EP 3: Celebrity Shakespeare from Kenneth Branagh to Paul Gross, with a dash of Keanu Reeves

In this episode, co-host Marlis Schweitzer continues to investigate the institutional structures that prop up Shakespeare in Canada, reflecting on the way Canadian ideas of Shakespeare have been informed by British and American cultural products, including film and television. She speaks with guests about their experiences of seeing productions of Shakespeare’s works in London and Stratford, England as well as their early encounters with the films of Kenneth Branaugh, most notably Henry V and Hamlet. Taking up questions of casting and celebrity, some interviewees recall Keanu Reeves appearance as Hamlet in the 1995 production at the Manitoba Theatre Centre, while others consider the impact of Paul Gross’s television series Slings and Arrows. 

This episode features conversations with Sturla Alsväg, Roberta Barker, Raoul Bhaneja, Karen Fricker, Jeff Ho, Stephen Johnson, Erin Kelly, Peter Kuling, Peter Parolin, Elizabeth Pentland, Jamie Robinson, Allyson MacMachon, Sara Topham.

Episode 3 ASL translation courtesy of Dawn Jani Birley. Interpretation by Dawn Jani Birley, Robert Haughton, Sage Lovell, and Alice Lo.

Here are links to things mentioned in the episode and some suggestions for further reading:

Case notes and photographs of Adrian Noble’s 1983 production of Measure for Measure for the Royal Shakespeare Company, featuring Juliet Stevenson as Isabella

Kenneth Branagh giving the “St. Crispin’s Day” speech in Henry V (1989)

Hamlet (1996) directed by Kenneth Branagh

Hamlet (solo) adapted and performed by Raoul Bhaneja 

Brian D. Johnson’s 1995 Maclean’s review of Keanu Reeves’s Hamlet, courtesy of the Canadian Encyclopedia

Slings and Arrows on CBC Gem