For this year’s autumn reading, I am looking at Shakespeare. Not his plays, or books about his life, but books about actually working with his text.
Published in 1984 John Barton’s Playing Shakespeare is the companion to the workshops previously recorded for Thames Television/Chanel 4. Drawing on his extensive work with the RSC as director and teacher Barton starts by breaking down complex verse and prose (using both the plays and sonnets), emphasising understanding the meaning behind the words, their nuance and subtext. Barton explores the interplay between language, emotion and physicality, through case studies he shows how subtle shifts can change recitation to fully inhabiting the character. Thus Barton unlocks the hidden clues and directions to be found in Shakespeare’s text. As Barton himself says “When an actor becomes aware of them, s/he will find that Shakespeare himself starts to direct them”.
Giles Block leads the text work at London’s The Globe Theatre and is the author of Speaking the Speech, An Actor’s Guide to Shakespeare. One of its key sections (for me and why I keep reaching for it) is Block’s clear explanations of prose, rhymed and unrhymed verse, the distinctions between them and how to approach each when speaking them, plus paying attention to Shakespeare’s original punctuation and his use of silence. Block also provides practical exercises for the reader to work on, though concentrating his examples on a few specific plays (Hamlet, The Winter’s Tale, The Merchant of Venice and Much Ado about Nothing) these exercises can be applied to whichever play the reader is working with, making this book a valuable resource for any performer or director working with Shakespeare.
In the days before books written by actors were relatively common, I distinctly remember Sir Antony Sher’s book Year of the King being published. It is both a memoir and chronicle of Sher’s year spent playing Richard III with the RSC in the 1984-85 season. The book begins with the actor’s apprehensions about playing the role, the intensive research he undertook into Richard’s life and the previous interpretations of the role. He goes on to detail the hours of vocal exercises, movement training, and psychological exploration under the guidance of director Bill Alexander to bring his Richard to the stage. The book also offers insights into the workings of the RSC with contributions from cast members, designers and stage crew who helped bring the production to life. Year of the King offers an intimate glimpse of the workings of one of our greatest Shakespearean actors from initial casting to performance and is a fascinating read for anyone with an interest in Shakespeare and performance.