After an eight year hiatus, Sir Kenneth Branagh returned to the West End boards last autumn with his reduced (two hours with no interval), radically youthful KING LEAR, set in a harsh, neolithic Britain at Wyndham’s Theatre for a limited run of 50 performances. It will transfer later this year to The Shed off-Broadway.

Regarded as ‘the actor’s Everest’, Ken both directed and starred in the titular role amongst a cast of mostly recent Royal Academy of Dramatic Art graduates – his own alma mater. Until last month he was also RADA’s president after succeeding the late Richard, Lord Attenborough in 2015. His appearance was described by one Guardian critic as having a “luxuriant bouffant and possibly the most follicularly blessed Lear since Laurence Olivier”, who first played the mythological monarch at the age of 39.

Ken actually portrayed his idol and fellow theatrical knight, Sir Larry in the 2011 film MY WEEK WITH MARILYN, for which he received one of his eight Oscar nominations. He was the first individual to be nominated in seven different categories, winning in 2022 for his original screenplay and ‘most personal project’ BELFAST, the coming-of-age feature film, based on his formative years in the Northern Irish capital during the beginning of ‘the Troubles’ in 1969. He was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Director. Ken has won five BAFTA Awards from 13 nominations, two Emmys and a Golden Globe. At the recent Screen Actors Guild Awards, he accepted the SAG statue on behalf of the acting ensemble of Christopher Nolan’s OPPENHEIMER for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. His role is the Nobel-winning Danish physicist and J. Robert Oppenheimer’s idol, Niels Bohr.

After missing him at the Wyndham’s stage door, I dropped my LEAR sketch into Ken’s London office late last year, which he kindly returned, signed along with a dedicated copy of the BELFAST poster.