Kathryn Hunter
| Kathryn Hunter | |
|---|---|
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Kathryn Hunter as Richard III at the Globe, 2003 | |
| Born |
9 April 1957 New York, USA |
| Occupation | Actress, Theater director |
Kathryn Hunter (born Aikaterini Hadjipateras, 9 April 1957) is an award-winning English actress and theatre director.
Hunter was born 9 April 1957 in New York to Greek parents but brought up in England.[1] She trained at RADA where she is now an associate, and regularly directs student productions.
Career
Stage work
In her stage work, Hunter is particularly associated with physical theatre[2] and has worked with renowned companies in that field including Shared Experience and Complicite. She won an Olivier Award in 1991 for playing the millionairess in Friedrich Durrenmatt's The Visit.[3] Hunter was the first British actress to play King Lear professionally and has played a number of other male characters including in The Bee, directed by Hideki Noda, which played at the Soho Theatre in June 2006 and 2012. She has toured internationally in the first English-language production of Fragments a collection of short plays by Samuel Beckett, directed by Peter Brook.
In 2008, she was made an Artistic Associate at the Royal Shakespeare Company. In January to March 2009, she directed a touring RSC production of Othello at the Warwick Arts Centre, Hackney Empire, Northern Stage, Oxford Playhouse and Liverpool Playhouse. Her husband is movement director on the production and appeared in it as Roderigo – other cast included Michael Gould, Patrice Naiambana and Natalia Tena as Iago, Othello and Desdemona respectively. She also appeared at the Young Vic from March 2009 in the lead in Kafka's Monkey.[4]
In 2010, she appeared as Cleopatra, in a production of Antony and Cleopatra,[5] and as the Fool, in a production of King Lear at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Courtyard Theatre in Stratford on Avon.[5] In January 2011, she withdrew from these roles shortly before the plays were due to be revived.[6]
In May 2011, she reprised her highly acclaimed performance as the ape in the 2009 sell-out success Kafka's Monkey at the Young Vic in London.[7]
In November 2013 she co-starred as Puck in Julie Taymor's Brooklyn production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.[8]
A specialist in cross-gender performance, in February 2016 Hunter took the title role of Cyrano de Bergerac at the Southwark Playhouse, London. After the production opened, Guardian critic Michael Billington wrote "Hunter is an astonishing shape-shifting performer who can play just about anything". [9] but Telegraph critic Jane Schilling called Rusell Bolam's production "an opportunity squandered". [10]
TV and film
Her screen work includes a supporting role in the TV series Rome as Cleopatra's companion, Charmian, and voicing Gorn in Tron: Uprising. Notable film work includes Mike Leigh's All or Nothing (2002) and Harry Potter's neighbour, Arabella Figg, in the fifth movie of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007).
Personal life
Hunter is married to Marcello Magni, co-founder of Complicite.[11]
References
- ↑ Paddock, Terri (23 June 2003). "20 Questions With...Kathryn Hunter". Whatsonstage.com. Archived from the original on 31 October 2012.
- ↑ Mark Fisher "Let's Get Physical", Scotland on Sunday, 15 August 2004
- ↑ "Previous Winners: Olivier Winners 1991". Olivier Awards. The Society of London Theatre,. Archived from the original on 31 October 2012.
- ↑ "Hunter Interview The Guardian
- 1 2 What's On In Stratford-Upon-Avon
- ↑ Nice, David (21 January 2011). "Kathryn Hunter withdraws from RSC productions". The Arts Desk (170).
- ↑ Costa, Maddy. "Kafka's Monkey – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
- ↑ Winer, Linda (1 November 2013). "'A Midsummer Night's Dream' review: Julie Taymor brings magic to Brooklyn". Newsday.
- ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/23/cyrano-de-bergerac-review-kathryn-hunter-all-female-glyn-maxwell
- ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/a-cyrano-de-bergerac/
- ↑ Jacques, Adam (4 September 2011). "How We Met: Simon McBurney & Kathryn Hunter". The Independent.
External links
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