Players of Shakespeare 4

Further Essays in Shakespearean Performance by Players with the Royal Shakespeare Company

A collection of short essays by RSC actors each describing the preparation of a role played in production in the ’90s. I’m a community theater player with minimal formal acting traing, so I found the incidental explanations of the rehearsal process from various perspectives enlightening. And as I’m more familiary with some of the actors’ TV and screen work than with their stage work, it was wonderful to read about the craft they trained in.

Paul Jesson’s essay on Henry VIII and Jane Lapotaire’s Queen Katherine were especially interesting because they had to explain the similarities and differences between historical reality and Shakespeare’s fiction. I know the play superficially, and found it difficult to relate to these characters. Both actors must have done a superb job of making these characters come alive on stage because they succeeded in doing so for me in these briefs.

John Nettles essay on Brutus was fascinating for the same reason: balancing what we have of history with what we have from Shakespeare. Nettles’ portrait of a man of deep ideals who thinks himself important to history yet is intellectually and politically woefully inadequate to his self-appointed role is bitter.

Other highlights: Christopher Luscombe’s Launcelot Gobbo & Moth, Philip Voss’ Menenius.

Several actors describe feeling miscast in their parts: Derek Jacobi made the interesting observation that he is a tenor with a slight appearance on stage, which he thought inappropriate for Macbeth, whom he felt should be a powerful bass. He played his Macbeth over-intelligent and over-imaginative, unable to still his skittish mind. David Tennant did not fancy himself a clown in the least, and had to work hard to create his Touchstone.