Nice feature detailing more about the exhibit:
Two Voices, 2000 Years of Korea
Lee Byung Hun & Yerin Ha Narrate Korean Heritage in London
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a stupidly hot man bimbling around London town, must be in need of a backpack.
Fashionable?
Trendy?
Designer?
FUCK NO.
BASIC.AS.FUCK? YUP.
His brand is more adjunct professor than man about town, more high-functioning introvert than social media poseur
Please, sir, never change.
So herewith, I present a very silly, completely useless, and not at all authoritative guide to the backpack in the wilds of London.
NB: Why, yes I have sorted these like laundry -- darks, whites, reds, hats, shackets, etc. -- I dunno, it made sense at the time.
This is just pure silly fun that I've been faffing around with for ages, a variation on the Muppets meme:
Pick a season or scene
Keep one actor
The rest are played by Muppets.
And let's not go all Avenue Q for this LOL. Believe me, I was tempted. 😊
Since we're enjoying the Luke T bookworm content so much and we know both Luke & Yerin are bookworms . . .
If you had a book club, which books would you choose for reading with Yerin and Luke?
For me, it would be:
YERIN - Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber - her radical and brilliant retelling of some classic fairy tales. The Tiger's Bride is my favorite.
LUKE - Dorothy Dunnett's The Game of Kings - the first book of her 6-book Lymond Chronicles series. It's an absolute monster of a book, but I reckon if he can handle Doestoevsky, he can handle Dunnett, especially since he's polyglot enough to understand all the bits in various Romance languages. I might do a re-read imagining him as Lymond.
Another fun fan edit, this one from u/palmsuiker
And this is the same set of interviews where he referenced Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, and paradox and the Pied Piper, rats & mice off the top of his head. Who does that?
Bustle producer u/graciefarquhar posted this. It's pure joy, he's just fucking adorable.
Apologies if this has been posted before but I did a search and didn't find any previous posts.
This is Caroline Siede's Girl Culture take on S4 Part 1. She's a pop culture critic and writer, formerly of the A.V. Club. While I don't agree with her on every point, she is a fun read and hilarious. Her Part 2 review is mostly behind a paywall, but suffice it to say she's a fan of S4.
Every thought I had watching 'Bridgerton' season 4
Enjoy!
In the spring of 2024, Luke took on his first leading role on the stage. It was also his debut with the Royal Shakespeare Company, as Berowne in Love's Labour's Lost, directed by Emily Burns. It was widely hailed as an ingenious and lively staging of one of Shakespeare's lesser known plays. And people seemed to like him, too. 😉
The LLL Megathread from that time is here and the reviews I've posted are different ones. There's a lotta love for this guy!
There's also this video interview with WOS, including the main cast, where he has his usual astute insights about the play's themes and relevance to modern life.
Luke Thompson at the RSC - Love's Labour's Lost in rehearsals
That wraps it up for his major stage roles, until The Lives of Others premieres this fall.
Bonus points if you can guess who's in the last photo. He played Berowne in the RSC's 2015 LLL and then Benedick in the Love's Labour's Won (aka Much Ado About Nothing).
In 2023, Luke took on the role of Willem opposite James Norton as Jude, in Ivo van Hove's stage adaptation of the acclaimed novel A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara, a very daring choice that earned both of them an Olivier nomination and WhatsOnStage win for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor respectively.
While the play itself was very divisive, there was overwhelmingly high praise for James and Luke.
The show did previews at the Richmond Theatre on March 14, 2023 before transferring to the Harold Pinter Theatre and then the Savoy Theatre, for 132 performances over 3 sold-out runs.
Richmond Theatre, March 14-18, 2023
Harold Pinter Theatre, March 25-June 18, 2023
Savoy Theatre, July 3 - August 5, 2023
Since this was his first stage role after joining Bridgerton, many of his castmates were at shows throughout the run, including Luke Newton, Ruth Gemmell, Golda Rosheuvel, Hannah Dodd, Nicola Coughlan, and Rupert Young.
A recording was filmed at the Savoy Theatre for a limited cinematic release from 28 September to 10 November 2023, in 700 cinemas in 13 countries. It hasn't been made available on any streaming platforms.
There's a wonderful promo that Luke & James did to promote the transfer from the Harold Pinter to the Savoy Theatre.
The play's Instagram account has photos and videos:
There's a panel discussion with the cast and author here:
A Little Life - an interview with Hanya Yanagihara and the play's cast
For Ian McKellen's last King Lear, which transferred from the Chichester Festival to the Duke of York Theatre for a July 11 to November 3rd, 2018 run, Luke took over the role of Edgar/Poor Tom from Jonathan Bailey (who took the role in Company that would earn him an Olivier award for best supporting actor in a musical). At the time, McKellen believed it would be his last major Shakespeare role, so the clamor for tickets was immense. There is a National Theatre Live filmed version.
Most mainstream reviews focused on McKellen, naturally, so I've included theatre bloggers/forum thoughts as well.
This was his 4th Shakespeare role in the 6 years since RADA. His next one would be his first lead, in Love's Labour's Lost at the RSC.
And no, I'm not just posting these for photos of him in his boxers. 😜
In 2017, Robert Icke brought back Luke for his modern dress adaptation of Hamlet, as Laertes, alongside Andrew Scott's critically acclaimed Hamlet, with Juliet Stevenson as Queen Gertrude, Angus Wright as King Claudius, Jessica Brown Findlay as Ophelia
Angus and Jessica were his co-stars in Icke's Oresteia, as his father and sister.
The production had two sold out runs:
At the Almeida Theatre from February 17 to April 15, 2017 (325 seat capacity). Oresteia was also staged here in 2015.
At the Harold Pinter Theatre from June 15 to September 2, 2017. (796 seat capacity). Luke would return here for part of the A Little Life run in 2023.
In August 2017, BBC Two announced that they would broadcast a taped version of the production. Filming took place at the Harold Pinter Theatre. BBC Two broadcast the production on 31 March 2018.
A lot of the mainstream media reviews focused on Scott's widely praised performance and didn't mention Luke since Laertes is a relatively minor character (as Ophelia's brother and Polonius' son). I've added reviews from Theaterboard.com's forum to round out the consensus from theatre folks who didn't have word limits for their reviews!
He's mentioned in interviews that, as clichéd as it sounds, he'd love to play Hamlet one of these days. Even though I am a Hamlet kinda girl, I'd love to see him play Iago.
2015 finds Luke working for the first of what will be 3 times with acclaimed and visionary director Robert Icke, as Orestes in Icke's modern retelling of the Greek tragedy Oresteia.
In his Square Mile interview, when asked about his proudest professional achievement, he said it was "working with directors I completely see eye to eye with and admire, such as Robert Icke and Ivo van Hove. It's rare to come across real alignment in any profession. I feel proud that they wanted to work with me as well as incredibly lucky to have crossed their path."
He'll return to work with Icke in 2017 on the Andrew Scott-led Hamlet and later in 2026, on The Lives of Others with Kiera Knightley and Stephen Dillane.
In 2014, Luke followed up his auspicious debut with Julius Caesar, also at The Globe, as Mark Antony, working again with director Dominic Dromgoole, to more glowing reviews.
Shhh, don't tell anybody, but I have this actor crush, you've probably never heard of him, so let's just keep this between us, okay? Cool, cool, cool. Now that everyone knows I'm COMPLETELY INSANE, let's begin! I am going to indulge in some deep dive nerdery. Should've started earlier, but as a friend of mine says, isn't it always Benny/Luke Rave Week around here?
First up, I've compiled reviews for all of his major and minor stage roles. I'll post them in separate threads over the next few days.
He graduated RADA in 2013 and started a rather impressive run of plays at The Globe (4), The Almeida (2), and one each at the Duke of York, the Hampstead, the Harold Pinter, and RSC theatres. By the time he was 33, he'd done 4 of the major Shakespeare plays (3 tragedies & 1 comedy), and one of the classic Greek tragedies. He was Laertes to Andrew Scott's Hamlet, Edgar/Poor Tom to Sir Ian McKellen's King Lear, and Orestes for director Robert Icke.
And for his debut as Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream, he was nominated for the Evening Standard's Outstanding Newcomer award and the Ian Charleson award. Not too shabby!
So, here's a roundup of reviews for A Midsummer Night's Dream, in 2013, at the Globe Theatre.
And if even more . . . 😂
Luke Thompson as Lysander - Part 1
Luke Thompson as Lysander - Part 2
Luke Thompson as Lysander - Part 3
Luke Thompson as Lysander - Part 4
Luke Thompson as Lysander - Part 5
This may've been obvious to others, but the pennies have only just dropped for me about Eloise's name. Bit of a rabbit hole, so bear with me. (NB: I haven't read the books so I have no idea if this was ever addressed in them.)
In Luke Thompson's reading of a newly rediscovered collection of Keats' love letters, Keats mentions Rousseau's Eloise. Keats would've been a contemporary of the Bridgertons.
Per Wikipedia:
Rousseau's Julie: or The New Heloise
Julie was perhaps the best-selling novel of the 18th century. Some readers were so overcome that they wrote to Rousseau in droves, creating the first celebrity author . . . So many women wrote to him offering their love that he speculated there was not a single high society woman whom he could not have bedded if he had wanted.
Julie or the New Heloise (French: Julie ou la nouvelle Héloïse), originally entitled Lettres de Deux Amans, Habitans d'une petite Ville au pied des Alpes (Letters from two lovers, living in a small town at the foot of the Alps), is an epistolary novel by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, published in 1761 by Marc-Michel Rey in Amsterdam. The novel's subtitle points to the history of Héloïse d'Argenteuil and Peter Abélard, a medieval story of passion and Christian renunciation.
I'll confess, I only knew of the Heloise and Abelard story through a line in a Cole Porter song:
As Abelard said to Eloise
Don't forget to drop a line to me please
So, of course, our Eloise's story had to be a letters to lovers story. "Epistolary" -- love that word.
Also, I would love love love for Claudia and Chris to do a reading for the Letters Live series.
I'm a day late and a dollar short, but here are some of my fave pix of Benedict with his siblings.
When Anthony had to become the head of the house and Violet was overwhelmed with grief, Benedict became the emotional glue to hold them all together.
I love how distinctive each of his sibling relationships are and I'm hoping we'll see his bond strengthen with Franny and Eloise in their seasons.
As a community service, I figured I should put my insanity super powers to good use. So, herewith, I gift you the timestamps for all the Benedict scenes in seasons 1-3.
Or an excuse to post more pictures of the Stupid Handsomeness.
Enjoy!
Marcus Ryder - RADA Annual Summer Party at Sotheby's
Marcus Ryder is the Chair of RADA and according to Google,
"The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) hosts an exclusive, invitation-only annual Summer Supporters' Party to celebrate the school, its alumni, and its students. The glamorous affair brings together creatives, patrons, and RADA leadership, often featuring live performances from esteemed graduates."
There's one photo of Luke giving a reading at the event.
And apparently RADA has a long history of collaborations with Sotheby's, which is probably why Sotheby's asked Luke to do the Keats Love Letters promotion.
It's from the West End run of A Little Life , with just James Norton and Luke Thompson.
I don't think the whole interview has been posted here before. I'd only seen snippets of it on other sites but here it is in full:
Interview on BBC1's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg
Mr. T is looking particularly fiiiiiine. And wonderfully articulate as always.
