Sir Kenneth Branagh will return to the stage to do Shakespeare for the first time in more than a decade at this year’s Manchester International Festival, playing the title role in “Macbeth†at a deconsecrated church.
That production, to be co-directed by Mr. Branagh and Rob Ashford, is one of several highlights of the July festival, which specializes in staging new work and one-off events across the disciplines of theater, music and the visual arts.
This year, Romeo Castellucci, a provocative Italian director, is staging Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring†with a 100-piece orchestra in a derelict train depot; Willem Dafoe and Mikhail Baryshnikov will appear in Robert Wilson’s production of “The Old Woman,†based on a novel by he Russian author Daniil Kharms; and Josie Rourke will direct “The Machine,†a new play by Matt Charman about the chess champion Garry Kasparov’s battle against a supercomputer.
Mr. Branagh has never played Macbeth before. “The one play by Shakespeare that follows me everywhere is the Scottish play,†he told the BBC. “Of all the plays, it’s the one that sits in the loo and has traveled with me all over the place and that I’ve talked and thought about, and I’ve always circled around it.â€
“Over all of those years, there was something happening to me as an artist that wanted to come and meet that play and that role at some point, if I was lucky enough to have the opportunity,†he added.
