Acting Shakespeare - John Barton - Masterclass - Part 1_ The Two Traditions - Video Series - 4K
"Barton’s legacy is the most exhilarating tribute one can pay to Shakespeare."
Maximianno Cobra - Shakespeare Network - Founder and Artistic Director
The Royal Shakespeare Company founder John Barton holds a masterclass featuring:
- CAST -
JUDI DENCH
IAN MCKELLEN
PATRICK STEWART
BEN KINGSLEY
DAVID SUCHET
PEGGY ASHCROFT
and members of the RSC:
Tony Church, Sinead Cusak, Mike Gwilym, Susan Fleetwood, Sheila Hancock, Terry Hands, Lisa Harrow, Alan Howard, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Jane Lapotaire, Michael Pennington, Richard Pasco, Norman Rodway and Donald Sinden.
Playing Shakespeare - The series features nine master classes on Shakespearean performance.
First group - Objective Things:
- Part One: The Two Traditions - Elizabethan and Modern Acting
- Part Two: Using the Verse - Heightened and Naturalistic Verse
- Part Three: Language & Character - Making the Words One's Own
- Part Four: Set Speeches & Soliloquies - Taking the Audience with You
Second group - Subjective Things:
- Part Five: Irony & Ambiguity - Text That Isn't It Seems
- Part Six: Passion & Coolness - A Question of Balance
- Part Seven: Rehearsing the Text - Orsino and Viola
- Part Eight: Exploring a Character - Playing Shylock
- Part Nine: Poetry & Hidden Poetry - Three Kinds of Failure
John Bernard Adie Barton, CBE (26 November 1928 – 18 January 2018), was a British theatre director and teacher whose close association with the Royal Shakespeare Company spanned more than half a century.
Co-founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company, John Barton was, with Trevor Nunn and Peter Hall, one of the legendary theatre directors whose work and acting collaborations in the mid twentieth century would effect the course of Shakespeare on stage in successive decades. His biography includes a range of landmark production through the sixties and seventies (including the 1969 Twelfth Night with Judi Dench as Viola, and the 1970 A Midsummer Night's Dream with Patrick Stewart as Oberon), and with his abilities in helping actors through workshops, his presence and influence are felt even further.
This recording is for educational purposes only and is covered under Fair Use doctrine - Copyright - All rights reserved to their respective owners.
Read the unabridged plays online: https://shakespearenetwork.net/works/plays
_______________________________
FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN - DONATIONS - Shakespeare Network Website and YouTube Channel:
Donate with PayPal or GoFundMe today:
https://shakespearenetwork.net/company/support-us/donate-now
_______________________________
Screen Adaptation - Co-Production : MISANTHROPOS – Official Website - https://www.misanthropos.net
Adapted by Maximianno Cobra, from Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens", the film exposes the timeless challenge of social hypocrisy, disillusion and annihilation against the poetics of friendship, love, and beauty.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6946736/
Maximianno Cobra - Shakespeare Network - Founder and Artistic Director
The Royal Shakespeare Company founder John Barton holds a masterclass featuring:
- CAST -
JUDI DENCH
IAN MCKELLEN
PATRICK STEWART
BEN KINGSLEY
DAVID SUCHET
PEGGY ASHCROFT
and members of the RSC:
Tony Church, Sinead Cusak, Mike Gwilym, Susan Fleetwood, Sheila Hancock, Terry Hands, Lisa Harrow, Alan Howard, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Jane Lapotaire, Michael Pennington, Richard Pasco, Norman Rodway and Donald Sinden.
Playing Shakespeare - The series features nine master classes on Shakespearean performance.
First group - Objective Things:
- Part One: The Two Traditions - Elizabethan and Modern Acting
- Part Two: Using the Verse - Heightened and Naturalistic Verse
- Part Three: Language & Character - Making the Words One's Own
- Part Four: Set Speeches & Soliloquies - Taking the Audience with You
Second group - Subjective Things:
- Part Five: Irony & Ambiguity - Text That Isn't It Seems
- Part Six: Passion & Coolness - A Question of Balance
- Part Seven: Rehearsing the Text - Orsino and Viola
- Part Eight: Exploring a Character - Playing Shylock
- Part Nine: Poetry & Hidden Poetry - Three Kinds of Failure
John Bernard Adie Barton, CBE (26 November 1928 – 18 January 2018), was a British theatre director and teacher whose close association with the Royal Shakespeare Company spanned more than half a century.
Co-founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company, John Barton was, with Trevor Nunn and Peter Hall, one of the legendary theatre directors whose work and acting collaborations in the mid twentieth century would effect the course of Shakespeare on stage in successive decades. His biography includes a range of landmark production through the sixties and seventies (including the 1969 Twelfth Night with Judi Dench as Viola, and the 1970 A Midsummer Night's Dream with Patrick Stewart as Oberon), and with his abilities in helping actors through workshops, his presence and influence are felt even further.
This recording is for educational purposes only and is covered under Fair Use doctrine - Copyright - All rights reserved to their respective owners.
Read the unabridged plays online: https://shakespearenetwork.net/works/plays
_______________________________
FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN - DONATIONS - Shakespeare Network Website and YouTube Channel:
Donate with PayPal or GoFundMe today:
https://shakespearenetwork.net/company/support-us/donate-now
_______________________________
Screen Adaptation - Co-Production : MISANTHROPOS – Official Website - https://www.misanthropos.net
Adapted by Maximianno Cobra, from Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens", the film exposes the timeless challenge of social hypocrisy, disillusion and annihilation against the poetics of friendship, love, and beauty.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6946736/
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:30Playing Shakespeare.
00:54Not reading him or writing about him, but playing him.
00:59Over a thousand books or articles are written about him every year.
01:03In 1980, there were 195 books and 877 articles, mostly in Japanese, and yet very little is
01:11put on paper about how to act him.
01:14Well, I think I can guess why.
01:17I was once urged to write about him, but I just couldn't do it.
01:20I thought that the sort of points that need to be made could only arise truly in the context
01:27of working with actors.
01:30Each actor and his experience is worth many books.
01:34What I have to say is, in the end, worth nothing if it doesn't come alive in the performance
01:40of living and breathing actors.
01:43The best guide, I think, to playing him for the actors comes from Shakespeare himself,
01:49who was an actor, and it's in Hamlet's Advice to the Players, and it can't be quoted too
01:55often.
01:57Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue.
02:03But if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as leaf the town crier spoke my
02:09lines.
02:10Nor do not soar the air too much with your hand thus, but use all gently.
02:15For in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you
02:20must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.
02:25Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor.
02:30Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that
02:36you o'erstep not the modesty of nature.
02:40For anything so or done is from the purpose of playing, whose end both at the first and
02:46now was and is to hold, as it were, the mirror up to nature.
02:52I believe that one speech goes to the heart of it.
02:56It's one of those utterances which seem a bit simple and limited at first, but if you
03:01live with it, it begins to resonate and open doors.
03:05I believe that in the Elizabethan theatre, the actors knew how to use and interpret the
03:11hidden direction Shakespeare himself provides in his verse and his prose.
03:17I therefore believe that the kind of points we shall be making work best in the theatre
03:22not by a director telling an actor about them, but by an actor learning them largely
03:28by experience and applying them for himself.
03:31There are few absolute rules about playing Shakespeare, but many possibilities.
03:38So we don't offer ourselves as high priests, but as explorers or detectives.
03:43We want to test and to question, and particularly to show how Shakespeare's own text can help
03:50to solve the seeming problems in that text.
03:53Of course, much of it is instinct and guesswork.
03:57We will try to distinguish between what is clearly and objectively so and what is highly
04:02subjective.
04:03I hope that if I am too dogmatic, the actors will challenge me.
04:08I should also make it clear what I am not talking about.
04:12I shall hardly talk at all about directing him, and at first I shall try to keep clear
04:17of interpretation.
04:19We shall not talk at first about individual characters or plays as a whole.
04:24We shall concentrate on finding out how Shakespeare's text works.
04:30Of course, what we say is bound to be personal.
04:34We don't believe there is only one way of doing Shakespeare.
04:37That way madness lies.
04:39Out of the infinite number of questions which come up when we work on him, we have picked
04:44the ones that seem to us the most important.
04:47Another actor or another director would rightly stress things differently, or violently disagree
04:53with us, or raise points which we leave out because he felt they were more important.
04:58We shall look at lots of short individual passages, often cut down from many different
05:04plays.
05:05But I believe they can all make sense out of context, and that any of you who don't
05:10know the play in question will still be able to follow quite easily the points we are making.
05:16So, on your imaginary forces, work.
05:22You, the audience, are quite as important in all this as our actors, both now and in
05:30the theatre.
05:31If we don't reach you, we fail.
05:35We must make you listen, and share, and follow the story.
05:41But above all, listen.
05:45It's so easy for an audience not to listen, particularly with a knotty and difficult text.
05:51I may be cynical, but I don't believe most people really listen to Shakespeare in the
05:55theatre unless the actors make them do so.
05:58I certainly don't.
05:59I know that it's only too easy for me to get the general gist and feeling of a speech,
06:05but just because I get the gist, I often don't listen to the lines in detail.
06:10Not unless the actors make me.
06:13So stick with us, and we'll try to show you how that can happen.
06:18But you may say, oh, that's very fine, but what's so difficult about acting Shakespeare?
06:24What's the problem?
06:25Or indeed, is there a problem?
06:27Well, yes, I believe that there is.
06:30Two things need to come together, and they won't do so without a lot of hard work and
06:37much trial and error.
06:39Here's Shakespeare's text, written at a particular time and for particular actors.
06:47Cut me to pieces, valsies, men and lads.
06:52Stain all your edges on me, boy, false hound.
06:58If you have writ your annals true, it is there that, like an eagle in a dovecote, I fluttered
07:04your valsians in corioli.
07:08Let alone I did it, boy.
07:14Secondly, there are the actors today, with their modern habit of mind and their different
07:20acting tradition, based on the kind of text that they're more used to.
07:31It's great, dear.
07:33What?
07:35Why did you pick me up like that?
07:38Why?
07:40Yeah.
07:42Sorry, then.
07:44Tell us.
07:46How many girls have you had?
07:48I told you, my life.
07:50Here, hold on.
07:52What?
07:53You've got a spot.
07:55Where?
07:56Here, hold still.
07:57Is it big?
07:58Hold still!
07:59Go easy.
08:00Ah!
08:01Got it.
08:02Well...
08:05Well, there we are.
08:09We have the two chief ingredients with which to start rehearsals.
08:13Shakespeare's text and a group of modern actors.
08:17So how do the two come together?
08:20Let's start with the second, as the more accessible.
08:24Our tradition is based, more than we're usually conscious of, on various modern influences
08:30like Freud and television and the cinema
08:33and the teachings of the director and actor Stanislavski.
08:37And I suspect that he works on it all the time,
08:40often without us really knowing it.
08:43So now, all of you say,
08:45what are to you the most important questions
08:48as you begin work on a modern text?
08:51Now, any text.
08:52What's the most important thing that you go for?
08:55Well, to start off with, as Stanislavski says,
08:59if you speak any lines or do anything mechanically
09:02without fully realising who you are, where you come from,
09:06why, what you want, where you are going
09:09and what you will do when you get there,
09:12you will be acting without imagination.
09:15Or, to put it in our own words, what is our motivation,
09:20our objective or our aim or our intention?
09:24We use lots of words for the same thing.
09:27Stanislavski again.
09:28On the stage, there cannot be, under any circumstances,
09:32action which is directed immediately
09:34at the arousing of a feeling for its own sake.
09:38Or, in other words, we must beware of playing the quality
09:41or the general emotional tone of a speech.
09:44In other words, if it's a sad speech,
09:46you mustn't just sound sad,
09:47you must find everything, every thought,
09:49you must make it specific and fresh.
09:52Meaning we must dig into a character
09:55socially and psychologically.
09:57Yes, socially, which means being concerned with other people,
10:02our audience, other characters on the stage,
10:05impersonated by the other actors.
10:07So it's not enough to be aware of our own thoughts,
10:10our own feelings, our own words.
10:12We must listen to the words, understand the feelings
10:15and the thoughts of the other characters.
10:17On the other hand, we do all know the sort of actor
10:20who won't speak at all
10:21until he feels absolutely the inner need to do so.
10:24Huge long pauses.
10:25And by the time he's ready, he's brilliant,
10:27but the audience is fast asleep.
10:29So perhaps it's good also to remember the John Gielgud story
10:32of when he was asked,
10:33now, Sir John,
10:34what exactly is your intention at this point?
10:37To which he replied,
10:38get on to the stage, dear boy.
10:41Good.
10:42Listen for a moment to an over-serious
10:45theatrical practitioner
10:47who in his way is also talking about intentions.
10:51I should like to cite examples of game beats
10:55in the opening scene of King Lear.
10:57Now, the game Lear wishes to play with his daughters,
11:00which might be called
11:01benevolent father and loving children,
11:03leads us to a model of the translations
11:05needed to play it successfully.
11:07Now, the child in Lear is cathected,
11:10which may be a symptom of old age,
11:12which we call second childishness.
11:14Well, hence, Lear's opening kick
11:16comes in the form of benevolent parent
11:19and his social action is to divide his kingdom
11:22however his object is ulterior
11:24and comes from his cathected child.
11:28Beware of jargon.
11:31It can lead to talking about it
11:33replacing actually doing it.
11:35So all of you challenge me
11:37if I fall into the same trap.
11:39Though we're exploring something complex,
11:41we all of us have got all the time
11:44to try to be simple.
11:46Well, I hope we're reasonably clear
11:48about what our modern tradition is.
11:50But actually, it's a great deal more modern than we know.
11:54The key technical terms we're using
11:57were not known to the Elizabethan actors.
11:59They've only come into existence
12:01during the last 100 years or so.
12:03Characterization, in our theatrical sense,
12:06is a mid-19th century word,
12:08though character, in the sense of a part
12:10assumed by an actor, comes in 100 years earlier.
12:13Motivation seems to be a 20th century term
12:17and in its theatrical sense
12:19it hasn't yet got into the Oxford dictionary.
12:21Naturalistic is the same.
12:23This is rather salutary.
12:25I'm not decrying our modern tradition,
12:28merely trying to put it in perspective.
12:31It suggests how surprising
12:33our acting style would have seemed
12:35to the Elizabethans.
12:37I don't know that I agree with John there.
12:40I suspect actors throughout the generations
12:43have tried to be real in their own terms.
12:45Hamlet's advice to the players
12:47seems to be good advice
12:49that a modern director might give to modern actors
12:52about not being too theatrical,
12:54not sawing the air too much,
12:56but thinking about the reality of the situation.
12:59What is, however, modern about our approach
13:01is the jargon that we use.
13:03Motivation was not a term
13:05that Shakespeare would have understood.
13:07But the feeling behind what motivation means
13:09I suspect Shakespeare and his actors
13:11would have understood.
13:13Yes, I think that, I'm sure that probably is true,
13:15that their ability,
13:17their instinctive apprehension of situations
13:20was so, I mean, I think probably
13:22so much closer to them
13:24without some of the distractions
13:27that we have in our day and times.
13:29I mean, very much they depended
13:31on the spoken word, the use of the word,
13:33the word as food,
13:35which they, I think, probably use
13:37much more sensibly in the sense
13:39of almost eating words,
13:41parsing them, and through that
13:43building up an extraordinary complexity
13:45which I think Shakespeare
13:47then bothered to examine
13:49in greater psychological depth.
13:51John, what exactly do you mean
13:53when you say naturalistic?
13:55Because that can mean different things
13:57to different people, can't it?
13:59Yes, I think I must define that.
14:01That's very good.
14:03I mean the acting style and the kind of text
14:05which is the norm in the theatre
14:07and film and television today,
14:09to make everything as natural
14:11and lifelike as possible.
14:13So let's look at an example.
14:15Give us
14:17the opening line of
14:19The Merchant of Venice.
14:21In sooth, I know not why
14:23I am so sad.
14:25Now, that simple line can be said
14:27in an infinite number of ways.
14:29On the one hand,
14:31you could go for the mood
14:33and the quality of it.
14:35Try it sadly.
14:37Do you mean by the mood or the quality
14:39of just painting it over with
14:41a colour called sadness?
14:43Yes, the feeling.
14:45Like, in sooth,
14:47I know not why I am so sad.
14:49Now try it humorously.
14:51In sooth,
14:53I know not why I am so sad.
14:55Now,
14:57try and ask what is Antonio's
14:59intention.
15:01Perhaps it's to try to explain himself.
15:03So rather than painting the line,
15:05think about it
15:07and let the voice just do
15:09what it will. Search the thought.
15:11Make a connection between
15:13the mouth and the brain,
15:15and maybe the heart.
15:17In sooth,
15:19I know not why
15:21I am so sad.
15:23Yes, or try to do it as
15:25avoiding explaining yourself.
15:27In sooth,
15:29I know not why I am so sad.
15:31Or try to make light of your
15:33sadness.
15:37It'll come out rather than as the last one.
15:39It's the same one.
15:43In sooth, I know not why
15:45I am so sad.
15:47And one more. Try and put an end to the conversation.
15:49In sooth, I know not why
15:51I am so sad.
15:53So on.
15:57I don't think there's much doubt, is there,
15:59that the second way, going for the intention,
16:01is much more interesting and alive and human.
16:03We learn much more about the speaker
16:05and his situation.
16:07Of course, it's impossible to decide
16:09exactly how one would want to say
16:11that line without considering
16:13many other things
16:15which are not directly related to
16:19what noise the tongue is making
16:21on the roof of the mouth. Like,
16:23who am I saying the line to?
16:25How long have I known him?
16:27Where have we just been?
16:30What are the words spoken before this first line
16:32of the play?
16:34Were there any words before the play began?
16:36What are likely to be the words spoken
16:38in later scenes?
16:40And so on. It's a whole complex
16:42of which the sound is just
16:44the outward expression.
16:46That's right.
16:48So, in other words, rehearsal of a scene
16:50is going to be about character
16:52and about relationships and situation
16:54and certainly about social background.
16:56And today, the director
16:58helps to sift those possibilities
17:00and at some point in rehearsals
17:02agreement is reached
17:04and in this case, Antonio,
17:06probably quite late because the possibilities are so many.
17:08Shakespeare never actually
17:10tells us for certain why
17:12Antonio is so sad.
17:14Now, these simple
17:16examples take us,
17:18I think, to the heart of our modern
17:20acting tradition.
17:22Relationships, character,
17:24intentions.
17:26So, don't let's lose touch with that
17:28because we'll keep coming back to it.
17:30But what about the Elizabethan
17:32theatre?
17:34We don't know all that much about how they rehearsed
17:36but we do know that direction
17:38in the sense of detailed analysis
17:40of a scene or play probably didn't
17:42exist.
17:44And as far as we can tell, they have no director in our sense
17:46but the author often instructed the actors.
17:48Well, in fact, that's exactly what Hamlet
17:50was doing in the Speak the Speech
17:52passage that we read earlier
17:54He actually wrote the speech that the
17:56players are going to insert into their performance.
17:58He thinks he's got the right to direct it as well.
18:00The Elizabethan actors had very little rehearsal
18:02virtually none in our terms.
18:04Yes, the diary of an Elizabethan
18:06theatre manager shows us
18:08that they might have as many as
18:1040 plays in their repertory in a
18:12year and they put on a play
18:14in a few days.
18:16And indeed, the outdoor theatre
18:18with its particular demands, its
18:20distractions,
18:22forced perhaps on the actors a cruder style
18:24than what we aim for.
18:26There was certainly a traditional style of acting
18:28which was formal
18:30and bombastic which Shakespeare
18:32tried to get away from.
18:34What we do know that they didn't have is
18:36the luxury of time that we have at the moment.
18:38I mean, we now
18:40approach characters rather as
18:42a psychiatrist would approach
18:44a patient. We sort of sniff around him very often.
18:46We don't even stand up with the text
18:48until three weeks into rehearsal.
18:50It took ten weeks to rehearse a Shakespeare
18:52play and as John Strauss said, they
18:54often had only a few days.
18:56And actors didn't in fact have the whole text
18:58to study it. I mean, even leading actors
19:00had their parts
19:02written out separately with nothing
19:04but their own cues added.
19:06In fact, I can remember when I first started in rep
19:08one used to get
19:10just what things called cue scripts
19:12which were only
19:14your part with
19:16the cue immediately before it, just the last
19:18sentence so you could tell whether you
19:20had a big part or a small part
19:22that fortnight because it would either be
19:24this thin or that.
19:26But I mean, no sense of the whole play.
19:28And yet Shakespeare wrote for the
19:30Elizabethan theatre and he wrote
19:32these infinitely rich and complex
19:34plays with great psychological
19:36depths. I don't think
19:38he'd have done it if his actors couldn't have done
19:40him justice. And I believe
19:42that he both accepted
19:44his own theatre and his own tradition
19:46and yet himself transformed it.
19:48In a sense, I think
19:50that Shakespeare is the
19:52inventor both of characterisation
19:54in depth and of
19:56naturalistic speech.
19:58There's not much of it in the theatre before him.
20:00Let's look at the fashion
20:02that he inherited. First
20:04let's hear a
20:06conqueror boasting. Alan,
20:08read a bit of Tamburlaine the Great.
20:10I will
20:12with engines never
20:14exercised conquer, sack
20:16and utterly consume
20:18your cities and your golden palaces
20:20and with the flames
20:22that beat against the clouds
20:24incense the heavens
20:26and make the stars to melt
20:28and till by
20:30vision or by speech I hear
20:32immortal Jove
20:34say cease
20:36my Tamburlaine I will
20:38persist a terror to the world
20:40making the meteors
20:42That's what it does to your voice
20:44you see. Making the
20:46meteors that like armoured men
20:48God
20:50murder Marlow.
20:52I'll carry on. Making
20:54the meteors that like armoured men
20:56are seen to march upon the towers of
20:58heaven run tilting round
21:00about the firmament and break
21:02their burning lances in the
21:04air for honour
21:06of my wondrous victories.
21:08Very
21:10Marlowvian. Here is
21:12high language but there isn't
21:14much character or complexity.
21:16Now let's listen to
21:18a father finding his son murdered.
21:20Ben, do a bit of
21:22the Spanish tragedy.
21:24What outcries pluck me
21:26from my naked bed
21:28and chills my
21:30throbbing heart with trembling fear.
21:34Who calls Hieronymo?
21:36Speak.
21:38Here I am.
21:40I did not slumber therefore
21:42it was no dream.
21:44But stay
21:46what murderous spectacle
21:48is this? A man
21:50hanged up
21:52and all the murderers gone and in
21:54my bower to lay the guilt on me
21:56this place was made for pleasure
21:58not for death.
22:02Those garments that he wears
22:04I oft have seen
22:06alas it is Horatio
22:08my sweet
22:10son. Oh
22:12no but he that
22:14Willem was my son
22:16oh was it thou
22:18that calls me from my bed
22:20oh speak if
22:22any spark of life remain
22:24I am thy father
22:26who has
22:28slain my son?
22:30There's an emotional
22:32situation and yet very
22:34flat language but what Ben
22:36did was to fill it out and give it life
22:38because he lived through the story
22:40and he had to bring
22:42life to something that was
22:44pared down to the bare bones
22:46in actual text.
22:48Now let's look at a third example
22:50of literary
22:52Elizabethan prose.
22:54The rose
22:56although a little it be eaten with the
22:58canker yet being distilled
23:00yieldeth sweet water
23:02the iron though
23:04fretted with the rust yet being
23:06burnt in the fire shineth
23:08brighter and
23:10wit although it hath been eaten
23:12with the canker of his own conceit and
23:14fretted with the rust of vain love
23:16yet being purified
23:18in the still of wisdom and
23:20tried in the fire of zeal
23:22will shine bright and smell
23:24sweet in the nostrils of all young
23:26novices.
23:28As you can see character here
23:30is two dimensional and the
23:32rich language when it's rich can get
23:34monotonous and these are examples
23:36from famous texts
23:38yet in Shakespeare
23:40our traditions both the
23:42modern and the Elizabethan
23:44come together. I believe
23:46our tradition actually derives
23:48from him. In a sense
23:50Shakespeare himself invented
23:52it though he didn't of course know that he did
23:54so at the time. That's why
23:56I believe that the problem that
23:58I've been enunciating of how to marry
24:00the two traditions in fact
24:02doesn't exist once you get to know
24:04how Shakespeare's text works.
24:06If the actor
24:08gets in tune with it
24:10he'll find many naturalistic
24:12clues and hints about
24:14character so that it does in fact
24:16combine the two traditions most of the
24:18time. But it
24:20may not always seem so
24:22to an actor who's new to Shakespeare.
24:24Sheila you've only plunged
24:26into Shakespeare quite recently.
24:28Tell us your feelings of coming to terms
24:30with it. Yes well coming to it
24:32at my great old age I
24:34must say I wondered whether I was going
24:36to have to alter my whole approach
24:38to my work and
24:40indeed during the rehearsal process
24:42and in a situation like this I feel
24:44tremendously inhibited
24:46but I found
24:48miraculously when I got on
24:50the stage and in front of an
24:52audience having to communicate
24:54it was quite extraordinary I found
24:56that if I let it flow
24:58just happen it seemed
25:00the most natural thing in the world
25:02and what's more the language
25:04is so potent
25:06that I felt I had to make less
25:08effort than I've ever had to make in the whole
25:10of my career and certainly
25:12I had to embellish less like
25:14I'm doing now.
25:16Shakespeare gave it more, Shakespeare did it for you.
25:18Yes I mean I find sometimes
25:20that it seems better
25:22just to stand and say it.
25:24Now whether I'd absorbed a lot in the rehearsal process
25:26I mean possibly I had
25:28but I don't know. How do the other more experienced ones feel?
25:30I think that is the main thing isn't it? It's trusting
25:32the language. I mean
25:34I think every actor who approaches
25:36a Shakespeare text
25:38comes to a point especially
25:40in emotional scenes where they think you know
25:42I know exactly how this
25:44character feels, I know the depth of his
25:46passion, I know about what the brain is doing
25:48why have I got these flipping
25:50words in the way? Then it's not the way
25:52I would say it and the leap we
25:54have to get over is that one
25:56so that we have to come to terms with the fact
25:58that the evidence for
26:00who a character is is not just
26:02what he says but how he says it.
26:04We've got to find how and why
26:06the character needs those words.
26:08I remember once with you early on
26:10when I was just starting this need to find
26:12you've got to find that language
26:14that rich language and therefore
26:16you said the very interesting thing, you said the emotion
26:18has got to be bigger
26:20in order to actually create
26:22those words and that was a terrific note
26:24because the moment you actually felt something
26:26realer and bigger then you had
26:28to say those words and they fitted in to what
26:30you were feeling. And we
26:32can take comfort from the fact that people
26:34who come to a theatre
26:36are called an audience
26:38audio here
26:40people who watch
26:42television are viewers
26:44and look rather
26:46than listen. Though I hope today
26:48that you're listening as well.
26:50And we're helped today
26:52because
26:54the tendency is for us to want
26:56to work in smaller theatres
26:58where there isn't
27:00it isn't always easy to have
27:02fortunately the distractions of
27:04the big spectacle
27:06and not much scenery and therefore
27:08the audience are close enough to
27:10pick up every detail of the voices
27:12inflections
27:14it wasn't as easy for the 19th century actors
27:16who were working in large theatres or in America
27:18today where
27:20Shakespeare
27:22and acting is different from ours, I think mainly
27:24because their theatres are much larger
27:26and therefore it leads to
27:28a grander, more
27:30generalised, open style of acting
27:32than perhaps we favour at the moment in England
27:34I think there's an actual difference in the senses
27:36I think that the Elizabethans
27:38probably had a much sharper sense
27:40of smell than us because of the
27:42coldness of the stench in the streets
27:44and also I'm sure they had a much sharper
27:46ear than we have and that they
27:48picked up words in a way that
27:50we don't. We're more trained to go
27:52by the eye aren't we from television
27:54and from films but I bet their
27:56ear was sharper. And equally
27:58words for us are not only
28:00spoken but they are written
28:02where most of us are literate but the Elizabethans were
28:04not literate and words for them
28:06were sounds. And their language was growing too
28:08wasn't it? I mean it was actually a living
28:11really a living thing much more than our
28:13languages. That's right.
28:15Let's look now at a bit of text
28:17in more detail. Let's go back
28:19to the opening of The Merchant of Venice
28:21where Antonio
28:23the Merchant is talking to his
28:25friends Solerio
28:27and Solania
28:38In truth
28:40I know not why I am so
28:42sad. It wearies me.
28:44You say it wearies you.
28:47But how I caught it, found it,
28:49or came by it, what
28:51stuff it is made of
28:53whereof it is born
28:55I am to learn.
28:59And such a scant wit
29:03And such a want wit
29:05Yes
29:07And such a want wit sadness
29:09makes of me that I have much ado
29:11to know myself.
29:13Your mind is tossing on the ocean.
29:15There where your
29:17Argus is with portly sail
29:19like seigneurs and rich burgers
29:21on the flood or as it were the
29:23pageants of the sea
29:25to overpeer the petty traffickers
29:27but curtsy to them
29:29do them reverence
29:31as they fly by them with their woven
29:33wings. Good now
29:35let's compare the two speeches
29:37Now Antonio's is
29:39relatively naturalistic isn't it?
29:41Or isn't it?
29:43Yes it's quite easy I think for a modern
29:45actor to get into it because there aren't many old
29:47fashioned words in it. Though I do know that it's written
29:49in verse and not prose
29:51and I've just occurred to me that
29:53I probably did that speech absolutely wrong
29:55I'm far too slow and ruminative because
29:57Solerio says your mind is tossing on the ocean
29:59and it sounds as if perhaps my mind should have
30:01been more tossing but anyway that's
30:03just a point of interpretation. That's a good thought but
30:05what I want to do is to compare the two. When I say
30:07yours is naturalistic what I mean is it's
30:09naturalistic in comparison with
30:11Solerio. Now his speech is actually
30:13much harder and much trickier because
30:15it's full of images and metaphors like
30:17tossing on the ocean
30:19portly sail
30:21simile like seigneurs and
30:23rich burgers on the flood
30:25pageants of the sea and
30:27curtsy to them. A metaphor
30:29as they fly by them with
30:31their woven wings. Now clearly
30:33his text is heightened
30:35and lifted above naturalism
30:37he's coining phrases, he's finding unusual
30:39words but first let's ask
30:41ourselves our basic question
30:43what's his intention?
30:45I think his intention
30:47is to
30:49cheer him
30:51up
30:53probably by sending him up
30:55or teasing him up.
30:57Good. Well having
30:59established the intention at the start
31:01now what do we do about the language
31:03to further that intention?
31:05Language which you
31:07would call heightened language
31:09can you define that?
31:11Heightened language? Yes I'm taking it a bit
31:13for granted aren't I? I suppose the easiest
31:15way would be to say any language
31:17which is not naturalistic
31:19any place where there are images
31:21and metaphors and similes or
31:23rich surprising language.
31:25So let's just keep comparing the two
31:27speeches and I think the difference is pretty obvious
31:29let's see what happens
31:31for instance if we try to do
31:33poor El Salario's speech
31:35naturalistically just see what happens
31:37Completely flat straight
31:39as I would speak or anybody would speak
31:41just try and see what happens
31:49Well your mind is tossing
31:51on
31:53the ocean
31:55there
31:57where your Argus is
31:59with
32:01portly sail
32:03like senors
32:05and rich burgers
32:07on the flood
32:09as it were
32:11the pageants
32:13of the sea
32:15That's right
32:17well
32:19thank you very much
32:21well doesn't work does it?
32:23It's unclear and it's woolly
32:25to deal with a heightened speech like that
32:27it's just not the way it's written
32:29it must be something
32:31that the actor or rather the
32:33character he's playing
32:35finds for himself because he needs
32:37those words and images
32:39to express his intentions
32:41you need those words to
32:43as we've agreed cheer up and send up
32:45Antonio so you've got to
32:47find them or we can call it coin
32:49them or fresh mint them or
32:51any word that we want
32:53you vent the word at the very moment
32:55that you utter it you need it
32:57desperately it's not just a word
32:59that pre-exists in the text
33:01it's got to become your words
33:03What the director usually asks the actor
33:05to do to deal with a particularly heightened
33:07piece of language is to
33:09put it into inverted commas right but
33:11surely the danger with that is that it
33:13sounds as if the actor has always been very self conscious
33:15about what he's saying and the trick of it is I think
33:17is for the character to put it
33:19into inverted commas so that he's admitting to us
33:21the audience that what the language he's using
33:23is not common parlance it's not
33:25usual speech and we see him
33:27taking pleasure in
33:29in choosing his words
33:31picking his own words or we could say
33:33clarify your intention
33:35as to why you're making the speech
33:37and then decide why you use
33:39those particular words in order
33:41to pursue that intention that's
33:43right in fact the actor needs
33:45to do all that so let's
33:47take the speech again
33:49choosing and coining the words
33:51with the intention of cheering him up
33:53and sending him up as we've agreed
33:55should I just say I'm such
33:57a want wit sadness makes
33:59of me that I have much
34:01to do to know myself
34:03your mind is tossing on the ocean
34:05there
34:07where your argus is with portly
34:09sail
34:11like seigneurs and rich burgers on the
34:13flood as it were
34:15the pageants of the sea
34:17do overpeer the petty traffickers
34:19that curtsy to them
34:21do them reverence
34:23as they fly by them with their
34:25woven wings
34:27that was wonderful because you had a lovely
34:29balance between the heightened elements
34:31and the naturalistic elements and that
34:33balance is something that we're always looking for
34:35and we'll keep coming back to and it's
34:37a great deal clearer too isn't it
34:39and it sounds as natural I
34:41would say as anything that we like
34:43to call naturalistic in the theatre
34:45John there's always
34:47a debate that
34:49rages in me whenever I find
34:51myself with a new text in the rehearsal
34:53room it's the debate between
34:55naturalism
34:57and realism
34:59and I think that there is a distinction
35:01I think that
35:03more and more I find naturalistic
35:05acting that is
35:07totally reported nature inappropriate
35:09when finally I'm on stage
35:11because one is
35:13in an
35:15environment that is
35:17nature highly organised
35:19and therefore naturalistic acting
35:21is not
35:23appropriate
35:25it's a false exercise also
35:27to the Elizabethan mind let's not forget
35:29that to be against nature or to be
35:31not natural was something
35:33profoundly disturbing and
35:35to hold the mirror up to nature
35:37or to owe a step not
35:39the modesty of nature were
35:41maxims to the actor to perhaps just
35:43say root yourself in nature
35:45but then once rooted in nature
35:47remember that your landscape
35:49as an actor the play is
35:51compressed
35:53organised
35:55condensed version
35:57of the truth
35:59where time itself enjoys a
36:01false perspective I mean Lear's whole
36:03destiny unfolds in the space of an evening
36:05that is not naturalistic
36:07but he must be rooted in nature for the
36:09emotions to be real and
36:11contagious yes really the word
36:13naturalistic is just the name for
36:15a style it doesn't actually
36:17really mean natural in the real
36:19sense it's a dangerous
36:21word but I think what if we know
36:23what we mean by it then we're on
36:25much safer ground that's right and
36:27I go back to our point about there has
36:29to be a balance
36:31between being seemingly
36:33natural and getting terms
36:35of the heightened language
36:37we've seen what happens if
36:39we do the speech totally naturalistically
36:41and we've seen David do
36:43it with a beautiful balance
36:45let's now be very
36:47unfair and see what happens
36:49if we go to the other extreme
36:51of losing the naturalness
36:53and overplaying the heightened language
36:55because that's the other trap that we have to
36:57avoid. Ham it up a bit
36:59Ham it up a bit
37:01that's very Ham that
37:07isn't it it's good it's a
37:09good start yeah very good
37:11start
37:15it's always been my problem
37:17your mind
37:19is
37:21tossing on
37:23the ocean
37:25there where your Argus is with
37:27portly
37:29sail
37:31like seniors or rich
37:33burgers on the flood
37:35or as
37:37it were
37:39the pageants of the
37:41sea
37:43to overpeer the petty
37:45traffickers that
37:47curse it to them
37:49to the reverence
37:51as they
37:53fly by them with their
37:55woven wings
37:57I
37:59love you
38:01see why we say balance
38:03yeah but there's a danger in all this isn't
38:05it because it's so easy to laugh at that
38:07and we're all so keen to avoid it
38:09that we get into lunacies
38:11trying to
38:13prove that things are modern
38:15and doing things to try and take the curse off
38:17heightened language for instance
38:19people peppering
38:21a bit of heightened language with little
38:23almost subliminal modern tags
38:25for instance
38:27a line like the barge she sat in
38:29like a burnished throne burned on the
38:31water can all too easily become
38:33well
38:35the barge she sat in
38:37like a sort of burnished throne
38:39you know burned on the water
38:41and you can do that without even being aware
38:43you're doing it well it's got some
38:45sympathy with the actor's instinct to
38:47do that it's just that it
38:49distorts as much as Ham does
38:51obviously the actor has
38:53to find key point
38:55and we can say it and must say it over and over
38:57a balance between those two extremes
38:59so
39:01we've really reached a golden rule
39:03the actor has to
39:05marry the two traditions
39:07of heightened language
39:09and naturalistic acting
39:11I must confess I find it very
39:13difficult to draw a clear
39:15division between what you've
39:17called two traditions
39:19I'm sure you're
39:21fighting to
39:23define a problem but
39:25to me it's probably
39:27more a problem between good acting and bad
39:29acting
39:31any play
39:33that an actor does as
39:35Ben has suggested is
39:37to
39:39it's going to be concerned with
39:41an organized view
39:43the playwright's view of the world
39:45and of the inner world
39:47of ourselves and every
39:49speech we have whether it's in a
39:51soap opera or by Shakespeare is
39:53not going to be like speech in real
39:55life so there's always the problem
39:57of what is the style
39:59of the writing and the
40:01style of acting against which
40:03modern actors of whatever generation
40:05they come rebel is
40:07not the style of the writing but
40:09the style of the actors of the previous generation
40:11and I suspect
40:13that actors from Richard
40:15Burbage the man who first acted Shakespeare's
40:17right through to us
40:19today have all been concerned with
40:21truth and reality
40:23and nature it's just that we've had
40:25different perceptions of them and that
40:27our naturalism of today
40:29is reacting
40:31against the naturalism of say the 19th
40:33century where indeed the
40:35gesture was large partly
40:37because the theatres were large partly because
40:39in 19th century England
40:41everything about the world
40:43seemed to be certain the British Empire was there
40:45and was going to last for a thousand years
40:47and therefore Henry Irving could stand firmly on a stage
40:49with three thousand people
40:51and make declarations
40:53and that was the nature
40:55of life which he
40:57could find within Shakespeare we
40:59with our different perceptions
41:01of the world the fact that
41:03life is difficult ambiguous
41:05complicated the British Empire doesn't exist
41:07anymore and what is our role as a nation
41:09in the world what is our role as people
41:11as parents as children
41:13tends to direct
41:15our attention into the detail
41:17that's right well of course I've been
41:19oversimpling and of course simplifying
41:21things but what always happens when we talk about
41:23acting is that one presents
41:25a sort of label to talk about it
41:27like I've said the two traditions and as soon
41:29as one says it and defines it we have to
41:31qualify because actually we're oversimplifying
41:33there's naturalistic
41:35text in lots of Elizabethan plays
41:37and of course there is heightened language in modern
41:39plays but I still think that my general
41:41point is true that
41:43actors are normally much more at home
41:45with a naturalistic text because that's what
41:47they work on the most today
41:49if they could make this marriage of the two
41:51traditions harmonious and get the balance
41:53right there's no question of the
41:55result being either too naturalistic
41:57or too this or too that it'll
41:59work it'll be real
42:01and we'll accept it
42:03John we've been talking about finding a balance
42:05between nature and
42:07poetry of
42:09of bringing the two elements
42:11together but often Shakespeare achieves
42:13a dramatic effect by deliberately
42:15switching from the one element
42:17to the other oh absolutely
42:19he does so in our example from the
42:21Merchant of Venice now let's
42:23look at an extreme example
42:25and switch to another play for a moment
42:27in Othello there's a wonderful
42:29switch of naturalistic
42:31language following heightened language
42:33here is Othello
42:35when Iago has just been convincing
42:37him that his wife is unfaithful
42:39I had been happy
42:41if the general camp
42:43pioneers and all
42:45had tasted her sweet body
42:47so I had nothing known
42:49oh now forever
42:51farewell
42:53the tranquil mind
42:55farewell content
42:57farewell
42:59the plumed troops
43:01and the big wars that make
43:03ambition virtue
43:05oh farewell
43:07farewell the
43:09name steed
43:11and the shrill trump
43:13the spirit stirring
43:15drum via piercing fife
43:17the royal banner and all
43:19quality pride
43:21pomp and circumstance
43:23of glorious war
43:25farewell
43:29Othello's occupations
43:31gone
43:33gone
43:35is it possible
43:37my lord
43:39it's pretty telling isn't it
43:41single short verse
43:43line is it possible
43:45my lord after all
43:47the colour and the richness that's gone before
43:49contrast
43:51ringing with changes
43:53Shakespeare does this over and over
43:55it's true that a heightened speech
43:57may lift the emotional pressure of a scene
43:59but it's also true that it may
44:01pave the way for something quite down
44:03to earth and very simple which is even
44:05more telling the one style
44:07helps define and set off
44:09the other
44:11now let's go back
44:13to the merchant and look at it
44:15just a little bit further when another character
44:17Solania then come and do Solania
44:19when he joins in but this time
44:21let's take the scene as if it's
44:23the middle of a conversation that's been going on
44:25a long time in truth I
44:27know not why I'm so sad it wearies
44:29me you say it wearies you
44:31but how I caught it found it
44:33or came by it what stuff it is made of
44:35whereof it is born I am to learn
44:39and such a want wit sadness makes of me
44:41that I have much ado to know myself
44:43your mind is tossing on the ocean
44:45there where your Argus is
44:47with portly sail like
44:49Signors and Richburgers on the flood
44:51or as it were the pageants of the sea
44:53to overpeer the petty traffickers
44:55that curtsy to them do them reverence
44:57as they fly by them with their woven wings
44:59believe me sir
45:01had I such venture forth
45:03the better part of my affections
45:05would be still
45:07with my hopes abroad I should be still
45:09plucking the grass to know where sits the wind
45:11peering in maps for ports
45:13and piers and roads
45:15and every object that might make me
45:17fear misfortune to my ventures
45:19out of doubt would make me sad
45:21I know Antonio is sad
45:23to think upon his merchandise
45:25believe me no
45:27I thank my fortune for it
45:29my ventures are not in one bottom trusted
45:31nor to one place nor is my whole estate
45:33upon the fortune of this present year
45:35therefore my merchandise makes me not sad
45:37why
45:39then
45:41you are in love
45:43fie
45:45not in love neither
45:47then let us say
45:49you are sad
45:51because you are not
45:53merry
45:55Antwa is easy for you to laugh and leap
45:57and say you are merry
45:59because you are not sad
46:01very good
46:03very lively mixture
46:05of being both heightened but very real
46:07good
46:09it does help doesn't it
46:11I've done this scene with Ian on my own
46:13working on the heightened language
46:15working on all that
46:17suddenly the introduction of your character
46:19draws out your
46:21yes and I'm able to have fun
46:23with Antonio off you
46:25and the audience learns about
46:27Antonio very quickly by what we
46:29tell them about him
46:31you are not normally like this
46:33is what we're saying
46:35you are not yourself
46:37I wonder where it appears in the play
46:39this wonderful way of exposition
46:41I notice you've been basically using
46:43one word to describe Salerio's
46:45richer language that's heightened
46:47you haven't used the dread word poetic
46:49ah poetic
46:51dread word indeed
46:53a very dangerous word because it's so
46:55general and imprecise
46:57if you say to an actor do it poetically
46:59I reckon that alarm bells ring in his head
47:01well it certainly frightens me to death
47:03yes
47:05don't you think it just takes care of itself
47:07I mean if we use all the things
47:09we've been talking about
47:11the language itself
47:13and our own spirit I suppose
47:15will express the poetry
47:17this is what I've called playing the quality
47:19or the mood and putting a great big
47:21wash of lyricism
47:23or sentimentality over the speech
47:25and above all it can lead as we say
47:27to generalising
47:29well I've deliberately started the program
47:31with a rather humdrum
47:33simple example
47:35because I want to look at what goes on
47:37in the norm of Shakespeare
47:39in our later programs richer and stronger
47:41examples will follow
47:43for now I just want to establish our main point
47:45that playing Shakespeare
47:47is to do with marrying the two traditions
47:49and I'm certainly not suggesting
47:51that one's more important than the other
47:53they're both vital
47:55but it makes sense to start
47:57with our own tradition because
47:59that's what's inside us
48:01and that's what we know best
48:03yes that's the heart of it I think
48:05it's something that
48:07we have to trust because it's there inside us
48:09and it's why I put the Elizabethan
48:11tradition second
48:13so I repeat
48:15marrying the two traditions
48:17it's an idea that we'll keep on coming back to
48:43...
48:45...
48:47...
48:49...
48:51...
48:53...
48:55...
48:57...
48:59...
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