Lord of the Rings star Morfydd Clark and Under the Banner of Heaven’s Billy Howle will star in new versions of John Osborn’s Look Back In Anger and Arnold Wesker’s Roots, which will run in rep at London’s Almeida in what has been dubbed the Angry and Young season. Ahead of the season, Romola Garai will appear in Eline Arbo’s adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s exceptional Noble Prize-winning novel The Years.

Roots, with Clark in the central role of Beatie Bryant who returns to her family in Norfolk after living a highly charged political life in London, will run at the Almeida in Islington, North London, from September 10 through November 23, directed by Diyan Zora.

Howle will take a small part in Roots but in Look Back In Anger, which will run from September 20 through November 23, he’ll play Jimmy Porter, the theater’s original angry young man.

When the play – the first so-called ‘kitchen sink drama’ – opened at the Royal Court in London in 1956, it heralded a new era of contemporary British theater and for a while replaced the staid, safe drawing room comedy.

Wesker wrote Roots in response to Osborn’s scorching commentary on the political and social upheavals that upended post-war Britain.

Further casting in Look Back In Anger, which is directed by Atri Banerjee, will see Ellora Torchia (The Gold) play Alison, Jimmy’s wife, with Clark and Iwan Davies as their friends Helena and Cliff.

Clark described Helena as the “disruptor” to “this already very disturbed relationship” between Jimmy and Alison.
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The ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and ‘Wolf Pack’ star will be honored for her life work, with ‘LOTR’ actress Morfydd Clark receiving the rising star award and ‘Transparent’ creator Joey Soloway honored with the Canneseries commitment award.

Sarah Michelle Gellar, Joey Soloway and Morfydd Clark will be honored this year as part of Canneseries 2023, the French TV festival that runs alongside international television market MIPTV.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Wolf Pack star Gellar will receive this year’s Canal+ Icon Award for her life’s work. Clark, best known for playing Galadriel on Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings series, will be honored with the Canneseries rising star award. Soloway, the Emmy-winning creator of Amazon’s Transparent, will receive this year’s commitment award, which honors social engagement by creatives in the TV industry.

Canneseries on Tuesday also unveiled its competition jury for the 2023 event, with Fauda creator Lior Raz heading up the five-person group, alongside Lupin actress Shirine Boutella, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande and Bad Sisters actor Daryl McCormack, Emmy-nominated composer (and Police drummer) Stewart Copeland and French actress Zabou Breitman (24 Days, The Swallows of Kabul).

Oscar-winning documentarian Asif Kapadia (Amy) will head up the documentary jury, together with French producer and screenwriter Nathalie Marchak and producer and journalist Melissa Theuriau.

Among the world premieres bowing at this year’s Canneseries are AppleTV+’s Silo, starring Rebecca Ferguson; Paramount+’s Fatal Attraction with Joshua Jackson and Lizzy Caplan; and Amazon Prime’s gender-flipped TV take on David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers, featuring Rachel Weisz in the central role as twin gynecologists.

International highlights include French cop series BRI, Norwegian drama Power Play, the Danish series Prisoner, starring The Killing‘s Sofie Gråbøl, South African series Spinners, new Israeli shows Carthago and Corduroy, and Bargain, a new Korean series from hitmaker Byun Seung Min (D.P., The Cursed).

The 2023 edition of Canneseries runs April 14-19. [Source]