Movies by Declan Donnellan
Cheek by Jowl: The Winter's Tale
One of Shakespeare's greatest plays, The Winter's Tale, though written at the same period as The Tempest, smashes all the rules that The Tempest follows. Unity of time, place and action are hurled aside as we range across Europe, from court to country, from high tragedy to low comedy, across a time span of sixteen years. The Winter's Tale tells of a delusional and paranoid king who tears his family apart. But this is the new Shakespeare, after he completed his great tragedies, and the tough struggle for redemption yields flickers of hope. I...
Cheek by Jowl: Measure for Measure
Satirical, shocking and radically stripped back, Measure for Measure from Britain’s Cheek by Jowl and Moscow’s Pushkin Theatre is a gripping, compelling production of one of Shakespeare’s most controversial plays. Indulgent Duke Vincentio leaves Vienna in the hands of his puritanical deputy Angelo, to secretly observe the virtues and vices of his unruly state. When the saintly Isabella pleads with Angelo to release her brother Claudio, sentenced to death for fornication, he agrees on one condition: that Isabella sacrifice her virginity to him.