Shakespeare

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Episode 1 The Two Traditions Highlights Modern actors focus on nding their motivation or intention for each line, aiming for a so-called naturalistic style. Shakespeare and his contemporaries wouldnt have understood such naturalism. Instead, the playwright used heightened language to convey psychological depth and nuance. Barton advises actors to marry the modern, naturalistic tradition with the formal Elizabethan tradition conveyed in Shakespeares language. Questions to Consider 1.  Ian McKellen notes that the size of Elizabethan theatres encouraged a grander, more generalized style of acting. How else do you suppose Elizabethan theatres and stagecraft inuenced the actors performances? 2.  Lisa Harrow suggests that Elizabethan English was growing rapidly, much more of a living thing than our language is. Do you agree or disagree? Why? 3. C  an you suggest other differences between the modern and Elizabethan traditions? How are they relevant to playing (or reading) Shakespeare? 4. I  n your own words, how would you describe Bartons direction to strike a balance between the two traditions?
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Episode 2 Using the Verse Highlights Shakespeares verse contains hints on how to play a character or scene. Conventional iambic pentameter, or blank verse, establishes a pattern of ten syllables per line, ve unstressed alternating with ve stressed. Variations in that patternsuch as feminine (unstressed) line endings, extra stresses, short lines, lines shared by two actors, or endstopped linesreveal character and guide an actors delivery. Questions to Consider 1.  Barton suggests that Shakespeare and other Elizabethan playwrights used iambic pentameter to help actors control their breathing better and thereby phrase their lines more easily on outdoor stages. Can you think of other advantages of blank verse? 2.  To demonstrate shared verse lines, David Suchet and Patrick Stewart play a short exchange between the king and his counselor from King John (Act III, Scene 3) twiceonce using pauses, and once picking up the cues quickly. From this snippet of dialogue, how does your impression of the characters change in the two different readings? 3.  In discussing archaic pronunciations of words in verse, Barton advises actors to rely on old pronunciations to preserve the rhythm and ease of speech as Shakespeare wrote it. How do you, as an audience member, react to hearing an actor use unfamiliar pronunciations? 4.  According to Barton, actors should become very conscious of the verse in rehearsal but shouldnt think about it in performance. What do you think he means? Do you agree or disagree?

Episode 3 Language and Character Highlights Striking a balance between the Elizabethan and modern traditions requires the actors to make Shakespeares words seem found, coined, or fresh-minted at the moment theyre uttered. Barton advises actors to look for antitheseswords or thoughts set in opposition to each other within the same line or speechand play them. Hamlets advice to suit the action to the word, the word to the action serves modern actors well. Questions to Consider 1.  Think about the recording of Sir Frank Benson delivering Mark Antonys famous oration from Julius Caesar (Act III, Scene 2). Listen to it again, if possible. How would you describe Bensons style, and how is it different from that of more modern Shakespearean performers? 2. A  ccording to Barton, Elizabethan English was rougher, tougher, and more American than current British English. What do you think he means? How will his observation affect you, as an audience member, as you see and hear various productions on stage and screen? 3. R  oger Rees notes, so much of our literature and playwriting today seems to be obsessed with the lack of language . . . the spaces and the pauses. Can you think of examples from books, plays, TV shows, or lms? To what effect are such pauses or spaces used? 4.  As Barton says, Shakespeares characters need the language to express their situation and their characters. To what extent do you think that Bartons observation is truer in Shakespeare than in other works?

Episode 4 Exploring a Character Highlights Like most of Shakespeares characters, Shylock is neither wholly good nor wholly evil but a collection of inconsistenciesawed, contradictory, and ultimately human. Patrick Stewart portrays Shylock as the quintessential alien or outsider, one obsessed with money and possessions. David Suchet emphasizes Shylocks Jewishness and explores it in the context of his relationships with his friends and enemies. Questions to Consider 1.  Whose portrayal of Shylock affected you most powerfully and why? 2.  What tools did each actor use to communicate his vision of the character? 3.  How did each actor highlight the inconsistencies that made Shylock a three-dimensional human? 4.  If youve enjoyed other productions of The Merchant of Venice, how would you describe their Shylocks? Can you imagine alternatives to Suchets and Stewarts approaches to the character?

Episode 5 Set Speeches and Soliloquies Highlights Most of Shakespeares set speeches and soliloquies have three parts: the response to a specic set of circumstances, the characters intellectual and emotional exploration of that situation, and the resolution. In these speeches, the actor must avoid generalizing the emotion and instead engage the audience so that they follow the characters thought process. Questions to Consider 1.  Patrick Stewart delivers Tituss long speech from Act III, Scene 1 of Titus Andronicus twiceonce in a manner that Barton refers to as generalized, and once not. What specic differences did you notice in the two performances? 2.  Barton concludes by noting, In dialogue, a character reaches out to another character, and in a soliloquy, a character reaches out to the audience. How does Michael Pennington reach out to you, as the audience, in his performance of Hamlets soliloquy? 3. W  ith Bartons general direction and the companys examples as your guides, try to deliver Hamlets famous soliloquy yourself. Afterward, discuss your intentions and technique. Heres the text:
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To be or not to bethat is the question; Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep . . . To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, theres the rub. For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil Must give us pause. Theres the respect That makes calamity of so long life. For who could bear the whips and scorns of time, Thoppressors wrong, the proud mans contumely, The pangs of despised love, the laws delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of thunworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country, from whose bourn No traveler returns, puzzles the will. And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than y to others that we know not of ? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied oer with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pitch and moment With this regard their currents turn awry And lose the name of action. Hamlet, Act III, Scene 1
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Episode 6 Irony and Ambiguity Highlights Shakespeare often uses ironic dialogue to reveal certain characters inner thoughts about themselves or other characters. To communicate irony, the actor must savor the wordsor, as Barton describes it, put the words in quotation marks or capital letters. Questions to Consider 1.  How would you explain the difference between irony and ambiguity? Can a line be both ironic and ambiguous? 2.  Ben Kingsley notes, In a sense, you cannot write irony down. Do you agree or disagree? How do you identify irony in the text? 3.  How does identifying irony in Shakespeares dialogue differ from identifying it in a novel, essay, or other prose? 4. C  onsidering the examples of ironic performances in this episodeparticularly Richard Pascos speech from Richard II and Tony Church and Michael Penningtons exchange from Troilus and Cressidahow do the actors use pace, inection, and other tools to communicate irony?

Episode 7 Passion and Coolness Highlights Shakespeare often calls upon actors to temper their characters most emotional speeches with coolness or intellectual detachment. Overplaying the emotional elements of the dialogue may lead not only to a false or grotesque portrayal, but also to strangulation of the lines, monotony, or subversion of the texts power to move the audience. Questions to Consider 1.  Barton readily admits that he advocates a cool reading of Shakespeare rather stronglyperhaps too strongly. Do you think that his direction strikes the right balance between detachment and emotion? Is balance even necessary? 2.  Ben Kingsley notes, If you try and iron out these inconsistencies in order to make the part playable, you will in fact anesthetize the energy within the lines. The energy of the character and the predicament of the character are only available to the audience if the tension between the opposing forces is observed, relished, and played. How does this observation challenge an actor? A reader of Shakespeare? 3. C  ompare Mike Gwilyms two portrayals of Hotspurs death scene from Henry IV, Part I. Which moved you more? Why? 4.  Barton warns that Gwilyms naturalistic rendering of the death speech obscures some of the words. Do you, as an audience member, need to catch every single word in this speech or in other emotionally charged dialogue? 5. D  iscuss Susan Fleetwoods three readings of Sonnet 129with lust, with disgust, and with self-awareness. Which seems most genuine to you?

Episode 8 Rehearsing the Text Highlights Besides pointing out stresses, pauses, and subtle directions to the actors that Shakespeare embedded in the verse of Twelfth Night (Act II, Scene 4), Barton notes that verbs often convey the most meaning and emotion in a line. Festes song more fully reveals Orsinos emotional state and other characters reactions to it, rather than being a mere interlude or break in the scenes action. Questions to Consider 1.  How does this rehearsal compare to others that youve witnessed, participated in, or imagined? 2.  How would you describe the exchange of ideas between the director and the actors? To what extent is this rehearsal a collaborative process? 3. W  hat did you, as an actor, learn from the actors approaches to rehearsal and responses to direction? What did you, as a director, learn from Bartons approach? 4. W  hat insights about performance did the rehearsal spark for you, simply as an audience member?

Episode 9 Poetry and Hidden Poetry Highlights Shakespeare often uses monosyllabic, seemingly prosaic lines to convey multiple meanings, resonant emotions, and a characters selfawareness. Actors strive to help the audience apprehendif not comprehend the complexity and hidden poetry of these lines. Reviewing recordings of Shakespearean actors from 50 years ago, the company speculates on how its own approach will be viewed in 50 years. Questions to Consider 1.  In your own words, discuss what you think Barton means by hidden poetry. 2.  Lisa Harrow raises what she calls an old ghostthe belief that reading Shakespeare is a richer experience than watching it performed. Do you agree or disagree? Why do you attend live performances of Shakespeare? 3.  How does the experience of watching a stage performance of Shakespeare compare with watching a Shakespearean lm? 4.  Compare John Bartons and Ben Kingsleys readings of Brutuss speech over the body of Cassius in Julius Caesar. Which do you prefer, and why? 5.  Alan Howard suggests that Hamlet might have been less certain about his instructions to the players after he watched their performance than he was when he delivered it. After viewing this entire series, do you agree?

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue, but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently. For in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness . . . Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you oerstep not the modesty of nature. For anything so oerdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the rst and now, was and is to hold, as twere, the mirror up to nature.
Hamlet, Act III, Scene 2

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Avenues for Further Learning

Companion Book for the Series

A History of the Royal Shakespeare Company

Barton, John. Playing Shakespeare: An Actors Guide. New York: Anchor Books, 2001.

Biographies of Shakespeare

Ackroyd, Peter. Shakespeare: The Biography. New York: Anchor Books, 2006. Bryson, Bill. Shakespeare: The World as Stage. New York: HarperCollins, 2007. Greenblatt, Stephen. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2004.
General Resources and Criticism

Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. New York: Riverhead, 1998. Frye, Northrop. Northrop Frye on Shakespeare. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986. Garber, Marjorie. Shakespeare After All. New York: Anchor Books, 2005. Kermode, Frank. Shakespeares Language. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2000.
Performing Shakespeare

Brine, Adrian, and Michael York. A Shakespearean Actor Prepares. Lyme, N.H.: Smith & Kraus, 2000. Brockbank, Philip, ed. Players of Shakespeare 1: Essays in Shakespearean Performance by Twelve Players of the Royal Shakespeare Company. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Cohen, Robert. Acting in Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Hanover, N.H.: Smith & Kraus, 2005. Hall, Peter. Shakespeares Advice to the Players. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2003. Kaiser, Scott. Mastering Shakespeare: An Acting Class in Seven Scenes. New York: Allworth Press, 2003. Rodenburg, Patsy. Speaking Shakespeare. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. Smallwood, Robert, ed. Players of Shakespeare 5. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Tucker, Patrick. Secrets of Acting Shakespeare: The Original Approach. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Photo by Stewart Hemley. RSC 2008.

n 1875, Charles Edward Flower, a Stratford brewer, launched an international campaign to build a theatre in the town of Shakespeares birth. Four years later the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre opened with a performance of Much Ado About Nothing. A Royal Charter was granted in 1925, but the next year the theatre succumbed to re. The festival director, William Bridges-Adams, continued productions in a local cinema, and a worldwide campaign was launched to build a new theatre. In 1932 the new Shakespeare Memorial Theatre was opened by the Prince of Wales on April 23, Shakespeares birthday.

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From 1945 the companys work began to win critical acclaim. Michael Redgrave, John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft, Vivien Leigh, and Laurence Olivier acted alongside new faces such as Richard Burton. Invitations to perform in Russia, Europe, and the United States broadened the companys outlook in the late 1950s. In 1960, Peter Hall formed the modern Royal Shakespeare Company, and in 1961 the Memorial Theatre was renamed the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. The repertoire widened to take in modern work and classics other than Shakespeare. The decade also brought a new generation of actors and directorsDavid Warner, Judi Dench, Ian Richardson, John Barton, Trevor Nunn, and Terry Handsand landmark productions like Peter Halls Wars of the Roses. Over the next thirty years the company expanded under a succession of visionary artistic directors: Peter Hall (19601968), Trevor Nunn (1968 1978), Trevor Nunn and Terry Hands (19781987), Terry Hands (19871991), and Adrian Noble (19912003). The Swan opened in 1986, built inside the surviving shell of the Memorial Theatre. A modern space based on the design of Elizabethan playhouses, it allows for intimate staging and the audiences close proximity to the action. In July 2002, Olivier Award-winner Michael Boyd was announced as artistic director for the RSC. Despite the growth from festival theatre to international status, the values of the RSC today have changed little since 1905: it is still formed around an ensemble of actors and a core of associate actors who give a distinctive and unmissable approach to theatre. The RSC also acts as a superb training ground for the artistic and technical talents of British and international theatre. Courtesy of the Royal Shakespeare Company, www.rsc.org.uk

Vocabulary of Verse & Stage a glossary for playing shakespeare

Shakespeare often used fools for choric functions, commenting on the plays action. (Episode 3) couplet: Two lines of verse that rhyme. A heroic couplet is two lines of iambic pentameter verse that rhyme. (Episode 8) diphthong: A sound made by smoothly combining two vowels in a single syllable. (Episode 3) elision: The omission of part of a word (such as a vowel, consonant, or syllable) to maintain the verse lines meterfor example, oer for over or thOrient for the Orient. (Episode 2) end-stopped line: A verse line in which both the thought and the grammatical structure reach completion at the conclusion. An endstopped line usually concludes in a period, comma, semicolon, or question mark. (Episode 2) iambic pentameter: A verse line consisting of ve stressed syllables preceded by ve unstressed syllables, in the pattern de DUM (the iamb). Five pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables most closely approximate the natural rhythm of speech. (Episode 2)

ambiguity: The capacity of a line or word to have more than one meaning. Literary critics distinguish between different types of ambiguityfor example, when a word offers two meanings at once (as in a pun), when two or more meanings can be resolved into a single meaning, or when the word suggests different meanings to reect the authors (or characters) ambivalence or conicted state of mind. (Episode 6) antithesis: A gure of speech that expresses contrasting ideas in balanced or parallel grammatical forms. (Episodes 2 & 3) blank verse: Any unrhymed verse, especially iambic pentameter. (Episode 2) caesura: A pause or break within a verse line, usually in the middle. In a feminine caesura, the pause comes after an unstressed syllable. (Episode 2) chorus: Originating in Greek drama, the chorus consisted of a group of singers and dancers whose performance accompanied the main action; later, they commented on the action of the play. In Elizabethan drama, the chorus was often one actor who delivered the prologue and epilogue, explained a change of scene, commented on the action, or told of upcoming events.

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MORE FROM ATHENA

irony: A gure of speech in which the words communicate an intent that is the opposite of their literal meaning. (Episode 6) method acting: An approach originated by the Russian director and actor Constantin Stanislavski and popularized in the United States by Elia Kazan, Lee Strasberg, and students at the Actors Studio. Largely a reaction against the formalized, stereotyped performances common on British and American stages in the rst half of the 20th century, method acting encourages actors to mine personal experiences to discover their characters motivations and deliver performances true to real life. (Episode 1) naturalism: In formal criticism, a theatrical style that strives for realistic slices of life rather than the stylized articiality of the stage. As Barton uses it, naturalistic comes to describe a prosaic or realistic manner of speech and behavior, lacking sensitivity to the complexity of Shakespeares poetry. (Episode 1 and throughout) onomatopoeia: A poetic technique in which a word or verse line mimics the sound of the action that it describesfor example, the murmuring of innumerable bees (Alfred, Lord Tennyson) or secret whispers of each others watch (Shakespeare). (Episode 3) run-on line: A verse line in which the sense or grammatical construction carries over to the following line. (Episode 2) soliloquy: A speech delivered by a lone actor onstage, intended to reveal the characters thoughts to the audience. It differs from an aside, lines delivered to the audience but not supposed to be heard by other characters onstage. (Episode 5)

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AFTER NAZI GERMANY INVADES the British Channel Islands in the summer of 1940, the occupiers and the occupied settle into an uneasy coexistence. But when does cooperation become collaboration for islanders just trying to survive? How tolerant can the German commandant be before falling under the suspicious eye of Berlin? This gripping British drama series tells of the stresses and strains, loyalties and loves of civilians and soldiers alike, in a world where shades of gray blur the hard line between black and white. Passion battles against restraint. Pragmatism struggles with principle. And internal conflicts rage as fiercely as those on the battlefield. Ultimately, both sides find they are compromised as much by the actions of their compatriots as they are by the enemy that is always at the door. Alfred Burke (Public Eye) and Bernard Horsfall (On Her Majestys Secret Service) star, with guest stars including John Nettles (Midsomer Murders) and Anthony Stewart Head (TVs Buffy the Vampire Slayer). DVD SPECIAL FEATURE INCLUDES Historcal Background on the Channel Islands.
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Cover photo by Reg Wilson. RSC 1969.