Al Pacino will be keeping his friends close but his fans closer as his double feature based on an Oscar Wilde play will air this Sunday at Manchester’s Odeon cinema, followed by a Q&A.
The Academy Award-winning actor’s filmed theatrical adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s controversial play, Salomé, will be screened alongside, Wilde Salomé, a documentary based around adapting the play.
Joining Pacino will be the Academy Award-nominated Jessica Chastain (The Help, Zero Dark Thirty), who will take part in a live Q&A which will be hosted by Stephen Fry.
The Q&A will be broadcast live to cinemas in the UK and Ireland in a one-day, exclusive event.
Wilde’s play see’s Pacino in the role of King Herrod in the legend of his lust for stepdaughter, Salomé, played by Chastain.
The play has seen multiple stage adaptations, including Richard Strauss’ opera and has also influenced the music of Nick Cave and U2.
Pacino has developed an obsession with the play and the character since 1988 after he saw Steven Berkoff in the role in London.
He performed the role on Broadway but it was only after watching Jessica Chastain’s ‘arresting’ performance at Los Angeles’ Wadsworth Theatre that he decided to commit the project to film.
Wilde Salomé chronicles the challenges that Pacino faced in performing in the play whilst directing the two features.
Q&A interviewer, Stephen Fry, is the perfect candidate to hold the Q&A after playing the role of Wilde in the 1997 feature film, Wilde, and who also holds a lifelong admiration of the playwright.
Manchester’s Odeon at the Printworks Centre will be screening the films and Q&A on Sunday September 21, from 4pm.
Fry’s live Q&A will be held from the British Film Institute Southbank, which in turn will be shown nationwide.
Image courtesy of rikinvasani, via YouTube, with thanks
