Yahoo Lifestyle How The Shed Brought Kenneth Branagh, Stephen Sondheim and Ralph Fiennes All Under One Roof
The Shed isn’t a Broadway theater, but in the relatively short time the venue has been in operation, it’s hosted some of New York City’s starriest stage endeavors—from Stephen Sondheim’s final musical, to a play about Robert Moses headlined by Ralph Fiennes, to its current offering, a staging of “King Lear” co-directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh.
Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below:
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“It’s been 10 years in the making,” said the Shed’s artistic director, Alex Poots, of “Lear,” which is wrapping up its sold-run later this month. Speaking on the latest episode of “Stagecraft,” Variety’s theater podcast, Poots explained how Branagh’s latest project came together and how he sees the Shed’s theater offerings fitting in to the larger theater landscape of Broadway and beyond.
From “Lear” to Sondheim’s “Here We Are” to the Fiennes vehicle “Straight Line Crazy,” Poots said the Shed’s theater offerings are united by “a fierce interest in invention and pushing the art form forward.” The same is true, he added, of the Shed’s broader programming, which also encompasses visual arts, other forms of performing arts, and pop culture.
“There’s always a place for celebrating and maintaining the canon of the past, whether it’s a museum or a place that really specializes in recreating works from the past,” he explained. “That’s important as well. But I think the more risky end of new work can sometimes be overlooked. … We wanted to be additive to the New York cultural landscape and make room for people who innovate and try new things.”
The current “Lear” grew out of a relationship between Poots and Branagh that began with Branagh’s production of “Macbeth,” which played at the Manchester International Festival (in 2013) and at New York’s Park Avenue Armory (in 2014) when Poots was artistic director of both organizations. “Ken’s vision was that he was very focused on making a ‘Lear’ for our times, and thinking about how to pay respect to the original work but also to bring it into the 21st century using some of the practices of our century,” Poots said.
The cinematic production, co-directed by Rob Ashford and Lucy Skilbeck, condenses the story down to two hours and uses Dolby Atmos surround sound to heighten the immersive feel. In a choice that emphasizes the story’s central generation gap, Branagh is surrounded by a cast of young actors who recently graduated from London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. “It serves as a kind of touch point for how audiences might relate to this piece in our times,” Poots noted.
Also on the new episode of “Stagecraft,” Poots discussed the advantages of the Shed’s flexible performance space and looked ahead to what’s next at the venue, including a new staging of Oscar winner Tarrell Alvin McCraney’s breakthrough 2007 play “The Brothers Size.”
To hear the entire conversation, listen at the link above or download and subscribe to “Stagecraft” on podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and the Broadway Podcast Network. New episodes of “Stagecraft” are released every other week.
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