PLAYING SHAKESPEARE: USING THE VERSE {SHOW #02} (TV)
Summary
One in this miniseries of "master classes" hosted by John Barton and featuring members of the Royal Shakespeare Company, exploring the techniques and styles used by actors in performing the works of the Bard. In this installment, Barton opens by discussing Shakespeare's use of blank verse (unrhymed poetic language) and says that it is "a mountain to be climbed" by actors. The actors present comment on how it helps them to deliver the lines, noting that it creates vocal patterns and is a "concise" style that allows for spaces to breathe naturally. Barton brings up the "horrible" phrase of iambic pentameter and describes the on-off stresses in most lines, and Ian McKellen performs a section from "Cambises" by Thomas Preston, contrasted with the "once more unto the breach" monologue from "Henry V." They discuss how iambic pentameter usually reflects natural speech, but can sometimes sound incorrect, as with the opening line of the speech, and they examine the proper inflections for the lines. Barton then mentions antithesis, or the setting of a word against its opposite, like "to be or not to be," and they discuss Hamlet's famous monologue and its use of feminine, or unstressed, endings. Next, David Suchet and Lisa Harrow perform the trial scene from "The Merchant of Venice," examining how short lines suggest pauses at the actors' discretion, with Barton stressing the need to be "detectives" to unearth the proper performance styles. Harrow suggests that current-day "Method" actors use pauses to naturalize their dialogue, though Elizabethan actors likely spoke more quickly.
Suchet and Patrick Stewart then try out a quick exchange from "The Life and Death of King John," and then perform it again with added pauses. McKellen performs the opening lines from "Merchant" to analyze the use of end-stopped lines, or lines that stop on natural-sounding endings, and he acknowledges its easy flow and allowance for breath. Sheila Hancock recites Sonnet 29, which is all one sentence, highlighting how its phrasing is created by its verse. Stewart portrays Leontes in "The Winter's Tale," a later play which uses few end-stopped lines, and debates with Barton about the proper places to pause and breathe. The group then discusses allision, or the running together of two vowels in which one "disappears," and they examine certain lines from "Cymbaline." The Elizabethan pronunciation of certain sounds was likely quite different from today's, and the actors ponder which version is easier to recite. They next analyze a scene from "Antony and Cleopatra," noting the "tongue-twister" of the modern-day pronunciation, contrasting it with lines from "Troilus and Cressida," in which even the names were likely pronounced alternatively. Scansion, or determining the rhythm of a line, makes the difference in how it is said aloud, and the actors recite lines from "Richard III" and "Henry V," examining its use of syllables and stresses.
When asked about the common stress on "-ed" at the ends of words, Barton says that actors must discover the "sum" of the line's syllables to see if it is needed or not. The actors then perform a scene between Lady Anne and Richard III, after which they acknowledge that the use of verse can be "daunting" and question whether the audience should be aware of the poetic language or not, concluding that it is there instead to help the actors. Barton states that Shakespeare wrote "intuitively" rather than deliberately, and that it is the actors' job to untangle the language and determine how it should be recited. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: WNYC-TV (New York, NY) / Public TV (AAPB)
- DATE: August 5, 1984
- RUNNING TIME: 0:49:10
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:19478
- GENRE: N/A
- SUBJECT HEADING: International Collection - United Kingdom; Documentary; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616; Miniseries
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Melvyn Bragg … Executive Producer
- Nick Evans … Executive Producer
- Andrew Snell … Producer
- John Barton … Writer, Host
- John Carlaw … Director
- Guy Woolfenden … Music by
- Sinead Cusack … Performer
- Sheila Hancock … Performer
- Lisa Harrow … Performer
- Alan Howard … Performer
- Jane Lapotaire … Performer
- Ian McKellen … Performer
- Patrick Stewart … Performer
- David Suchet … Performer
- Michael Williams … Performer
- William Shakespeare