I know that Michael got in touch with me because
he'd seen my work on, on Shakespeare, um,
and Shakespeare, I have to tell you, has become
the central, complete obsession of my life.
Um, I think I've read every book, biography,
whatever you want to talk about.
My shelves grow with them, and I've now directed
twelve of his plays, a couple of them twice,
and, um, I'm never happier than when I'm in
a rehearsal room with Shakespeare.
But, it's worth saying that I have grown to
a view which is that he's the toughest to
get right and the easiest to get wrong, and
you have to approach Shakespeare with a very
particular set of knowledge.
You cannot -- you approach Shakespeare without
knowledge, without expertise at your peril,
and I think you'll fall flat.
You'll make a twit of yourself, and, so, how
we approach this language that was written
over four hundred years ago by the greatest
writing genius, I suspect, the world will
ever see, um, is a very particular challenge,
and you -- if you were a reasonable clarinet
player, and I said, you know "You're going
-- I've seen you in a sort of Dixie band,
and you improvise beautifully around the jazz
and it's great, but I'm going to you a couple
of Mozart's clarinet concertos to play because
you're clearly a good clarinet player," you'd
want to know about Mozart.
You'd want to know how, how -- what what,
what those dots on the page meant, what are
the guides, how do I, how do I approach this,
and I say to actors, "You have to learn about
Shakespeare in exactly the same way as you'd
learn about Beethoven and Mozart if you were
a musician, um, because he's constantly giving
you, what I describe in rehearsals as Christmas
presents.
They're just sitting there waiting to be unwrapped,
and mainly at two levels.
On the level of "Who am I?
Who is my character," and he's -- he'll always
give you clues in the language.
Start with the text.
And the second is actually how to play it,
actually how to do it.
He's offering you clues at the same time,
instructor of the language, instructor of
the verse.
I don't understand any actor who has decided
they want to become an actor and doesn't want
to have a go at Shakespeare.
It's like saying, "Uh, I just love climbing
mountains.
Everest doesn't interest me at all.
I mean, it's the dullest mountain, you know."
What are you talking about?!
It's the greatest challenge to a mountaineer.
Don't you want to try?
Uh, and, and all the actors that, that, um,
that, that the company has put forward to
me have walked in with this passion to, to
tackle.
