Project Detail

Acting

Name: Acting
Director: Sophie Fiennes
Genre: Experimental, Drama
Released: 2024
Duration: 145 min

Grace Andrews & Ekow Quartey in ACTING, © Lone Star, Cheek By Jowl, Amoeba Film

ACTING © Lone Star, Cheek By Jowl, Amoeba Film

Synopsis

In a derelict mansion on the outskirts of London, we witness eight actors - four Macbeths and four Lady Macbeths - work in pairs to investigate Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy.
Sophie Fiennes' richly detailed and immersive film offers privileged access to the vital experience of making theatre with pioneering practitioners Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod of the ground breaking international theatre company Cheek By Jowl.
Cheek by Jowl is the international theatre company of Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod. Its landmark productions, performed in more than 50 countries in the 44 years since the company was founded, have influenced the creation of theatre and the experience of audiences the world over. Actors including Adrian Lester, Tom Hiddleston, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Hollander, Olivia Williams, David Morrissey, Gwendoline Christie and Matthew MacFadyen all developed their talent working with Cheek by Jowl in their early careers.
"The setting of Twyford Abbey is dramatic, but Shakespeare’s text is also haunted by the ghosts of actors and audiences who have passed through it, and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future." Sophie Fiennes
Official Selection Edinburgh International Film Festival 2024 - World premiere
Official Selection International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2024 - International premiere

Details

Year: 2024
Type of project: Features
Running time: 145 min
Format: Digital
Director: Sophie Fiennes
Producer: Martin Rosenbaum, Sophie Fiennes
Executive Producer: Martin Rosenbaum, Sophie Fiennes, Shani Hinton, Niamh O’Flaherty, Harrison Collett
Editor: Sophie Fiennes
Director of Photography: Sophie Fiennes
Sound: Philippe Chompi, Perspective Films
Composer: Shostakovich, Symphony No.13
Principal cast: Declan Donnellan, Nick Ormerod, Grace Andrews, David Burnett, Amber James, Orlando James, Sophie Khan Levy, Jonathan Livingstone, Ekow Quartey, Hannah Young

Genre

Experimental Drama

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

A Cheek by Jowl, Lone Star, Amoeba Film production

Lone Star Productions

Martin Rosenbaum

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Sales Company

Love For Sale Film

Shani Hinton

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History

Four Quartets, (T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets)

Director: Sophie Fiennes

Year: 2022

'Four Quartets' names four landscapes that serve as the basis for four interwoven meditations on the nature of time, faith and the quest for spiritual enlightenment. It is one T.S.Eliots's final great poetic works and its questions, imagery and reflections retain their power and resonance today. Early in the Covid pandemic Ralph Fiennes set himself the challenge of committing 'Four Quartets' to memory. This cinematic adaptation, filmed shortly after the conclusion of Fiennes original stage production, is an exquisite rendering of Fiennes' tour de force performance, seamlessly transposed from stage to screen, featuring the landscapes in the poem.

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