PLAYING SHAKESPEARE: POETRY AND HIDDEN POETRY (TV)
Summary
The final episode 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, Ian McKellen talks about Barton's career and asks him to describe what he loves about his work, and Barton explains that he declined a request to write a book on Shakespeare, preferring instead to analyze his plays through discussion and performance with actors. He admits to a sense of failure when it comes to Shakespeare's poetry, however, saying that he is not sure that he has yet grasped its function and technique, and David Suchet reads out a relevant quote from A.E. Housman. Alan Howard suggests that one needs to understand the meaning of the lines first and then employ "apprehension" as well as comprehension to become properly aware of their sound, comparing it to the relationship of music and lyrics. Barton then explains that at times, Shakespeare's lines are poetic but not "heightened" and are therefore somewhat hidden, giving several examples of his use of many monosyllabic words in a row. The actors try reciting them at different speeds, noting that they need "air" to have proper meaning. They also discuss the "ghost" of the idea that reading Shakespeare is preferable to watching it performed, with commentary from Logan Pearsall Smith's "On Reading Shakespeare." Barton also admits that while he sometimes tells actors how to perform certain lines, actors also need to "experiment" on their own. Peggy Ashcroft and Donald Sinden perform a scene from "2 Henry IV" as Falstaff and Doll Tearsheet, finding the poetry in the seemingly plain words, and Suchet joins the two of them for a scene from the end of "Othello." Barton points out the chilling ambiguity in Emilia's line "I will ne'er go home," citing its layered meanings.
Ashcroft and Lisa Harrow take on a scene with Queen Margaret from "Richard III," observing yet another of Shakespeare's references to time. Howard reads out the poem "The Rape of Lucrece," noting that Shakespeare is alternately accepting and defiant of the passage of the years, and Ashcroft follows this up with Sonnet 19. Barton then says that sometimes an actor needs to be simultaneously in character and also outside of themselves, and Ben Kingsley portrays Brutus talking to the dead body of Cassius from "Julius Caesar." He says that Brutus has "no time for grief" and yet surprises himself at the end of the speech, and then asks Barton to give the scene a try, which he does. Next, McKellen and Suchet portray the elderly country justices Shallow and Silence from "2 Henry IV," and Barton suggests that Shallow has a "manic energy" despite his age. They agree that Shakespeare's characters often undergo "sudden changes," especially when discussing death, which was a very present issue for Elizabethan audiences.
The group then tackles the matter of the changes in performance of Shakespeare over time, listening to a recording of Henry Ainley's dramatic portrayal of Othello in 1938, as well as a recording of Ashcroft as Viola from "Twelfth Night" from the 1940s. They discuss the differences in style, highlighting the fact that modern-day actors have more rehearsal time than those of fifty years previously, and far more than Elizabethan actors did. Ashcroft talks about working with the likes of John Gielgud and Lawrence Olivier, and Sinden comments on the lasting, timeless nature of some performances. Ashcroft explains that one needs a fusion of "poetry, truth and character" to properly act Shakespeare, though the character must be understood first, and Barton reminds the actors of the "Golden Rules," including the idea that the verse is there to help them articulate the story. Howard then recites Prospero's oft-quoted speech from Act 4, Scene 1 of "The Tempest," and several others chime in on Hamlet's advice to the players. Barton closes the program with lines from the scene between Hector and Ulysses in "Troilus and Cressida," once again mentioning Shakespeare's favorite theme of time. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: WNYC-TV (New York, NY) / Public TV (AAPB)
- DATE: September 23, 1984
- RUNNING TIME: 0:52:33
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:19485
- GENRE: Documentary
- 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
- Peggy Ashcroft … Performer
- Lisa Harrow … Performer
- Alan Howard … Performer
- Ben Kingsley … Performer
- Ian McKellen … Performer
- Donald Sinden … Performer
- David Suchet … Performer
- A.E. Housman
- Henry Ainley
- John Gielgud
- Lawrence Olivier
- William Shakespeare
- Logan Pearsall Smith