Lady Mary To Channel Faye In “Network”
And Faye is mad as hell! “That’s my role!” she is screaming at some mythical Christina. Playwright Lee Hall and director Ivo van Hove have cast Michelle Dockery as the female lead in their highly anticipated London stage adaptation of the Sidney Lumet film, Network. The Downton Abbey star will play Diana Christensen, the ambitious U.S. television executive who blurs the lines separating entertainment, news and naked human suffering in her unethical quest for ratings glory. The role won an Oscar for Faye Dunaway in the 1976 film, which was written by Paddy Chayefsky. Dockery joins previously announced lead Bryan Cranston, who will make his British stage debut as Howard Beale, the psychologically unstable news anchor pushed over the edge by the escalating cynicism of the TV news landscape. That role won a posthumous Oscar for Peter Finch. The stage version begins performances in November.
