Following Kanu and Gharavi’s ‘in conversation’ talk at Newcastle University in 2023, the panel reflect on the international media storm caused by Netflix’s recent African Queens: Cleopatra, directed by Tina Gharavi and produced and narrated by Jada Pinkett Smith. Come and learn about the inside story of one of the most globally discussed Netflix episodes of 2023 from the director who made it. The panel also discuss what it means to play Cleopatra in 2024 and what it means to play on the Globe’s stage.

Tina Gharavi is a BAFTA-nominated, award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter and the director of Bafta-nominated I Am Nasrine and a soon to be released Virginia Woolf adaptation, Night & Day, Gharavi’s third feature film. She is Newcastle University’s Reader in English: Digital Media/Film. Stella Kanu is CEO of Shakespeare’s Globe. Listed in The Stage 100 2024 Power List, Stella has worked in the theatre, festival and cultural sectors for 30 years and was previously Executive Director at LIFT (London International Festival Theatre). At time of recording, Professor Farah Karim Cooper was Director of Education at Shakespeare’s Globe and Professor of Shakespeare Studies at King’s College London; she is now the Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC. Her most recent book, The Great White Bard, was listed in Time Magazine’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2023. Nadia Nadarajah performed as Cleopatra in the Globe’s 2024 production of Antony & Cleopatra. Her previous work at the Globe includes Hamlet and As You Like It (both in 2018), as well as the Globe productions in collaboration with Deafinitely Theatre, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Love’s Labour’s Lost.

This event is part of The Globe Talks, a series of essential conversations exploring the work we do in relation to the world we live in.