the top of my head.

And this is nothing to do with the stage, but I just like the idea of Dave Morrissey watching the Boosh.

 Hallo! I've been a long time lurker here, and a fan of obscure British actors even longer. And so... here I am, mending my wallflower ways. ^^o

Um, I'm sure most Samuel West fans are already aware, but I thought I'd remind everyone that, tonight, Sam is playing Ted Heath in The Long Walk to Finchley (the Maggie Thatcher thing). BBC4, 9pm.

There was a great interview with Mark Rylance on NPR's All Things Considered a few weeks ago. He talks about Boeing Boeing, the Shakespeare authorship question, playing Cleopatra to a room full of women, and having a Wisconsin accent.

I also have a pdf of the New Yorker interview from several weeks ago, but have no where to host it. If you would like a copy of the file, I would be happy to send it to you; just leave a comment here.

Cheers!

More casting for the RSC production of Hamlet starring former OBA David Tennant has been announced. From Playbill

"...Alongside Tennant, who is now best known for his TV performances in the title role of "Dr. Who" (but who has previously appeared with the RSC in The Comedy of Errors, Romeo and Juliet, The Rivals and The General from America), will be RSC veterans , Penny Downie, Oliver Ford-Davies, John Woodvine and more recent RSC recruit Mariah Gale...Also in the ensemble will be David Ajala (Reynaldo), Sam Alexander (Rosencrantz and Second Gravedigger), Edward Bennett (Laertes), Ricky Champ (Lucianus), Ewen Cummins (Barnardo), Robert Curtis (Franciso), Tom Davey (Guildenstern), Peter De Jersey (Horatio), Samuel Dutton (Lord), Ryan Gage (Oscric), Mark Hadfield (Gravedigger), Jim Hooper (Priest), Keith Osborn (Marcellus), Roderick Smith (Lord and Captain), Andrea Harris (Lady), Riann Steele (Lady) and Zoe Thorne (Lady and Player)."

A bit of info about some of the OBAs who've been more recently announced:
Sam Alexander - LAMDA, 2004
Ricky Champ - Guildhall, 2005
Robert Curtis - East 15, 2003
Tom Davey - RADA, 2004
Ryan Gage - Drama Centre, 2005

Linus Roache in Before the Rains pictures HERE