Kathryn Hunter

Early life and education

Hunter was born in New York to Greek parents, and was raised in England. She has a twin sister and two brothers. Hunter trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where she later became an associate and directed student productions; she also studied clowning with Philippe Gaulier at École Philippe Gaulier in France.

Hunter experienced depression in her early life. During her time at RADA, she was seriously and permanently injured in an incident referred to for most of her career as a "car accident", in which "she broke her back, pelvis and one arm, smashed an elbow, crushed a foot and collapsed a lung." She was told she would never walk again and was left with a crooked back, a bent elbow and a permanent limp. However as early as 2004, Hunter stated in an interview that she actually "threw herself from an upstairs window" in a suicide attempt.

Career

Stage work

In her stage work, Hunter is particularly associated with physical theatre, having been described as a "virtuoso physical performer."

She has worked with renowned companies in that field including Shared Experience and Complicité. She won an Olivier Award in 1991 for playing the millionairess in Friedrich Dürrenmatt's The Visit.

Critics have noted Hunter's unusual physical presence and her range. Charles Spencer of The Telegraph wrote, "diminutive in stature, and slightly lame, she has a deep, guttural voice, eyes like black olives and the most expressive of faces. Almost nothing seems beyond her range, from farcical clowning to deepest, darkest tragedy."

Hunter's "uncommon ability to shape-shift" has led her to play roles typically reserved for male actors. She was the first British woman to play King Lear professionally.

Hunter's portrayal of Lear conscientiously challenged the audience to separate character and performer: her voice and clothing read as male, but she physicalized lines such as "Down from the waist they are Centaurs/Though women all above" to remind the audience of the female body playing the part. Another male role she played was in The Bee, directed by Hideki Noda, which played at the Soho Theatre in June 2006 and 2012.

Hunter has also played animals and other creatures. In Kafka's Monkey, a solo piece based on Franz Kafka's "A Report to an Academy," she played a monkey delivering a speech to a scientific society about its transformation from a monkey to a man. The piece was a highly acclaimed sell-out success at the Young Vic in 2009, where it was reprised in May 2011. It toured to the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York in April 2013. According to Charles Isherwood of The New York Times, Hunter's performance had "wry wisdom, a touch of cheeky humor and, above all, a sense of dignity."

In November 2013, she co-starred as the fairy Puck in Julie Taymor's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the show that opened the Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn. Ben Brantley of The New York Times described Hunter's Puck as "genuinely original" and "part music-hall comedian, part fairground contortionist."

In 2008, Hunter co-starred in Fragments, a collection of short plays by Samuel Beckett that was directed by Peter Brook. Of the London run at the Young Vic, Andrew Dickson of The Guardian wrote, "the evening belongs to Kathryn Hunter, who crams into a few minutes of stage time more than most actors achieve in a career." The piece toured internationally, appearing in New York in 2011.

Hunter was made an Artistic Associate at the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in 2008.

From January to March 2009, she debuted as an RSC director with a production of Othello at the Warwick Arts Centre, Hackney Empire, Northern Stage, Oxford Playhouse and Liverpool Playhouse. Her husband, Marcello Magni, was movement director on the production and appeared in it as Roderigo. Other cast members included Michael Gould as Iago, Patrice Naiambana as Othello, and Natalia Tena as Desdemona.

In 2010, Hunter played Cleopatra in a production of Antony and Cleopatra and the Fool in a production of King Lear at the RSC's Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. The latter performance was described as "outstanding".

In January 2011, she withdrew from these roles shortly before the plays were due to be revived.

In February 2016, Hunter took the title role of Cyrano de Bergerac at the Southwark Playhouse, London. Guardian critic Michael Billington wrote, "Hunter is an astonishing shape-shifting performer who can play just about anything" but Telegraph critic Jane Schilling called Russell Bolam's production "an opportunity squandered." In 2017, she starred in the title role in The House of Bernarda Alba at the Royal Exchange in Manchester.

In 2018, Hunter returned to the RSC to play the title role in Timon of Athens, directed by Simon Godwin.

From December 2022 to June 2023, Hunter played the lead role of Janina Duszejko in a stage adaptation of the Polish mystery novel Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, adapted for the stage by Complicité.

TV and film

Hunter's screen work includes a supporting role in the TV series Rome as Cleopatra's companion, Charmian, and voicing Gorn in Tron: Uprising. In a 2001 Silent Witness story titled "Faith" (BBC), Hunter played the role of Sister Geraldine Catterson. In 2018, she starred in the BBC Two drama Black Earth Rising as Capi Petridis, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

Beginning in 2022, Hunter portrayed Eedy Karn in the television series Andor.

Notable film work includes Mike Leigh's All or Nothing (2002) and Harry Potter's neighbour, Arabella Figg, in the fifth film of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007). In 2021, she earned acclaim in her portrayal of the Three Witches in Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth; for her performance, she was awarded the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Personal life

Hunter married actor Marcello Magni, the co-founder of Complicité, in 2011. The couple remained married until Magni's death in 2022.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

References

1. Neill, Heather. (May 2004). "Kathryn Hunter: Gender bender".
2. (3 September 2011). "How We Met: Simon McBurney & Kathryn Hunter".
3. Lawson, Mark. (27 January 2009). "Mark Lawson talks to actor and director Kathryn Hunter about Othello, playing Lear and performing as an ape". The Guardian.
4. "Kathryn Hunter: Credits, Bio, News & More {{!}} Broadway World".
5. "Kathryn Hunter".
6. Kellaway, Kate. (12 December 2021). "Actor Kathryn Hunter: 'I gravitated towards male roles because men are given more interesting things to do'". The Guardian.
7. Barnett, Laura. (26 February 2013). "Kathryn Hunter, actor – portrait of the artist". The Guardian.
8. Paddock, Terri. (23 June 2003). "20 Questions With...Kathryn Hunter". [[Whatsonstage.com]].
9. Crompton, Sarah. (5 February 2022). "Kathryn Hunter: 'The car crash wasn't an accident – it was a suicide attempt'".
10. (January 18, 2022). "Philippe Gaulier on the Art of Clowning and Sacha Baron Cohen". New York Times.
11. Carter, Miranda. (11 May 1994). "The actress Kathryn Hunter is a master practitioner of the theatre of physical contortion, despite serious, permanent injury.".
12. Fisher, Mark. (15 August 2004). "Let's Get Physical". [[Scotland on Sunday]].
13. Purcell, Stephen. (2005). "A Shared Experience Shakespeare and popular theatre". Performance Research.
14. "Previous Winners: Olivier Winners 1991". The Society of London Theatre.
15. Spencer, Charles. (11 May 2010). "The RSC's Antony and Cleopatra in Stratford, review".
16. Klett, E.. (22 June 2009). "Cross-Gender Shakespeare and English National Identity: Wearing the Codpiece". Springer.
17. (22 April 2009). "Being Kafka's Monkey: Kathryn Hunter".
18. "Kathryn Hunter: 'The pretend world often seemed more real'".
19. Bulman, James C.. (2008). "Shakespeare Re-dressed: Cross-gender Casting in Contemporary Performance". Associated University Presse.
20. Hemming, Sarah. "The Bee, Soho Theatre, London". Financial Times.
21. Isherwood, Charles. (5 April 2013). "''Kafka's Monkey'', at Baryshnikov Arts Center". The New York Times.
22. Costa, Maddy. (31 May 2011). "Kafka's Monkey – review". The Guardian.
23. Winer, Linda. (1 November 2013). "'A Midsummer Night's Dream' review: Julie Taymor brings magic to Brooklyn". [[Newsday]].
24. Brantley, Ben. (3 November 2013). "Taymor's 'Midsummer Night's Dream' Opens Brooklyn Theater". The New York Times.
25. Isherwood, Charles. (15 November 2011). "'Fragments' at Baryshnikov Arts Center - Review". The New York Times.
26. Dickson, Andrew. (29 August 2008). "Theatre review: Fragments/Young Vic, London".
27. Love, Catherine. "Kathryn Hunter".
28. Shenton, Mark. (22 May 2008). "Macbeth's Rupert Goold Named One of RSC's New Associate Directors".
29. Brown, John Russell. (2012). "The Routledge Companion to Actors' Shakespeare". Routledge.
30. "What's On In Stratford-Upon-Avon".
31. Billington, Michael. (3 March 2010). "Theatre Review: ''King Lear''". The Guardian.
32. Nice, David. (21 January 2011). "Kathryn Hunter withdraws from RSC productions". [[The Arts Desk]].
33. Billington, Michael. (23 February 2016). "Cyrano de Bergerac review – strutting Kathryn Hunter follows her nose". The Guardian.
34. Schilling, Jane. (18 May 2016). "This Cyrano de Bergerac was a squandered opportunity". The Telegraph.
35. "Timon of Athens".
36. "Complicite - Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead".
37. Riesman, Abraham Josephine. (29 November 2022). "Andor's Kathryn Hunter Saw Eedy Karn's Comedic Potential Immediately".
38. (3 December 2021). "'Drive My Car' Named Best Film By New York Film Critics Circle; Benedict Cumberbatch, Lady Gaga, 'West Side Story', 'Licorice Pizza' Take Other Prizes – Complete Winners List".
39. Coveney, Michael. (27 September 2022). "Marcello Magni obituary". The Guardian.