5 Defining Roles for Actor Kathryn Hunter at Theatre For a New Audience | 半岛体育

半岛体育

Photo Features 5 Defining Roles for Actor Kathryn Hunter at Theatre For a New Audience From Puck in Julie Taymor鈥檚 A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream to 11 roles in The Emperor, the performer looks back on her collaborations with TFANA.
Kathryn Hunter

Acclaimed actor Kathryn Hunter has a longstanding history with . Running through September 30, the play鈥攂ased on the book by Polish journalist Ryszard Kapu艣ci艅ski鈥攕erves as a sort of biography of Ethiopia鈥檚 emperor Haile Selassie via accounts of 35 of his servants.

Playwright Colin Teevan has adapted the work to feature 11 servants, all played by Hunter. The production reunites the team from TFNA鈥檚 Kafka鈥檚 Monkey, one of Hunter鈥檚 earlier appearances with the company. Here, she recalls some of her most defining TFNA moments鈥攊ncluding her unforgettable aerial entrance as Puck in Julie Taymor鈥檚 A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream.

FRAGMENTS (TFANA 2011)
From texts by Samuel Beckett, directed by Peter Brook

//assets.playbill.com/editorial/128b9422f4ff8d4a9d6f7e0cb817b5a8-1-fragments-kathryn-hunter-jos-houben-pc-courtesy-of-tfana.jpg
Kathryn Hunter and Jos Houben

鈥淔谤补驳尘别苍迟蝉 was an evening of short pieces that director Peter Brook selected because he felt they epitomized Samuel Beckett鈥檚 work. It was my first time at TFANA, but I knew artistic director Jeffrey Horowitz had produced much of Peter鈥檚 work in New York and that they had a long relationship. And I had first worked with Peter on a Caryl Churchill play, Far Away, in French, at the in 2002.鈥�

//assets.playbill.com/editorial/25804254c1e95c931fb37953941af8de-2-fragments-l-r-jos-houben-kathryn-hunter-marcello-magni-pc-courtesy-of-tfana.jpg
Jos Houben, Kathryn Hunter, Marcello Magni

鈥淭hese photos are from the last piece of the evening, called Come and Go, where three ladies meet and rediscover their relationship of old. And in typical Peter form, he had the two actors, Jos [Houben] and Marcello [Magni, Hunter鈥檚 real life partner] play the other two ladies. It鈥檚 a perfect example of Peter鈥檚 open-minded spirit and deep belief that theater is most profoundly an act of the imagination. So if an actor can imaginatively be an old lady, then he鈥檚 an old lady.鈥�

KAFKA鈥橲 MONKEY (TFANA 2013)
Based on "A Report to an Academy" by Franz Kafka, adapted by Colin Teevan, and starring Kathryn Hunter, directed by Walter Meierjohann

//assets.playbill.com/editorial/2887b6c3ca142a2a750acf032464e66e-3-kafkas-monkey-kathryn-hunter-pc-keith-pattison.jpg
Keith Pattison

鈥淭his was my first collaboration with Walter Meierjohann, who is also directing The Emperor. He had actually seen me in Fragments and decided he wanted to work together. Walter鈥檚 from Germany and The Report to the Academy by Frank Kafka [the short story from which Kafka鈥檚 Monkey is adapted, about an ape named Red Peter who has learned to behave like a human] is a very well-known piece there but less so elsewhere. And so he approached me very diffidently and asked: 鈥淲ould you mind playing a chimpanzee?鈥� And I said: 鈥淚鈥檝e always wanted to play a chimpanzee!" I would work the whole morning in rehearsal with a movement director just being a free chimpanzee, as it were, and in the afternoon with Walter we would do the chimpanzee being dressed as a human being. So it was many, many hours of being a chimpanzee, watching videos, going to zoos, and I basically fell in love with them. People asked me was it weird to play an animal. In fact, I felt very, very connected. I never stopped working on the physical element: the in-turned feet, the low center of gravity, the powerful arms and legs and very articulate fingers.鈥�

//assets.playbill.com/editorial/da166e025abcef260a0430367d95c8be-4-kafkas-monkey-kathryn-hunter-pc-keith-pattison-2.jpg
Keith Pattison

鈥淲e did the play all over the world鈥攊n Australia, in Japan, in Turkey, in Europe鈥攁nd everywhere it had a very particular resonance to do with histories of political repression. But when we came to New York, everyone related to the monkey in the cage as if they themselves were the chimpanzee, in a cage of their own making.鈥�

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (TFANA 2013)
Directed by Julie Taymor with music by Elliot Goldenthal at Polonsky Shakespeare Center

//assets.playbill.com/editorial/8ab4ed00cd5de64cb91d20fa6ca2830d-5-a-midsummer-nights-dream-david-harewood-julie-taymor-kathryn-hunter-pc-gerry-goodstein.jpg
David Harewood (Oberon), Julie Taymor (Director) and Kathryn Hunter (Puck) in rehearsal for Theatre for a New Audience鈥檚 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT鈥橲 DREAM. Photographed at New 42nd Street Studios. Gerry Goodstein

鈥淭he whole venture of inaugurating TFANA鈥檚 new home, the Polonsky Shakespeare Center, with Julie Taymor鈥檚 version of A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream, one of Shakespeare鈥檚 most glorious plays, was extremely exciting. There was a production being born, a theatre being born, there was David Harewood as Oberon, there were fairies! There was a whole world. I remember the period as bursting at the seams.鈥�

//assets.playbill.com/editorial/3a8cffd61b024dc68274b1664c88ac5d-midsummer4.jpg
Emmet Smith (Rude Elemental) and Kathryn Hunter (Puck) Es Devlin

鈥淚 always feel that Julie [Taymor] and I created Puck together. The richness of her visual imagination is beyond words. She鈥檚 an extraordinary human being and I hope she wouldn鈥檛 mind my saying almost Puck-like herself in terms of invention. She would talk to me about the character, of course, but more than that she would sort of act it out physically, so I would pick up on that rhythm, and gradually a spirit got created that was mischievous and fast and full of hilarity countered with some sadness as well.鈥�

//assets.playbill.com/editorial/bdb330921cdbf75a7e99f06f17998631-midsummer7.jpg
Kathryn Hunter Es Devlin

鈥淭his feels like an image that was created by collaboration, inspired by Julie鈥檚 sense that Puck descends to earth and then in her inimitable way asking, 'How do we create that?' So there was the costume designer Constance Hoffman, who created the trousers that extend and extend and extend. And there I was on the lighting rig, wearing a harness, having regular flying sessions with these wonderful aerialists, and eventually pushed off the rig, upside down. I鈥檓 fine with heights but there was a moment in the production when I got nervous and then I鈥檇 just have to imagine diving into the sea.鈥�

THE VALLEY OF ASTONISHMENT (TFANA 2014)
Written and directed by Peter Brook and Marie-H茅l猫ne Estienne

//assets.playbill.com/editorial/d1b1a172ad46a68bb9df3d60afb7e305-8-the-valley-of-astonishment-kathryn-hunter-pc-pascal-victor.jpg

鈥淚t was wonderful to be invited yet again to TFANA. [Director] Peter [Brook] had done an exploration of neurological so-called disorders based on Oliver Sacks鈥� The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and this was a kind of follow-up to that [in The Valley of Astonishment Hunter plays one of three character with synesthesia, defined as the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body]. And it asks the question does the depiction of these neurological states have a place on the stage? And the answer is yes. Because Peter, like Oliver, believes these aren鈥檛 disorders, this is an area of astonishment, this human brain. And Oliver got to see it at TFANA. And in fact he had had some doubts and had said to Peter: 鈥業s this really material for the theatre? Memory? Synesthesia?鈥� And he came the first night and there was this wonderful moment that I witnessed of Peter Brook and Oliver Sacks and Jeffrey Horowitz meeting backstage and Oliver saying: 鈥業t worked.鈥� It was really beautiful.鈥�

Jared McNeill and Kathryn Hunter in THE VALLEY OF ASTONISHMENT. Photo by Pascal Victor.

//assets.playbill.com/editorial/f2ae695db236c205166284103ef62867-9-the-valley-of-astonishment-jared-mcneill-kathryn-hunter-pc-pascal-victor.jpg

鈥淲hat I love about Peter is that he eschews technology in his productions because he believes the body, the brain, the mind, the heart鈥攊s plenty amazing. So his productions seem very simple but his focus is on this astonishing creature, the human being.鈥�

THE EMPEROR (TFANA 2018)
Adapted by Colin Teevan from the Book by Ryszard Kapu艣ci艅ski, directed by Walter Meierjohann
Co-Produced by the Young Vic, HOME, and Les Th茅芒tres de la Ville de Luxembourg

//assets.playbill.com/editorial/e1d3c243d58e221f5b69de1365dfa312-10-the-emperor-kathryn-hunter-temesgen-zeleke-pc-gerry-goodstein.JPG
Gerry Goodstein

鈥�We don鈥檛 see the emperor, we suggest him. I share the stage with Ethiopian musician Temesgen Zeleke; the nature of his singing is extraordinary, there are no frills. In workshops we really constructed it together and the process was very rhythmic. So I would say it鈥檚 kind of a duet. At some point I did suggest to Walter that even though Temesgen is not an actor, could he play my son when I play the character of the minister of information? And he ran with that. So in this image I鈥檓 telling my son, who is developing anti-monarchy ideas, to stop thinking. I鈥檓 telling him that thinking is a very dangerous disease and he should lighten up and go shopping or nightclubbing.鈥�

//assets.playbill.com/editorial/0b30cca8b129e619e80c95c3d231713e-11-the-emperor-kathryn-hunter-pc-gerry-goodstein.JPG
Gerry Goodstein

鈥淭he emperor has many servants, and they have very, very specific jobs and tasks. This gentleman, in particular, his function is 鈥榩illow bearer.鈥� So it is well known that the emperor was of short stature, but it was important for him to be seen as above his subjects so all his thrones were very tall, which meant that his legs would dangle in the air. So to save the emperor the embarrassment of looking like a child, the pillow bearer would place a pillow beneath his feet. And in fact if you go on Google you will find images of Haile Selassie with a pillow beneath his feet.鈥�

 
Recommended Reading:
 X

Blocking belongs
on the stage,
not on websites.

Our website is made possible by
displaying online advertisements to our visitors.

Please consider supporting us by
whitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker.
Thank you!