ROMEO AND JULIET, Royal Shakespeare Compa 106), ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS in my fifty years as a director, | have worked on Shakespeare's text with hundreds of sctow, from the greats ~ Ashcroft, Dench, Evans, Gielgud, Oliver, Scofield - to the who were learning about verse and prose as they rehearsed the plays. | Jarred from them all, and | thank them all Mary books have helped me, in particular The Oxford Shakespeare edited by Stenley Wels and Gary Taylor; David and Ben Crystals book Shakespeare's Words; and nacespeare’s Lives by $ Schoenbaum. steful for the support of James Hogan and his colleagues at Oberon Books ~ pariculorly to the raphic designers Andrzej Kimowst and Jeff Wills who have made ble creative contributions to this book. Thanks are due aso to Paul Groothuis or his help in the production of the CD and to Rebecca Hall and Daniel Stevens who inst particularly thank Roger Warren who cast an ent iastic eye over the smanuscipt. More important, he prepared the Shakespeare extracts with minimum punctuation, a task he has performed for me on many stage productions. Jem grateful too to the archivists atthe Royal Shakespeare Company, the Shakespeare eatre; to all the in Stratford-upon-Avon, and the Royal National shotographers whose pictures are included in tis book, and to Richard Pearson for the ‘generous loan of photographs from his collection F aly without the assistance of Maggie Sedwards, this book would rot exist; her help us been extraordinaryPROLOGUE an we mount an authentic performance as Shakespeare would have seen it? No. Authenticity in the performing arts is ultimately impossible. We cannot perform anything, be it dance, music or drama, with any certainty either that we are performing in the right style (we are different people, with different attitudes and different sensibilities) or that we will understand even in approximately the same way as the original spectators. The Shakespeare problem is particulary sensitive. Our language has changed, our ‘accents have altered and our religious, political and social preoccupations have been transformed in the last 400 years. We are literally different people, in scale, appetite ‘and morality. In another 200 or so years, Shakespeare will only be faintly visible ~ rather as Chaucer isto us, Language must change or die. And Shakespeare's language will not always be readily comprehensible; he will soon need translating. A book ike this will then be useless, because with the disappearance of the original words goes the disappearance of the form. tis also why translated Shakespeare is so much modified, if not simplified But for the moment we can pursue in Shakespeare (as we can in performing Baroque music) creative compromise. If we understand the author's formal demands, we have some chance of representing them in modern tetms. Of course performance fashions ‘change: they must, in order to keep up with the subte alterations in the audience's sensibilities, But an iambic beat is stil an iambic beat; a legato phrase in Mozart is stil «legato phrase. The speech doesn’t need sentimental Victorian booming, or the music string-playing with 2 19th century vibrato, The modem equivalent can be found providing we honour every part ofthe original that still speaks to us. What 2003 means by ‘trippinoly on the tongue’ (which is to Hamlet's taste in his advice to the players) will become something very different by 2053, But it should stil tip. Nonetheless, there are major dificultes. | have done many productions of Shakespeare where the verse speaking has been highly praised by some critics and roundly condemned by others. Someone must have been wrong. The reason for these contradictions is that there are no accepted standards of verse speaking and not much ‘agreement on the old rhetorical forms, Some people like emotional Shakespeare which Is almost sung; some don't. Those who lke the singing often think itis poetic. | lke wit ‘and restraint, and | believe Shakespeare liked them too. Hamlet aga Speak the speech I pray you a I pronouned it to you, trippingly onthe tongue; but Ifyou mouth itas many of your players do, I had as lief the town rier had spoke my lines. oc do mat of sen nnn a ne fro nga gt ok or om se st jthms in a Sunday morning sermon. ‘This is partly why there are ee yan apes, weaken pcos dnt al pa os rhe productions which dor gh Fa oe comet et 2 em tnd commer fom hear orc ‘omarunicate whose verse gets every kind o communice ey ki peo Fe ho condemned an actor for his appalling verse speaking as Shy lonceread a critic es ; im that in inthe Tubal scene. Clely nobody ha pointed ut 19 a : and Tibal speak entirely in prose. The rhythm should be di rou act, ob tras 2 em fase, A Rune Ya 902 plicin Oe Toemenc nN ble een ec se Hort He woud er tlre ren pets and ois we iw ng we Jiticians want to be seen on television, sor and formal aguent. Toy oo ena car ‘any other man in the street, with as many ‘you Knows’ and coos ‘ ‘a ane heat wo be hoe oma onside atic can mse noma vn ston «hoger om oben an deceit ot ane, he A yn a vy cic Sepa es An a rds speech and expresses its meaning through the form, the 2 yoy mgt ot une ty ed he speech ‘once to themselves. scala becouse the le tc Src cori 25 ts re pein ren se oe roe, wets yr eat! est heat rene an sad jt he oposto ~ eee ‘communication. Its five beats made up 2 phrase sean esumert of ms er ee myc an asdece od take wt 9 see hese are difficult times for the clas consistency. | have worked in a theatte tors to speak verse. They had — all of them Inthe past it was hardly necessary to tain a ‘al theatres Spr matted m0 moth Sake cote ee Jassical tours that the rhythm came naturally to them. It played in the - ey aad tors are now exposed to lit son a ping ve. Young ars Tea SHARUCTS eee ne Shakespeare because most eon theatres cannot afford to do plays that requite ior than a dozen actos, And drama schoo spend tle time waning young actors in Shakespeare because they know Its ulkely tbe used inthe profesional theatre Only a smal percentage of actors wil evr actualy do Shakespeare and that wil be because they have joined the Royal Shakespeare Comey oF the Natona Theatre Shakespear, iti thought, i of litle use forthe beravoursl understatement of tlevson acing. The fact that is ithe best rairng for any actor or ary seis overooked. There is no beter way for an actor to iain his intl, fs bod, is breathing, his woe, and his sis in communicating with an auience than by paying Shakespeare tan Ohmpic couse in acting. fhe resulting performer isa rough and Crude actor who is flo oestatement, then e no true Shakespearean ane has hot een wel ght eis dean the fo ing te om yong hese dea that we delicately fulfil it : and Some actors confuse verse with ‘poetry sone wn one es hich they take tobe the indulgent ane Of high emtion to snp bial nes Purl passages they tay wth usc cl than But verse i not necessary ‘poetic or even ‘pu’. Ard itcerainy sr in Shakespeare. The main purpose of his ves iso represent ordinary speech ad tela story uid tis best, is quick nd clear. And fits delivered with lve accents a writen and tiny serge bea fot a stp) atthe end ofeach re, communication with an audience Is immediate, That is why Shakespeare wrote in iambic pentaetr; he it want tobe ‘poet’, he wanted 0 be understood. He earns hs poetry an his metaphors when the erations become interse. He can then rote fom pi sex iment ge th Ase seo rs pana things ~ Lear's button, oF Cleopatra corset ~ to break our hears. Most of his great ement aye bastd onthe mundane nd th pee elec tiatid hyperbolical. aoe ‘SHAKESPEARE’ ADVICE TO THE PLAYERS: Speaking Shakespeare vse and prose isan easily learned technique tes about Tine days for an actor to fais himself with what he has to lock for, and takes + tow weeks more for him to become comfortable in the techniques: Shkespeae tals the actor when to-go fast and when to go sow when to come in OY aaonsia when to accent a particular wed or sris of words. He tls the actor much sree an he alae tes Kim whan to do i (rovded the ator knows where to 100K) Ait ie never tel him why. The mothe, the why, remains the ceative task of the actor Hh to endorse feelings in rimself which support the form that Shakespeare’ tot has gen him. Fr instance, the words may tel the actor to speak slowly because hey he monosyabic; but they vl not tl him wy. The actors emotions must do hak. vreasued speech must be credible because tis supported by the appropiate ermonon avril seem imposed and unreal But tis gves the actor an almost infite aaeen ot ehoices. And, once achieved, form and fetinginterreact on eachother and trom one. So form comes fist and, if itis observed, it helps provoke the Feeling. hore are some fifty actors who pratibe this technique in Britain and there are 2 nal of directors. Many of this select band ar of the older generation and know edo it smply because they performed so much Shakespeare in their youth, Some hight be hard putt tell you the techniques. Tey shape the structure of the Ines and ie ythms naturally, almost without thinking, Mary of the younger acim are 62508 sean, but they can easiy be put off by the sound of the tecrical terms oF he 1 inorence of dvectors. Derystifction and practice are, as usual, the main needs Ahan all the ana}ss has been done, speaking Shakespeae fie riding 2 Beye of skating at the local ice rink ~ it suddenly happens. Actors quickly understand tat, iF they know the technique, they have a bets: chance doors the tet work. They ae empowered then to make the audience listen and wo erstand. This desir to achieve the forms weaker in directors, pethaps because they vometimes feel (wrongly in my opinion) that they are being forced into old pattern’ saver than allowed to pursue the new. Yet they need to understand tat even though vical phrase as a numberof defined and unalterable notes, ts capable of ingrite avy: tean express anything. The somes trve ofa ne of Shakespeare But nies ‘hose who put onthe plays nor those who study te pays have recognised how much shakespeare tells us about fis form, and therefore how he should be performed, Scholarship over the centres has pad ite attention to Shakespeare’ verse suite evo the balance of Ws prose, Bul then scholrshi, Isuppose, has usvaly been cand