#Melanie-joyce Bermudez

[willstafford]

Wit to Woo

LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon, Thursday 25th April 2024 Three men and a King pledge to devote the next three years of their lives to study, abstinence and celibacy.  Of course, as soon as the oath is signed, along come four beauties on a diplomatic mission.  Each of the men starts writing love notes and poems to one of the beauties, behind his confederates’…

[ken-branagh]

King Lear curtain call

William Shakespeare's King Lear (directed and played by Sir Kenneth Branagh) at Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End, October 22 - November 2 2023.

Playing from October 21 - December 9 2023, 50 performances only. Ken (King Lear) is joined by Mara Allen as Curan, Deborah Alli as Goneril, Raymond Anum as Burgundy, Melanie‑Joyce Bermudez as Regan (RADA graduate 2023, professional debut), Doug Colling as Edgar, Dylan Corbett‑Bader as France, Eleanor de Rohan as Kent, Chloe Fenwick‑Brown as Oswald (RADA graduate 2023, professional debut), Joseph Kloska as Gloucester, Corey Mylchreest as Edmund, Hughie O'Donnell as Cornwall, Caleb Obediah as Cornwall, Jessica Revell as Cordelia / The Fool (RADA graduate 2023).

Source: Jenny_McShane, theothersophiet (via coreymbrasil), zerrintekindor, core_mylchreest

[shakespearenews]

Given the opportunity, Branagh abridges everyone’s lines except his own. Much like the Guardian’s columnist, I found it surprising to encounter a Lear with abs – and not by accident. Branagh’s muscles seemed to have been deliberately contoured with mud to add maximum definition, as if in a Kardashian make-up video. This is ego, not theatre...

...For me, this was a reminder of Branagh at his worst and at his best. He shines as a talent-spotter, nurturing young British actors. Yes, his Lear was preposterous. But did you notice Jessica Revell, making her West End debut in the dual role of Cordelia and the Fool? Or her fellow 2023 RADA graduate Melanie-Joyce Bermudez, who was often electrifying as Regan?

Branagh has taken full advantage of his presidency of RADA to give opportunities to its brightest students – Jessie Buckley’s Perdita in his 2015 The Winter’s Tale was pivotal to her career. Eleanor de Rohan, here playing Kent, is another talented recent graduate who owes much to Branagh – I first saw her as Guildenstern while she was still at the school, when Branagh directed Hamlet with its students. (Tom Hiddleston, another Branagh RADA protégé, made a superb return in the title role.) Branagh’s mentoring of RADA’s finest is something to celebrate – the only ethical question is whether other drama schools have cause to complain.