Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson join us on the podcast to discuss their new film Ghostlight, adapting and working with Shakespeare, and more.
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Alex Heeney interviews co-directors Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan whose new film Ghostlight was a hit at Sundance. Ghostlight is the story of middle-aged construction worker Dan (Ian Keiser) who discovers that theatre and Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet are excellent outlets for working through his complicated feelings of grief, guilt, and anger.
An AI-generated transcript for the episode is available at the bottom of this post.
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About the film Ghostlight and our relationship to Shakespeare
Ghostlight is the story of middle-aged construction worker Dan (Ian Keiser) who is having some anger management issues since his teenage son died by suicide. When he gets unexpectedly invited into a table read for Romeo & Juliet by a local community theatre group, headed up by Dolly de Leon’s character, he becomes increasingly involved in the production as he discovers in Shakespeare and theatre an outlet to process his complicated emotions of grief and anger. Romeo & Juliet is especially fitting because his son died in an intended suicide pact with his girlfriend who survived.
Before the Seventh Row Podcast began, Alex Heeney founded and hosted a Shakespeare Podcast called 21st Folio where we discussed modern Shakespeare productions on stage and screen. It’s still online if you want to check it out. Over the years, I integrated my love of Shakespeare into the Seventh Row podcast, which is why we’ve got past episodes on Shakespeare films like Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing, Joel Coen’s Macbeth, and the Saorise Ronan/James McArdle Macbeth. You can find links to all these episodes in the show notes.
So Ghostlight felt like the perfect match for the Seventh Row Podcast today, especially since I think it’s a great gateway into Shakespeare if it’s previously seemed opaque or of another time. I was surprised and interested to hear that Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan weren’t actually fans of Shakespeare until they made the movie. Now they are.
Show notes: Interview with Ghostlight directors Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson
- Read Lindsay Pugh’s interview with Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan on Saint Frances
- Listen to our podcast on abortion on film featuring Saint Frances
- Listen to the 21st Folio Shakespeare Podcast
Related Episodes – Shakespeare on Film
Get the Spotify playlist of these episodes.
- Bonus Episode 24: Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing (excerpt)
- Bonus Episode 22: Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth (excerpt)
- Ep. 124: Olivia Vinall on performing Shakespeare
- Bonus Episode 17: Saoirse Ronan and James McArdle in The Tragedy of Macbeth at the Almeida Theatre (excerpt)
The full bonus episodes are only available to Seventh Row Members. Join here to listen.
