Eileen Atkins & Michael Gambon Set for THEATER TALK this Weekend

Acting royalty visits THEATER TALK this week, with the appearance of two British living legends, Dame Eileen Atkins and Sir Michael Gambon, currently in New York through December 8 with the first-ever theatrical staging of playwright Samuel Beckett's 1957 radio play, All That Fall. This episode of THEATER TALK, co-hosted Michael Riedel of the New York Post and producer Susan Haskins, premieres in the New York metropolitan area Friday, Nov. 29 (2013) at 1 AM (Saturday morning) on Thirteen/PBS, and continues on CUNY TV* Saturday at 8:30 PM, Sunday at 12:30 PM, and Monday at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 7:30 PM.

Atkins and Gambon are having the time of their lives portraying an unhappy rural Irish couple, Mr. and Mrs. Rooney, described by New York Times critic Ben Brantley as "petulant and fractious with each other, a husband and wife sealed in mutual and enduring estrangement." The actors are reveling being in New York and enjoying the play's rave reviews (and sold-out houses) for the production, directed by Sir Trevor Nunn and currently at 59E59 Theaters.

In Time Out New York, critic David Cote writes, "For anyone who has seen Gambon in his magisterial television performances (The Singing Detective) or onstage in England, this limited engagement should be unmissable. Gambon is one of the last remaining links to the golden age of 20th-century British stage acting, the awesome line that includes Gielgud, Richardson and Gambon's own National Theatre mentor, Olivier. No less a joy is seeing the lithely acidic Atkins, last seen here in Doubt on Broadway. The two performers astound with their economy of movement, the musicality of their voices (he a cello, she an oboe) and how their intonations unlock volumes of nuance in Beckett's spare tragicomic text."

THEATER TALK is jointly produced by the not-for-profits Theater Talk Productions and CUNY TV. The program is taped in the Himan Brown TV and Radio Studios at The City University of New York (CUNY) TV in Manhattan, and is distributed to 100+ participating public television stations nationwide. THEATER TALK is made possible in part by The New York State Council on the Arts, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The TDF/TAP Plus Program, The CUNY TV Foundation and The Friends of THEATER TALK.

*CUNY TV, the City University of New York television station, is broadcast over-the-air in the New York metropolitan area on digital Ch. 25.3, and cablecast in the five boroughs of New York City on Ch. 75 (Time Warner and Cablevision/Optimum), Ch. 77 (RCN), and Ch. 30 (Verizon FiOS). The show is available online anytime at www.cuny.tv and www.theatertalk.org, and via iTunes podcasts. CUNY TV is also live-streamed on www.Aereo.com.

Photo courtesy of Theater Talk/CUNY TV