Joan Iyiola
Joan Iyiola (born 1 August 1987) is a British-Nigerian actress, writer and producer based in London. She is best known for playing the title role in ''The Duchess of Malfi'' at the RSC, and Dọlápọ̀ Is Fine. Early life Born in London to Nigerian parents, Iyiola initially trained to be a barrister and read Law at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University. Whilst studying, she worked with Annie Castledine, Complicite and Robert Icke. Following seasons at the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain she was awarded a place at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Career Theatre Iyiola began her career at the RSC, playing in: ''A Midsummer Night's Dream, The White Devil, Arden of Faversham, The Roaring Girl, A Life of Galileo, Boris Godunov, The Orphan of Zhao.'' In 2013, Iyiola starred opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor as Pauline Lumumba in ''A Season in the Congo'' at The Young Vic, directed by Joe Wright. At the Gate Theatre, Iyiola played in ''The Convert'', ''The Rise and Shine of C ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratford-upon-Avon, and on tour across the UK and internationally. The company's home is in Stratford-upon-Avon, where it has redeveloped its Royal Shakespeare and Swan theatres as part of a £112.8-million "Transformation" project. The theatres re-opened in November 2010, having closed in 2007. The new buildings attracted 18,000 visitors within the first week and received a positive media response both upon opening, and following the first full Shakespeare performances. Performances in Stratford-upon-Avon continued throughout the Transformation project at the temporary Courtyard Theatre. As well as the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, the RSC produces new work from living artists and develops creative links with theatre-make ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Omeros
'''' is an epic poem by Saint Lucian writer Derek Walcott, first published in 1990. The work is divided into seven "books" containing a total of sixty-four chapters. Many critics view ''Omeros'' as Walcott's finest work. In 2022, it was included on the "Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II. Overview The poem very loosely echoes and references Homer and some of his major characters from the ''Iliad''. Some of the poem's major characters include the island fishermen Achille and Hector, the retired English officer Major Plunkett and his wife Maud, the housemaid Helen, the blind man Seven Seas (who symbolically represents Homer), and the author himself. Although the main narrative of the poem takes place on the island of St. Lucia, where Walcott was born and raised, Walcott also includes scenes from Brookline, Massachusetts (where Walcott was living and teaching at the time of the poem's composition) ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Black Earth Rising
''Black Earth Rising'' is a 2018 British television miniseries written and directed by Hugo Blick, about the prosecution of international war criminals. The series is a co-production between BBC Two and Netflix. The show aired on BBC Two in the United Kingdom starting on 10 September 2018; Netflix began streaming the show internationally outside the UK on 25 January 2019. Plot The story centres on Kate Ashby, who works as a legal investigator in the London law chambers of Michael Ennis. When Kate's adoptive mother Eve takes on a case prosecuting a Rwandan militia leader, the story pulls Michael and Kate into a journey that will upend their lives forever. Cast * Michaela Coel as Kate Ashby, a 28-year-old, Rwandan-born British legal investigator * John Goodman as Michael Ennis, an American divorced barrister living and working in the UK; employer of Kate Ashby * Tamara Tunie as Eunice Clayton, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs * Noma Dumezweni as Alice Munez ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Yonderland
''Yonderland'' is a British sitcom television series that was broadcast on Sky 1 from November 2013 to December 2016. It was produced by Sioned Wiliam, and was created by, written by and starred the main performers from CBBC's series ''Horrible Histories''. Plot 33-year-old Debbie Maddox (Martha Howe-Douglas) becomes increasingly bored with her life as a suburban stay-at-home mother until an elf (Mathew Baynton) appears from a portal in her cupboard, insisting that she's the " chosen one" destined to save Yonderland. Reluctantly, Debbie agrees to meet with the Elders of the realm... only to discover that they've lost the scroll that explains what the chosen one is supposed to do. As it turns out, Yonderland is a silly, magical place, threatened by the evil Negatus (Simon Farnaby). It will take all of Debbie's resources to complete each week's quest in time to pick up her children from school. Cast Most of the cast play multiple roles, both physical performances and voices of pu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Denial (2016 Film)
''Denial'' is a 2016 biographical film directed by Mick Jackson and written by David Hare, based on Deborah Lipstadt's 2005 book ''History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier.'' It dramatises the ''Irving v Penguin Books Ltd'' case, in which Lipstadt, a Holocaust scholar, was sued by Holocaust denier David Irving for libel. It stars Rachel Weisz, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Spall, Andrew Scott, Jack Lowden, Caren Pistorius and Alex Jennings. ''Denial'' premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 11 September 2016. It was theatrically released in the United States by Bleecker Street on 30 September 2016, and in the United Kingdom by StudioCanal and Entertainment One on 27 January 2017. Plot Deborah Lipstadt is an American professor of Holocaust studies whose speaking engagement is disrupted by David Irving, a writer on Nazi Germany. He files a libel lawsuit in the United Kingdom against Lipstadt and her publisher for declaring him a Holocaust denier in her ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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New Blood (TV Series)
''New Blood'' is a British television drama series created by Anthony Horowitz and produced by Eleventh Hour Films for BBC One. The first three episodes of the programme were made available on BBC iPlayer on 2 June 2016, ahead of the BBC One premiere on 9 June. It received over 4 million viewers. Synopsis Stefan Kowolski and Arrash Sayyad are junior investigators; both are the children of immigrants. Initially thrown together by chance and common sporting interests, they later discover that they are working two different angles of the same case. Stefan is also attracted to Arrash's sister. Kowolski is a junior investigator with the Serious Fraud Office, while Sayyad is a uniformed constable in London's police service, with ambitions of becoming a detective. In the first case, he secures a second posting as a Trainee Detective Constable (T/DC), having obtained poor reviews in an earlier attempt. Cast The main cast for the first series include: * Mark Strepan as Stefan Kowolsk ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Harriet Walter
Dame Harriet Mary Walter (born 24 September 1950) is a British actress. She has received a Laurence Olivier Award as well as numerous nominations including for a Tony Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2011, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama. Walter began her career in 1974 and made her Broadway debut in 1983. For her work in various Royal Shakespeare Company productions, including ''Twelfth Night'' (1987–88) and '' Three Sisters'' (1988), she won the 1988 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival. Her other notable work for the RSC includes leading roles in ''Macbeth'' (1999) and '' Antony and Cleopatra'' (2006). She won the Evening Standard Award for Best Actress for her role as Elizabeth I in the 2005 London revival of '' Mary Stuart'', and received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play when she reprised the role on Broadway in 2009. She reprised her roles ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia Dench (born 9 December 1934) is an English actress. Regarded as one of Britain's best actresses, she is noted for her versatile work in various films and television programmes encompassing several genres, as well as for her numerous roles on the stage. Dench has garnered various accolades throughout a career spanning over six decades, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Television Awards, six British Academy Film Awards and seven Olivier Awards. Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years, she performed in several of Shakespeare's plays, in such roles as Ophelia in ''Hamlet'', Juliet in '' Romeo and Juliet'' and Lady Macbeth in '' Macbeth''. Although most of Dench's work during this period was in theatre, she also branched into film work and won a BAFTA Award as Most Promising Newcomer. In 1968, she drew excellent reviews for her leading role of Sal ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Peggy Ashcroft
Dame Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft (22 December 1907 – 14 June 1991), known professionally as Peggy Ashcroft, was an English actress whose career spanned more than 60 years. Born to a comfortable middle-class family, Ashcroft was determined from an early age to become an actress, despite parental opposition. She was working in smaller theatres even before graduating from drama school, and within two years she was starring in the West End. Ashcroft maintained her leading place in British theatre for the next 50 years. Always attracted by the ideals of permanent theatrical ensembles, she did much of her work for the Old Vic in the early 1930s, John Gielgud's companies in the 1930s and 1940s, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre and its successor the Royal Shakespeare Company from the 1950s, and the National Theatre from the 1970s. While well regarded in Shakespeare, Ashcroft was also known for her commitment to modern drama, appearing in plays by Bertolt Brecht, Samuel B ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Michael Billington (critic)
Michael Keith Billington OBE (born 16 November 1939) is a British author and arts critic. He writes for ''The Guardian'', and was the paper's chief drama critic from 1971 to 2019. Billington is "Britain's longest-serving theatre critic" and the author of biographical and critical studies relating to British theatre and the arts. He is the authorised biographer of the playwright Harold Pinter (1930–2008). Early life and education Billington was born on 16 November 1939, in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, and attended Warwick School, an independent boys' school in Warwick. He attended St Catherine's College, Oxford, from 1958 to 1961, where he studied English and was appointed theatre critic of '' Cherwell''. He graduated with a BA degree. As a member of Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), in 1959, Billington played the Priest in '' The Birds'', by Aristophanes, his only appearance as an actor, and, in 1960, he directed a production of Eugène Ionesco's ''The Ba ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gina Mckee
Georgina "Gina" McKee (born 14 April 1964) is an English actress. She won the 1997 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for ''Our Friends in the North'' (1996), and earned subsequent nominations for ''The Lost Prince'' (2003) and ''The Street'' (2007). She also starred on television in ''The Forsyte Saga'' (2002) and as Caterina Sforza in '' The Borgias'' (2011). Her film appearances include ''Notting Hill'' (1999), ''Phantom Thread'' (2017), and '' My Policeman'' (2022). Early life McKee was born in Peterlee, County Durham, the daughter of a coal miner,Lane, Harriet"'I had nothing to lose'"''Guardian.co.uk'', 30 November 2008 (Retrieved: 1 August 2009) and grew up there and in nearby Easington and Sunderland. Her first experience of acting occurred in her final year at primary school where her teacher finished the school week off with improvisations. Seeing a poster in a shoe-shop window for a new youth drama group, McKee and her friends decided to attend, initially not serious ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Boudica
Boudica or Boudicca (, known in Latin chronicles as Boadicea or Boudicea, and in Welsh as ()), was a queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe, who led a failed uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61. She is considered a British national heroine and a symbol of the struggle for justice and independence. Boudica's husband Prasutagus, with whom she had two daughters, ruled as a nominally independent ally of Rome. He left his kingdom jointly to his daughters and to the Roman emperor in his will. When he died, his will was ignored, and the kingdom was annexed and his property taken. According to the Roman historian Tacitus, Boudica was flogged and her daughters raped. The historian Cassius Dio wrote that previous imperial donations to influential Britons were confiscated and the Roman financier and philosopher Seneca called in the loans he had forced on the reluctant Britons. In 60/61, Boudica led the Iceni and other British tribes in revolt ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |