#king lear (2023)

[paulgrossaddict]

EMOJIPAUL

Part 1 (there will be more posts to come...)

the idea is not mine, but from an Internet user's conversation on Twitter following an episode of Tales of the City and this

Tales of the City

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Slings and Arrows

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Interview, King-Lear opening, ctv,2023

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Paul Gross, ComicCon, Eastwick

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H20-Trojan Horse

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Eastwick

😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

Slings and Arrows

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Interview Due South

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Interview Hyena Road

Republic of Doyle

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[sotruefeste]

happy pride to literally every shakespeare character! they’re all gay because I said so

[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

[lairn]

Book 15/24: Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie

Rating: 4/5

I had a good time with this book! It follows Monza Murcatto, the dethroned leader of a mercenary group, on her journey of revenge. The novel couches the revenge plot in a sort of classic heist/crime narrative: Monza gets the gang of odd criminals together, they make various plans for infiltration and murder, things go wrong, they scrape through to the next misadventure. The plot moves in a fairly predictable way for this genre, but that is not a problem because the execution is good and Abercrombie gracefully captures the charm of a caper narrative. Plus, he did catch me out with one surprise towards the end when things get cleared up with Shenkt.

When Abercrombie breaks out of the crime narrative mold to deal with the broader consequences, the pace slows a little and I did not enjoy it quite as much (but I don't like military maneuver plots). However, that section is relatively short before it becomes more intrigue and mayhem.

All the characters are fun and quirky in their own ways, and the moral shifts for Monza and Shivers are compelling. I am very interested to see how Shivers manifests in the future since I have heard he is in other books after this one.

Overall, this book is a step up from The First Law trilogy. Abercrombie's grasp of narrative pacing and world building is much tighter. He shrinks the impact of the plot from apocalyptic to continent-wrecking, and I think the scaling back helps. Even his author photo isn't trying so hard.

[vox-anglosphere]

This year's King Lear at Stratford promises to be electrifying.

[p-isforpoetry]

Fiery Angel and The Shed will co-produce William Shakespeare's King Lear, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh as the titular character.

King Lear is the latest addition to Branagh's impressive Shakespearean repertoire, which includes his film adaptations of Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, and Love's Labour's Lost and, more recently, The Winter's Tale on stage.

He has also directed acclaimed stage productions of Macbeth, The Winter's Tale, and Romeo and Juliet.

The production will preview from 21 October 2023 at Wyndham's Theatre in London, with a press night on 31 October, and will run for just 50 performances. Tickets will go on sale on 5 June at 12 noon.

Following its London run, the production will transfer to The Shed's Griffin Theater in New York for the autumn of 2024.

Further cast and creative team members are to be revealed.

[britneyshakespeare]

i think reading the first three shakespeare henriad plays back-to-back-to-back has broken my brain for the last three months

[cdo499]

shakespeare characters that would be spiderman go

[alligator-dreaming]

07-09-2023: The American Ghost

Had a dream about being inducted into a ghost worshipping-cult. Content warning: suicide mentioned.

I was at a football game in Washington, DC with my friends when I discovered the aforementioned cult. Lots of students were part of it and they were discreetly practicing cult rituals during the game disguised as crowd chants and cheers.

Somehow, the cult figured out that I knew about them, and during one such ritual they sucked me in and forced me to go out onto the field, where I was touched by the ghost at the center of the cult. Her name was Emma, and she was the spirit of a Founding Mother of the USA who had died in the early 1800s.

By touching me, there was an exchange: Emma left part of herself in me and took part of me away. Her will was in my head and I could not disobey it. The ritual had turned me into one of her familiars/maidens, which were revered within the cult by normal cultists for having a direct connection to Emma.

Being unable to disobey, I formally joined the cult and went about serving their will. I was uncomfortable obeying their commands, which involved breaking into places and finding other cultists, and I tried to resist everywhere I could, but Emma’s will inside my head made it so that it felt good to do the things the cult commanded of me. I tried to follow my friends around and ask them for help, but Emma and the cult made it impossible for me to interact with them.

Weeks went by of service in the cult. I was isolated from my friends and family (even though my parents were in DC with me). To keep from despairing I went to museums and tours of famous places in DC in my very limited free time. Even this was hijacked by the cult - they made me make pilgrimages to the preserved house where Emma lived. In the basement she had the noose where the historical Ophelia, daughter of Lear, had hung herself.

There was one museum, the Supreme Court Mario Kart track, where I confided in a curator about my problems. She was the only one I could talk to, but the cult found out, and I was summoned to Emma’s home. No one was there but Emma, her first physical appearance (can a ghost make physical appearances? You get what I mean) since the game where she entered my mind. She told me I was no longer of use as a familiar and activated a system of gears that revealed Ophelia’s noose. She was (I think, retroactively) going to kill me to reclaim the part of herself she left behind while keeping the part of me to make herself stronger.

Somehow, I tricked her. Her head ended up inside the noose and not mine, and when it jerked upward it killed her. Emma’s ghost finally passed on to the next destination, and as it did she left me and returned the part she had taken. I had freed myself and uncountable other familiars.

In the aftermath, there was a mixed response to my killing of Emma. Most people who knew, especially former familiars, were relieved, and thanked me. However, Emma’s presence had a curious effect; many of those who knew her, even those enslaved by her, were sorry to see her go, thinking of her as a nice woman who did terrible things. Even I wasn’t exempt. I kept thinking that in truth, it was Emma who had freed me from her control and her cult.

End of dream

[paulgrossaddict]

don't pay attention it's a bit bitter...

Source Adrien Missika

This video by Adrien Missika is my metaphor for “being a fan of Paul Gross today” especially outside Canada.

It's an obstacle course!

. access to its projects until February 2025

. The non-broadcast of his King Lear on stratford@home (no I'm not going to be satisfied with those in their catalogue with certainly talented actors but NO)

. the play Hamlet, only accessible for consultation on site in Stratford

. Content not accessible outside of Canada or obsolete links

. Site and fan

. nothing for the 30th anniversary of Due South, nor the production and the rest of the participants (fortunately there was tumblr)

And if there is a Due South reboot, Paul Gross' presence is very uncertain (and without me too guys!).

. Paul Gross's Twitter accounts have been inactive for years, one was closed in February...the other one...he must have lost the password 🤔

. No need for daily or weekly content on Twitter or Instagram. Even less private publications, but at least have access to his work, his creation, his interviews (why is qcbc's only accessible in podcasts while others are on YouTube [easier to understand when you are not a native speaker]), also outside of Canadian territory. 😒

So my feeling of being a fan and trying to share new content.

Voilà , maybe I should start sticking cacti .

[motions1ckn3ss]

'I Cannot Heave My Heart Into My Mouth’: Shakespeare and Alice Winn’s In Memoriam

or, an academic blog post i wrote for an english literature assignment as part of my shakespeare module at uni. a huge thank you to @jovienna for proofreading and providing the most helpful suggestions, i'm very proud of this piece and i just got the mark back for it today and i received a 2:1! enjoy :)

‘But since she pricked thee out for women’s pleasure, / Mine be thy love and thy love’s use their treasure’ (Shakespeare 13-14): a declaration of queer love, not just in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 20, but also in Alice Winn’s debut novel In Memoriam, published in 2023. Throughout the novel, the character of Ellwood quotes various poems with famously homoerotic undertones as a way of professing his love for Gaunt, a fellow student at the boarding school they attend, in an era of repression and illegality concerning homosexuality. The works of Shakespeare become some of the most notable amongst this number.

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 20 depicts desire for a man that he cannot have. The love interest of the poem, being a man, must be for the pleasure of women only, as Nature has decided. As the closing lines express, all Shakespeare can offer the man is his own love. The meaning of these lines are certainly not lost on Ellwood, and to the regret of the poet-speaker who is resigned to Platonic love (Mahony 70), writes them ‘in pencil on the wall above Gaunt’s bed, and Gaunt had hoped they meant something.’ (Winn 42).

Despite this, Gaunt refuses to let himself believe this possibility, though Ellwood assumes that he simply does not reciprocate his feelings – ‘anyway, Gaunt already knew that Ellwood loved him. Because of the sonnets.’ (Winn 113). More than three hundred years after the publication of his sonnets, Shakespeare’s words connect with Ellwood and provide him with an outlet. Ellwood deliberately selects Sonnet 20 to ensure Gaunt knows of his love in a way that stops him ‘going completely mad and confessing wild, undying love for him, which he knew would have made Gaunt extremely uncomfortable.’ (Winn 113). Shakespeare puts pen to paper to write of his own unrequited love for another man, and Ellwood follows in his footsteps.

These closing lines of Sonnet 20 are not the only writings of Shakespeare referenced in In Memoriam, with King Lear arguably creating an even more heartfelt moment between the two men. The First World War, in all its tragedy, does bring Ellwood and Gaunt together, with the two only acting on their desires amidst the ‘hyper-masculine atmosphere of war’ (Winn 120). Following their honourable discharge from the army, the two move to Brazil together to live in relative safety. Ellwood suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, and as a result of this no longer recites poems as he used to, unable to see the joy and meaning in doing so after seeing what one man can do to another in the name of war. Without his poetry as a means of expression, Ellwood struggles to express his emotions and the love he feels for Gaunt, leaving us with the heart-wrenching lines ‘some long-dead poet must have written the lines with which to answer, but Ellwood no longer knew them.’ (Winn 342).

And yet it is the words of Shakespeare, a long-dead poet, which Ellwood utilises to convey the sincerity and weight of his emotion to Gaunt when he feels a simple ‘I love you’ would not suffice. Frustrated with his own inability, Ellwood evokes the words of Cordelia, Lear’s daughter, so that Gaunt knows it is not a lack of love which prevents him from speaking.

‘Ellwood grimaced and shook his head, clearly frustrated. “No, Henry, I,” he said, “I – I cannot heave my heart into my mouth.” Gaunt stared at him. Ellwood looked just as shocked as he was. “Shakespeare,” said Ellwood. “King Lear.”’ (Winn 375)

‘Can it be that Cordelia’s emotion silences her at a moment when it is vital that she should speak?... Can it be that the quality and weight of her love drives her to understatement and to brusqueness?’ (Morris 141). Ivor Morris’s reasoning for Cordelia’s words ring true not just for the context of King Lear, but also for the final pages of In Memoriam. Much like Cordelia, it is not a lack of love which leaves Ellwood speechless, but an abundance of it. Throughout his adolescence, Ellwood finds solace and comfort in Shakespeare’s sonnets, quoting his words to convey his emotion when his own will not suffice. Following the tragedies the war has brought the pair and the world alike, Ellwood turns from these romantic poems to a tragic play in order to suitably express this shift in his feelings. Witnessing the horrors of war has changed him fundamentally as a person, and yet the works of Shakespeare, alongside his unwavering love for Gaunt, remain a constant in his life.

Works Cited

Mahony, Patrick. “Shakespeare’s Sonnet Number 20: Its Symbolic Gestalt.” American Imago, vol. 36, no. 1, 1979, pp. 69-79.

Morris, Ivor. “Cordelia and Lear.” Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 8, no. 2, 1957, pp. 141-158.

Shakespeare, William. “Sonnet 20: A woman’s face, with Nature’s own hand painted.” The Sonnets and A Lover’s Complaint, Penguin Classics, 2009, p. 22.

Winn, Alice. In Memoriam. Penguin Books, 2023.

[mikeywayarchive]

Mikey Way: “I was borderline terrified a lot of the time My Chemical Romance was active. I was learning the bass in front of 20,000 people every night!”

By Gregory Adams ( Bass Player ) published June 9th 2023

The reunited emo kings’ low-end ranger reveals why he swapped out his signature Fender Mustang for a sparkling new signature Jazz Bass, learning bass in arenas, and how he overcame insecurity about his chops

Full interview under cut:

My Chemical Romance’s reunion has seen bassist Mikey Way thrumming through the high pomp punk of The Black Parade and Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge favorites with a familiar rhythmic fortitude, but keen-eyed band obsessives have probably noticed the musician is no longer sporting the snazzy, silver-flake Squier Mustang signature model Fender built for him back in 2012. 

The good news is that’s because, as Fender have just formally announced, Way has a brand-new – but just as glammy – Jazz Bass out now. There’s a good reason why Way’s made the switch: the Jazz Bass is his first love.

Though he started out on guitar, Way got the hang of a four-string in the mid ‘90s while playing a loaned-out Jazz Bass in his pre-My Chemical Romance project, Ray Gun Jones. He upgraded to a silver-finish Jazz of his own by the time MCR started touring in the early ‘00s, but a trailer mishap led to that instrument getting smashed to pieces on a highway.

Way tells Guitar World that he eventually became obsessed with the short-scale sturdiness of a Mustang bass guitar as My Chemical Romance were writing their 2010 full-length, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, after fooling around with a model Duff McKagan had left at North Hollywood’s Mates Rehearsal Studio. By 2012, Way had his Squier model in stores.

It was during the downtime after My Chemical Romance went on hiatus in 2013, though, that the stubbiness of his Mustang became a little hard to handle.

“I stayed away from playing bass for a little while, which is natural – I was just decompressing,” Way explains. “Then, sometime in 2014, I picked up the bass again, to get my chops back, [but] I noticed that the Mustang felt strange to me.” 

After reaching out to the folks at Fender, Way got a grip on his playing by stretching out on the longer-necked Jazzes they sent him. Way’s take on the Jazz Bass is outfitted with ’70s-style single-coil pickups, and a thinline “C”-shaped maple neck the bassist says is super-speedy.

The finish is silver, of course, but Way also wanted an aesthetically inkier black pickguard. The headstock, likewise, pops with its matching gloss-black finish.

Speaking with Guitar World, Way gets into the glam and grunge gods who inspired his love of a good sparkle coat, overcoming performance anxiety, and why a steady attack wins the bass race every time.

What were some of the musts when it came to designing this latest signature?

“I’ve been obsessed with the sparkle finish as far back as I can remember. Growing up in the ‘90s, the silver-flake [finish] was big in alternative music. Chris Cornell had the Gretsch Silver Jet, [Daniel Johns] from Silverchair had one – [with] the imagery the Smashing Pumpkins used, they liked sparkles.

“Ace Frehley, of course, was big into flake finishes, and as a kid, you love the larger-than-life, comic book world of Kiss. [And there’s] David Bowie – the glam rock stuff. That flake finish makes me think of so many different things, but that’s why I love it so much.

“I remember being younger and going into stores and seeing a flake finish and being like, 'Oh my god, that’s an expensive [looking guitar] – I can’t afford that, let alone play it.' It was almost intimidating.”

One aesthetic difference between your Mustang model and this Jazz is that you didn’t throw a racing stripe on this one.

“I thought about bringing it back and keeping the continuity. Maybe somewhere down the line we’ll throw a racing stripe on this. The thing with [seeing a] racing stripe was always like, 'This player is a badass!'”

Is there a psychology behind removing the racing stripe, then?

“The psychology behind it is that I forgot about it. When My Chemical Romance was talking about doing reunion shows [in 2019], I’d contacted Michael Schulz from Fender and was like, 'Is it OK if I make a new bass for this [next] era of My Chemical Romance?' I wanted to take my past and bring it to the future – taking my Mustang and melding it with the Jazz Basses that I loved so much. 

“I tried to have my cake and eat it, too. I wanted the thinner neck, and I wanted the silver-flake, but I wanted it on a Jazz Bass. They knocked it out of the park immediately.”

Getting back to how you used to admire those silver-flake guitars in the shops, you actually started out as a guitarist, right?

“So, the story goes that my brother [My Chemical Romance vocalist Gerard Way] had a Sears acoustic guitar when he was 10 years old. We would take a shoelace and make a strap, and we would stand on the couch pretending we were in Iron Maiden. And then it got real around ’93-’94, which lines up with the rise of alternative music. You started to see people that looked exactly like you, and they were playing guitar. They were playing Fender Strats! 

“My brother got a Mexican Stratocaster, Lake Placid Blue. I found it not too long ago, and Michael from Fender hot-rodded it. That’s how I cut my teeth – that Mexican Stratocaster [was] my first foray into really trying to learn how to play guitar. I would watch bootlegs of concerts, and watch [guitarists’] hands and fingers – Thom Yorke, Billy Corgan, Noel Gallagher, Jonny Greenwood. I would watch what they were doing. It all started from that.

“Bass came out of necessity, twice. Me and my brother had a band called Ray Gun Jones, I guess in ’95-’96. It was kind of Weezer-ish, or us doing a surf-punk thing [with] a little bit of pre-mid-west emo. At the time we were really into Weezer, Jawbreaker, Promise Ring, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Sunny Day Real Estate. 

“[Ray Gun Jones] needed a bass player, so my brother was like 'Hey, do you want to play bass for my band?' I was already a huge fan – I’d always tag along to practices. The ex-bass player let me borrow their bass. We had 4-5 songs, and I got the rudimentary from that. In that era, everyone was like, 'I want to be a guitar hero,' but I realized I had a natural knack for [bass]. I picked it up right away. 

“Then, with My Chemical Romance, it was the same thing. My brother was like, 'We need a bass player,' and I was like, 'Well, this is familiar' [laughs]. 'Here’s the demo; learn these songs.' They weren’t terribly difficult.”

Was that bass you had borrowed a Fender Jazz?

“Yup, I’ve only ever played Fender. I’ve tried tons of other basses from other companies, but it always feels alien to me.”

You mentioned studying the playing of Thom Yorke or Billy Corgan through those bootleg vids. Were there any bassists that you treated similarly, to understand the mechanics of bass?

“Matt Sharp from Weezer. I tried to ape him in the beginning, but my attack sounds vaguely reminiscent of a Smashing Pumpkins recording. I would learn Siamese Dream and Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and the Blue Album [the band’s 1994 self-titled debut] by Weezer. Those were the three albums that I put the most time into learning. That’s in my DNA.”

How about from a hyper-local perspective. If My Chemical Romance started out playing New Jersey basements and VFW halls, where there any bassists from that scene that inspired you, or that you appreciated?

“Yes! We shared a rehearsal space with this band called Pencey Prep – that was [MCR guitarist] Frank Iero’s original band. John McGuire was their bassist, and he let me borrow his equipment all the time. He taught me fundamentals, and gave me pointers – he taught me a whole heck of a lot. 

“I always respected Tim Payne from Thursday, I loved his attack and stage presence. And when I’d watch Gabe Saporta from Midtown, I thought 'This dude is the coolest guy in the room.' He’s got this calm, cool, and collected [presence] that you can’t fake or learn. And then Eben D’amico from Saves the Day – brilliant! 

“I would try to learn Saves the Day basslines. They were pretty complex [compared to] what most bands were doing in that scene. Most bands in the post-hardcore scene had simplistic basslines, but Saves the Day did not.

“There’s also Ray Toro, the guitar player of My Chemical Romance. Not only is he truly gifted at guitar, but he’s truly gifted at bass and drums – Ray can do everything. He was instrumental, early on, with showing me the ropes. Ray gave me lessons when I was a novice. I can’t thank him enough for that.”

What kind of pointers was he giving you?

“He showed me proper fretting, or [how to maintain] a steady attack. I got a really great compliment from our front-of-house guy, Jay Rigby. He told me that I’m one of the very few bass players that he doesn’t have to go in and tweak the volume [for]. 'You’re steady, throughout.' I think that’s something that Ray Toro instilled in me: the consistency of attack. 

“It’s funny thinking about it, but I was such a novice going into My Chemical Romance that I would bring myself into an anxiety-ridden state of, 'Oh my god, we have a show tonight; I have to start practicing right now.' I would be practicing four to five hours before we played – I’d play the set [in the green room], and then I’d play it again. Other bands would be like, 'What are you doing?' I was so neurotic at that point, because there were so many people around me that were beyond gifted. 

“I got pushed into the deep end; you’ve got no choice but to figure it out. Ray and Frank are so gifted that I had to keep up. I didn’t want to ever do the music a disservice.

“That brings me back to the simplicity of the early My Chem basslines. The first album [2002’s I Brought You Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love] was me learning the bass, and somehow [producer] John Naclerio recorded me and said, 'You did a great job,' which I did not expect. 

“I thought I was going to go in there and they were going to have to do some studio magic, or someone would come in and play [my] part. I thought of the worst-case scenario, but I went in and did it. I played the bass seriously [enough] by that point.”

What are you generally looking for in a My Chemical Romance bassline? 

“What makes it for me is if I do a fill, I’ll only do it once. If you listen to [the band's 2022 comeback single] The Foundations of Decay, any fill on there I only do one time. What’s interesting about The Foundations of Decay is that it’s very loose and run-and-gun. We went in and punched things in for timing, which everyone in the world does, but the meat of that is first-or-second take. Which brings me to someone else who was very instrumental to my bass playing: Doug McKean.

“He’s no longer with us, unfortunately, but he was our engineer from The Black Parade [until his passing in 2022]. He was always a huge cheerleader for me – he instilled confidence in me. He was always good at getting a killer performance out of me.”

What are some of the biggest My Chemical Romance bass moments for you?

“I’ll say that fill in on Foundations. No-one saw that coming.”

There’s a YouTube video out there of someone playing their favorite Mikey Way basslines, some while using your signature Squier Mustang, but one standout in particular is The Black Parade’s The Sharpest Lives.

“What’s funny is Sharpest Lives has a bass solo, and I was terrified of it. I had performance anxiety [through] the 12 years before we broke up – I don’t have it anymore. Somehow when the band got back together, a switch in my brain [got] flipped. [But] while My Chem was active, I was borderline terrified a lot of the time.

“I’m playing with people far above my skill level, I’m playing [on bills] with bands where their bass players are way better than me, [and] our shows were getting massive. We were playing arenas! So not only are you learning the bass, but you’re learning the bass in front of 20,000 people every night. It made me tweak a little, but I think it shaped me into what I became.

“That solo gave me anxiety. It was when we were playing the biggest venues of our career, and it would break for the solo [Way starts singing his ascending bass lick]. I practiced it relentlessly, then it [became] second nature. Later on, it [became my favorite part of the show.”

You’re already playing the Jazz signature in your live show, yeah?

“It’s what I use for the live show. Basically, Fender built [it] for the reunion, and then we made a couple tweaks for when we release it.”

Was there a learning curve at all towards transferring My Chemical Romance songs you’d written on a Mustang onto the Jazz?

“There was Planetary (GO!), a song off Danger Days. I’d guess you’d say the whole thing is a disco beat. It’s dance-y – [Mikey starts singing an octave-popping bassline], I do that for the entirety of the song. I was very happy that I only had to do that on a Mustang, initially [because of the shorter scale]. But going back to what I said, [after] I took a little break, [I] went back to a Jazz Bass. 

“I missed the room, or the way my hand went up and down the neck. I wanted to go back to that, so I jumped back in and felt right at home again.”

How many Jazzes are you bringing on the road?

“I bring two basses out, [but] I stopped even switching [during the set]. This is a testament to Fender craftsmanship – that thing stays in tune. It’s got the four-saddle bridge, and it stays in tune so well. I’m a little neurotic so I’ll tune every few songs, but if I went five to six songs you probably wouldn’t even notice.”

What does it mean to you to now have a fully-formed Fender signature model – as opposed to the Squier – and with the body shape you began your career with?

“It’s really a dream come true. It’s funny, in 2002-3 we started touring across the country. I had a Mexican Jazz Bass, but [the band] were like, 'You have to use something with better electronics; better wood. Step it up!' So, I went into the Guitar Center on Route 46 in New Jersey, and at the time Fender had released a special Guitar Center edition that was silver-flake. 

“It always bugged me that the pickguard was white – it threw me off, aesthetically, and I was like, 'I’m going to change that pickguard one day.' So, I got that, and I was using that for a while. 

“We were out with [Boston emo quartet] Piebald – it was one of our first cross-country tours ever – and one night someone forgot to close the trailer door. We’re driving on the highway, and half the contents spilled out – unfortunately, my bass was a casualty of that.

“But Frank Iero, and his heart of gold, jumped out on the highway in the middle of the night and tried to recover [the bass]. He was like, 'Maybe we can fix it!' I’ll never forget him doing that. He got a chunk of it – it’s in one of our storage units.”

For more information on the Limited Edition Mikey Way Jazz Bass, head to Fender.com.

[olemisekunst]

Tom Hiddleston attends the press night after party for "William Shakespeare's King Lear" on October 31, 2023

[jbaileyfansite]

Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey is to play Richard II in a new production of Shakespeare’s history play directed by Nicholas Hytner at the Bridge theatre in London.

It will reunite the star with Hytner, whose version of Othello at the National Theatre in 2013 featured Bailey as Cassio. Bailey also played Edgar opposite Ian McKellen’s King Lear at Chichester Festival theatre in 2017. But the part of the Plantagenet monarch will be the highest profile Shakespeare role to date for the actor, who is best known for playing Lord Anthony Bridgerton in Netflix’s blockbuster period drama. Performances will begin at the Bridge on 10 February.

The question asked by Shakespeare’s Richard II, said Hytner, is: “What do you do when a ruler is absolutely inadequate? How do you get rid of the rightful leader?” The play has an ambiguity characteristic of Shakespeare, who does not “give us his own opinion”, said Hytner. “On the one hand, the play endorses Richard’s right to rule and on the other hand it appears to endorse [his adversary] Bolingbroke’s greater capacity to rule.” The production will reveal “a feudal world on the cusp of modernity” he said.

It will be designed by Bob Crowley and staged in what Hytner described as “a cross between in-the-round and traverse”, rather than the immersive, promenade style of Hytner’s Julius Caesar and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which brought audiences up close to the actors at the Bridge. “Richard II has a delicacy and interiority that isn’t going to respond to that kind of treatment,” he said, adding that the theatre – which opened by Tower Bridge in 2017 – is a very flexible space.

Richard II will follow Guys and Dolls which has run at the venue since March 2023 and will have its last performance on 4 January. “We didn’t think it would last as long as it did,” said Hytner, who explained that the long run of the widely acclaimed musical had given the theatre “a bit of financial stability”. He wanted to stage a musical in the same spirit in which he had done Julius Caesar and A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “Guys and Dolls was the right choice for that kind of treatment, because it has a big, robust heart and there’s a direct appeal to the audience, a connection that allows you to plunge straight into it.”

The Bridge is the flagship venue of London Theatre Company which was founded by Hytner and Nick Starr. Its other space is Lightroom in King’s Cross, where an immersive David Hockney exhibition has returned for another run, alongside a multimedia experience about the Apollo Moon landings. It will eventually host live performance too. “The very long term plan is that it’s a theatre, but it’s working so well and we have so many things in the pipeline in that [multimedia] form that I can’t say when,” said Hytner.

Richard II will be at the Bridge theatre, London, from 10 February to 10 May

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Luke Thompson Master Drive

Crossed out titles are not in this drive but can be easily found (exceptions marked with asterisks and detailed under the cut). Crossed out and red means that although the productions have been recorded there are no files available.

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Shakespeare's Globe: A Midsummer Night's Dream (2014)

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher (2011‑2014)

Hampstead Theatre at Home: Tiger Country (2014)

Globe on Screen: Julius Caesar (2015)

The Complete Walk: Romeo and Juliet (2016)

In the Club (2014‑2016) NEW!

Dunkirk (2017)

Hamlet (2018)

Kiss Me First (2018-2018)

National Theatre Live: King Lear (2018)

Making Noise Quietly (2019)

Misbehaviour (2020)

Tikkun Olam (2022)*

Transatlantic (2023-2023)

A Little Life (2023)

Bridgerton (2020‑ )

* = This one was available for a year to rent online but it seems that no one did a screen recording so it’s unavailable for the time being.

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Kenneth Branagh as King Lear and Eleanor de Rohan as Kent

King Lear (2023)

photo: Johan Persson