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New York Post
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
‘Lord of the Rings' star to introduce trans, non-binary rendition of Shakespeare
Sir Ian McKellen will be introducing a UK performance of William Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' featuring a cast entirely of transgender and non-binary performers this summer. The Trans What You Will theater group will soon be globally livestreaming their performance of a rehearsed reading of Shakespeare comedy 'Twelfth Night' at The Space theater in London on July 25. Advertisement The cast, as announced in their casting call, will consist of '12 – 14 trans and non-binary performers,' noting, 'We are particularly interested in hearing from those who are multiply marginalized as we want a wide representation of the trans community.' The theater group announced on its official Instagram page that 'iconic actor and LGBTQ+ activist, Sir Ian McKellen, will be introducing our show!' The post featured a statement from the famous film actor, declaring, ''Twelfth Night' is perhaps the funniest and most moving of Shakespeare's plays. This is achieved through the complexity of gender and sexuality from first to last. I'm really looking forward to the impact of this latest version of the play at The Space. I hope to see you there!' 3 'I'm really looking forward to the impact of this latest version of the play at The Space. I hope to see you there!' Sir Ian McKellen said about the upcoming Shakespeare performance with an entirely transgender and non-binary cast. Mike Marsland/WireImage for Pride in London Advertisement 3 Sir Ian McKellen attends 'The Lord Of The Rings: The War of The Rohirrim' World Premiere at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on December 03, 2024 in London, England. Getty Images for Warner Bros Pictures 'Twelfth Night already toys with gender and performance – it feels like Shakespeare wrote it for us. This reading is about joy, solidarity and showing what's possible when trans and nonbinary artists are at the center of the story,' director Phoebe Kemp told Attitude magazine. 3 'Twelfth Night already toys with gender and performance – it feels like Shakespeare wrote it for us,' director Phoebe Kemp told Attitude magazine. Getty Images A representative for the Trans What You Will theater company offered a similar statement, declaring, 'With mistaken identities, cross-dressing, and declarations of love across shifting gender roles, Twelfth Night has long explored the complexity of identity. This production makes that queerness explicit, reclaiming the story through the lived experiences of trans and nonbinary artists.' Advertisement According to its crowdfunding campaign, profits will be sent to trans charity Not a Phase. Not A Phase describes itself on its website as a 'trans-led, nationwide charity committed to uplifting and improving the lives of trans+ adults, through awareness campaigning, social projects and funding trans+ lead initiatives.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Lord of the Rings' star to introduce all-trans, non-binary rendition of Shakespeare play
Sir Ian McKellen will be introducing a UK performance of William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" featuring a cast entirely of transgender and non-binary performers this summer. The Trans What You Will theater group will soon be globally livestreaming their performance of a rehearsed reading of Shakespeare comedy "Twelfth Night" at The Space theater in London on July 25. The cast, as announced in their casting call, will consist of "12 – 14 trans and non-binary performers," noting, "We are particularly interested in hearing from those who are multiply marginalized as we want a wide representation of the trans community." The theater group announced on its official Instagram page that "iconic actor and LGBTQ+ activist, Sir Ian McKellen, will be introducing our show!" Jk Rowling Does Victory Lap Following Uk Supreme Court Ruling That Trans Women Aren't Legally Women The post featured a statement from the famous film actor, declaring, "'Twelfth Night' is perhaps the funniest and most moving of Shakespeare's plays. This is achieved through the complexity of gender and sexuality from first to last. I'm really looking forward to the impact of this latest version of the play at The Space. I hope to see you there!" Read On The Fox News App "Twelfth Night already toys with gender and performance – it feels like Shakespeare wrote it for us. This reading is about joy, solidarity and showing what's possible when trans and nonbinary artists are at the center of the story," director Phoebe Kemp told Attitude magazine. A representative for the Trans What You Will theater company offered a similar statement, declaring, "With mistaken identities, cross-dressing, and declarations of love across shifting gender roles, Twelfth Night has long explored the complexity of identity. This production makes that queerness explicit, reclaiming the story through the lived experiences of trans and nonbinary artists." Click Here For More Coverage Of Media And Culture According to its crowdfunding campaign, profits will be sent to trans charity Not a Phase. Not A Phase describes itself on its website as a "trans-led, nationwide charity committed to uplifting and improving the lives of trans+ adults, through awareness campaigning, social projects and funding trans+ lead initiatives."Original article source: 'Lord of the Rings' star to introduce all-trans, non-binary rendition of Shakespeare play
Fox News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
'Lord of the Rings' star to introduce all-trans, non-binary rendition of Shakespeare play
Sir Ian McKellen will be introducing a UK performance of William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" featuring a cast entirely of transgender and non-binary performers this summer. The Trans What You Will theater group will soon be globally livestreaming their performance of a rehearsed reading of Shakespeare comedy "Twelfth Night" at The Space theater in London on July 25. The cast, as announced in their casting call, will consist of "12 – 14 trans and non-binary performers," noting, "We are particularly interested in hearing from those who are multiply marginalized as we want a wide representation of the trans community." The theater group announced on its official Instagram page that "iconic actor and LGBTQ+ activist, Sir Ian McKellen, will be introducing our show!" The post featured a statement from the famous film actor, declaring, "'Twelfth Night' is perhaps the funniest and most moving of Shakespeare's plays. This is achieved through the complexity of gender and sexuality from first to last. I'm really looking forward to the impact of this latest version of the play at The Space. I hope to see you there!" "Twelfth Night already toys with gender and performance – it feels like Shakespeare wrote it for us. This reading is about joy, solidarity and showing what's possible when trans and nonbinary artists are at the center of the story," director Phoebe Kemp told Attitude magazine. A representative for the Trans What You Will theater company offered a similar statement, declaring, "With mistaken identities, cross-dressing, and declarations of love across shifting gender roles, Twelfth Night has long explored the complexity of identity. This production makes that queerness explicit, reclaiming the story through the lived experiences of trans and nonbinary artists." According to its crowdfunding campaign, profits will be sent to trans charity Not a Phase. Not A Phase describes itself on its website as a "trans-led, nationwide charity committed to uplifting and improving the lives of trans+ adults, through awareness campaigning, social projects and funding trans+ lead initiatives."
The Guardian
09-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Athol Fugard caught the impact of apartheid's full-on attack on humanity
Athol was always there. There were other South African playwrights, of course, such as Pieter-Dirk Uys, who pilloried the absurdities of apartheid, and the prolific and commercially successful Gibson Kente or theatrical storytellers such as Gcina Mhlophe. But year after year, for as long as I can remember, Athol wrote the plays that, earlier and more consistently than anyone else, expressed in the public arena the suffering caused by apartheid's full-frontal attack on what it means to be a human being. We were never close but, over many decades, we'd run into each other from time to time in Cape Town or in London. Once, as we stood together in a crowded theatre foyer, he shared his view that all South Africans, everyone, whatever power they wielded or how much cash they'd piled up in their bank account, they were all – we were all – thoroughly fucked up ('opbefok' in his words) by apartheid. If you were born there you couldn't escape the damage living within racism did to your sensibility, to your soul. I think he was right about this and all his plays said it in one way or another. He was just 20 years older than me but I remember as a teenager my parents discussing a play of his they'd seen directed by his early close collaborator Barney Simon. Blood Knot, a play he came back to and revised late in his life, is about two brothers, Morris and Zachariah, raised by the same black mother but with different fathers. One of them is able to pass for white, the other is not. In those days it was amazing and thrilling to my parents and, at one remove, to me that anyone was courageous enough to speak in a theatre about the scandalous possibility that white and black people might be, in some fundamental way, the same. That the characters were brothers was the whole point. For Athol, I think, the horror and the pain that it was his life's task to express were principally caused by the ways in which apartheid insinuated itself into and poisoned the most intimate relationships – with friends, with lovers, even, as in this very early play, within one's closest family. It was, I think, his rage at this outrageous brutalisation of the most delicately experienced aspects of life that powered his best plays such as the wonderful, under-applauded Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act. Statements was developed from improvisations between Athol and Yvonne Bryceland, his longstanding lead actor in Cape Town in the early 1970s. As an acting student, I helped paint the walls of the new theatre, The Space, that the photographer Brian Astbury created for Athol and for Yvonne, who was Brian's wife. On the upper floors many workshops took place in which Athol explored with actors his ideas for new plays, such as one about John Harris, the member of the African Resistance Movement who tried to strike a blow against apartheid by placing a bomb at a railway station; he was hanged for killing a woman and injuring many others. One workshop grew into Dimetos, performed eventually at the Royal Court with Paul Scofield. Athol was a compulsively bold and original writer but, by and large, a conventional director, a 'stager'. When I was writer-in-residence at the Royal Court in the mid-1990s I persuaded the artistic leadership to produce his Valley Song, not a masterpiece but, I thought, an effective play and, I argued, the Court had a tradition of loyalty to its writers that should apply in Athol's case. Under Athol's direction the play seemed even more ephemeral than, perhaps, it is. Even so, loyalty was owed because, two decades earlier, Athol had given the Court a tremendous success, Sizwe Banzi Is Dead. And Sizwe was also – life being full of paradoxes and surprises – directed by Athol with as much verve and style as any show I've ever seen. Written by Athol, John Kani and Winston Ntshona it is, as a play, as great as Sophocles and, as an example of directing panache, right up there with Tadeusz Kantor or Peter Brook. Receiving an award for her 1985 performance as a recluse sculptor in Athol's The Road to Mecca, Yvonne Bryceland held the trophy high and announced modestly 'I accept this on behalf of all the little people', but one wanted to shout out 'What the play says is that there are no little people'. I think that's what Athol wanted to tell the world through his whole writing life.
