Rafe Spall, The Osbournes and Henry V

The Independent’s entertainment newsletter [View in browser]( [The Independent]( March 05, 2022 [The Independent]( Written by Alexandra Pollard The IndyArts Newsletter Hello and welcome to another edition of the Indy Arts Newsletter. I thoroughly enjoyed[Henry V at the Donmar Warehouse this week.]( "Kit Harington as Henry is very fine indeed," wrote our theatre critic Paul Taylor. "His performance pinpoints how the king compensates for his troubled conscience by borderline-deranged flurries of 'we happy few' patriotic pep talk. He is often close to banked-down hysteria. His wooing of Kate is as bluff and intimidating, in its maladroit courtly male-order manner, as the moment when the back wall parts in a cross shape, and the monarch looms forward on a gantry to harangue the citzens of Harfleur about the rape and pillage they can expect if they resist his will." Game of throne: Kit Harington in the hysteria-tinged new production of 'Henry V' (Helen Murray) Meanwhile, as The Osbournes turns 20, [Kevin EG Perry looked back on the rowdy reality series changed TV forever, from dog poo drama to family feuds.]( I also enjoyed Adam White's excellent interview with Alana Haim. "All the big loves of my life have been a f***ing rollercoaster," she told him. "I’d love one that isn’t." [The Saturday Interview – Rafe Spall]( [Oscars image]( Rafe Spall: ‘I’ve still got the same heart. The same soul. The same views. Regardless of what my f***ing waist size is’ (The Other Richard) This week’s [Saturday Interview]( is my at times emotional encounter with Rafe Spall. The actor is about to star as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. He talked to me about the play’s social relevance, his allergy to earnestness and why the narrative around his weight loss has so deeply hurt him. [Oscars image]( Pamela Nomvete and Rafe Spall in rehearsals for ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ (The Other Richard) Read an extract from our Saturday Interview below… As one publication put it, he went from being “the go-to man for feckless losers” to “a lean, mean, six-packed machine”. Other interviews tell the same story. His weight “ballooned” before his “reinvention as a romantic lead”. He was “more character actor than romantic lead material – make that fat character actor” until he lost the weight. Now he’s “less fat boy more dashing leading man”. But doesn’t it play havoc with his self esteem, having his past self so frequently fat-shamed in the press – even if it did happen when he was no longer big? “It’s all wrong,” he says quietly. “It’s terrible.” The air in the room has shifted. That cheeky, cynical Spall has gone. “I feel bad every time I’ve ever contributed to that narrative by talking about my weight loss as being extremely positive. It’s a harmful narrative. It’s hurt me. And it hurts others. Anyone reading that with any perceived weight issue, it’s gonna make them feel crap. We shouldn’t celebrate it. Because it’s harmful.” Several seconds pass between each sentence. “I understand why people ask me about it, because it’s fascinating, but I can tell you, it’s meaningless.” His voice is still deathly hushed, his eyes fixed on mine. “The shape of your body is meaningless. It doesn’t mean anything. It hasn’t made me any happier, or any more unhappy. I’m still the same person. I’ve still got the same heart. The same soul. The same views. Regardless of what my f***ing waist size is.” If Spall played into the narrative early on, he regrets it now. He looks back at the things he said – specifying exactly how much he weighed before and after he dieted, and saying that it “took a lot of hard work but I did it and I’m proud I did it” – and wishes he hadn’t. “So much of my identity, privately and publicly, has been bound up in this weight-loss story,” he says. “And I contributed to that early on because I thought it would please people, and because I thought, ‘Oh yeah, I did that. And good on me.’ But I don’t want people to read it, men and women, and feel s***.” [Read the full interview here]( What to binge this week [Oscars image]( Elisa del Genio and Ludovica Nasti in the first season of 'My Brilliant Friend' (Sky/HBO) My Brilliant Friend The writing of Italian novelist Elena Ferrante seems to lend itself well to adaptation; anyone who's watched the recent Oscar-nominated drama The Lost Daughter on Netflix could tell you that. But My Brilliant Friend, the Italian-language drama produced for HBO, may be an even more accomplished piece of work. With gorgeous cinematography, stellar performances and a compelling storyline, this coming-of-age period drama is just a lush production all around. Season three is arriving on Sky and NOW on 10 March, giving anyone who hasn't so far acquainted themselves with its charms the perfect excuse to go back and do so. My Brilliant Friend is streaming on Sky Go and NOW Out and about Henry V – Donmar Warehouse Game of Thrones star Kit Harington delivers a performance of real fervid intensity in this new production of Shakespeare's classic History. In his four-star review for The Independent, Paul Taylor describes the production as "excellently controversial", observing that it "pullulates with fresh, thought-provoking decisions". [Buy tickets here]( Our Generation – Dorfman Theatre Billed as an "epic coming-of-age drama", Alecky Blythe's ambitious play is assembled from over 600 hours of interviews with 12 adolescents, conducted over the last five years. With stories ranging across the UK from London to Birmingham to Glasgow, the play is, per Ava Wong Davies' review in The Independent, an "ambitious attempt to capture some ineffable sense of what it means to be young in Britain". [Buy tickets here]( work.txt – Soho Theatre How do you make a play without any actors? Nathan Ellis provides a possible answer to this question with work.txt, an experimental piece in which dialogue is read out by members of the audience, from scripts churned out with a WiFi-enabled printer on stage. It's a punchy production, taking on themes like the gig economy, financial instability and the nature of work itself. [Buy tickets here]( [Subscription offer]( Essential reading [Guillermo del Toro criticises the Oscars for changes to live show]( [Guillermo del Toro criticises the Oscars for changes to live show]( [Set builder jailed for fraudulent claims from TV and film studio]( [Set builder jailed for fraudulent claims from TV and film studio]( [Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino recreate look from Romy and Michelle at SAG Awards]( [Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino recreate look from Romy and Michelle at SAG Awards]( If you can spare a minute we’d love your [feedback]( on our newsletters. [The Independent]( Join the conversation or follow us [Facebook]( [Twitter]( Please do not reply directly to this email You are currently registered to receive The Independent's entertainment newsletter. Add us to your safe list of senders. If you do not want to receive The Independent's entertainment newsletter, please [unsubscribe](list_name=IND_Culture_Newsletter_CDP). 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