Last night, Jessica was invited to join The Universal Music party during BRIT Awards. She wore a beautiful yellow dress alongside Stevie Ruffs, Laurie Kynaston, Lauren Lyle, Thomas Flynn and Jenny Walser. She was also seen on a small video shared on Instagram’s official page for Universal Music, which we have added Screencaps to the gallery as well:
Reviews: ‘An Enemy of the People’
Here’s a small list of reviews of An Enemy of the People from the most known news sites that highlight Jessica’s part:
Smith is well supported by the rest of the ensemble. Jessica Brown-Findlay (Downton Abbey) finds the right balance as Stockmann’s wife Kat, a person who struggles between loyalty to her husband, whilst reckoning with his undeniable flaws. There are 20th-century music cues throughout the show, including Oasis’s Stand by Me and multiple tracks from The Clash’s London Calling. Most notably, David Bowie’s Changes is heard on multiple occasions. At various points, the actors are singing and playing instruments. At first, it feels a little obvious, as if the songs are explicitly telling the audience how they’re meant to feel. As the play builds to its final crescendo, there is a more deliberate reasoning for the way it is used. During some of the more intense sequences, music is used not as a tool for fighting oppression, but as a way to ignore it.
Stockmann is a firebrand in turn-up jeans opposite his town major brother, Peter (Paul Hilton), sour and self-righteous in a suit. His wife, Katharina (Jessica Brown Findlay), is a schoolteacher (rather than his teacher daughter, Petra, of the original script). They are new parents in the present day yet the milieu, with guitars, singalongs and the couple’s fellow band members who wander across the Stockmanns’ home, give it the sense of a 1960s commune. Not all of it works: Katharina is a cypher whose illicit kiss with a character goes nowhere.
A deliciously punchy final third sees Stockmann and Katharina reckon with the fallout from his meltdown. It’s hard to exact say where Ibsen starts, Ostermeier and Borchmeyer begin and Macmillan continues, but for a production conceived with the specific backdrop of post credit crunch Germany, it slots immaculately into 2024 Britain, the town’s desperation to save the spa chiming perfect with the recent spate of bankrupt English councils.
The chemistry between Smith and Jessica Brown Findlay as the doctor’s wife, Katharina Stockmann, is easy, while Paul Hilton steals the show throughout with his hilarious, yet ominous, portrayal of the doctor’s brother and mayor of the town, Peter Stockmann. For any audience members unsure on how they feel, the ending will be what secures An Enemy of the People as one for the ages. A small and mesmerising moment between Smith’s Stockmann and Findlay’s Katharina had every audience member leaving asking themselves and each other the one big question upon which everything hinges: “What would you do?”
FEB 20: “An Enemy Of The People” – Press Night
Jessica and the cast of An Enemy of the People have joined a Press Night event for the official premiere of the playing. Using a red vintage dressed Ziggy offered her, Jessica stunned in red!
Theater Work > 2024. Enemy of the People
See the post before this for reviews on this play!
The Telegraph: ‘I’ve been told, “You owe us a side boob”’
The actress has moved on from Downton fame – taking on a fourth-wall-busting Ibsen adaptation, and blowing the whistle on industry sexism
‘The problem with theatre,” says Jessica Brown Findlay, “is that sometimes it can feel like this exclusive club for which you need a PhD in order to become a member.” By way of explanation, the actress – who found fame as the forward-thinking socialite Lady Sybil Crawley in Downton Abbey – tells me about her recent slip during rehearsals for Thomas Ostermeier’s fourth-wall-busting adaptation of An Enemy of the People, in which she’s playing a doctor’s wife.
“There’s a bit of audience participation in the show – it’s quite a radical reworking – and I started talking about the fifth wall,” she says, unabashed. “Everyone looked at me, and someone said, ‘Er, what’s that then… the ceiling?!’”
Read More
“An Enemy of the People” First look
Several pages about Theater and the official pages of the play have released the first rehearsal photos as well as some from the same day event, meet and greet! Enjoy:
ITV commissions psychological thriller, Playing Nice, starring James Norton, Niamh Algar, James McArdle and Jessica Brown Findlay
ITV commissions psychological thriller, Playing Nice, starring James Norton, Niamh Algar, James McArdle and Jessica Brown Findlay.
Adapted by Grace Ofori-Attah, produced by Rabbit Track Pictures and STUDIOCANAL
ITV’s Head of Drama Polly Hill has commissioned four-part psychological thriller, Playing Nice adapted by Malpractice writer Grace Ofori-Attah from the best-selling novel by British thriller author JP Delaney with Kate Hewitt (One Day) directing all four episodes. CANAL+ pre-bought the series.
Principal photography for the series is currently underway in Cornwall.
BAFTA nominated James Norton (Happy Valley, A Little Life, Nowhere Special), BAFTA nominated Niamh Algar (Mary and George, The Virtues, Raised By Wolves, The Wonder, Calm With Horses), Olivier nominated James McArdle (Sexy Beast, The Mare of Easttown, Life After Life) and BIFA nominated Jessica Brown Findlay (The Flatshare, Life After Life, Black Mirror, Downton Abbey) all take leading roles in the limited series.
STUDIOCANAL will produce the series with Rabbit Track Pictures, the production company founded by Norton and co-founder and Managing Director, Kitty Kaletsky (Rogue Agent). Executive producers are Kitty Kaletsky, James Norton, Kate Crowe (Great Expectations, Taboo, Misfits) and STUDIOCANAL’s Joe Naftalin, with Isobel Carter overseeing for STUDIOCANAL. Grace Ofori-Attah and author JP Delaney also executive produce. Nick Pitt (Black Mirror, His Dark Materials) is series producer.
ITV Drama Commissioner, Helen Perry, will oversee production for the broadcaster with Playing Nice premiering on ITV1 and streaming on ITVX.Set against a sweeping Cornish landscape, two couples discover that their toddlers were switched at birth in a hospital mix-up, and face a horrifying dilemma: do they keep the sons they have raised and loved, or reclaim their biological child?
Living a waking nightmare, Pete (James Norton) and Maddie (Niamh Algar) are jettisoned into the world of the other couple; Miles (James McArdle) and Lucy (Jessica Brown Findlay). At first it seems all four are agreed on a solution, but it soon becomes clear that hidden motives are at play. How far can each couple trust the real parents of their child – or even each other? As Pete and Maddie are stretched to breaking point, they realise they will stop at nothing to keep their family together.
On behalf of Rabbit Track Pictures Kitty Kaletsky and James Norton commented:
“Playing Nice was the first book we optioned after launching Rabbit Track and we feel immensely proud of the project it has become. To be working with ITV, STUDIOCANAL, wonderful Grace Ofori-Attah, visionary Kate Hewitt, our unbelievable cast and the whole rest of the production team is a huge privilege. We’re thrilled and very excited.”
Grace Ofori-Attah adds:
“It has been an absolute privilege to adapt JP Delaney’s gripping novel for the screen. I am thrilled to be working with Rabbit Track and STUDIOCANAL, as well as our incredible cast and production team. I’m also excited to be partnering with ITV again on my second drama series, and can’t wait for Playing Nice to hit TV screens next year.”
STUDIOCANAL’s Joe Naftalin and Isobel Carter expand:
“We are hugely excited to be launching this production. We are delighted to be working with our wonderful cast and crew, working from a brilliant script by Grace Ofori-Attah, and with powerful direction from Kate Hewitt. We are grateful to our partners at ITV, CANAL+, Rabbit Track – and to JP Delaney for allowing us the opportunity to adapt his gripping novel. We can’t wait to share this captivating series with audiences around the world next year.”
ITV Drama Commissioner Helen Perry commented:
“Playing Nice is an enthralling thriller with a knotty moral dilemma at its heart. Not only will viewers be hooked, they’ll be left questioning ‘what would I do…?’ As Grace Ofori-Attah’s superb script raises questions about the nature of parenting and how far we’ll go for those we love.”
Helen continued:
“We’re thrilled to have on board such a stellar cast and crew, and we’re delighted to be working with the team at STUDIOCANAL and Rabbit Track Pictures to bring this fantastic adaption to ITV1 and ITVX.”
Grace Ofori-Attah was selected for the BAFTA Elevate Talent scheme for writers in 2018. She read medicine at Cambridge and Oxford Universities and worked as a Consultant Psychiatrist before switching to Screenwriting. Grace’s debut drama, Malpractice premiered earlies this year on ITV1 and ITVX to rave critical reviews.
Playing Nice will be distributed globally by STUDIOCANAL.
New Project: An Enemy of the People
Jessica Brown Findlay stars in An Enemy of the People at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London.
The play features Matt Smith, Nigel Lindsay, Priyanga Burford, Zachary Hart, Paul Hilton and Shubham Saraf. Goes live from February 6th to April 6th, 2024.
The production is directed by Thomas Ostermeier, and this is the first English language production of his acclaimed German version of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play.
Click here to buy tickets.
What is truth without power?
Doubt spreads faster than disease in Ibsen’s thought-provoking play about truth in a society driven by power and money.
When Dr Stockmann makes an unbelievable discovery about the healing waters in his local baths, he holds the future of the town in his hands, but those with everything to lose refuse to accept his word. As the battle goes beyond contaminated water, barriers are broken in this contemporary production as Ostermeier shows us why this perennial classic will be relevant forever.
Exclusive: Victor Frankenstein photoshoot
Thank you to our wonderful friend for the donation, we were able to get this beautiful pictures from Victor Frankenstein! Today, Jess’s birthday, is the perfect day to share some of them with fans: