Acting Shakespeare - John Barton - David Suchet - Masterclass - Part 8 - Exploring a Character - 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
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LearningTranscript
00:30This evening, we're going to do something we've not done elsewhere in our series.
00:51We're going to look at one of Shakespeare's characters in detail.
00:55Shylock is one of Shakespeare's most famous parts, and today The Merchant of Venice is
01:00perhaps the play that's most argued about.
01:03Some people, of course, feel it's deeply anti-Semitic and ought not to be performed.
01:08Others react the other way and say that if you read the text to write, Shylock the Jew
01:12is intended by Shakespeare to be sympathetic and even a heroic character, and it's often
01:18played that way, so you can take your choice.
01:22Patrick and David and I have done the play together at different times, though neither
01:27of them has seen each other play the part.
01:29So we should all declare at the outset what we believe Shakespeare means us to feel about
01:34the character.
01:36What we believe is that he shows Shylock as a bad Jew and a bad human being, but that
01:44this in itself does not make the play anti-Semitic.
01:47If we thought it was, we certainly wouldn't do it.
01:51Antisemitism is certainly expressed in the play by some of the characters, but of course
01:55that doesn't mean that Shakespeare himself approves of what they're saying.
01:59There are two other Jews in the play, Shylock's daughter Jessica and Tubal, and Shakespeare
02:05does not take an anti-Semitic view of them.
02:08But Shylock is a would-be murderer who refuses to show Antonio the merchant and his intended
02:15victim any mercy.
02:18Those who try to justify Shylock have to work very hard to get round that, though they usually
02:23feel that they can do so.
02:26It's interesting that in Israel most Jews don't seem to have such scruples.
02:30There have been quite a number of productions of the play there since the war.
02:35The problem with the part, I think, really springs from Shakespeare himself, because
02:40he very rarely expresses his own views explicitly in a play.
02:45He shows us here a bad Jew and some bad Christians, and yet he doesn't articulate his view of
02:52the characters.
02:53He lets them betray themselves by their words and actions.
02:57That is Shakespeare's way.
03:00He rarely makes his characters all black any more than he makes them all white.
03:04Yet different critics or actors are apt to pick out the black bits or the white bits
03:08only and to interpret the play accordingly.
03:12It's even been said that there are only two ways of playing Shylock, either as a goodie
03:15or a baddie.
03:17But if we are to read Shakespeare truly, we must look for the delicate ambiguities and
03:23inconsistencies that he provides, as we've seen elsewhere.
03:27These inconsistencies are the character, flawed, contradictory, human.
03:35If I had to say to an actor one thing only about a part, I think I'd choose to say, look
03:41for the ambiguities and the contradictions and play them.
03:47So David, let's first of all get out of the way the question of the anti-Semitism.
03:50Yes, well, being Jewish myself, I'd like to get it out of the way, because I remember
03:56when I was coming up to actually perform the role, I'd get letters from America telling
04:05me or questioning even the very fact that I was doing the role in the first place.
04:12How dare I do Shylock, you know?
04:16And I think that we all have to be very, very careful not just to respond to the play in
04:23relation to the 20th century Holocaust.
04:25Yes.
04:26Patrick, what do you think?
04:28Perhaps for the first time, the last time in this program, I find myself totally in
04:32agreement with David.
04:34The anti-Semitism, the alleged anti-Semitism of the play, because we agree it is not an
04:39anti-Semitic play, it has anti-Semitic elements, is a distraction.
04:44But I also believe that the Jewishness, which is so often emphasized in The Merchant, is
04:50equally a distraction.
04:52David's right.
04:53For us in the second half of the 20th century, the anti-Semitic expressions in the play are
04:58going to reverberate very powerfully.
05:01And the director and the actor won't need to emphasize them.
05:06The reverberation will be present anyway.
05:08But you cannot avoid them and you can't underplay them.
05:11I think, however, to concentrate on Jewishness is to avoid the great potential in the character,
05:21which is his universality.
05:25I think that whenever I've seen a very ethnic, a very Jewish Shylock, I felt that something
05:31has been missing, that something has been lost from the performance.
05:37Shylock is essentially an alien, an outsider.
05:42I think if you see him as a Jew, first and foremost, then he's in danger of becoming
05:47only a symbol.
05:48I think that Shylock is an outsider who happens to be a Jew.
05:55Yes, I would.
05:59Only insofar as that I would interpret Shylock, I'm an outsider, not who happens to be a Jew,
06:06but because I'm a Jew.
06:10I think that the Jewish element in the play, I think, is unavoidably very important.
06:19I think this is probably where we differ, probably in our interpretations.
06:23I'm looking forward to seeing what your Shylock is like, because in each of the scenes, and
06:30they're not that many, well, in three of the scenes, I mean, Shakespeare does manage to
06:34bring a wonderful change in the way that Shylock, the Jew, has a business relationship, a family
06:40relationship, how he responds to his enemies, how he responds to his friends, and also how
06:47he demonstrates the laws of the land in which he lives.
06:51And I think also, Shakespeare never forgets, never lets us, the audience, or the character
06:56forget the Jewish thing.
06:59One only has to look at the trial scene to realize that Shylock's name, even having been
07:03asked, Shylock is your name, Shylock is my name, that he's only actually called by his
07:07name, Shylock, six times, Jew, 22.
07:10Okay.
07:11Well, now let's dig into the part.
07:15We're beginning to find already what we find everywhere with Shakespeare, that there's
07:18an infinite number of interpretations, each actor coming to play the part has to start
07:24afresh.
07:25So where does he start?
07:27He'll probably begin by reacting against previous interpretations.
07:31His starting point, I suppose for most actors, is the crucial question, what did he look
07:37like?
07:38How did he talk?
07:40I should state here that when the part was originally offered to me, my inclination was
07:45to refuse it for one principal reason, which was that it seemed to me that the part was
07:51eternally stuck in a kind of tradition, a ritual about the role, that if I were to play
07:59Shylock, then it would necessarily mean ringlets, long, exotic, perhaps semi-Oriental gowns,
08:09either shabby or decorative to taste, that there was so much traditional appearance and
08:18traditional behavior attached to the role that I could never free myself from it.
08:22I could never find a human being at the heart of that exterior, that set exterior.
08:30So, well, as I began to read the play, of course, something else began to appear, something
08:36else began to unfold about the character, and I found that, indeed, there was a highly
08:40complex and very modern creation.
08:45I decided, therefore, that I would avoid the easily recognizable symbolic elements of Jewishness,
08:51the ringlets, the gown, and the nose, and so on, although I should say that I had a
08:54very large, bushy beard and a lot of long, dirty, tangly hair.
08:59And I wore a shabby, dirty, broken-down frock coat, because I think that the most important
09:04thing, I think, for Shylock in the play is money, possessions, and finance.
09:08Having it.
09:09Therefore, you're not going to waste it on how you appear, so I made an attempt to make
09:12my Shylock very shabby and down at heel.
09:15As for the voice, one thing influenced me.
09:19Shylock is living in a strange culture, an alien culture.
09:23I think that in order to survive, it's necessary, one of the ways of surviving in an alien culture
09:28is to assimilate yourself into it.
09:31Therefore, I gave him an accent which was more cultured, more native than the natives.
09:37So I gave him a cultured, over-cultured, over-refined accent, much more so than the aristocrats
09:44in the play.
09:45You see, I think that the foreignness in Shylock, that which is truly strange and exotic, lies
09:53in the language, not in how he appears.
09:55No one in The Merchant of Venice speaks like Shylock, not even his fellow Jew, Tubal.
10:01If you take, for instance, the Laban speech, there is so much rich and curious, bizarre
10:07use of language in that speech, that that alone says foreigner.
10:11Right.
10:12So, David, what about you?
10:15I chose everything in opposition to that.
10:20I also discovered, as you did in the language, there is a certain rhythm to the language,
10:28which I went with to the extent of even going further with the lilt and slight accent.
10:39I didn't place the accent in any particular area at all, but I wanted to make it foreign
10:46with the language that was foreign, because I felt that was important.
10:51I never wanted anybody to forget that I was an outsider from that point of view, and it's
10:58something that I felt Shylock would not have tried to alter, because my Shylock is very
11:04proud of his Jewishness.
11:07And why hide it, exploit it where necessary, if necessary, which I think he does in the
11:14first scene.
11:16Isn't that dangerous, exploiting it?
11:17No, I don't think so, because I think it's that human behavior.
11:22But I think also my dress, if I can just say, was smart, because yes, motivation, money,
11:31absolutely agree.
11:32But with those that he deals with, he asks what news on the Rialto, the stock exchange,
11:36banking, money, I think that he would dress according to the status that he believes he
11:42has.
11:43Sure.
11:44And as director of the play each time, I found both those images totally acceptable, totally
11:51consistent with the text.
11:53There's never one answer, one always keeps feeling that.
11:56I was as totally convinced by the one as by the other.
11:59But we've gone through the preliminaries, we should start to dig into the play itself.
12:04So what about this famous part that's only got five scenes?
12:09The scenes are all different.
12:11Did you find that?
12:12Yes, every single scene.
12:13It's very characteristic.
12:14Yes.
12:15I found one dominant motivation, one dominant objective for the whole play, which I've already
12:21stated, was that of money, finance, and possessions.
12:25And just to briefly come back to the Jewish question again, whenever Shylock is given
12:29a choice between race and religion, or financial security, commerce, business, he always makes
12:39the commercial choice.
12:40There are scores of, I hate him for he's a Christian, but more for that in low simplicity
12:46he lends out money gratis.
12:47He has disgraced me, yes, he has disgraced his Jewishness, and hindered me half a million.
12:53Always it is the commercial which comes second.
12:55Why there, there, there, he says when his daughter has been taken away from him, a diamond
12:58gone.
12:59Not a daughter gone, but a diamond gone.
13:02So that was the dominant motivation.
13:06But allowing for that, that being the driving element of the play, then I think it's necessary
13:10to isolate the quality and the motivation in each scene.
13:16When studying the part, it's always a terrifying thing with anything like Shylock or those
13:21roles, because of the history of how it's been played, as you say, mostly black or white.
13:27I suppose what I was desperate to try and do was to look at that play without preconception,
13:34and to look at each scene for exactly what it was, for what it said to me.
13:40And to play that.
13:41And to play the, sometimes the inconsistencies of each, and just to see what happened if
13:49I just went with the scene without overlaying something that I had worked out before.
13:56Right.
13:57Terrific.
13:58And with the belief that if you play all of the inconsistencies, when the final inconsistency
14:04is slotted into place, like a piece in a jigsaw puzzle, then you will no longer have an inconsistency,
14:10but a complete and wonderfully colourful and complex whole.
14:14So it's as though little doors open throughout.
14:17Terrific.
14:18Terrific.
14:19Instead of getting all the consistencies, putting them apart, stirring them up, making
14:22a blend of them and playing the blend from the beginning of the play to the end.
14:24Well, that's tough.
14:25Blaster cannon.
14:26Well, no where to go.
14:28Let's just have a look now at it scene from scene, otherwise we'll be doing too much talking
14:32about it rather than doing it, which is the advice we always give ourselves.
14:35Scene one.
14:36So scene one, on the Rialto, and Shylock meets the merchant Antonio.
14:42Let's have a go at it both ways.
14:44And one of you do your Shylock, and the other do Antonio, and then we reverse it and see
14:50how the differences work out.
14:52Okay, the Rialto.
14:57We've brought with us a number of props.
14:58This is one of them.
14:59Who's to wear it first?
15:01You've got it.
15:02You do it.
15:03All right, all right.
15:04I was going to toss that.
15:05Next time.
15:11Signor Antonio, many a time and often in the Rialto you have rated me about my monies
15:18and my usances.
15:19Still have I borne it with a patient shrug, for sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.
15:26You call me misbeliever, cutthroat dog, and spit upon my Jewish gabardine, and all for
15:33use of that which is mine own.
15:36Well then, it now appears you need my help.
15:41Go to then.
15:42You come to me and you say, Shylock, we would have monies.
15:45You say so.
15:46You that did void your room upon my beard and foot me as you spur a stranger cur over
15:53your threshold.
15:54Monies is your suit.
15:55What should I say to you?
15:57Should I not say, have a dog, money?
15:59Is it possible a cur can lend three thousand ducats?
16:03Or should I bend low and in a bondman's key with bated breath and whispering humbleness
16:08say this?
16:09Oh, fair sir, you spet on me on Wednesday last.
16:11You spurned me such a day, another time you called me dog, and for these courtesies I
16:15lend you thus much monies.
16:17OK.
16:18Good.
16:19His.
16:20Change hats.
16:21Change hats.
16:23I'll put on my overcoat.
16:26Overcoat and stick.
16:29Overcoat and stick.
16:32Makes me feel old.
16:35Right.
16:36Signor Antonio, many a time and oft in the Rialto,
16:43you have rated me about my monies and my usances.
17:00Still have I borne it with a patient shrug, for sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.
17:06You call me misbeliever, cutthroat, dog, and spet upon my Jewish gabardine, and all for
17:14use of that which is mine own.
17:18Well, then, it now appears you need my help.
17:27Go to, then.
17:28You come to me and you say, Shylock, we would have monies.
17:30You say so.
17:31You, that did void your room upon my beard, and foot me as you spurn a stranger cur over
17:36your threshold, monies is your suit.
17:42What should I say to you?
17:45Should I not say, hath the dog money?
17:50Is it possible a cur can lend three thousand ducats, or shall I bend low and in a bondman's
17:59key with bated breath and whispering humbleness say this, fair sir, you spat upon me Wednesday
18:05last, you spurned me such a day, another time you called me dog, and for these courtesies
18:11I'll lend you thus much monies?
18:14Good.
18:15Well, I think that initial setting up scene shows the differences very clearly.
18:24Let's just move on now, and perhaps not do, but talk a bit about the next scene in Shylock's
18:30house, and Shylock with his daughter Jessica.
18:34What about that?
18:36I have to confess now that this, whenever this scene ended, I always felt that the substance
18:44of the play was over for me.
18:46It was, it was for me, why are you laughing?
18:50It was for me that gave me consistently the greatest satisfaction in the play.
18:55It differs in one important way from every other scene in the play.
18:58It is the only private scene, it is the only non-public scene in the play.
19:04Shylock is not on show.
19:05For me, the fact that in the other four scenes he was in the public eye meant that he was
19:10always under pressure to perform in some way, to appear as some kind of personality.
19:15He's an actor, isn't he, Shylock?
19:18In this scene, it is not necessary.
19:20It is home, the one place where acting and performance, apart from being unnecessary,
19:24cannot be accepted.
19:25So it was for me the scene in which I wanted to show the real man, the true man that lay
19:32underneath these wonderful multicoloured disguises, and the man that I wanted to show was a man
19:40deeply unhappy, embittered, a man from whose life love had been removed, and therefore
19:49Jessica was a creature who could give him no love, nor could he return it.
19:53I found it a harsh, bitter, unhappy scene, and lay at the very heart of the part for me.
20:01And it was always a sad moment when we left it.
20:05Yes, I was always so relieved when I left it.
20:11Every time I got to this scene, both in rehearsal and performance, oh dear, I never found it.
20:16I never found the right way, well, for me, the right way to play the scene.
20:20Absolutely right.
20:21Shylock is on his own, and also right that in the text there's almost, I remember you
20:28pointing out to me, hardly any word of endearment to the daughter.
20:34My main concern was that, being such a short scene, the only scene that is with his daughter,
20:40as you say, he's replaced his wife.
20:43And I was desperate to give Jessica the necessary reasons for doing what she did.
20:52She does do, she takes an enormous amount of money, one's talking in terms of thousands
20:57upon thousands upon thousands of pounds.
21:00She does most of his business.
21:03And my aim was to make her feel smothered, and to make her feel claustrophobic by his
21:12over-possessiveness.
21:17And by doing that, I had problems, because very often I found I had to bend the lines
21:23to let me do it.
21:25And I didn't quite find it, I'm, if I ever do Shylock again, it'll be to get that scene
21:29right.
21:30But I didn't get it right, and it was a problem for me.
21:33What about the daughter?
21:34What did you feel about Jessica?
21:37How much do you care?
21:39To care?
21:40How much to care for her?
21:41Yeah.
21:42The caring is enormous, but so much has, because of his concentration on survival, so much
21:51has been killed in Shylock.
21:53The real, natural, warm, human, affectionate, loving responses have been cauterized in the
22:00man.
22:02And she is a victim of it, and therefore it is impossible to show the undoubted, unquestioned
22:07love that lies there.
22:09But it's so far down, it can never be tapped.
22:12In our production, remember, we had a controversial moment.
22:14I hit her, I struck her very hard.
22:16And after the blow, made some attempt for a reconciliation.
22:20Perhaps I will return immediately.
22:22But by then the damage is done, and of course she will reject it.
22:25And really behind that is the point you made about the commercial mind of Shylock.
22:30In the end, the money matters to him more than his daughter, when we go on to the scene
22:34in the Rialto.
22:35Yes.
22:36So the love is not as deep as that money love.
22:40Why don't we have a go at a bit of the Rialto now?
22:43Shall we set ourselves up the Rialto at the third scene?
22:48Yes, we need to.
22:50And the table.
23:00All right.
23:01Now, what shall we do?
23:02What are we actually doing now?
23:03What would you like to do?
23:06Shall we look at the long speech to Solario and Solanio?
23:12Yes.
23:13Because that's a difficult point in interpretation.
23:14It's one of the most famous bits in the text.
23:17Hath not a Jew eyes, etc.
23:19Should we not do that?
23:21Good.
23:22OK.
23:23Will you be the other salad?
23:24I would be delighted to be one of them.
23:26Yes.
23:27Here we are.
23:29Here we go.
23:32Go from I'm sure if you will not forfeit.
23:35I'm sure.
23:36Yes.
23:37I'm sure if you forfeit, that will not take his flesh.
23:41What's that good for?
23:43To bait fish with all.
23:46It will feed nothing else.
23:50It will feed my revenge.
23:55He hath disgraced me and hindered me half a million.
24:01Laughed at my losses.
24:03Mocked at my gains.
24:04Scorned my nation.
24:05Thwarted my bargains.
24:06Cooled my friends.
24:07Heated my enemies.
24:08And what's his reason?
24:12I am a Jew.
24:19Hath not a Jew eyes?
24:23Hath not a Jew hands?
24:26Organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions.
24:31Fed with the same food.
24:32Hurt with the same weapons.
24:34Subject to the same diseases.
24:36Healed by the same means.
24:37Warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is.
24:44If you prick us, do we not bleed?
24:47If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
24:49If you poison us, do we not die?
24:53And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
25:00If we are like you in the rest, we shall resemble you in that.
25:04If a Jew wronged a Christian, what is his humility?
25:06Revenge.
25:08If a Christian wronged a Jew, what should his sufferance be?
25:12By Christian example.
25:15Why?
25:18Revenge.
25:22The villainy you teach me, I will execute.
25:27And it shall go hard.
25:30But I will better the instruction.
25:35Right.
25:36All right.
25:37All change.
25:40All change.
25:42Change hats.
25:43All right.
25:44Yes.
25:49Why, I'm sure if he forfeit, that will not take his flesh.
25:51What's that good for?
25:55To bait fish with all.
25:58If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge.
26:03He hath disgraced me and hindered me half a million.
26:07Laughed at my losses.
26:08Mocked my gains.
26:09Scorned my nation.
26:10Thwarted my bargains.
26:11Cooled my friends.
26:14Defeated my enemies.
26:15And what's his reason?
26:18I'm a Jew.
26:21Hath not a Jew eyes?
26:24Hath not a Jew hands?
26:27Organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions.
26:30Fed with the same food.
26:31Hurt with the same weapons.
26:32Subject to the same diseases.
26:34Healed by the same means.
26:36Warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is.
26:39If you prick us, do we not bleed?
26:41If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
26:43If you poison us, do we not die?
26:44And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
26:46If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.
26:49If a Jew wronged a Christian, what is his humility?
26:52Revenge.
26:54If a Christian wronged a Jew, what should his sufferance be?
26:57By Christian example, why revenge?
27:00The villainy you teach me, I will execute.
27:06And it shall go hard.
27:09But I will better the instruction.
27:13Great.
27:18I think that the interesting thing there
27:21was actually at heart and bottom
27:24both of them were alike
27:26underneath the surface difference
27:28because they both did something
27:29which we all worked on together
27:31which is not usually done with that speech.
27:33It's usually done, isn't it,
27:35as an appeal for pathos.
27:37Hath not a Jew eyes?
27:39I am strangely moved.
27:42I am a poor wronged fellow.
27:44And if you do that,
27:46you tip the balance of the play
27:48in terms of its sympathies
27:50and it's within that speech
27:52that if you do go for pathos
27:54and sentimentalise it
27:56that the seeds of playing the all-white Shiloh comes out.
27:58And what was interesting to me
28:00was that though you were wildly different
28:02at heart that was the same
28:04and I think we're all agreed on.
28:06It was for weeks in rehearsal
28:08a black hole for me.
28:10A stumbling block.
28:12I couldn't cope with the speech
28:14because I was seeing it.
28:16This is again the tradition of the role
28:18and acting Shakespeare.
28:20It's constantly present.
28:22We are bombarded by received impressions
28:24performances we have seen
28:26reviews that we have read.
28:28It's so difficult to rid yourself
28:30of those impressions
28:32and go for something which is original
28:34and therefore I believe
28:36that this was a great speech
28:39and I was lucky to
28:41make a discovery
28:43that the speech
28:45in fact is none of those things
28:47but is a calculating cold-blooded
28:49justification of revenge
28:51the complete opposite
28:53of its conventional
28:55interpretation.
28:57I think the big trap
28:59as you say
29:01is the sympathetic trap.
29:05I once again was terrified
29:07by this purple passage.
29:11They are terrifying those speeches
29:13and my way into it
29:15was having
29:17heard from Solerio Solano
29:19his behaviour
29:21with the Duke on hearing about his daughter
29:23which one never really ever sees
29:25but having come down
29:27from that
29:29what is that man's state now?
29:31Having been
29:33ranting and raving knocking at the door
29:36Get out of bed! Find my daughter!
29:38Right, he's now off that
29:40but
29:42these two
29:44people here
29:46they taunt him
29:48they mock him and suddenly
29:50this deep anger
29:52vents itself
29:54and that was my
29:56way into it.
29:58Can I ask a question? What was the physical state?
30:00Do you feel a sense of exhaustion at the beginning of the scene?
30:02Because Shakespeare has done a wonderful thing
30:05he describes Shylock at the height of his passion
30:07off stage. We never see it.
30:09It's all reported by someone else.
30:11So the man that you see is someone who, as you say, has been over that hill
30:13and is now down the other side.
30:15Yes, I'm on my way finished.
30:17That's finished.
30:19In fact, the scene is over before I come in.
30:21It's only they start doing something.
30:23If they didn't speak, I'd go right off the other side of the stage.
30:25I think we've got to go on a bit more
30:27with this scene because
30:29the latter part of this scene
30:31involves the decision
30:33of when does Shylock decide
30:35that he's going to claim his pound of flesh?
30:37When's he going to decide
30:39that he's going to get
30:41Antonia?
30:43Now, usually the decision
30:45is made quite early on in this scene
30:47or made even in the speech
30:49that you've just heard.
30:51But we worked for keeping it
30:53later and later and later in the scene
30:55and what I want you to watch now
30:57is how each of them
30:59comes to that decision.
31:02It's in the dialogue
31:04with Shylock's fellow Jew Tubal
31:06a rich, even more
31:08successful perhaps Jew than he is.
31:10So which of you is going to do it first?
31:12Me. My turn.
31:14We're just organising our props.
31:16Organising our props.
31:26How now?
31:28Tubal?
31:30What news from Genoa?
31:32Hast thou found my daughter?
31:34I often came where I did hear of her
31:36but cannot find her.
31:38Aye?
31:40There?
31:42There, there, there.
31:44A diamond gone cost me
31:46two thousand ducats in Frankfurt.
31:48The curse never fell upon our nation till now.
31:50I never felt it till now.
31:52Two thousand ducats in that
31:54and
31:56other precious, precious jewels.
31:59I would my daughter
32:01were dead at my foot
32:03and the jewels in her ear.
32:05I would she were hursed at my foot
32:07and the ducats in her coffin.
32:09No news of them.
32:11Why so?
32:13And I know not what's spent in the search.
32:19Why thou loss
32:21upon loss
32:23the thief gone with so much
32:25and so much to find a thief
32:28and no satisfaction
32:30no revenge
32:32nor no ill luck stirring
32:34but what lights are my shoulders
32:36no sighs but of my breathing
32:38no tears but of my shedding.
32:40Yes, other men have ill luck too
32:42Antonio as I heard in Genoa.
32:44What, what, what ill luck, ill luck?
32:46Hath an Argosy cast away
32:48coming from Tripolis?
32:50I thank God!
32:52I thank God!
32:54Good news!
32:56In Genoa?
32:58Your daughter spent in Genoa as I heard
33:00one night four score ducats.
33:02God!
33:06Who sticks the dagger in me?
33:08I shall never
33:10see my gold again.
33:12Four score ducats at a city
33:14four score ducats.
33:16There came divers
33:18of Antonio's creditors in my company to Venice
33:20that swear he cannot choose but break.
33:22I'm glad of it.
33:25I'll plague him. I'll torture him.
33:27I'm glad of it.
33:29One of them showed me a ring
33:31that he had of your daughter
33:33for a monkey.
33:37Out of honour.
33:41Thou torturest me, Tubal.
33:45It was my turquoise.
33:47I had it of Lear
33:49when I was a bachelor.
33:51I would not have given it
33:53but Antonio
33:55is certainly undone.
34:01That's true.
34:06Very true.
34:23Go Tubal.
34:27Fee me an officer.
34:31Bespeak him a fortnight before.
34:34I will have the heart of him
34:36if he forfeits.
34:42Were he out of Venice
34:45I can make
34:47what merchandise I will.
34:50Go Tubal.
34:52Go Tubal.
34:54Meet me at our synagogue.
34:56Go Tubal.
34:58At our synagogue Tubal.
35:12I'll bring you to the chair.
35:14I'll greet you behind the chair.
35:20How now Tubal?
35:30What news
35:32from General?
35:34Hast thou found my daughter?
35:36I often came
35:38where I did hear of her
35:40but cannot find her.
35:42Why?
35:44There, there
35:46she is.
35:49There, there, there
35:51there!
35:55A diamond gone
35:57cost me two thousand
35:59buckets
36:01in Frankfurt.
36:05The curse never
36:07fell upon our nation till now.
36:09I never
36:11felt it till now.
36:14Two thousand buckets in that
36:16and other precious
36:18jewel.
36:21I would my daughter were dead at my foot
36:23and the jewels in her ear
36:25would she were hursed at my foot
36:27and the buckets in her
36:29coffee.
36:32No news of them.
36:34Why so?
36:36And I know not what
36:38spent in the search.
36:44Why so?
36:47Loss upon loss
36:50the thief
36:52gone with so much
36:54and
36:56so much to find
36:58the thief
37:00and no satisfaction
37:02no revenge, no ill luck
37:04stirring but what lights on my shoulders
37:06no sighs but of my breathing
37:08no tears
37:10but of my
37:12shedding.
37:14Yes, other men have ill luck
37:16too. Antonio, as I heard
37:18in Genoa. What, what, what?
37:20Ill luck?
37:22Ill luck?
37:24Have an Argosy cast away coming from Tripolis.
37:26I thank
37:28God!
37:30I thank
37:32God!
37:34Is it true? Is it true?
37:36I spoke with some of the sailors
37:38who escaped the wreck.
37:40I thank thee, good Cuba!
37:42Good news!
37:45Good news!
37:47Heard in Genoa?
37:49Your daughter spent in Genoa,
37:51as I heard, one night
37:53four scored ducats.
37:58Now sticks the dagger in me.
38:02I shall never see my gold again.
38:05Four scored ducats
38:07at a city?
38:09Four scored
38:11ducats!
38:14There came divers of Antonio's
38:16creditors in my company
38:18to Venice, who swear
38:20he cannot choose but break.
38:24I'm glad of it.
38:28I am very glad of it.
38:30I'll plague him, I'll torture
38:32him, I am glad
38:34of it! One of them showed me a ring
38:36he had of your daughter
38:38for a monkey.
38:40Out
38:44upon her
38:46thou torturest me
38:48Tubal?
38:50It was my turquoise!
38:54I had it of Leia when I was
38:56a bachelor. I would
38:58not have given it for
39:00a wilderness
39:02of
39:04monkey.
39:10But
39:12Antonio is certainly
39:14undone.
39:18Nay, that's true.
39:22That's
39:24very true.
39:31Go Tubal.
39:33Fee me an officer.
39:36Bespeak him a fortnight
39:39before.
39:43I will have
39:45the heart of him
39:47if he forfeit.
39:49Were he out of Venice I could
39:51make what merchandise I will.
39:53Go Tubal and meet me at our
39:55synagogue. Go good Tubal
39:59at our synagogue.
40:01Tubal.
40:09Well done.
40:11But I think in that too
40:13we got diversity
40:15but in the end a likeness
40:17because they both reached the decision
40:19about what they were going to do about Antonio at the same time.
40:21I think the only comment
40:23I'd make about that is that
40:25the scene in some ways depends
40:27most of all upon Tubal.
40:29Certainly from the point of view of how you interpret
40:31the play. Because
40:33it's what Tubal thinks
40:35of Shylock that defines
40:37anything for an audience, how the Jewish
40:39community look at Shylock.
40:41It seems to me that this scene
40:43is often weighted wrong
40:45if Tubal is a
40:47snivelling sympathetic sidekick
40:49to Shylock. And that what both
40:51you as Tubal did then
40:53was to be at best dispassionate
40:55and detached
40:57and even in the end on the decision disapproving
40:59and that's terribly important for how the
41:01balance of the play goes. I think we've got to
41:03all leap a bit now because we're running
41:06out of time. So I think we should perhaps leave
41:08the little short scene when he meets Antonio
41:10and go on to
41:12the trial scene.
41:14And I think what we should look at in that
41:16because it's what everybody remembers
41:18a Shylock by is
41:20how do you make that final exit
41:22where
41:24the man of teeming words Shylock
41:26has virtually nothing to say
41:28what do you do in that exit?
41:30Let's give our minds to that.
41:32It's
41:35always the great question for any actor playing Shylock
41:37because again, tradition
41:39there are a whole series
41:41of stories about how actors have got
41:43off. I remember you saying to me quite early on
41:45in rehearsal,
41:47how are you going to get off?
41:49And you said that I had
41:51to find a way because every actor must have a way
41:53and history has
41:55told us of some extraordinary ones.
41:57Keane
41:59went through apparently a startling
42:01physical transformation at that moment.
42:03Edwin Booth
42:05invented a detailed and elaborate
42:07mime which went on for minutes
42:09in order to get himself off.
42:11And Irving, Irving the master
42:13again was still
42:15and silent
42:17and moved to the door where he let out
42:19a long sigh
42:21as he left. And of course we have
42:23a great modern version of it too
42:25Olivier's howl
42:27from somewhere way off in the
42:29corridors of the Old Vic.
42:32It is extraordinary that Shakespeare provides
42:34nothing at the end, isn't it?
42:36That's what you have to fill out.
42:38Seems to me that at the end
42:40Shylock who is on top at the beginning
42:42of the trial scene gets
42:44high, hysterically high
42:46when he feels that for once there is
42:48someone on his side. This clerk arrives
42:50stands beside him and says, oh yes you're right
42:52oh yes it's for you, you should have it. I think you shouldn't
42:54do it but nevertheless you are in the right
42:56and he then loses
42:58his sense of
43:00what the others are doing. He loses
43:02sense of the clues that Portia is giving him
43:04about the blood clause
43:06and when finally
43:08the tables are turned on him by the Christians
43:10he is in danger of
43:12losing everything. It seemed to me
43:14then that if possession had been
43:16the dominant theme that the only thing to do then was to get
43:18away with as much as you could and therefore for me
43:20that meant humiliating myself and
43:22crawling. Should we?
43:24So Portia has pointed out
43:26to Shylock that he brought
43:29it upon himself because he asked for justice
43:31and now we just look
43:33at the last part of the scene
43:35Am I Duke
43:37Portia and Antonio Neville?
43:39You're the Duke, you're Portia and you're Antonio
43:41Good. Spot the difference
43:47That thou shalt see
43:49the difference of our spirit
43:51I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it
43:53For half thy wealth
43:55it is Antonio's
43:58Now comes to the general state which humbleness
44:00may drive unto a fine
44:02I for the state not for Antonio
44:04Nay, take my life and all
44:06pardon not that
44:08You take my house when you do take the property
44:10that sustain my house
44:12You take my life
44:14when you do take the means whereby
44:16I live
44:18What mercy can you render him Antonio?
44:20So please my lord the Duke and all the court
44:22to quit the fine
44:24for one half of his goods I am content
44:26and let me have the other half in use
44:28to render it upon his death
44:30unto the gentleman that lately stole his daughter
44:32two things provided more
44:34that for this favour he presently become
44:36a Christian
44:38the other that he do record a gift
44:40here in the court of all he dies possessed
44:42unto his son Lorenzo and his daughter
44:46Art thou contented Duke?
44:48What dost thou say?
44:56I am
45:02content
45:04Mark draw a deed of gift
45:06I pray you give me leave to go from hence
45:08I am
45:10not
45:12well
45:18Send the deed
45:20after me
45:22and I will sign it
45:25Get thee gone
45:27but do it
45:45Do we miss out something?
45:47I didn't notice it
45:49No I mean do you
45:51No
45:53Three different characters
46:09Thou shalt see this difference of our spirit
46:11I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it
46:13for half thy wealth it is Antonio's
46:15the other half comes to the general state
46:17which humbleness may drive unto a fine
46:19I for the state not for Antonio
46:23Take my life
46:25and all pardon not that
46:27you take my house
46:29when you do take the prop
46:31that doth sustain my house
46:33you take my life
46:35when you do take the means
46:37whereby I live
46:39What mercy can you render him Antonio?
46:41So please my lord the duke and all the court
46:43to quit the fine for one half of his goods
46:45I am content
46:47so he will let me have the other half in use
46:49to render it upon his death
46:52If two things provided more
46:54that for this favour
46:56he presently become a Christian
46:58the other that he do record
47:00a gift here in the court
47:02of all he dies possessed
47:04unto his son Lorenzo and his daughter
47:08Art thou contented June?
47:10What dost thou say?
47:22I am content
47:26Clark draw a deed of gift
47:28I pray you
47:30give me leave to go
47:32from hence I
47:34am not well
47:36send the deed after me
47:38and I will sign it
47:40Get thee gone but do it
47:42In christening thou shalt
47:44have two godfathers
47:46had I been judge thou should have had ten more
47:48to bring thee to the gallows not the font
47:51ha
47:53ha ha ha ha ha
47:55ha ha ha ha ha
47:57ha ha ha ha ha
47:59ha ha ha ha ha
48:01ha ha ha ha
48:03well
48:05applause
48:07thank you both
48:09very very much
48:11well
48:13apart from the obvious
48:15moral that there's an infinite
48:17diversity in the way that different actors
48:19play the same part
48:21I would like to add a personal footnote
48:23to what you've just seen
48:25what was my part as director
48:27in shaping these remarkable
48:29performances
48:31well basically
48:33I gave Patrick and David the same directions
48:35and made the same points
48:37both in detail and in general
48:39yet as you've seen the result
48:41was utterly different and individual
48:43that was partly because the same point
48:45made to two different actors
48:48be transformed by their individual
48:50imaginations and personalities
48:52I've often worked with two or more
48:54actors on the same part
48:56and that always happens
48:58I say this to put into
49:00proportion a director's
49:02contribution to a performance
49:04however much he may lead
49:06and prod in rehearsal
49:08the end result will always
49:10belong rightly to the actors
49:12that's one of the reasons
49:14why I always feel that though the
49:16production may be mine
49:18the actual performance is something
49:20that in a deep sense
49:22no longer really belongs to me
49:24playing Shakespeare
49:26is rightly the domain
49:28of the actors
49:30so though I may have strong views
49:32about how Shakespeare saw Shylock
49:34these views were rightly transformed
49:36by Patrick and David
49:38their rich performances
49:40are therefore theirs
49:42not mine
49:44and that I think is how it should be
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