Kenneth Branagh in King Lear by William Shakespeare

An illustration of Kenneth Branagh in the role of King Lear. He sits slightly hunched over with his hand to his mouth as if considering a question. The illustration is a blue rendering of a photo made to look like an etching from an antique book. Overlaid on the image is the show billing: Kenneth Branagh in King Lear by William Shakespeare. — Illustration: Sally Thurer, based on a photo by Johan Persson, courtesy KBTC.

PRESENTED BY KBTC, THE SHED, AND FIERY ANGEL

Tickets

Tickets are on sale now. Get tickets to a preview performance for the best seats at the best prices. View the seat map.

Ticket orders are limited to six tickets, maximum. For larger groups, please email info@theshed.org or call us at (646) 455-3494.

Under 30 Tickets

Under 30 Tickets are currently sold out. To be notified if additional tickets become available, fill out this wait list form.

Guests under 30 years old may purchase up to two tickets at the front of the theater at $25 each. Both ticket buyers and their guests must be under the age of 30. These orders will be held for pick up at the box office in the lobby starting one hour prior to curtain. Valid photo IDs listing proof of age must be presented to pick up all ticket(s). Failure to show proof of age will result in a $200 surcharge per ticket.

About this program

Kenneth Branagh plays the title role in a new production of William Shakespeare’s King Lear, set in the barbarous landscape of Ancient Britain. Featuring a cast of rising stars from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art co-directed by Rob Ashford, Branagh, and Lucy Skilbeck, this production releases the play’s power and turmoil in a fast-paced staging.

In playing Lear, Branagh completes a trifecta of great Shakespearean tragic roles, complementing past appearances as Hamlet in his Academy Award–nominated film version of the play (1996) and on stage as Macbeth in a celebrated immersive production (2014). This strictly limited, exclusive US engagement of King Lear runs for 50 performances only.

Cast

Mara Allen

Deborah Alli

Raymond Anum

Photo © Clare Park. Courtesy Ian Bouillion.

Ian Bouillion

Kenneth Branagh

Stefan Brennan-Healy

Doug Colling

Saffron Coomber

Dylan Corbett-Bader

Eleanor de Rohan

Chloe Fenwick-Brown

Courtesy Joseph Kloska.

Joseph Kloska

Caleb Obediah

Hughie O’Donnell

Jessica Revell

Courtesy Ayla Wheatley.

Ayla Wheatley

Mara Allen’s credits at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art include Romeo & Juliet, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Intimate Apparel, and Love & Money. Theater credits include The Night Watch (The Original Theatre Company), Macbeth (The Globe Theatre), Henry V (The Maltings Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Changeling Theatre Company), Jacaranda (The Pentabus Theatre Company), An Octoroon (The Abbey Theatre Dublin), and The Mirror Crack’d (The Original Theatre Company). Film and television credits include Romantic Getaway.

Deborah Alli’s credits at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art include Richard II, The Gift, The Faith Machine, and The Wolves. Theater credits include Best of Enemies (Noel Coward) and School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play (Lyric Hammersmith).

Raymond Anum’s credits at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art include Romeo & Juliet, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Philistines, and Love & Money. Theater credits include The Merchant Of Venice, The Taming Of The Shrew (Shakespeare’s Globe), and Youth Without God (The Coronet Theatre). Film and television credits include Andor.

Ian Bouillion’s credits at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art include The Winter’s Tale, Against, The Seagull, and Spring Awakening. Film and television includes Masters of the Air, Black Cake, and Prime Target.

Kenneth Branagh’s credits at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art include Hamlet, Commitments, No Orchids for Miss Blandish, Lady Be Good, and The White Devil. His theater credits include, as actor: Another Country, Henry V, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, Look Back in Anger, Coriolanus, Hamlet, Richard III, Edmond, Ivanov, The Painkiller, Macbeth, Harlequinade, The Winter’s Tale, and The Entertainer. Television credits include The Billy Plays, Fortunes of War, Conspiracy, Shackleton, Warm Springs, Wallander, and This England. Film credits include, as actor: A Month in the Country, Othello, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Valkyrie, My Week with Marilyn, Dunkirk, Tenet, and Oppenheimer.

Stefan Brennan-Healy grew up in Millstreet, County Cork, Ireland, where he began acting at an amateur level. He studied drama and theater at University College Cork before moving to London in 2020 to begin training at RADA. Since graduating last year, Brennan-Healy has performed all over the United Kingdom, having recently finished a 17-week tour of Hamlet with The Lord Chamberlain’s Men. The company also played in Austria, Germany, and the home of Hamlet itself—Elsinore, Denmark. Brennan-Healy is thrilled to be making his US theater debut in King Lear.

Doug Colling’s credits at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art include The Tempest, Journey’s End, Assassins, Broadway Bound, and Love & Information. His theater credits include Dear Evan Hansen (Noel Coward). Credits in film and television include This England, All Is True, and Kiwi Flyer.

Saffron Coomber trained at RADA. Her work for theater includes The Corn Is Green for the National Theatre, Old Bridge for Papatango/Bush Theatre, Leopards for Francesca Moody/Rose Theatre, Dance for Original, Emilia in the West End, A New and Better You at the Yard, and Rise and Ages for Old Vic New Voices. TV includes Die Zweiflers, Three Little Birds, Small Axe, The Deceived, Strike: Lethal White, Flack, Cuffs, Holby City, Eastenders, Youngers, Tracy Beaker Returns, Runaway, Doctors, and The Bill. Film includes Electricity. Short film includes Reasons, Viral, The Everlasting Club, The Strange, Taglioni, and Mingmong. Radio includes Cobalt, Talking About a Revolution, Faith Hope and Glory, New Frequencies, Writ in Water, Delete, The Archers, Cane, Bird in the Hand, and the BBC Radio Drama Company. Coomber was a winner of the Carleton Hobbs Bursary award 2018, nominated for Best West End Debut at the Stage Debut Awards 2019, and winner of Best Actress at the Never More Film Festival and Hellifax Horror Festival 2022.

Dylan Corbett-Bader’s credits at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art include King Lear, The Seagull, Consent, and Spring Awakening. Film and television includes The Tattooist of Auschwitz, We Were The Lucky Ones, and A Haunting in Venice.

Eleanor de Rohan’s credits at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art include Macbeth, Strange Orchestra, Vinegar Tom, and A Little Night Music. Theater credits include Hamlet (KBTC/RADA), The Winter’s Tale (Helicon Theatre Company), Sonder (Mimi Monteith Productions), and Much Ado About Nothing (Half Cut Theatre). Credits in film and television include Anatomy of a Scandal, Death on the Nile, All Is True, and Artemis Fowl.

Chloe Fenwick-Brown’s credits at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art include The Winter’s Tale, Red Velvet, and As You Like It.

Joseph Kloska’s film and television credits include Treason, The Crown, Peterloo, Kaleidoscope, Happy-Go-Lucky, Cinderella, Blooded, The Riot Club, Made in Dagenham, Jane Eyre, Foyle’s War, Legrand, Pete Versus Life, Tom and Jenny, and The Bill. Theater includes King Lear, Richard III, The Winter’s Tale, Imperium, Written on the Heart, For Services Rendered, The Christmas Truce, Three Sisters, Fast Labour, The Vertical Hour, Moby Dick, The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, Measure for Measure, Comedy of Errors, The School for Scandal, Boeing Boeing, and It Just Stopped. Radio credits include The Mirror and the Light, A Woman’s Battles and Transformations, The Adversary, Arcadia, Cymbeline, King Lear, Belgrano, Mr Norris Changes Trains, The Brothers Karamazov, Tomorrow Today!, Not With The Eyes, Doctor Who, I, Claudius, Pilgrim, and The First Domino. Kloska is the winner of a BBC Audio Drama Carleton Hobbs Award (2006).

Caleb Obediah’s credits at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art include Macbeth, Mysterious Bruises, and Tales from Vienna Woods. His theater credits include The Living Newspaper (Royal Court). Credits in film and television include Bridgerton.

Hughie O’Donnell’s credits at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art include The Tempest, When the Rain Stops Falling, and Sweeney Todd. Theater credits include Into The Woods (Cockpit Theatre). Credits in film and television include Fight or Flight.

Jessica Revell’s credits at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art include Twelfth Night, Gaslight, Company, and Wild Cherries. Film and television credits include Tracy Beaker Returns, The Dumping Ground, Casualty, and Doctors.

Ayla Wheatley (Understudy) trained at RADA and made her Shakespeare’s Globe debut in Richard III. Theater credits include King Lear (Wyndham), Vincent in Brixton, The Wolves, Time and the Conways, and Julius Caesar (RADA). Film credits include Proust, Mirror Mirror, and The Bicycle by Beru Tessema (RADA). Radio credits include Mahabharata Now and The Odd Women (RADA).

Creative Team

Rob Ashford is a Tony Award, Olivier Award, Emmy Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award–winning director and choreographer. Broadway theater credits include Frozen on Broadway, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Evita (Tony nom.), How To Succeed (Tony noms. for Direction and Choreography), Promises, Promises (Tony nom.), Thoroughly Modern Millie (Tony Award for Best Choreography), Shrek, John Waters’s Cry Baby (Tony nom., Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Fred Astaire Awards), Curtains (Tony nom.), and Wedding Singer (Tony nom.).

Other credits include The Entertainer (Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company), Romeo and Juliet (Kenneth Branagh), The Winter’s Tale (Kenneth Branagh; Olivier nom. for Best Direction), Harlequinade (Kenneth Branagh), Macbeth (Park Avenue Armory, New York / Manchester International Festival), and the Olivier Award–winning productions of Anna Christie, A Streetcar Named Desire (Olivier nom. for Best Revival), and Parade (all Donmar Warehouse, Olivier Noms. Direction & Choreography). Ashford also directed The Barber of Seville for Chicago Lyric Opera and LA Opera, Carmen for Chicago Lyric and Houston Grand Opera, Carousel for Chicago Lyric and Houston Grand Opera, and choreographed Candide at Théatre du Châtelet, Paris; La Scala, Milan; and ENO, London.

He choreographed and staged the 2015 Academy Awards with Neil Patrick Harris, the 2014 Academy Awards with Ellen DeGeneres, and the 2013 Academy Awards with Seth MacFarlane. Ashford won the Emmy for Best Choreography for his work on Baz Luhrmann’s 2009 Academy Awards production number featuring Hugh Jackman and Beyoncé. Ashford has also choreographed the opening number for the Tony Awards for nine years, which includes hosts Neil Patrick Harris (4), Sean Hayes, Kevin Spacey, Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles, and James Corden (2). He has staged tributes at the Kennedy Center Honors for Barbra Streisand, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jerry Herman, Barbara Cook, Tom Hanks, Shirley MacLaine, and Meryl Streep.

Films include choreography for Death on the Nile, Disney’s Cinderella, Ted 2, A Million Ways To Die in the West, Beyond The Sea, and The Deb. He was Kenneth Branagh’s associate for Murder on the Orient Express.

Originally trained as a musician at Oxford University and Royal Academy of Music, Jon Bausor retrained on the Motley Theatre Design Course graduating as a Linbury Prize finalist in 2000. Since then he has designed extensively in dance, opera, and theater for companies worldwide.

He designed the opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, the flame lighting ceremony for the 2014 Winter Paralympics, and has recently been nominated for an Emmy Award for his production design for the Red Bull parkour film Human Pinball featuring the world’s largest pinball machine.

Theater credits include Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods (Theatre Royal, Bath); Bat Out of Hell (London/Germany/Toronto/New York/Las Vegas); WICKED (Stage Entertainment, Hamburg); Bugsy Malone (Lyric Hammersmith); True West (West End); Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (Toho, Japan); Oedipus (Tokyo); Tree (Young Vic/ Manchester International Festival); The Band, the Take That musical (West End/UK tour); The Grinning Man (Bristol Old Vic/West End, Best Design UK Theatre Award); Force Majeure (Donmar); What’s New Pussycat (Birmingham Rep); The James Plays (National Theatre/National Theatre Scotland/world tour) and James IV (Scottish tour); Ghost Stories (West End/Toronto/Moscow/Melbourne); Lord of the Flies (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); MAMETZ (National Theatre of Wales, winner Best Design UK Theatre Awards and Wales Theatre Awards); and You For Me For You (Royal Court, Best Design, Evening Standard Awards).

As an associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company he has designed numerous productions including Hamlet, King Lear, The Winter’s Tale, and the entire 2012 Shipwrecked season.

Dance credits include The Nutcracker (Norwegian National Ballet), several designs for Ballet Rambert, the Royal Opera House, and Netherlands Dans Theater, and works by Liam Scarlett for the Royal Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, and English National Ballet.

Opera credits include Ainadamar (Scottish Opera, Detroit Opera); Serse, Golden Dragon, Rigoletto, Viktoria & Her Husar, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Halles Opera); Cendrillon (Glyndebourne); Die Walküre (Bordeaux National Opera); The Knot Garden (Theatre an der Wien); The Lighthouse (Montepulciano); and Agrippina (Grange Park Opera).

Other work includes the new Arcola Theatre in London and the World Health Organization’s pavilion for COP27 co-designed with Invisible Flock.

Kenneth Branagh’s theater credits as director include John Sessions’s The Life of Napoleon, Twelfth Night, The Play What I Wrote, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, and Hamlet. Film credits as director include Henry V, Dead Again, Much Ado About Nothing, Swan Song, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Hamlet, Thor, Cinderella, Murder on the Orient Express, All Is True, Death on the Nile, Belfast, and A Haunting in Venice.

Aletta Collins is a director and choreographer working internationally in theater, opera, and ballet. As a choreographer, credits include West Side Story for the Royal Exchange Manchester, the first professional UK staging to feature new choreography; The Boy in the Dress (RSC); A Very Expensive Poison (Old Vic); The Twilight Zone (Almeida/West End); The Hairy Ape (The Old Vic/Park Avenue Armory); The Effect and His Dark Materials (National Theatre); and Anna Nicole (ROH/BAM). As a director: It’s a Wonderful Life (ENO); Hippolyte et Aricie (Berlin Staatsoper); Coraline (ROH); If You Kiss Me, Kiss Me (Young Vic); La Cenerentola and La Fanciulla del West (Opera North); and Carmen (Salzburg Festival). Collins studied at the London Contemporary Dance School and is a former associate artist at the Royal Opera House where her work included choreographing and directing Blue Moon, The Red Balloon, Cocteau Voices, and Magical Night in the Linbury Theatre. Other recent dance commissions include The days run away like wild horses and Awakenings (Rambert), and Maybe Yes Maybe, Maybe No Maybe (Phoenix Dance Company). Her short film, The Girl in the Red Dress, starring Shirley Henderson, was selected for the Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight and many festivals including Edinburgh and London. She also choreographed Belfast, written and directed by Kenneth Branagh.

Nina Dunn is an award-winning video and projection designer who has created work for a wide range of shows internationally. She is the creative director at PixelLux and an educator within the industry.

Theater credits include The Shark is Broken (West End and Broadway); Orfeo-Dido (Grange Festival Opera); Le Fantôme de l’Opéra (Shanghai Ballet); Spitting Image Live, Bonnie & Clyde, City of Angels, No Man’s Land, and Cookies (West End); 9 to 5 The Musical (West End, UK and Australian tour, Daegu International Festival, Korea); Othello, Manor, and Emperor & Galilean (Royal National Theatre); L’Orfeo, Der Freischütz, and Macbeth (Wiener Staatsoper); Don Quixote and Lazuli Sky (Birmingham Royal Ballet); Seven Deadly Sins and Bluebeard’s Castle (Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires); A Museum in Baghdad, Venice Preserved, Miss Littlewood, The Seven Acts of Mercy, and Volpone (Royal Shakespeare Company); Hamlet and The Mountaintop (Young Vic); The Trials (Donmar Warehouse); Extinct (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Shedding a Skin (Soho Theatre); Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella (Imagine Theatre); Plenty, Copenhagen, Fiddler on the Roof, and Forty Years On (Chichester Festival Theatre); Spring Gala and Christmas at ROH (Royal Opera House); Phantom of the Opera (UK, US, and Australian tour); and The Rocky Horror Show (European tour).

Awards include Best Video Design for Bonnie & Clyde (Broadway World UK), Best Video and Electronic Content for Alice’s Adventures Underground (Knight of Illumination), Best Design for Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast (UK Pantomime Association Awards), and a nomination for Best Video Design for The Shark Is Broken (WhatsOnStage).

Paul Keogan’s recent lighting designs include Ainadamar and Gondoliers/Utopia Ltd (Scottish Opera); The Steward of Christendom, Constellations, The Visiting Hour, Hamlet, and The Snapper (Gate Theatre, Dublin); Translations (Abbey Theatre, Dublin and Lyric Theatre, Belfast); Tales from the Holywell, Portia Coughlan, and On Raftery’s Hill (Abbey Theatre, Dublin); Elektra (also set design, Irish National Opera); Scandaltown, Love Love Love Love, and The Plough and the Stars (Lyric Hammersmith); Doubt (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Naked Hand, Shirley Valentine, Double Cross, and Here Comes the Night (Lyric Theatre, Belfast); Happy Days, Blood in the Dirt, and Postcards from the Ledge (Landmark Theatre Productions, Ireland); and Cyprus Avenue (Abbey Theatre, MAC Belfast, Public Theatre NYC, Royal Court).

Ben and Max Ringham’s composition and sound design credits in theater include Prima Facie (Broadway, Nominated for Best Sound Design at the Tony Awards 2023), A Doll’s House (Broadway, Nominated for Best Sound Design at the Tony Awards 2023), Cyrano de Bergerac (West End, BAM NYC, Drama Desk Best Sound Design Winner), Betrayal (West End/Broadway), and Blindness (Donmar, Daryl Roth Theatre, Los Metros Award Winner, Mexico). As creators: Exemplar (Radio series written for BBC Radio 4), Reflections (2 Temple Place), ANNA (Created for National Theatre, Olivier Award Nomination, Best Sound Design), The Return (Directed for ETT), Curse Of The Crackles (Created for STH), and Looking For Nigel (BBC R and D).

Lucy Skilbeck is director of actor training at RADA. She moved to the UK from Australia in 1996 and has worked on the fringe, off-West End, West End, Broadway, and the National Theatre. She founded Blue Tongue Theatre, producing and directing contemporary Australian plays. She directed her first RADA production in 2007 and took up her current position as director of actor training in 2014.

At RADA Skilbeck has directed Gabriel (Moira Buffini), A Conversation (David Williamson), In Flame (Charlotte Jones), Unprotected (Wilson, John, Fay, and Nunnery), Speaking in Tongues (Andrew Bovell), Girls and Dolls (Lisa McGee), Mrs. Klein (Nicholas Wright), Chicken Shop (Anna Yen), Frozen (Bryony Lavery), and When the Rain Stops Falling (Andrew Bovell).

Bret Yount’s recent theater credits include Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Crucible (Gielgud); Hope Has a Happy Meal (Royal Court Upstairs); A Little Life (Harold Pinter/Savoy); Village Idiots (Nottingham Playhouse/Stratford East); Akebah (Hampstead Theatre); Dirty Dancing (Dominion Theatre/National Tour); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Theatre Royal, Bath); Hamlet (Bristol Old Vic); Bad Jews (Arts Theatre); two Palestinians go dogging and The Glow (Royal Court); Force Majeure, Teenage Dick, Appropriate, and Europe (Donmar Warehouse); Spring Awakening, The Hunt, and Dance Nation (Almeida); Much Ado About Nothing and The Magician’s Elephant (RSC); The Crucible, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Jack Absolute, and The Normal Heart (Olivier Award; National Theatre); The Cherry Orchard and Hamlet (Theatre Royal Windsor); Girl from the North Country (Old Vic/West End/National Tour); and After the End (Theatre Royal, Stratford East).

Learn more about this production

4 months ago

In Conversation with Kenneth Branagh and Lear’s Daughters

Details

Running time: Approximately two hours, no intermission
Late seating is limited and latecomers may not be admitted until a suitable break in the performance.
King Lear contains scenes of violence and torture. Not recommended for those under the age of 13.
There are haze effects, strobe/flashing lights, and moments of nearly total darkness.

Location and dates

This event takes place in The Griffin Theater.

October 26 – December 15, 2024

Previews October 26 – November 13

The Shed’s Griffin Theater is located at 545 West 30th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues. View The Shed on a map.

For information about accessibility and arriving at The Shed, visit our Accessibility page.

Accessibility

Seating

The Shed’s Griffin Theater has accessible seating. Please contact us in advance to discuss your needs and available options by emailing accessibility@theshed.org or calling (646) 455-3494.

Assistive Listening

Visitors may check out assistive listening devices at the entrance to the theater. A driver’s license will be held to check out the device.

Purchasing Tickets

The Shed’s online ticketing system includes the option to submit accommodation requests beyond the access points detailed here.

Contact Us

For questions or other requests, visit the Accessibility page, email accessibility@theshed.org, or call (646) 455-3494.

Seat Map

Thank you to our partners

Major support for King Lear is provided by

The creation of new work at The Shed is generously supported by the Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Commissioning Fund and the Shed Commissioners.

Major support for live productions at The Shed is provided by the Charina Endowment Fund, with additional support from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

The Shed is connected by