Shakespeare Magazine 07
Kenneth Branagh is cover star of Shakespeare Magazine 07, as the issue's theme is Great Shakespeare Actors. Stanley Wells discusses his book on the subject, while Antony Sher reveals what it's like to play Falstaff. We also go behind the scenes of the My Shakespeare TV series, and Zoe Waites chats about playing Rosalind in the USA. Other highlights include Shakespeare in Turkey, Shakespeare Opera, and the real story of Shakespeare and the Essex Plot. All this, and the Russian fans who made their own edition of David Tennant's Richard II!
Kenneth Branagh is cover star of Shakespeare Magazine 07, as the issue's theme is Great Shakespeare Actors. Stanley Wells discusses his book on the subject, while Antony Sher reveals what it's like to play Falstaff. We also go behind the scenes of the My Shakespeare TV series, and Zoe Waites chats about playing Rosalind in the USA. Other highlights include Shakespeare in Turkey, Shakespeare Opera, and the real story of Shakespeare and the Essex Plot. All this, and the Russian fans who made their own edition of David Tennant's Richard II!
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Great <strong>Shakespeare</strong> Actors <br />
<br />
Above: Author and<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> authority<br />
Stanley Wells.<br />
Left: Kenneth Branagh’s is<br />
<br />
Were there any actors who went<br />
up or down in your estimation?<br />
“Yes, some people went out altogether, I’m<br />
afraid. I’ll tell you one, because he’s not a living<br />
actor… The American Edwin Forrest, I did<br />
some work on, I thought hard about him. But<br />
after reading more I began to feel he was just an<br />
old barnstormer and that he didn’t really deserve<br />
to be counted along with Edwin Booth who<br />
was his contemporary, who was a much more<br />
seriously good actor.<br />
“Charles Laughton was a bit of a dicey one,<br />
actually. He wasn’t a good verse speaker and one<br />
review of his early season at the Old Vic said<br />
‘Mr Laughton would be a great actor if he could<br />
keep his mouth shut’, which I thought was the<br />
ultimate insult. But he did an Angelo which was<br />
obviously very fine, he did a Macbeth which I<br />
think was probably patchy but great. I saw him<br />
here in Stratford when he did Lear not very<br />
well. But he did a very good performance as<br />
Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. So<br />
he got in, in the end.”<br />
Is there an actor inside you?<br />
Is that a different path you<br />
could have taken?<br />
“All teachers are failed actors, I think, ha ha.<br />
No, I haven’t got the temperament to act.<br />
I hope I have an actor somewhere within my<br />
head because in writing about <strong>Shakespeare</strong> –<br />
and especially editing <strong>Shakespeare</strong> – one does<br />
need to be very conscious of the actorliness<br />
of the texts, of the fact that <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
SHAKESPEARE magazine 13
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