Astrid Bellamy
Role: Phrynia

What was your first exposure to Shakespeare?

I grew up in Cambridge, and when I was a child my family took me to see an open-air production of "Romeo and Juliet", put on by the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival. It was set in one of the college gardens on a summer’s evening against the backdrop of the university buildings, and I remember it had a very magical atmosphere – even if as a child, the Shakespearean language was hard to understand!

Do you have a favourite Shakespeare play, and if so, why?

HAMLET AT ELSINORE - Christopher Plummer - Michael Caine - Donald Sutherland - Robert Shaw (1964)



CAST
Christopher Plummer as Hamlet
Robert Shaw as Claudius, King of Denmark
Alec Clunes as Polonius
Michael Caine as Horatio
June Tobin as Gertrude, Queen of Denmark
Jo Maxwell Muller as Ophelia
Dyson Lovell as Laertes
Donald Sutherland as Fortinbras
Roy Kinnear as the Gravedigger


Hamlet at Elsinore is a 1964 television version of the play by William Shakespeare. Produced by the BBC in association with Danish Radio, it was shown in the U.S. on NET. Winning wide acclaim both for its performances and for being shot entirely at Helsingør (Elsinore in English), in the castle in which the play is set, it is the only version (with sound) of the play to have actually been shot at Elsinore Castle. This programme was recorded and edited on video tape (2" quadruplex) and not 'filmed'. The director was Philip Saville. It was the longest version of the play telecast in one evening up to that time, running nearly three hours. A 1947 telecast of the play had split it up into two ninety-minute halves over two weeks.

The Canadian actor Christopher Plummer took the lead role as Hamlet and earned an Emmy Award nomination for his performance. In supporting roles were Robert Shaw as Claudius, Donald Sutherland as Fortinbras, Roy Kinnear as the Gravedigger and Michael Caine, in his only Shakespearean performance, as Horatio. Sutherland, Caine and Shaw were, at the time, almost completely unknown to American audiences, and just before the presentation's first U.S. telecast, Plummer began to gain popularity in the U.S. because of his appearance in the 1965 musical film The Sound of Music.

AUDIO / IMAGE HD Restoration - Sources and/or Archive copies quality used for this restoration: damaged/medium.

This recording is for educational purposes only and is covered under Fair Use doctrine - Copyright - All rights reserved to their respective owners.

Read the unabridged Play online: [ LINK ]

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HAMLET - Grigori Kozintsev - 1964 - HD Restored - 4K



Hamlet (Russian: Гамлет, tr. Gamlet) is a 1964 Soviet drama film directed and adapted by Grigori Kozintsev, based on William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Dmitri Shostakovich composed the Film score.

HISTORICAL SERIES - 1964 - HD Restored - 4K - audio and video
Subtitles : English - Français - Deutsch - Español - Italiano - Ελληνικά
(Synchronization adjustments in progress - thank you for your patience)

Cast
Hamlet — Innokenty Smoktunovsky
Claudius — Mikhail Nazvanov
Gertrude — Elza Radziņa
Polonius — Yuri Tolubeyev
Laertes — Stepan Oleksenko
Ophelia — Anastasiya Vertinskaya
Horatio — Vladimir Erenberg
Rosencrantz — Igor Dmitriev
Guildenstern — Vadim Medvedev
Fortinbras — Aadu Krevald

Grigori Kozintsev’s five-decades-long filmmaking career in Russia stretched from the Eisenstein-Pukovkin era fertility of the 1920s to his final film in 1970. Hamlet (Gamlet, 1964) and King Lear (Король Лир, 1970), which are now considered to be the one of the greatest renderings of Shakespeare on film.

AUDIO / IMAGE HD Restoration - Sources and/or Archive copies quality used for this restoration: good.

This recording is for educational purposes only and is covered under Fair Use doctrine - Copyright - All rights reserved to their respective owners.

Read the unabridged Play online: [ LINK ]

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MAKING-OF [ Cast - Interviews ] - PODCAST - James Reynard - Role: Timon of Athens - MISANTHROPOS

Adapted by Maximianno Cobra, from Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens", the film exposes the timeless challenge of social hypocrisy, disillusion and annihilation against the poetics of friendship, love, and beauty.



Read the Film full Synopsis Online : [ LINK ]

PODCAST - James Reynard - Role: Timon of Athens - MISANTHROPOS.

KING LEAR - Grigori Kozintsev - 1970 - HD Restored - 4K



King Lear (Russian: Король Лир, romanized: Korol Lir) is a 1970 Soviet drama film directed and adapted by Grigori Kozintsev, based on William Shakespeare's play King Lear.

Dmitri Shostakovich composed the Film score.

HISTORICAL SERIES - 1970 - HD Restored - 4K - audio and video
Subtitles : English - Français
(Synchronization adjustments in progress - thank you for your patience)

Cast
Jüri Järvet as King Lear (voiced by Zinovy Gerdt)
Elza Radziņa as Goneril
Galina Volchek as Regan
Valentina Shendrikova as Cordelia
Oleg Dahl as Fool
Kārlis Sebris as Gloucester
Leonhard Merzin as Edgar (voiced by Emmanuil Vitorgan)
Regimantas Adomaitis as Edmund
Vladimir Yemelyanov as Kent
Aleksandr Vokach as Cornwall
Donatas Banionis as Albany (voiced by Aleksandr Demyanenko)
Aleksei Petrenko as Oswald
Juozas Budraitis as King of France

Grigori Kozintsev’s five-decades-long filmmaking career in Russia stretched from the Eisenstein-Pukovkin era fertility of the 1920s to his final film in 1970. Hamlet (Gamlet, 1964) and King Lear (Король Лир, 1970), which are now considered to be the one of the greatest renderings of Shakespeare on film.

AUDIO / IMAGE HD Restoration - Sources and/or Archive copies quality used for this restoration: good.

This recording is for educational purposes only and is covered under Fair Use doctrine - Copyright - All rights reserved to their respective owners.

Read the unabridged Play online: [ LINK ]

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KING LEAR - Orson Welles - Peter Brook - 1953 - HD Restored - 4K



King Lear by William Shakespeare - live television adaptation 1953 staged by Peter Brook and starring Orson Welles. Preserved on kinescope, it aired October 18, 1953, as part of the CBS television series Omnibus, hosted by Alistair Cooke.

NB: Orson Welles First TV Appearance.

HISTORICAL SERIES - 1953 - HD Restored - 4K - audio and video

This is an abridged version of the play, this production condensed the play by eliminating the characters of Edgar and Edmund. To compensate for their absence, Peter Brook rewrote the role of Oswald which is expanded to take Edmund's part in the play's climax, and "Poor Tom" is included not as a disguised Edgar but as an actual madman.

Directed by Peter Brook

CAST
Orson Welles - King Lear
Natasha Parry - Cordelia
Arnold Moss - Duke of Albany
Bramwell Fletcher - Earl of Kent
David J. Stewart - Oswald
Margaret Phillips - Regan
Beatrice Straight - Goneril
Alan Badel - Fool
Micheál Mac Liammóir - Poor Tom
Frederick Worlock - Earl of Gloucester
Scott Forbes - Duke of Cornwall
Wesley Addy - King of France
Fred Sadoff - Duke of Burgundy

AUDIO / IMAGE HD Restoration - Sources and/or Archive copies quality used for this restoration: damaged/poor.

This recording is for educational purposes only and is covered under Fair Use doctrine - Copyright - All rights reserved to their respective owners.

Read the unabridged Play online: [ LINK ]

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