Hello, and welcome back to Week in Review, our roundup of industry-wide news. From stage to screens big and small, we’ve got you covered. It’s everything you need to know and all you can’t afford to miss.
Judi Dench speaks out for Weinstein and Spacey films
Dame Judi Dench used a wide-ranging Radio Times interview this week to speak out about her sadness at seeing the work of Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey shunned from the big screen in the wake of sexual assault allegations against the pair. Having condemned their behaviour publicly, Dench told the Radio Times she was concerned the films of producer and mogul Weinstein and those including performances by Kevin Spacey would be forgotten.
Dench expressed concern over the treatment of Spacey, whose performance was removed from Ridley Scott’s 2017 film All the Money in the World, saying that the experience must have been “agony.” Observing that “you cannot deny somebody a talent,” Dench asked if the industry and public were “going to negate 10 years at the Old Vic and everything that he did [as artistic director – how wonderful he’s been in all those films? Are we just not going to see all those films that Harvey produced?” Read more here.
Mark Rylance quits RSC over BP sponsorship
Mark Rylance resigned this week as associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) over its sponsorship from energy giant BP. The Oscar-winning actor ends his association with the RSC after three decades, having played numerous roles at their Stratford home including Hamlet and Romeo. After directing numerous questions to the RSC’s leadership over BP’s sponsorship of the theatre company, Rylance said his resignation would “lend strength to the voices within the RSC who want to be progressive.”
He warned that BP threatened the future of the planet, with their sponsorship allowing them to “obscure the destructive reality” of their activities. In a piece for the Guardian, he said: “I do not wish to be associated with BP any more than I would with an arms dealer, a tobacco salesman or anyone who wilfully destroys the lives of others alive or unborn,” adding: “Nor, I believe, would William Shakespeare”.
Fellow actor Maureen Lipman called the resignation “jolly silly” and suggested if Rylance wanted to make a difference he should stand for parliament like actor-turned-MP Glenda Jackson. Rylance’s move has been criticised in print but found supporters on social media, including naturalist Chris Packham, who said the resignation showed “integrity writ large.” A statement from the RSC said it was “saddened” by Rylance’s decision.
READ: Why You Should Care About the Royal Shakespeare Company
Top actors more likely to be privately schooled
The UK’s richest actors are six times more likely to have been privately educated than the general population, according to “scandalous” figures from a report on elitism in Britain. A survey into the educational backgrounds of more than 5,000 of Britain’s leading figures found that 44% of top actors had been to private school, including Sunday Times Rich List entrants Daniel Craig, Keira Knightley, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Hugh Grant.
The report recognises “there are many potential access issues throughout an aspiring actor’s journey to the top” and mentions the cost of drama school auditions and travel to London as specific barriers to those from outside London, echoing a recent claim by Equity. It also comes as figures in the industry warn that drama is becoming the “preserve of the elite,” with Robert Lindsay calling on the government to address the “heartbreaking” lack of support for aspiring actors from working-class backgrounds. Read more here.
Stoppard returns
Tom Stoppard has announced his new play Leopoldstadt will premiere in the West End next year, directed by Patrick Marber. Inspired by the old Jewish quarter of Vienna, the play – a “passionate drama of love, family, and endurance” – follows a Jewish family across the first half of the 20th century, charting their fortunes as the rise of fascism gives way to all-out war in Europe. The 81-year-old playwright, whose last play opened at the National Theatre in 2015, describes Leopoldstadt as “quite personal.” The Guardian saw this announcement as a shift from Stoppard’s usual experimental and “impersonal” writing in previous plays, including early hits like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Jumpers. Produced by Sonia Friedman, Leopoldstadt opens at the Wyndham’s Theatre in January 2020 and is casting now.
READ: The Who’s Who of British Theatre’s New Wave
Arts organisations and conservatoires pledge to gender equality
Over 60 arts organisations have publicly pledged to achieve gender parity by 2022 as part of a move to make the performing arts industry a more equal workplace. Institutions including the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, and Opera North have joined the Keychange Pledge, committing to strive for a 50:50 balance of men and women on production teams, including composers on new operas.
Led by the PRS Foundation, the pledge began as a way to campaign for equality at music festivals whose line ups are dominated by male performers. Since the launch last year, more than 180 festivals across the world have signed up, including the BBC Proms. The recent wave of signatories sees many of the UK’s leading training institutions commit to gender equality aims, including student intakes. Read more here.
READ: The Acting Conservatoires UK Actors Should Know
Last Night In Soho
Diana Rigg and Terence Stamp have joined Edgar Wright’s next film, psychological drama Last Night In Soho. Currently shooting in London, Rigg and Stamp join fellow veteran film star Rita Tushingham (Doctor Zhivago) alongside relative newcomers Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch), Michael Ajao (Attack The Block), Synnøve Karlsen (Clique) and The Crown’s Matt Smith. Wright is directing from his own screenplay, co-written with Krysty Wilson-Cairns. Little is known about the plot, but Wright has described the thriller as taking its cue from films like Don’t Look Now and Repulsion.
For more from Backstage UK, check out the magazine.