Take Five! Spend Your Tea Break with Derek Jacobi

The Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company's ROMEO AND JULIET is now playing at the Garrick Theatre, with press night on May 25 and a cinema broadcast on July 7. Joining Richard Madden and Lily James as the titular lovers is revered actor Derek Jacobi as Mercutio. The production is co-directed by Branagh and Rob Ashford, with the broadcast directed by Benjamin Caron.

It's the second Shakespeare production in Branagh's Garrick residency, following The Winter's Tale, for which Dame Judi Dench won an Olivier Award. The season has also included Terence Rattigan's All On Her Own, Francis Veber's The Painkiller and Lolita Chakrabarti's Red Velvet. Coming up is John Osbourne's The Entertainer, with Branagh following in the footsteps of Laurence Olivier by taking on the lead.

It's the latest in a long line of classical roles inhabited by the great Derek Jacobi, who has won two Olivier Awards - for the eponymous hero in Cyrano de Bergerac and Malvolio in Twelfth Night - and a Tony Award for Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing. He's played numerous kings, including Edward II, Richard III and Lear, Alan Turing in Breaking the Code, and the title role in John Mortimer's A Voyage Round My Father. On screen, Jacobi's appeared in everything from Gosford Park, Gladiator and Cadfael to Cinderella, Frasier and Last Tango in Halifax, as well as the BBC's landmark drama I, Claudius.

In honour of Romeo and Juliet's opening, BroadwayWorld invites you to relive some of Derek Jacobi's great performances. Take five below!

I, Claudius

Breaking the Code

Richard II

Frasier

Henry V

Photo credit: Johan Persson

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