‘Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh and the unmade Macbeth’ – Arts Café on 2nd June

Published On Wed 27 May 2015 by Grant Hill

The University of Dundee’s Dr Jennifer Barnes will next week reveal how she discovered screenplays from Laurence Olivier’s unmade film version of Macbeth which were thought to be lost.

Dr Barnes, a Lecturer in Film Studies at the University, will be leading the next Dundee Arts Café event at The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum on Tuesday, 2nd June.

She will discuss how she found the missing Macbeth while carrying out research at the British Library, discovering 13 versions of the screenplay catalogued in the archive.

“Olivier’s unmade Macbeth gained a reputation as representing a gap in the fabric of Britain’s national cinema,” she said. “The screenplays allow us to go some way towards filling that gap by offering a unique insight into Olivier’s approach to filming Shakespeare and to the director himself.”

Reading the screenplays alongside Olivier’s autobiography and contemporary star discourses, for the first time in Dundee, Dr Barnes will show how the unmade Macbeth exemplifies Laurence Olivier’s tendency to interpret moments of personal and professional crisis through appropriations of Shakespeare.

“Written during a fraught period that would end with Olivier’s divorce from Vivien Leigh in 1960, it becomes clear that this unmade cinematic Shakespeare plays out, through the Macbeths, the very public downfall of the so-called ‘Theatre Royals’.”

Dundee Arts Café is a programme of talks showcasing arts research and developments taking place locally. The series is organised by the Universities of Dundee and Abertay, and Dundee City Council’s Leisure & Culture department.

Dundee Arts Café events enable members of the public to relax and discuss the arts, from English to History, Philosophy to Architecture, and Fine Art to Product Design, with some of the leading names carrying out work in these areas in Dundee.

The events last one hour, and speakers talk passionately about their work for 30 minutes before the floor is opened up to an informal discussion with the audience. All talks take place in The McManus Café, Albert Square, Dundee.

‘Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh and the unmade Macbeth’ takes place at 6pm on Tuesday, 2nd June. The event is free, and open to all. Limited seating means visitors are advised to arrive early to avoid disappointment.

For more information about the event and Dundee Arts Cafe please visit www.DundeeArtsCafe.co.uk.

For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07854 953277