Rupert Goold's RICHARD III, Starring Ralph Fiennes and Vanessa Redgrave, Broadcasts Live Today

The Almeida will broadcast Artistic Director Rupert Goold's production of RICHARD III, with Ralph Fiennes as Shakespeare's most notorious villain and Vanessa Redgrave as Queen Margaret, live to cinemas in the UK and around the world today 21 July.

Almeida Theatre Live will give worldwide audiences the opportunity to see plays from the stage at the Almeida's London home for the first time. The Almeida Theatre and distributor Picturehouse Entertainment are partnering to broadcast RICHARD III, produced by Illuminations.

The production will be filmed using multiple cameras around the stage and auditorium, with John Wyver as producer. Wyver currently produces the RSC Live from Stratford-Upon-Avon international broadcasts, and with Illuminations he previously worked on filmed versions for the BBC of Hamlet with David Tennant and Macbeth with Patrick Stewart, which was directed by Rupert Goold. For the screen, Rupert also directed Richard II for the BBC's The Hollow Crown series.

Rupert Goold said: "The chance to take the work of the Almeida to international audiences via live cinema screening is a new and timely venture for us that I'm extremely excited about. Working with Picturehouse Entertainment and Illuminations on this broadcast I'm really looking forward to seeing how audiences around the world react to our Richard III on the big screen."

Alice Frain, Head of Business Affairs at Picturehouse Entertainment said: "We are thrilled to be giving audiences around the world their first opportunity to see the extraordinary work of The Almeida Theatre. Richard III is the perfect start for the Almeida Live broadcasts, bringing one of Shakespeare's best known characters, in the 400th anniversary year of the Bard's death, to the big screen, another superb addition to Live Theatre content in cinemas."

For details of screenings and booking information for The Almeida Theatre Live broadcast of RICHARD III, check local cinema listings or visit www.live.almeida.co.uk.

The full cast of RICHARD III is: David Annen, Joseph Arkley, Osman Baig, Benedict Barker, Tom Canton, Daniel Cerqueira, Simon Coates, Josh Collins, Susan Engel, Ralph Fiennes (Richard III), James Garnon, Mark Hadfield, Scott Handy, Lev Levermore, Finbar Lynch, Aisl?n McGuckin, Joseph Mydell, Lukas Parish, Vanessa Redgrave (Queen Margaret), Joshua Riley, Lukas Rolfe , Joanna Vanderham, Baxter Westby and Oliver Whitehouse.

RICHARD III is designed by Hildegard Bechtler, with costume by Jon Morrell, sound and composition by Adam Cork, lighting by Jon Clark and fight direction by Terry King. Casting is by Joyce Nettles.

Ralph Fiennes returns to the Almeida for the first time in 16 years, having previously played the title roles in Ivanov, Hamlet (Hackney Empire), Richard II and Coriolanus (Gainsborough Studios). Other theatre work includes The Master Builder for The Old Vic; Man and Superman, Oedipus, The Talking Cure, Six Characters in Search of an Author for the National Theatre; Brand, The Plantaganets, Love's Labour's Lost, Troilus and Cressida for the RSC; The Tempest, God of Carnage in the West End; First Love at Lincoln Centre Festival and Sydney Festival; The Faith Healer at the Gate Theatre Dublin and on Broadway; Julius Caesar at the Barbican. His films include A Bigger Splash, Hail Caesar! Spectre, Two Women, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Invisible Woman, Skyfall, Great Expectations, Coriolanus, Harry Potter, The Constant Gardener, The Reader, Hurt Locker, In Bruges, Schindler's List and The English Patient. His television credits include Page Eight, Turks & Caicos and A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia.

This is Vanessa Redgrave's Almeida debut. Her many stage credits include The Aspern Papers (Olivier Award for Best Actress), Lady Windermere's Fan, Daniel Deronda, The Threepenny Opera, Design for Living and The Lady from the Sea in the West End; The Year of Magical Thinking (also on Broadway), The Cherry Orchard and Not About Nightingales at The National Theatre; Driving Miss Daisy, Long Day's Journey into Night (Tony Award for Best Actress) and Vita and Virginia on Broadway; The Tempest, As You Like It and A Midsummer Night's Dream for the RSC; and Much Ado About Nothing at the Old Vic. Notable film appearances include Coriolanus opposite Ralph Fiennes, Evening, Venus, Howard's End, Mrs Dalloway, Atonement, The Whistleblower, A Man for All Seasons and Camelot. Her television appearances include Nip/Tuck, The Day of the Tiffid and Call the Midwife. She is a six-time Oscar nominee and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Julia. During her career Vanessa has also won the Emmy, BAFTA, Cannes, Golden Globe, and the Screen Actors Guild awards. She received the 2010 BAFTA Fellowship, is a 2003 American Theatre Hall of Fame inductee and was made CBE in 1967.

Rupert Goold is the Almeida's Artistic Director where he has previously directed Medea, The Merchant of Venice, King Charles III and American Psycho, which opened on Broadway in April 2016. He was Artistic Director of Headlong from 2005 until 2013 where his work included The Effect, ENRON, Earthquakes in London and Decade. Other theatre credits include Made in Dagenham in the West End; The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at the Almeida; Macbeth at Chichester Festival Theatre, in the West End and on Broadway; and No Man's Land at The Gate, Dublin and in the West End. He has twice been the recipient of the Laurence Olivier, Critics' Circle and Evening Standard Awards for Best Director. He was Associate Director at the Royal Shakespeare Company from 2009 to 2012 and was Artistic Director of Northampton Theatres from 2002 to 2005. On film he directed the BAFTA nominated Richard II, part of The Hollow Crown, and Macbeth for the BBC and the feature, True Story, starring James Franco and Jonah Hill. He will direct an adaptation of his production of Mike Bartlett's King Charles III for BBC Two later this year.

RICHARD III will visit the renowned Kazalište Ulysses (Ulysses Theatre) Festival in Croatia from the 11 - 13 August. Taking place in a fortress on the island of Veliki Brijuni, Ulysses Theatre was established in 2001 by actor and director, Rade Šerbedžija and playwright Boris Vuj?i?. Lenka Udovi?ki has been Artistic Director since 2012.

Vanessa Redgrave has a long-running relationship with Ulysses Theatre, inaugurating the first season with her concert, A Song For Love, accompanied by the Mostar Sinfonietta. She returned in 2004 with Lynn Redgrave, Caroline Jones and Amanda Plummer for Core Sample: Bare Island, connecting Waiting for Godot with testimonies from women survivors of a labour camp from 1948 - 1954, and later performed with Franco Nero at the festival's 10th anniversary.

Ulysses Theatre, which can only be reached by boat from the mainland, offers a repertoire of topical and provocative theatre presented by Ulysses and visiting companies from Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Croatia in July and August each year. Past performers also include Annette Benning, Angelina Jolie and Lynn Redgrave.

The Almeida Theatre exists to launch the next generation of British artists onto the world stage. A small room with an international reputation, the Almeida began life as a literary and scientific society - complete with library, lecture theatre and laboratory. From the beginning, the building existed to investigate the world. Today, the Almeida makes brave new work that asks big questions: of plays, of theatre and of the world around us.

The Almeida brings together the most exciting artists to take risks; to provoke, inspire and surprise audiences; to interrogate the present, dig up the past and imagine the future. Whether new work or reinvigorated classic, whether in the theatre, on the road or online, the Almeida makes live art to excite, enliven and entertain. The Almeida makes argument for theatre as an essential force in an increasingly fragmented society.

Founded by Pierre Audi in 1980, his successors were Jonathan Kent and Ian McDiarmid in 1990, and Michael Attenborough in 2002. Productions including Hamlet with Ralph Fiennes in 2005, Rufus Norris' Festen, Ruined by Lynn Nottage and most recently Chimerica, Ghosts and King Charles III have given the theatre international renown.

In Summer 2013, Rupert Goold joined the Almeida as Artistic Director. His first production was American Psycho: a new musical thriller, which then opened on Broadway in 2016. In 2014 the Almeida productions of Ghosts and Chimerica won eight Olivier Awards including Best Actress, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best New Play, Best Director and Best Revival and enjoyed transfers to the West End and Broadway respectively. This was followed by King Charles III, which transferred to the West End at the Wyndham's Theatre and won the Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2015, transferred to Broadway, and toured the UK and Sydney. Other notable productions as Artistic Director include The Merchant of Venice and Medea.

In Summer 2015, the Almeida presented Almeida Greeks, which included three major new productions of Oresteia, Bakkhai and Medea, the latter of which was directed by Goold, with a festival of events, performances, talks and readings running alongside.

He co-directed The Iliad and The Odyssey with Almeida Associate Director Robert Icke. Involving more than 60 readers, The Iliad reached an audience of over 50,000 people across the world, watching online, or in person at the British Museum and The Almeida Theatre. The Odyssey followed the huge success of The Iliad, and involved an army of artists in various locations around London. As with The lliad, both theatrical events were live streamed throughout and achieved ground-breaking levels of online engagement.

The Almeida is grateful to its Principal Partner Aspen, in its second term as the Almeida's most significant corporate supporter. Aspen was established in 2002 and is a leading global insurance and reinsurance company.

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