Kenneth Branagh returns to RSC for first time in more than 30 years

More than 40 years after his star-making performance as Henry V in Stratford-upon-Avon, Kenneth Branagh is to return to the Royal Shakespeare Company.

- Chris Wiegand

He will appear in The Tempest and in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard alongside the Oscar-winning actor Helen Hunt at the RSC next summer.

Branagh, 64, began to build a reputation as one of the greatest Shakespearean actors of his generation when he played Henry V, aged 23, in a 1984 season that included roles as Laertes in Hamlet and the King of Navarre in Love's Labour's Lost. The following year he wrote and directed the play Tell Me Honestly for the RSC.

Branagh went on to direct and star in acclaimed Shakespeare productions during an illustrious stage and screen career that has included breaking an Oscars record as the first person to be nominated in seven individual Academy Award categories. The Tempest will mark his first role for the RSC since he played Hamlet in 1992 and 1993 (first at the Barbican in London and then in Stratford), directed by Adrian Noble.

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