Shakespeare Magazine 11

shakespeare
At last! A magazine with all the Will in the world
FREE
Issue 11
Top of the
Bottoms
Al Murray and
Judi Dench at
Shakespeare Live
Macbeth
A dark new
graphic novel
and an edgy
underground
production
A Victorian
Ophelia
The tragic death of
Elizabeth Siddal
Hiddleston
is Hamlet
(As imagined
by us)
Love Kills
Richard Madden and Lily James:
From Cinderella to Romeo and Juliet
with Kenneth Branagh
Plus Talawa’s King Lear Samira Ahmed The Wars of the Roses

Welcome
Welcome
to Issue 11 of Shakespeare Magazine
As you may have noticed, 2016 is a pretty big anniversary year
for Shakespeare. Indeed, there’s been so much going on that we
haven’t come close to covering it all. But what never fails to
surprise me is how controversial Shakespeare still is.
Yes, the Bard certainly arouses extreme emotions. (To the extent
that some people passionately hate the very term “the Bard”)
I think the controversy stems from the fact that Shakespeare
remains alive to us in ways that no other artist from the past does.
Which means that people appraise and judge Shakespeare the way they
would any other present-day creative force in theatre, literature or film.
Every day on Twitter I see sweeping statements of the “Shakespeare
would have loved/hated this” variety. Personally, I try to exercise a
more cautious approach. Shakespeare’s my hero, but if I think I know
his mind, I’m probably kidding myself.
It can get exhausting, all these battles and wars that are always being
fought over Shakespeare. But it’s also exhilarating, because no other
figure from history has such an ongoing impact on global culture.
One can’t help but wonder what the man himself would have made
of it all. Well, he’d have made a bloody good play of it, probably.
Enjoy your magazine.
Photo: David Hammonds
Pat Reid, Founder & Editor
Donate to Shakespeare Magazine
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shakespeare magazine 3

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At last! A magazine with all the Will in the world
shakespeare
FREE
Issue 11
Top of the
Bottoms
Al Murray and
Judi Dench at
Shakespeare Live
Macbeth
A dark new
graphic novel
and an edgy
underground
production
Love Kills
Richard Madden and Lily James:
From Cinderella to Romeo and Juliet
with Kenneth Branagh
Shakespeare Magazine
Issue 11
October 2016
Founder & Editor
Pat Reid
Art Editor
Paul McIntyre
Contributing Writers
Stephanie Pina
Jenny Richardson
Kayleigh Toyra
Thank You
Mary Reid
Laura Pachkowski
Thomas Xavier Reid
Real Design & Media
Katie Nicholls
Web Design
David Hammonds
Contact Us
shakespearemag@outlook.com
Facebook
facebook.com/ShakespeareMagazine
Twitter
@UKShakespeare
A Victorian
Ophelia
The tragic death of
Elizabeth Siddal
Hiddleston
is Hamlet
Plus Talawa’s King Lear Samira Ahmed The Wars of the Roses
(As imagined
by us)
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www.shakespearemagazine.com
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com/category/donate-toshakespeare-magazine/
Contents
6 Italian
Rhapsody
Richard Madden and Lily James
dazzle in Kenneth Branagh’s
Romeo and Juliet.
13
Heart of
Darkness
A compelling new graphic novel
inspired by Prague Shakespeare
Company’s Macbeth.
20 A Front
Row Seat
Broadcaster Samira Ahmed has
some fascinating things to say on
the subject of Shakespeare.
28
Show Us
Your Bottom!
When Al Murray found himself
parachuted in to play the role of a
lifetime opposite Judi Dench…
36
Oh, What A
Lovely War
The legendary BBC production of
the RSC’s The Wars of the Roses gets
a DVD release.
40
Monarch of
Madness
Don Warrington and Alfred
Enoch talk about Talawa Theatre’s
powerful King Lear.
46
Tom Hiddleston
is Hamlet
But here’s what we think TH’s
52
The Girl In
The Frame
Reappraising the life and death of
Elizabeth Siddal, the Victorian model
for Millais’ Ophelia.
58
My Nation
Underground
Insane Root’s Macbeth takes
audiences into a claustrophobic
cavern beneath the earth.
shakespeare magazine 5

Romeo and Juliet
Italian
Rhapsody
In this version of Romeo and
Juliet, the Capulet Ball evokes
modernist sophistication with
touches of surrealism.
6 shakespeare magazine

Romeo and Juliet
Inspired by Federico Fellini’s
La Dolce Vita,
Kenneth Branagh and Rob Ashford’s
2016 production of Shakespeare’s
Romeo and Juliet is an Italian feast
for the eyes and ears.
Words: Jen Richardson
Pictures: Johan Persson
shakespeare magazine 7

Romeo and Juliet
Fatal encounter:
Tybalt (Ansu Kabia)
and Mercutio
(Derek Jacobi).
Broadcast to cinemas in black and white, this version
of Shakespeare’s tragedy is stylish and fast-paced.
Previously paired together in Branagh’s 2015
Cinderella film, Lily James and Richard Madden
embody the title roles with adolescent fervour.
The youthful energy of their portrayal is faultless,
but perhaps it’s played just a little too young to give
their love true credibility. It is the leads’ undeniable
chemistry, though, that carries them through to a
dramatic and well-executed end.
Laced with comedy, this version of the play
is a slight departure from traditionally depressive
interpretations. Meera Syal’s bawdy Nurse provides
the most farcical of comedic elements, whilst
Michael Rouse makes for an oddly young-looking
Capulet patriarch. Peppering the action with
Italian phrases and Mediterranean music, Branagh
and Ashford immerse us in “fair Verona”. Designer
Christopher Oram’s set is imposing and beautifully
lit – the large piazza makes a particular spectacle.
From languid espresso-sipping to desperate
sword-fighting, the action that takes place there is
beautifully balanced throughout.
The famous balcony scene loses some of
its metaphorical value by placing the starcross’d
lovers within unusually easy reach of
each other. Charmingly, “O, Romeo, Romeo!
Wherefore art thou Romeo?” is delivered by a
tipsy Juliet swigging from a champagne bottle.
Detracting from the anguish of this speech, this is,
8 shakespeare magazine

Romeo and Juliet
Lily James and Richard Madden
as Romeo and Juliet at London’s
Garrick Theatre, 2016.
“It is the leads’ undeniable chemistry that carries
them through to a dramatic and well-executed end”
shakespeare magazine 9

Romeo and Juliet
Branagh: Shakespeare’s
Everyman Knight
A BAFTA winner and Oscar nominee,
Sir Kenneth Branagh’s true expertise
arguably lies in his theatrical roots.
Once the RSC’s youngest ever actor
to play Henry V, Branagh was born to
produce and perform Shakespeare.
This staging of Romeo and Juliet follows
the highly successful Branagh/Ashford
collaborations on both Macbeth and
The Winter’s Tale. It is the penultimate
play in the Kenneth Branagh Theatre
Company’s year at The Garrick, and
the last Shakespearean piece. In this
400th anniversary year of Shakespeare’s
death, Branagh’s bounty is, it seems, as
boundless as the sea…
Kenneth Branagh working
with Lily James in rehearsal.
Montague Men: Mercutio
(Derek Jacobi), Romeo
(Richard Madden) and
Benvolio (Jack Colgrave Hirst).
10 shakespeare magazine

Romeo and Juliet
“The charismatic Richard Madden’s run as Romeo
was cut short by an acutely painful ankle injury”
Juliet (Lily James) takes the
microphone for a suitably
stylish musical interlude.
nevertheless, a pleasing bit of characterisation. It
is Sir Derek Jacobi’s mature Mercutio, however –
reputedly based on an ageing Oscar Wilde – that
is the production’s biggest triumph. His advancing
years give new interpretation to some of the lines,
bringing hindsight and wisdom to the fore.
Stealing the show, Jacobi’s Queen Mab speech
is faultless and like a Shakespearean masterclass in
articulation. It is only in Mercutio’s death scene
that the tragedy of ‘a young life cut short’ is lost.
Sadly, also cut short was the charismatic Richard
Madden’s run as Romeo. Suffering an acutely
painful ankle injury, Madden was later replaced by
Freddie Fox (after understudy Tom Hanson also
injured his leg). Having recently played Romeo at
Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre, Fox was praised for
stepping in at such short notice. His performance
met with critical acclaim and allowed the run to
seamlessly continue.
Adding this to his long list of Shakespearean
successes, Branagh delivers a sublimely watchable
production of Romeo and Juliet. Far from biting our
thumb at him, we can only hope that Sir Ken’s next
Shakespearean adaptation isn’t far away.
shakespeare magazine 11

Macbeth
Heart
of
Darkness
Completed in just 28 days,
Stewart Kenneth Moore’s graphic novel
of Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a starkly
powerful descent into blackness.
Delving deeply into history and myth,
he told us its fascinating backstory.
Interview by Pat Reid
shakespeare magazine 13

Macbeth
T
ell us about your association with the Prague
Shakespeare Company, and how your
version of Macbeth came about?
“Several years ago, I started sketching actors at
work in rehearsals. I’ve done a fair bit of acting
myself and theatrical elements have long been
a theme of my work. But my ‘Stagecraft’ series
began with the Prague-based group Blood, Love
and Rhetoric in rehearsals for Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern Are Dead and Faustus. I admired
PSC’s Macbeth and asked Guy Roberts (Director/
Actor) if I could make similar sketches of their
work, and they kindly agreed. It’s a pretty sensitive
time for an actor, so I’m grateful to be allowed
access. I sketch in the shadows where no one can
see me – I’m a ghost.”
Your adaptation is very true to Shakespeare’s
text, and yet you’ve added what feels like
a pagan, Celtic sensibility. Where did that
come from?
“My Macbeth follows the work of PSC very closely,
the play has been reduced for a small theatre and a
limited troupe of actors. Visually, I tried to nest my
Macbeth in the archaeology of the Grampian and
Highland regions. I have had a life-long interest in
archaeology and in particular neolithic stone-circle
sites. I decided I wanted to transfer the Prague
stage performances to the Scotland that lives in my
memory, where I grew up, and the very ground
that was home to the historical King Macbeth.
“The North East is strewn with standing-stone
sites, there are probably more there than anywhere
else in Britain. Some of the most interesting stones
have been worked and are known as ‘symbol
stones’. The meaning of the symbols is mostly
lost on us. But these particular stones date from
around 900AD. In terms of menhirs, that’s fairly
recent and not all that far away from the time of
the historical King Macbeth. MacBheatha mac
Fhionnlaigh was born in the year 1005. I began to
combine what I knew of the world of the historical
‘King Macbeth’ and the character of the play that
was written much later, around 1606.
“Holinshed’s Chronicles state that King
Macbeth did consult sorcerers. Shakespeare
would have worked from these chronicles, and
the sorcerers may have been the last of a dying
Celtic system of belief. Although Shakespeare
made them wretched characters Holinshead
refers to MacBheatha’s witches as ‘creatures of the
elderwood’. To the people of the year 1000 those
symbols and that ‘Elderwood’ would likely have
had a very real meaning. In addition ‘Sueno’s Stone’
stands at the edge of Forres and may or may not
refer to an attempted invasion of Scotland by sea,
an invasion mentioned in the opening lines of the
play as repelled by Macbeth.”
Is there anything significant you decided to
add or take away from Shakespeare? If so,
what were your reasons?
“I think it’s an elegant reduction that manages to
combine or remove characters without losing the
drive of the play. But one thing I did do was reintroduce
Fleance, Banquo’s son, in one scene, as I
wanted to show that he escaped to Wales. Also, in
the PSC version, Macbeth kills Banquo, whereas in
my version I re-introduce his murderers.
“I wanted to transfer the Prague stage performance of
Macbeth to the Scotland that lives in my memory”
14 shakespeare magazine

Macbeth
shakespeare magazine 15

Macbeth
“So I started drawing the PSC version but had
one eye on where I could bring more in from the
original play.
“If I ever produce a special edition of the book
I may show Macbeth repelling the attempted
sea invasion of Sueno ‘Forkbeard’. Shakespeare
mentions it at the beginning of the play. This and
a battle with Irish cavalry. Two very exciting scenes
that I’d quite like to go back and draw.
“I had to be careful to avoid ‘talking heads’ so
I kept showing memories and extrapolating on
statements. In one case – as Macbeth speaks his
plans for Banquo – I realised I could give it a very
ironic turn by beginning with Macbeth, showing
the flight of Banquo and Fleance and ending with
Banquo facing assassination. This, to me, gave the
meaning of the text to both characters. If I were
to film it, I’d switch voices midstream, because in
doing so it can be seen as a victory for Banquo,
those could be his words too. As if the ghost that
later raises a glass to Macbeth is already gloating at
having saved his son and his line.”
If I had to describe your graphic novel in one
word, it would be “blackness”. What led you
to such an uncompromising visual approach
for Macbeth?
“Atmosphere, speed and economy. I decided
Macbeth could and should be legible, even if
produced on the worst Xerox copier. I’ve done
other works that have fine lines and wild colours
and have been hampered by how impossibly
expensive they are to print. One reviewer wrote
that I treat ‘white’ as an afterthought – it was a
compliment. It’s a dark play, so my method works.
I like that some things won’t be obvious at first
glance, like shadows on paper. Technically, in
scenes rich in shadow, it’s quicker to pick out light
than it is to build up shadow.”
I was reminded of Alan Moore’s exploration
of the occult in From Hell, in that the
supernatural element seems very real in
your book. Is this intentional?
“It is intentional. I believe Shakespeare wrote
Macbeth as an almost Oedipal fever-dream and
not as a ‘real’ set of events like other plays. Sleep
and sleeplessness and the mention of dreams come
up again and again. As though it’s a ‘Midwinter
Haunted: Stewart’s original oil painting
of the sleepwalking Lady Macbeth.
Night’s Nightmare’ and not events in real time.
The way he doesn’t show the murder of Duncan
and the transition of before and after in this
scene just evokes the strange inevitability of some
dreams. Magic is real in dreams, and daggers can
dance in the air in our nightmares. Foreboding can
spring up in a dream and we can feel we have done
something terrible without having dreamt it.
“But there is politics at play here too. Banquo’s
line is that of James I, the king on the throne in the
time of Shakespeare, and the Bard is re-enforcing
that James is of the rightful kingly line. James I
was originally James VI of Scotland and he worked
hard to make himself seem a goodly Christian king.
I think it may be true that the English population
was very suspicious of him. Those who were
tortured at the Berwick witch trials suggested the
devil was out to get this king, I believe this was an
elaborate propaganda message for a superstitious
population. If the devil was trying to kill the king
he must be a good king, right?
“My suspicion is William Shakespeare was at
some level poking fun at this king and the more
spurious claims surrounding his line, but I can’t be
certain.
“I have included quotes from ‘Newes from
Scotland’ in a section at the back of the book. This
was a London pamphlet that Shakespeare clearly
used as a source. The witches in Macbeth claim to
16 shakespeare magazine

Macbeth
“I’d like to show Macbeth repelling the attempted
sea invasion. This and a battle with Irish cavalry”
have power over ‘land and sea’. It was said at the
trials that witches, at the behest of Satan, had tried
to sink a royal ship carrying the queen, Anne of
Denmark. In a time rife with witch-burnings this
was a form of ‘bread and circuses’.
“People will confess to anything under torture,
and I believe all the statements recorded were put
there to advance the Stuart line of kings in the early
days of the union.”
Alongside all the martial manhood, there’s a
great deal of female power in this play – with
the Witches and Lady Macbeth. How did you
approach this element?
“I must admit I enjoyed it. It was refreshing to see
such strength of purpose in the female characters,
in fact startling – it seems very modern because it
is so uncompromising. Admittedly Lady Macbeth
does seek strength by asking to be ‘unsexed’ but she
is already so much more determined than Macbeth
himself that it’s a wonder she would need any kind
of transformation. We are journeying into her
mind here and it’s a dark place. To some extent
it was just easy to watch and draw the excellent
performances of Jessica Boone (Lady Macbeth)
and the various witches. But then I also felt that I
didn’t have to worry too much about maintaining
a graceful appearance for Lady Macbeth. As the
story progressed I let her change in some panels to
become more witch-like herself. But I made her
more graceful again when she began sleep-walking,
perhaps to reflect a kind of remorse that I think is
there in the play. They both have those moments of
reflection.”
Many Macbeth productions take place in a
shakespeare magazine 17

Macbeth
kind of nightmare landscape, but you were
inspired by some very real and specific
locations?
“Yes. I briefly lived near Cawdor in the early
’90s and so Nairn beach makes an appearance. I
also slept in a cave on the coast somewhere near
Findhorn in 1986. I’ve since learned about pagan
ritual items found in some of these coastal caves.
My memory of the cave and those beaches appears
in this book. My castles are fanciful but based
on the rubble ‘causeway’ atop Bennachie. The
remnants of an ancient vitrified citadel, now long
gone, inspired this. One of the stones on the cover
is from the foot of Bennachie. The middle stone is
based on ‘Sueno’s’ at Forres. The stone on the back
is there to honour Prague, it is the Stone Shepherd
located 50 miles from Prague.”
You completed the graphic novel incredibly
quickly, in what sounds like a near-Olympian
feat. Can you tell us about the process?
“I was completing four or five pages a day at
times. I did all the drawing in 28 days, one cycle
of the moon was the goal. With other books
I would sketch, refine, then ink the drawings.
With Macbeth I just drew it finished right away,
and allowed no refinement. The flow was the
most important thing, it was high-energy and
low maintenance. I decided not to look back or
fix anything. In that way it was very automatic.
Refining things can actually halt production,
and, to a certain extent, elegance and fine-line art
wouldn’t work. It had to be brutal and raw and
jarring and horrifying, just like the story.”
There are other Shakespeare comics out
there – graphic novels, manga, spin-offs
like Kill Shakespeare and Toil and Trouble.
Were you influenced by any of these?
“No. I was unaware of them at the outset. But I
soon saw they were out there and barred myself
from looking. I did the same with film, I would
not watch the films. The night I finished I watched
Polanski’s version. I was disappointed that he
showed the murder of Duncan. That was a stupid
decision, Shakespeare didn’t do that and he didn’t
do it for a very good reason. Polanski totally missed
the point of that non-scene in my view. I think
our Macbeth is more terrifying, I have yet to see
Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood or re-watch the Orson
Welles version, I saw it as a boy.
“I’ve since seen some of the comics and it
delights me there are so many ways to tell this
story. I am aware that at least one is fully based
on the original First Folio Macbeth, whereas my
version is a study of Prague Shakespeare in action.
So mine is more like a documentary in that sense
because it is based on real actors.”
Will you be exploring more Shakespeare
works in this medium? If so, which will you
be taking on next?
“I hope so. I began sketching Richard llI, but it
really will depend on how well Macbeth sells.
It is now available from Gosh! Comics in London,
and I’m delighted to say that I received an
order out of the blue from the National Theatre
Bookstore. So if anyone wants more of my
Shakespeare, please support my work via these
stores or on Amazon. ‘Stagecraft’, my ongoing
sketches of actors at work, will continue either way.
As an actor and artist, I’ll do that all my life, I’ll
always draw my friends on the stage.”
Stewart Kenneth Moore’s The Tragedie of Macbeth:
A Graphic Novel is available now. Order from:
Amazon
National Theatre Bookstore
18 shakespeare magazine

Samira Ahmed
“The best productions I’ve seen have often been
international ones. A South Korean Midsummer
Night’s Dream, a Kabuki Twelfth Night,
a Samurai Coriolanus with great warrior
robes and swords and loads of blood”
20 shakespeare magazine

Samira Ahmed
A
Front Row Seat
Best known for her work as co-presenter of
BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, Samira Ahmed is one
Interview by Pat Reid
You’re a massive pop culture aficionado, able
to discourse on everything from religion
in Star Wars and the passion of early ’70s
British Asian David Bowie fans to the politics
of superhero films and feminism in ’50s
Westerns. Do you view Shakespeare as part
of this – or does it reside in a separate highculture
universe?
“Of course Shakespeare’s at the heart of it all.
The real revelation was when I went to see
Kenneth Branagh’s Thor, which he’d petitioned
Marvel Studios to be allowed to direct, and which
he transformed into King Lear in Asgard. Tom
Hiddleston’s Loki was clearly Edmund, Anthony
Hopkins was Lear, and – if only Hollywood
allowed women to do anything – Renee Russo
would have had an interesting Gertrude from
Hamlet-like relationship with Loki.
“I asked Bryan Singer about casting in
superhero films and he said he deliberately got
Shakespeareans Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart
on the first X-Men film because you need that epic
understanding to make superheroes come alive.
He said he was inspired by Christopher Reeve –
a great, Julliard-trained stage actor – and Glenn
Ford in Superman. Everyone does it now, but
Superman was the first to put the two together.
Tom Hiddleston, one of our greatest superhero-
Shakespeare hybrids, was directly inspired by Reeve
too, noting how Reeve was mocked by fellow
students, and indeed by highbrow figures in the
theatre world, for daring to treat a comic book hero
with respect and love. I miss Reeve so much.
“And there are loads of Westerns which are
quite overtly Shakespearean, most obviously in
those big themes about revenge and cruelty and a
quest for power, but more literally too on a plot
level. Red River is an all-male King Lear, but with
a happy ending. Yellow Sky is The Tempest. There’s
something about the rules of the Western, like the
rules of the sonnet which enable great creativity
because of the constraints. It’s what you can do
within the format when everyone knows the rules
and the tropes that audiences come to see.”
shakespeare magazine 21

Samira Ahmed
Samira presented
The National
Theatre’s NT Live
cinema broadcast
of As You Like It in
February 2016.
Did you have a formative Shakespeare
experience? I know from experience that
parents who place a high value on education
often drum the Bard into their children...
“Although my mum’s an actress I had no predirection
towards Shakespeare. In fact, when we
first read Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar and
The Merchant of Venice in Year 8 at my school, I
decided I loathed him. The language is undeniably
hard at first encounter and Merchant is a bizarre
choice to foist on children at that age. I felt
genuinely cross at all the fuss being made about
this writer! There’s much more innovative teaching
now to get younger children into Shakespeare
through exposure to the theatricality of it. About
six years ago I saw the RSC did a great Twitter
Romeo and Juliet around the streets of London
in a kind of real time – so brilliant. I can’t even
recall what Shakespeare play we did for O-Level
but I do know that my English teacher Mrs
Anne Kirman was amazing and she transformed
my understanding of him. We did Measure for
Measure and Hamlet at A-Level and I fell in love
with Hamlet like teenagers do. The transformative
moment was probably being taken to see Hamlet
for the first time in the lower sixth in 1984 or ’85.
It was with John Duttine at the Thorndyke Theatre
in Leatherhead, in Elizabethan costume. It all came
alive – I loved it.
“The single greatest Shakespeare experience of
my life was Robert Stephens as Falstaff in Henry IV
Part 1 and 2, with Michael Maloney as Hal. First
time back on stage after decades in a Falstaffian
real-life wilderness of his own, and I was very close
to the front row. It was a faultless, charismatic
performance. It felt like he made eye contact with
every member of the audience.
“They have such great plots, too. I never fail to
be excited at the way Hamlet builds to that climax
with all those bodies strewn across the stage at the
end, and you think: WTF, how did we get here?
“It was school trips that made me discover
theatre. It wasn’t something my family did. Mrs
Kirman took her small Oxbridge class to the
“Interestingly the Fiennes/Goold Richard III has
almost no blood in it. The horror is all in the
presentation and the ghastly menace on stage”
22 shakespeare magazine

Samira Ahmed
National Theatre as a treat after the exams and I
suddenly realised how it was a place where you
could feel comfortable and enjoy yourself. Little
things, like her buying us programmes and ice
creams, that made it fun. That started me off.
After I graduated I started going regularly to the
National and the Barbican when the RSC was
there and started following the careers of all these
young talents like Simon Russell Beale and Penny
Downie and Ralph Fiennes, who I first saw in The
Plantagenets. To interview some of them 20 years
later as their careers mature has been all the more
delightful as a result.”
You told me that you had “the best
Shakespeare teacher in the world at
university”. Can you tell us about this
experience, and what kind of light it shone
onto Shakespeare for you.
“I was lucky to be taught by Reggie Alton shortly
before he retired at St Edmund Hall, Oxford,
where I read English. He was such a kind and
modest tutor but so brilliant. We didn’t do
Shakespeare until the second or third year of our
degree, so by the time we got to it I was a bit jaded
and, after all the detail of study for A-level and
Oxbridge entrance, I didn’t think there was much
more to learn.
“But little things – the way he recited lines was
really moving, the way he explained the power of
the ideas in the lines – took me by surprised and
jolted me out of my complacency. He made me
fall in love with Much Ado – probably my favourite
play ever since. We would read out extracts in class
and once he told me afterwards that I was rather
good and he could tell there was a performer in me.
I was so incredibly flattered that he thought so, and
it boosted my confidence.
“Reggie had fought in the War and been
decorated and then come back to college to teach,
but never talked about the terrible things he’d seen.
I tried to imagine how that must have affected such
a sensitive man when he studied all those history
plays about violence and cruelty. He made callow
young students like me learn to trust our instincts
on analysing writing. I felt ashamed if I did inferior
work. It took me years to realise how much his
lessons had influenced me. They changed my
attitude to everything.”
Ralph Fiennes’ Richard III at London’s Almeida Theatre
made a powerful impression on Samira.
I’m going to quote some rather fabulous
words of your own back at you: “I saw
Richard III last night with Ralph Fiennes and
have come up with a whole theory about
that play and Hamlet…” Tell us more!
“It just came to me after watching Ralph Fiennes’
Richard III. Richard is Hamlet’s evil twin. An
Anti-Hamlet. A Hamlet of Dark Matter. A mirrorimage.
The plays were only written a few years
apart. They’re both 30-ish. Richard was apparently
32 when he died. Both are on a mission within
a family dynasty to gain the throne, both treat
wives/girlfriends and mothers pretty appallingly.
But where one is crippled by procrastination,
Richard is all action despite his physical disabilities.
Both have a direct relationship with the audience
through soliloquies, and when Hamlet speaks
of “how all occasions do inform against me” – it
could be Richard, not Fortinbras that he’s watching
with admiration and self-loathing. Imagine them
confronting each other through a portal between
dimensions. I can imagine Fiennes’ Hamlet seeing
his Richard III and realising that, in a way, there’s
really nothing between them.”
You also said that the Ralph Fiennes
Richard III gave you “very violent dreams”.
I’m intrigued by this statement, as a lot of
shakespeare magazine 23

Samira Ahmed
Shakespeare seems to happen on a kind of
dream level. And obviously Freud was very
interested in Shakespeare...
“I’d recently watched The latest Hollow Crown
on TV when I went to see Richard III, with
Vanessa Redgrave’s haunting Margaret, and had
memories of Fiennes’ Henry VI for the RSC too.
It all merged, and I dreamt of Sophie Okonedo’s
Margaret covered in blood – absolutely drenched
in it, with more blood being poured over her.
Interestingly the Fiennes/Goold production has
almost no blood in it. The horror is all in the
presentation and the ghastly menace on stage.
To be fair, my dream was as much about stagecraft
– I was thinking about how much stage blood was
left in the bucket. It wasn’t about Freud at all.”
When you were working for the BBC in Los
Angeles, you covered the shocking and
hugely controversial OJ Simpson trial, which
I think at the time, 1995, was already being
described as ‘like a Shakespearean Tragedy’.
What are your recollections of that now?
“I’m sure I never said it was Shakespearean. It
wasn’t. When you stripped away the celebrity status
and the circus of news media around him it was
an all too familiar domestic violence case. A man
who had beaten up his wife, then stalked her after
their separation. I guess there’s something of the
and director Michael Pennington.
arrogance of celebrity that matches the delusional
self-importance of Shakespeare’s royals.
“I don’t think Brits have ever understood
that OJ Simpson was to Americans what David
Beckham is to us. A golden idol. People didn’t
want to believe that he was a nasty wife beater. I
remember the details of the knife wounds, how
the civil court damages included amounts of a
few hundred dollars for the slashed clothing of
Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman. I worry that in
covering these real-life cases too many news reports
underplay the violence. I watched the American
news journalists and they were caught up in the
glamour. Some even went to a barbecue at his
house during the civil trial. I couldn’t believe it.
But I don’t think there’s anything tragic about OJ
Simpson. I remember seeing him outside court.
He was a handsome man with a warm smile, a lot
of money and a great lawyer. I’d seen him in those
comedy films he made, and never had a clue about
what went on behind closed doors in his home.
There are many more men like him who abuse
their partners, but they’re not famous.
“I notice how often good productions
emphasise the long, drawn-out violence of murder
– like the death of Desdemona in the Adrian Lester
Othello. But if we’re honest, Shakespeare’s audiences
got titillation out of them. He knew what he was
doing. Look at Titus Andronicus. I think we’re
fortunate that his writing is so good that these acts
of violence take place in plays that are emotionally
powerful and moving, too.
“Michael Pennington told me recently the
power of Shakespeare is the catharsis, which is
why he doesn’t think Lear is unbearable to watch.
I think that play actually is unbearable. I would
prefer a happy ending. I really would.”
I saw an interview with you where you
discussed your fashion influences – things
like Bette Davis and Rita Hayworth in the
’40s and Eleanor Bron in the ’60s. I wondered
if this aesthetic preference extended to
productions or films of Shakespeare,
favourite actors and actresses and so on?
“I saw a Powell and Pressburger-style RSC Merry
Wives of Windsor at the Old Vic some years back
in ’40s costume. It was wonderful. They had gas
masks and everything. I think there’s a lot more
24 shakespeare magazine

Samira Ahmed
“There’s something about the rules of the Western, like
the rules of the sonnet which enable great creativity
because of the constraints”
mileage in ’40s costume, especially in these vintageloving
days. But I just like being surprised.
“When I started going to Shakespeare a lot in
the 1980s there was a real fashion for everyone to
be in ’80s suits, like yuppies. It was still a new idea.
Suits had taken over the world. We were in awe of
their secret codes of dealing and their money. I saw
Measure for Measure the first time that way at the
Young Vic. It was amazingly effective.
“I think it became a bit of a lazy cliché
sometimes, but it’s interesting how often it still
works. Sometimes, though, I feel short-changed.
I want spectacle, and I wonder if it’s because actors
don’t tend to wear suits every day that they like
dressing up that way. For the audience, it can feel
like you’re just back in the office and I find myself
thinking, Did you get that dress and jacket from
Hobbs? Or Wallis?
“On another period, If I’m honest I don’t see the
point of Edwardian costume. It’s become a boring
fall-back. The best productions I’ve seen have often
been international ones where they’ve transplanted
the whole play to another culture with its costumes.
A South Korean Midsummer Night’s Dream, a
Kabuki Twelfth Night, a Samurai Coriolanus with
great warrior robes and swords and loads of blood.”
Last year you wrote an article for The Big
Issue about how disturbing you found the
unsanitised anti-semitism of The Merchant
of Venice (in a production at Shakespeare's
Globe) and you drew some chilling
comparisons with the UK today. How do you
feel about that, a year on?
“Jonathan Pryce’s performance and the whole
production was a transformative experience. Its
power was in how you saw it from two different
perspectives at the same time – the racist, antisemitic
romp for Elizabethan crowds, which still
draws laughs, and the modern self-aware drama in
which the ‘heroes’ are, as Pryce himself has said, a
bunch of Bullingdon-type toffs used to getting their
The Hollow Crown featured in Samira’s dream.
way. Adding the conversion scene at the end, where
you see the punishment inflicted, is a moment of
genius.
“Let’s follow the logic, the director is saying, the
happy ending means this. It’s a moment of absolute
horror. I was so unsettled by the experience. It’s
been great to see the story, like Marlowe’s The Jew of
Malta, get re-staged in the past year because we have
a chance to question the mindset of the past. What
passed for fun, how people were dehumanised and
demonised.
“To question how do you play these characters
now? I wonder if we ought to think about some of
these comedies as ’70s sitcoms. Who would think
of re-making them word-for-word sincerely now?
There’s got to be an awareness and a challenge to old
attitudes, even while you celebrate what’s still fun
about them.
“In a Britain where the EU referendum campaign
brought out all these bizarre false memories of an
authentic ‘lost’ happy pre-immigration, pre-women’s
and pre-gay liberation Britain, it seemed especially
relevant.”
shakespeare magazine 25

Samira Ahmed
You also made a connection with some of
Shakespeare’s cross-dressing romps and the
much later British entertainment staple of
Carry On films. Again, tell us more, please!
“I love drag so much, I can’t tell you. And,
of course, most of us grow up never seeing
Shakespeare in this really artificial way. Instead we
see it cast with the characters gender-true, instead
of dragged up. But if you look at some of the best
Carry Ons, they’re brilliantly playful about gender
and love. Men are always going undercover as
women. Funny how Shakespeare didn’t do that
double drag.
“There’s a terrific romance at the heart of Carry
On Matron. Kenneth Cope is rather a handsome
hero, forced to dress up as a nurse for his father’s
scam. There’s a great scene where Barbara Windsor
realises he’s a bloke and they start snogging, both in
their nurse dresses. And he gets hideously sexually
harassed by Terry Scott’s leering doctor, who the
nurses call ‘The Taxidermist’. Now, as much as
in 1972, it’s a very clever, funny way to present a
rather serious issue. Like Shakespeare, they’re just
trying to be fun, but there’s really charm in the
romances sometimes, set against broader comic
players and plots. Roy Castle and Angela Douglas
in Carry On Up The Khyber are a great example. I
also notice how often Carry Ons feature terrible
complications, but in the end the pompous fool
is exposed and all’s well that ends well – with a
wedding, just like a Shakespeare comedy.”
Am I right in thinking that one of your recent
gigs has been presenting live Shakespeare
broadcasts such as the NT Live As You
Like It? Can you tell us what that involves
for you? And also what you think about
Shakespearean ‘event cinema’ in general?
“As You Like It was my first and only experience of
NT Live so far. Because it was a very technically
complex staging – with all the desks and furniture
hoisted up in a remarkable visual scene change to
transform into the Forest of Arden – I didn’t get
to be on the stage doing any interviews. But I’d
love to do more, as I really appreciate the idea of
enabling the audience to get a little behind-thescenes
insight into these amazing productions.
“The crews who film these are all talented
TV and film personnel who’ve worked on big
“It was school trips that made me discover theatre…”
Samira pictured as a sixth former in the 1980s.
outside broadcasts like The Proms. Watching the
rehearsals with cameras on booms and cranes,
I realise how there’s a whole new tradition of
visual interpretation being developed in these live
screenings, very much more complex and satisfying
for the audience than the old filmed stagings of
years ago. Jim Dale, who Laurence Olivier brought
into the National Theatre Shakespeare comedies
at the same time as Dale was still working on
Carry Ons, told me how none of his stage work
had ever been properly recorded. There are a few
photographs of his Shakespeare work. There’s
one recording on a static camera from the back of
the theatre of his Barnum. That’s such a loss for
future generations. How brilliant that with cinema
live, not only can many more people experience
something of the thrill of live theatre – and while
it’s better than nothing, I’d still hope it doesn’t
replace the real thing as the GCSE drama row rages
on – but also it’ll preserve the work of so many
great stage actors for future generations.”
Listen to Samira on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row
bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qsq5
26 shakespeare magazine

Al Murray
Show us your
Bottom!
The full cast of Shakespeare
Live performers on stage
at Stratford-upon-Avon on
Saturday 23 April 2016.
28 shakespeare magazine

Al Murray
Shakespeare Live saw the BBC
team up with the RSC for one
of the great television events of
2016. And one of our favourite
moments was when ‘Pub
Landlord’ comedian Al Murray
tackled the role of Bottom
from A Midsummer Night’s
Dream alongside Shakespearean
acting legend Dame Judi Dench.
Here, Al tells us all about the
experience…
Interview by Pat Reid
Pictures: Helen Maybanks
Fairy Queen Titania
(Judi Dench) woos the
transformed and bewildered
weaver Bottom (Al Murray).
shakespeare magazine 29

Al Murray
t
Oberon (David Suchet) and
Titania (Judi Dench) are
reconciled at Shakespeare Live.
took a moment for realisation to dawn
that the man playing Bottom onstage at the
world-renowned Royal Shakespeare Theatre
was in fact the pint-slinging British comedy
institution Al Murray, The Pub Landlord.
And when the unmistakable voice of Judi Dench
unfurled the immortal the line “What angel wakes
me from my flowery bed?” it was clear that we had
entered the realms of the legendary TV moment.
Several months after the event, we asked the
talented Mr Murray how it all came about…
Al, I’ve always wanted to see you tackle
some ‘proper’ acting, but it simply didn’t
occur to me that you might have a crack at
the Bard – sorry! Was this something that
had always been on your bucket list?
“Yes, but not something I thought would come
about the way that it did. I did some Shakespeare
after school, youth theatre stuff, and always liked
the essential puzzle of how to make the words
work – because if you can make them work there’s
nothing like it. I played Oberon and Theseus in a
30 shakespeare magazine

Al Murray
“Everyone was nervous. But a problem shared
between a hundred people is a problem dissolved”
production of Dream – I can still remember one
speech from that – and then I played Antonio and
Orsino in Twelfth Night. But comedy drags you
away from thoughts of such legit endeavours.”
Shakespeare Live certainly chucked you in at
the deep end with one of Shakespeare’s alltime
greatest comedy roles…
“It was the most amazing experience. In February,
I think, we had a call asking if I was interested.
Was I interested! Greg Doran then called, and we
had a short conversation, when perhaps you might
expect a longer one. I just said ‘Yes, sure, of course,
yes please, I’ve always wanted to play Bottom’. And
we sort of left it there –‘We’ll send you the sides,
put April 23rd in your diary’. As the RSC had
been running A Midsummer Night’s Dream with
the mechanicals played by local casts, dropping me
in to play Bottom made lots of sense, but I’d have
agreed to do it on ice, upside down, whatever.”
Were you always aware that you would be
doing a scene with Judi Dench? How did it
feel when you were told?
“Well, initially it wasn’t going to be Dame Judi.
I forget who I’d agreed to be playing opposite. I’d
been in Australia for the Melbourne International
Comedy Festival, so when I got back there was a
call about booking rehearsals into the diary, but
this time ‘with Dame Judi Dench’. This was a
shock, to put it mildly – and naturally my bragging
rights soared in value!”
As you can probably guess, Shakespeare
Magazine’s readers absolutely adore
Judi Dench. She’s one of the greatest
Shakespearean actors, the finest speaker of
Shakespearean verse, she’s THE voice. Did
you feel daunted?
“Daunted, thrilled, determined not to make a
mess of it! She was wonderful to work with, calm
personified. And when she turns to you as Bottom
and says ‘I do love thee’ – well, she means it.
Top: Rufus Hound and Henry Goodman
perform ‘Brush Up Your Shakespeare’.
Above: Cleopatra (Harriet Walter) with
Charmian (Amy Rockson, left) and Iras
(Bathsheba Piepe, right).
shakespeare magazine 31

Al Murray
And as Bottom, with those ears and whiskers and
general ugliness, you believe it.”
Did you have a lot of rehearsals, or was it a
case of the old ‘just turn up and do it’?
“I had several rehearsals earlier in the week and
then the day before. I’ve played the RST (Royal
Shakespeare Theatre) before, doing my own shows
when it’s been dark on a Sunday, but this was all of
a different order. Waiting in the wings with John
Lithgow… I’ve a long way to go to top that.”
It’s also quite a saucy moment for Titania and
Bottom, which Dame Judi delightedly played
up to. Prompting a priceless pile-up of facial
expressions from Bottom...
“Well, the thing is, with Dame Judi you know
you’ve not got a lot to do. The basic piece of
direction Greg gave me was to just listen and the
rest will follow.”
Your backstage selfies from Shakespeare
Live were beautiful – Al Murray, Judi Dench
and the actors playing Titania’s fairies. It was
actually the most popular thing Shakespeare
Magazine has ever tweeted – well, apart
from Benedict Cumberbatch. Were you
aware that Shakespeare was quite a thing on
social media?
“No! But the night was clearly going to be a big
deal. It reminded me of the sort of thing the
BBC used to do – ambitious, deliberately highbrow-meets-populist,
having the confidence in
Shakespeare and a lot of talent to take over a whole
night of television. More please.”
Apart from your own role, what were your
highlights of Shakespeare Live?
“Being part of a company. I am so used to doing
my own stuff, and when we tour we travel in
a small touring party – my tour manager, my
technical guy and me. When I wait in the wings
it’s just me, and it’s a long time since I got that
Top: Beatrice (Meera Syal) and Benedick
(Sanjeev Bhaskar) from Much Ado About Nothing.
Above: Shakespeare Live’s suitably sparkling hosts
David Tennant and Catherine Tate.
nervous. At Shakespeare Live everyone was nervous
– live TV, a huge juggernaut of a show that you
didn’t want to make a mistake in or hold things
up. And each part of the show was called down
to backstage to be mic’ed up, and everyone was
nervous. And because everyone was nervous it was
shared, and a problem shared between a hundred
people is a problem dissolved.”
“The basic piece of direction Greg Doran gave me was
to just listen to Dame Judi – and the rest will follow”
32 shakespeare magazine

Al Murray
“Someone came and measured my head, and two
weeks later there were amazing lifelike hairy ears”
“What angel wakes me
Judi Dench’s Titania
with attendant fairies
in Shakespeare Live.
I think it was GK Chesterton who said that
Bottom is a better part than Hamlet, and
over the years I’ve come to appreciate the
role’s comedic brilliance. What’s your take on
it? Do you have a favourite line or moment?
“It’s a great part for a comic. You get to occupy
the place astride the fourth wall. You’re in both the
magical and the real worlds in the story, taking the
place of the audience member, earthing the magic
to the base metal of the human animal spirit and
libido. I had the advantage of playing opposite
Dame Judi so I could surrender easily to the
business of being perfectly upstaged.”
Needless to say, I have to ask you about
Bottom’s rather magnifcent ears.
“Someone came to my house and she measured my
head, and two weeks later there were ears, amazing
lifelike hairy ears. I spent all day in makeup on the
Friday for rehearsals and they fell off. On Saturday
a new way to fit them was devised, which meant I
had to leave them on all day. All. Day.”
A few weeks after Shakespeare Live, the BBC
transmitted the Russell T Davies version of
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with Matt Lucas
taking quite a low-key approach to Bottom.
Is this a role that every comedian should
tackle at some point? It seems to be like a
decathlon for comedic ability...
“I didn’t see it, but it’s a great role for a comic.
You have to let your inner donkey out.”
Have you had a life-long relationship with
Shakespeare? What have been the key
components?
shakespeare magazine 33

Al Murray
“The night was clearly going to be a big deal:
ambitious, deliberately highbrow-meets-populist”
Guest starring Prince
Charles, Shakespeare Live’s
‘Seven Hamlets’ sketch
delighted fans of the Bard.
“My parents took us to Stratford as well as the
Barbican – ‘in order to make us cultured’ was the
joke. We saw Ken Branagh’s Henry V, Macbeth,
Romeo and Juliet, a very bawdy Winter’s Tale and
plenty of other plays. Sometimes my parents
would have a dinner thing with friends and we’d
read a play – when I think about that, it’s utterly
absurd but wonderful too. But there was lots of
Shakespeare, as well as A-Level English. We did
Hamlet – which I love – and Othello, which I did
not get on with at all!”
I recall a Twitter exchange we had over the
‘cakes and ale’ line from Twelfth Night – you
pointed out that Shakespeare was poking
fun at puritans. Was your Pub Landlord
character influenced by some of those
boozy, anarchic Shakespeare characters like
Falstaff and the Twelfth Night roisterers led
by Toby Belch?
“Yes, very much so. These characters as we receive
them in Shakespeare are iterations of such solid
archetypes that I’m quite happy to be a small part
of that echo.”
Finally, will we be seeing you in any more
Shakespeare roles? And are there any you
would particularly like to tackle?
“Oh, whichever ones I’m lucky enough to be
offered!”
Al Murray The Pub Landlord is currently on tour.
He performs at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in
Stratford-upon-Avon on 14 May 2017.
Full tour dates here
34 shakespeare magazine

Nick Sample
Creative Graphic Design & Print for Theatre
As featured in
Posters, leaflets and postcards
Programmes
Banners and pop-up stands
Company ID and logo design
Promotional brochures & newsletters
Souvenir Items
For further information or to receive a PDF portfolio,
simply e-mail Nick at njcsample1@mac.com
or call +44 (0)7950 332 645 or visit his web thing at www.nicksample.com
‘Is it not strange that design should so many years outlive performance?’ Henry IV, Part II (well, almost)
Hillbark Players 19th – 24th June 2017
An open-air production in Royden Park, Frankby, Wirral, Merseyside, U.K. All seats under cover.
William Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy
For further information about Hillbark Players, and to apply to take part in the Open Auditions, visit
www.hillbarkplayers.co.uk
OPEN
AUDITIONS
28th November –
5th December 2016
You could play Hamlet!

Review: The Wars of the Roses
Oh,
What a
Lovely
War
Eight hours of spectacular
1960s RSC Shakespeare
captured by the BBC in
glorious black and white…
With as much intrigue,
betrayal and calamity as the
Bard could imagine, TV epic
The Wars of the Roses is at
last available on DVD.
Review by Pat Reid
36 shakespeare magazine

Review: The Wars of the Roses
On television, the Shakespeare landmark of 2016 is
the BBC’s The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses.
But at least a few of you reading this will recall an
earlier scaling of this Shakespearean peak – five
decades earlier, to be precise.
In 1963 the Royal Shakespeare Company
was but a bright young thing under the visionary
leadership of Peter Hall and John Barton. And it
was they who hacked and cajoled Shakespeare’s
Henry VI Parts 1-3 and Richard III into a single
entity, first for the Stratford and London stage, and
then, in 1965, for the small screen.
Fifty-one years later, I sat down to watch The
shakespeare magazine 37

Review: The Wars of the Roses
Wars of the Roses with a slight sense of trepidation.
It’s well known that John Barton made literally
hundreds of cuts and rewrites to Shakespeare’s
text. Had he “done a Colly Cibber”? Would
the effect be a kind of cod-Shakespearean
pantomime? I stopped short of watching the
production with one eye feverishly checking an
Arden Shakespeare text, but it was a gnawing
concern. I soon relaxed, however, and I have to
admit I couldn’t spot any obvious interpolations
– and certainly nothing of the glaring “Yo, my
lords, how’s it hanging?” variety.
Now, big confession time: I haven’t watched
the entire eight hours of the production yet. And
not only that, I haven’t even watched it in the
correct sequence. Rather comically, I started on
the wrong DVD, but I found The Wars of the
Roses so instantly engrossing that I couldn’t bring
myself to stop and go back to the beginning until
40 minutes had elapsed. And yet, isn’t that the
whole point of owning the moveable feast of a
Shakespeare box set? You watch it when you want
to, and how you want to – and no one can tell
you off for watching it wrongly.
For instance, I particularly loved the staging
of the Jack Cade rebellion, so when it finished I
immediately watched it again. Roy Dotrice (who,
impressively also plays Edward IV) is an anarchic
delight as Cade. I also spent an hour or two
happily zipping between any scenes I could find
38 shakespeare magazine

Review: The Wars of the Roses
with Janet Suzman (who plays both Joan la Pucelle
and Lady Anne) and Ian Holm (Richard III), both
brilliant. Equally watchable is David Warner as the
unfortunate Henry VI. Warner projects an ethereal
sense of intelligence as Henry vacillates between
regal entitlement and hapless indecision.
As today, the RSC harboured a mixture of
rising young talent and venerable old veterans. In
The Wars of the Roses you definitely get a sense of
the acting profession’s tectonic plates grinding in
new directions. In his early forties at the time, the
much-loved Donald Sinden (York) already seems
a bit old-fashioned, while the 56-year-old Peggy
Ashcroft steals the show as Margaret of Anjou, her
rage conveyed with an odd, trilling voice.
The 1960s political refercences may have lost
their edge, but the production’s fire remains. For
me, this three-DVD set will be a much-savoured
Shakespearean treat for many years to come.
The Wars of the Roses (Illuminations Media)
3-disc DVD / 505 minutes including extras
£29.99
Buy your copy here
shakespeare magazine 39

King Lear
“While we unburdened
crawl towards death…”
Lear (Don Warrington) sets
out to divide his kingdom
among his three daughters.
Monarch
of
Madness
Don Warrington has national treasure status for his
inimitable presence in TV comedies from Rising Damp
to Death in Paradise. This year, the veteran British
actor has taken on perhaps the most powerful
Shakespeare role of all – King Lear. A collaboration
between London’s Talawa Theatre Company and
Manchester’s Royal Exchange, the production also
featured rising star Alfred Enoch as Edgar.
Pictures by Jonathan Keenan
40 shakespeare magazine

King Lear
“I was scared of it, and I think that’s a telling sign.
In theatre, if something frightens you – do it”
The blinded
Gloucester (Philip
Whitchurch)
encounters a Lear
who has lost his
grip on sanity.
For over 40 years, British audiences have had
the chance to see you on stage, on TV and in
film. How do you select your projects?
“I don’t really choose my projects as such. Sarah
Frankcom asked me if I wanted to do it. I was
scared, I was frightened of it, and sometimes
I think that’s quite a telling sign. If something
frightens you, particularly in the theatre, do it.
Because the theatre demands a great deal from you
in terms of commitment. This is only the second
theatre production I’ve done in three years and I’m
very happy to do things like this.”
You are the first black actor to play King
Lear since Ben Thomas in Talawa’s 1994
production and, prior to that, Ira Aldridge in
1860. What is the significance of this?
“It is a fact, there were black people in this time
period. Racism didn’t actually exist back then as
we know it today and I think that’s important.
This is what history does and if you can do history
properly, then do it. In this case that means saying
‘Look! We were here, end of story’.”
How did you prepare for performing the role
of King Lear every night?
“Every night you begin at the bottom and you
work your way to the top. In a sense it’s easier, but
in another sense, every time I come to the theatre
before the show, I’m nervous. It’s a long way up
and I’m hoping I get to the end. That’s the nature
of the play, I think.”
Is it reassuring to have a fan base that will
come out to see you in theatre productions?
“I have no idea whether fans of mine come to see
me at the theatre, but when I meet people that
have come for the first time, that’s very thrilling.
I met a boy last night who had never been to the
theatre before and he had never seen King Lear.
He had never read it, he didn’t know what the
story was, and he was overwhelmed by it. I think
that is fantastic.”
shakespeare magazine 41

King Lear
How did your involvement in the Talawa
production of King Lear come about?
“This production came about because I had
worked with Michael Buffong at the Royal
Exchange Theatre before [in a critically-acclaimed
production of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons]. Sarah
Frankcom asked me to have a cup of tea with her.
We had a cup of tea in the cafeteria and she said
‘How about Lear?’ I looked at her and really didn’t
think she was serious, so I said ‘Yeah, why not?’
That’s how it started, and three years later we find
ourselves doing it.”
This is one of Shakespeare’s most physically
challenging roles. Did you do anything
special to prepare for it?
“With Lear I thought more than physical
preparation I needed mental preparation. I started
thinking about it a year ago and I read it over and
over again. I would take it with me wherever I
went and I would spend a lot of time looking at
the text. I watched lots of versions of Lear and just
absorbed as much of the material as I could before
we started. I thought about what kind of Lear I
wanted to do and decided that what I want to
present is the man. What sort of man is he? What
stage is he at in his life? That’s where I started.”
Recent studies have likened the behavioural
traits of King Lear to those of a person with
dementia. Was this something that you
considered when preparing for the role?
“I really think that Shakespeare is writing about
dementia. I suspect that a member of his family
had it and he studied them closely before writing it
down. For me, dementia becomes a very important
aspect of the play. It shows itself in his rages which
suddenly overcome him and he doesn’t quite know
where he is. That was the route I took.”
You have a famously powerful voice – how
do you sustain it for a role like this one?
“I do voice exercises… I just warm it up and try
and use it properly.”
What do you feel is the importance of a
Lear’s duplicitous
daughters Goneril
(Rakie Ayola) and
Regan (Debbie
Korley).
“I really think that Shakespeare is writing about
dementia in Lear. I suspect he studied it closely”
42 shakespeare magazine

King Lear
Alfred Enoch
(Edgar)
Already a familiar face to
UK Shakespeare fans, the
versatile young actor talks
about Talawa Lear.
Edgar disguises himself
as a vagabond, calling
himself ‘Poor Tom’.
Stage to Screen is still a relatively new genre
– do you have prior experience of a filmed
theatrical performance? And did you adapt
your own performance to take the cameras
into account?
“I’ve done a few filmed performances, I’ve done
a couple of NT Lives. I was in a production of
Timon of Athens at the National and a production
of Coriolanus at the Donmar. It’s interesting,
because it can be a challenge from an acting
perspective, just because you’re trying to gauge how
much to be aware of the cameras or not. That’s
something I thought about as we were getting
ready to film Lear. We absolutely trust the crew
and leave it completely up to them and, because
we don’t have to police ourselves in that way, that’s
one of the nice things about it. We’re not trying to
make the movie of King Lear, we’re trying to give
people a sense of what it would have been like to be
in this room for the performance and get a feel of
what that live performance is like.”
How did you end up getting the role of
Edgar in this production of King Lear?
“I was mid-way through the second season of
How To Get Away With Murder, which is a job I’m
doing over in the States, and the way the season
works is that we shoot for seven months of the year
and then have a five-month gap. So I wanted to
come back home and do some theatre, hopefully
some Shakespeare. My agent let me know that
they had fixed me up with a taped audition for
Lear. They told me Don Warrington is going to
be playing King Lear, Michael Buffong is going
to be directing, and it’s going to be at the Royal
Exchange, and I thought ‘This is exciting!’ I had
my recall, in person, in London and they gave me
the good news in November, which was lovely.”
This play has of course seen you working
closely with Don Warrington. As a young
actor, are you thankful for experienced role
models like him?
“It’s important on a job to have someone at the
helm of it. Don playing King Lear is such a big
part and he’s got so much responsibility. One of
the main responsibilities – that some people may
not actually realise – is he sets the tone of how
the things go along with the director and in the
rehearsal room and the way he conducts himself.
“Don’s been fantastic in that respect, he’s
created a lovely atmosphere here and he’s very
open and very precise. Working with someone like
Don, with all his experience, is fantastic and – for
me, certainly – it has been a pleasure to get to play
scenes with him.”
shakespeare magazine 43

KIng Lear
company like Talawa Theatre?
“Why is it important there’s a Talawa Theatre?
Why’s it important there’s a National Theatre?
It’s important because it’s important. Just as the
Royal Exchange in Manchester says something to
the people of Manchester and the wider world,
Talawa says something to its audience and is
representative of black people in this country. They
have a voice and they need it to be expressed.”
What’s it like to work as part of a theatre
company like this one?
“I think working in a company is one of the most
exciting things one can do. I like to start with
people I don’t know. It’s frightening and lovely to
walk into a room – not knowing who the people
are, what they are going to offer – and starting
from the beginning. I’m the leader of the company,
I try to be as generous and open as possible
because I feel that one has to set a benchmark and
encourage people to be as brave as possible. We had
that in this company, which is thrilling.”
Was it important to convey the family
dynamic within the production?
“It’s important that we believe in the family because
it is a family drama. It is about a man who decides
to give away what he’s got to his daughters in the
hope that they will look after him as he moves
towards death, like any family. We had to create
a family dynamic. He likes some of his children
more than others and whether we like it or not,
we all do that. We try to be fair, but we do have
favourites deep inside us, and that was the dynamic
I was looking for. Who does he like best? Who’s the
cheekiest? Which one of them makes him smile?
All of those things.”
The Royal Exchange reaches a wide and
diverse audience. Do you think that this film
will also help Shakespeare reach newer and
wider audiences?
“I think the film will get to a larger audience and
I hope it will capture the essence of what we were
trying to do, by giving a flavour of how it worked
in the space.”
Why do you think the character of The Fool
is significant in this play?
Actor Don Warrington believes that in King Lear
Shakespeare was exploring the theme of dementia.
“The relationship between Lear and The Fool is
a loving one – he’s given full licence because he
is The Fool. Lear gives him licence to be his best
friend, his child, his advisor and, when he becomes
too pompous, to prick his bubble. I think in this
production I’m very fortunate to have Miltos
Yorelemou as The Fool because sometimes the
alchemy of something is just wonderful. With him,
he fits me, just physically, I can put him under my
arm and that’s lovely. That’s luck and life. The first
time I did it I thought ‘Wow! This is just great’.”
The Royal Exchange is an intimate space set
in the round. Does that have any effect on
you within your own performance?
“I have to say, this is the second time working
in Manchester at The Royal Exchange. When I
first came here it terrified me. I thought ‘There’s
nowhere to hide in here’. But once you get over
the shock of it, one gets immense freedom from it.
I find the audiences very warm and very responsive
and I love coming here.”
Find out more about Talawa Theatre
talawa.com
44 SHAKESPEARE shakespeare magazine magazine

Fundación Shakespeare Argentina
(FSA)
www.shakespeareargentina.org
Follow
@ShakespeareArg
Shakespeare Argentina
Fundación Shakespeare Argentina

Tom Hiddleston
“O God, I could be
bounded in a nutshell
and count myself a king of
infinite space, were it not
that I have bad dreams”
Act II, Scene 2
Tom
HIDDLES
is
H
30 shakespeare magazine

Tom Hiddleston
Hiddleston as Loki in Thor:
The Dark World (2013).
TON
He’s played Prince Hal, King
Henry V and Coriolanus.
He’s even played Cloten in
Cymbeline. But there’s one
Shakespearean role above all
others that we haven’t seen
Tom Hiddleston perform:
Hamlet. And as there’s no
indication that the 35-year-old
actor plans to tackle the Dane
soon, we thought we’d just go
right ahead and imagine what
it might look like…
AMLET
Images courtesy of Marvel Studios,
StudioCanal and the BBC
shakespeare magazine 31

Tom Hiddleston
Hiddleston
“Not a whit, we defy augury;
there’s a special providence in
the fall of a sparrow. If it be now,
’tis not to come; if it be
not to come, it will be now;
if it be not now, yet it will come:
the readiness is all. Since no man
knows aught of what he leaves,
what is’t to leave betimes? Let be.”
Act V, Scene 2
as
Jonathan Pine in
TV drama The
Night Manager
(2016).
32 shakespeare magazine

Tom Hiddleston
Hiddleston as Dr Robert Laing
in High-Rise (2016).
“For in that sleep
of death what
dreams may come
When we have
shuffled off this
mortal coil,
Must give us pause”
Act III, Scene 1
“I lov’d Ophelia.
Forty thousand
brothers
Could not (with
all their quantity
of love)
Make up my
sum.”
Act V, Scene 1
From Thor: The Dark World (2013).
shakespeare magazine 33

Tom Hiddleston
From High-Rise
(2016).
“There are more things in
heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in
your philosophy”
Act I, Scene 5
34 shakespeare magazine

Tom Hiddleston
“What a piece of work is a man!
How noble in reason! How infinite
in faculties! In form and moving
how express and admirable!
In action how like an angel!
In apprehension how like a god!
The beauty of the world, the
paragon of animals! And yet to me
what is this quintessence of dust?”
Act II, Scene 2
From Thor: The Dark
World (2013).
shakespeare magazine 35

Ophelia
‘Ophelia’ (1851-52) by Millais
may be viewed at London’s
Tate Britain gallery.
52 shakespeare magazine

Ophelia
The Girl
in the Frame
As the cult of Shakespeare reached its height in the
mid-19th century, a generation of artists turned
to the Bard for inspiration. Among them was the
renowned Sir John Everett Millais. This is the story
of Elizabeth Siddal, who modelled for Millais’ iconic
painting of Shakespeare’s Ophelia.
Words: Stephanie Pina
Images: Wikimedia Commons
shakespeare magazine 53

Ophelia
“The model assumed Ophelia’s death pose in a tin bath,
with the ornate gown billowing around her”
‘Ophelia Before the King
and Queen’ (1792) by
Benjamin West.
phelia has only 173 lines in Hamlet, and yet her
character has gripped us for generations and has
inspired countless works of art. Portraits of the
tragic maiden are plentiful and far outnumber
images of Hamlet. What is it about Ophelia that is
so captivating? Edgar Allan Poe once said that the
death of a beautiful woman was “unquestionably
the most poetical topic in the world”. Ophelia’s
youth, beauty, and sadness fit in well with Poe’s
description, but I think it’s more than that. It’s the
sheer magnitude of her mistreatment, her hysteria,
and the outrage we feel on her behalf. Her struggles
are something that all women can relate to and
in popular culture she has become symbolic of
women that have been ill-used, misunderstood,
or rejected. If a woman doesn’t have a personal
Ophelia story, she at least knows someone
who does. Ophelia is universal and her tale is a
cautionary one.
Since Shakespeare does not show the audience
Ophelia’s death, artists can turn to their own
imaginations when painting her. This freedom
of expression, coupled with the subject matter,
appealed to many Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite
artists. Perhaps the most iconic is the 1852 painting
by Sir John Everett Millais. In an unprecedented
move, Millais placed Ophelia directly in the
stream where she will die. Water pools around her
abdomen and her gown, heavily drenched, weighs
her down. Her pale, passive face shows no sense
of her impending doom or the fact that she is
moments away from being fully submerged. Her
open palms seem to welcome her fate. The artist’s
choice to depict her in the process of death is an
effective one. As viewers, we know what is coming.
We are helpless onlookers at her last moments as
if they were frozen in time. Ophelia is a perfect
example of the way that art can be disturbing yet
still full of beauty. Despite the luxuriant greenery,
floral symbolism and Ophelia’s calm expression,
54 shakespeare magazine

Ophelia
this is a profoundly shocking image.
The painting has now developed its own
symbolism due to the use of Elizabeth Siddal as
the model. This was an unintentional twist of fate,
since obviously Millais had no way of knowing
that her life would end tragically. Her features may
have lent themselves well to the role of Ophelia,
but Elizabeth Siddal has gone on to become a Pre-
Raphaelite legend in her own right.
Discovered while working in a millinery shop
by artist Walter Howell Deverell, Siddal modelled
for his painting ‘Twelfth Night’. This introduction
to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood led to other
Shakespeare-themed works such as ‘Valentine
Rescuing Sylvia’ by Holman Hunt and, of course,
‘Ophelia’ by Millais. Her experience while posing
as Ophelia was perhaps the most dramatic. The
artist had purchased an antique gown embroidered
with silver for her to wear. She assumed Ophelia’s
death pose in a tin bath, the ornate gown billowing
around her. Oil lamps were placed under the bath
to keep the water warm, but as time passed the
lamps went out and the temperature dropped
dangerously. Siddal never spoke up and Millais
never noticed. When she later grew ill from the
hours spent in the cold water, her father threatened
to sue the artist.
After ‘Ophelia’, Siddal posed only for Dante
Gabriel Rossetti. She became his muse, and her
‘Ofelia’ (1864) by Thomas Francis Dicksee.
‘Hamlet and Ophelia’ (Compositional Study, 1865)
by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
features are seen repeatedly in his work. When
she expressed an interest in creating art instead of
just posing for it, he became her mentor and she
embarked on what seemed to be the beginning
of a promising career. Their relationship was
tumultuous, however, and Rossetti’s flirtation
with model Annie Miller and his dalliance with
another model, Fanny Cornforth, wounded Siddal.
They married in 1860 after a decade-long on/off
romance. After the devastating blow of a stillborn
daughter, Siddal was plunged into a state of deep
depression. She was also addicted to laudanum,
and in February of 1862, at the age of 32, she died
of an overdose.
The grieving Rossetti placed his manuscript
of poems in her coffin, claiming that he had too
often been at work on them when he should have
been caring for his wife. Seven years later, he had
her exhumed in order to publish them. Although
Rossetti was not present at the exhumation,
this reopening of Siddal’s grave is somewhat
reminiscent of the graveyard scene in Hamlet.
Where Hamlet leaps into Ophelia’s grave, Rossetti
takes back his poetry from Siddal’s.
On the surface, there are parallels between
Elizabeth Siddal and Hamlet’s ingenue that
add to this perception of an Ophelia mystique.
After the death of Ophelia’s father, Polonius,
shakespeare magazine 55

Ophelia
Left: Mignon
Nevada portrayed
Ophelia in a 1910
production of the
Ambroise Thomas
opera Hamlet.
Right: ‘Ophelia’
(1908) by
John William
Waterhouse.
Also known
as ‘Gather Ye
Rosebuds While
Ye May…’
she is overwhelmed with grief and madness, and
sings strange songs while those around her look
on awkwardly, unsure of what to do. Elizabeth
Siddal was overwhelmed by depression after being
delivered of a stillborn child. Artist Sir Edward
Burne-Jones and his wife Georgiana witnessed
Siddal rocking an empty cradle. When they entered
the room, Siddal admonished, “Hush, Ned, you’ll
waken it!” When Georgiana Burne-Jones published
this account in her two-volume biography of her
husband, she compared Siddal to Dante Gabriel
Rossetti’s version of Ophelia. Elizabeth Siddal, once
a promising artist, had now become grief-stricken
and confused. Laudanum became her only refuge.
Throughout the play, Ophelia is mistreated
and used. She is defined by the men in her life,
which leads to her tragic end. Ophelia can be seen
as an avatar, a symbol of what can be lost when
others dictate how we should speak, act, and live.
Elizabeth Siddal has now achieved the same cult
status and many women, myself included, are
fascinated and inspired by her. Still, her work is
often described as derivative in comparison to other
Pre-Raphaelite artists, meaning that her art and
poetry have not been allowed to stand alone on
their own merits.
Hamlet is a complex character where Ophelia
is a simple one that exists only to further his story.
Many scholars view Ophelia as a mirror for Hamlet
and as a result, she is not always fully explored.
Unfortunately, this is similar to how Rossetti’s early
biographers approached the subject of Elizabeth
Siddal. After Rossetti’s death, depictions of Siddal
were written almost entirely with a male voice.
Their goal was not to pursue the facts of her life,
but to write about her only in relation to Rossetti.
Thankfully, there has been an emergence of female
writers who have lent their perspective to Siddal
and other women in the Pre-Raphaelite Circle.
This begins with Jan Marsh and her 1985 book
Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood, as well as her in-depth
analysis The Legend of Elizabeth Siddal. Author
Kirsty Stonell Walker has also made an important
contribution to Pre-Raphaelite studies with
Stunner: The Fall and Rise of Fanny Cornforth, the
only full-length biography of another frequently
dismissed model.
An imbalance is created when the Ophelias or
Elizabeth Siddals of the world are overlooked, and
this can only be corrected by giving female figures,
whether historical or literary, the serious attention
they deserve. In doing so, we strengthen not only
ourselves but we create an expanded cultural
language for all women to draw upon.
56 shakespeare magazine

Insane Root
My Nation
Underground
Macbeth performed in an eerie redwalled
cave has become one of the
highlights of the Bristol Shakespeare
Festival. Producer Justin Palmer takes
us on a subterranean guided tour.
Words: Kayleigh Toyra
Pictures: Graham Burke, Jon Craig
58 shakespeare magazine

Insane Root
“We break down the witches’ language in order to
create our own, to bring back that uncanniness”
The power of Macbeth
underground setting.
Candlelight flickers from rust-coloured walls.
We shiver in the small semi-circle of light cast
by a solitary lantern. This is, quite literally, an
underground theatre experience.
Most of Bristol’s residents don’t even know
that the Redcliffe Caves exist. Tucked away on an
old quayside and closed to public access for most
of the year, their entrance is marked by a heavy,
forbidding gate. It seems an unlikely setting for one
of Shakespeare’s most expansive plays, but it’s here
that local theatre company Insane Root have staged
a sell-out production of Macbeth two years running
during the city’s annual Shakespeare Festival.
Producer Justin Palmer formed Insane Root in
2015 with director Hannah Drake specifically
to stage Macbeth in these caves. Its second year
has seen the project reaching maturity with its
unflinching exploration of Macbeth’s psyche.
Indeed, the location is perfect for exploring the
“black and deep desires” of man, especially as the
caves reputedly harbour dark secrets themselves.
Strange stories have circulated about Redcliffe
Caves ever since they were first excavated by
Bristol glass-makers centuries ago. As the city
grew wealthy on the slave trade, wares awaiting
export were stashed down below. There have been
shakespeare magazine 59

Insane Root
The
lurid rumours about human bodies chained to the
subterranean walls. And, as the Bristol-Link website
notes, “the full extent of the caves are unknown”.
The fact that we can so readily imagine dark
deeds taking place here adds poignancy to the
play’s violent themes. In the high-strung opening
scene, Macbeth and Banquo bear symptoms of
post-battle distress as they pace the narrow corridor
to be greeted by the witches’ arresting appearance.
Echoing the men’s nerviness, the audience are
unsure in their new surroundings, starting at the
witches who appear from the darkness. Banquo’s
nervous laughter is made more unsettling by
Macbeth’s wild stalking. What just happened here?
Insane Root tap into the fascination we have
with witches, removing their twee Halloween
associations. “I think we’ve lost our primeval fear of
witches through language and culture,” Justin says.
“In our production, we break down the witches’
language and create our own to bring back that
uncanniness”. Insane Root’s witches chatter, cluck
and squawk in guttural tones as they appear at
people’s sides. The strange sounds made by these
shrouded figures genuinely scare people, making
the witches one with the eerie environment.
Justin believes there’s something primal about
domestic
drama of the
in a candlelit cavern.
60 shakespeare magazine

Insane Root
For the audience, Insane Root’s Macbeth
offers a rare opportunity to experience Bristol’s
caves that “physically transports us back in time to
an older way of living”. The cavernous hall where
much of the play’s action takes place is reminiscent
of a medieval chamber where the physical nature of
power is emphasised – kingship won by gore. Here
Macbeth is comfortable at its basest: swords, shouts,
bloody hands and raucous drinking are perfectly
complemented by the shadows cast on the walls.
“Down in the caves,” Justin says, “it is possible
to go on a slightly different journey than in a
theatre”. But what is most striking about this
subterranean Macbeth is the internal journey.
Under the ground, in the close atmosphere, we
become enthralled by the psychology of Macbeth’s
crumbling kingship. Unlike other Shakespearean
rulers who go down with regal poise, we see
Macbeth battling in a hellish bunker, raging and
raving, and we are all locked away down in the
caves with him. His words fly out in quiet precision
as his castle becomes his prison, the loud clang of
swords ringing so close that audience members
have to step back. Macbeth is reduced to jumping
on his own banqueting table, finally dying against a
rocky outcrop where lately he seemed to rule. It’s at
this close range that you truly appreciate his fall.
This Macbeth loses the vast battle scene
shakespeare magazine 61

Insane Root
“We see Macbeth battling in a hellish bunker,
raging and raving, and we are locked in with him”
production’s few props
those all-important candles.
perspective of Justin Kurzel’s 2015 film, and brings
the focus back to the language and its imagery.
Shakespeare’s words are given unique cadence
in such a small space. Lady Macbeth’s intimate
supplications with her husband are spoken softly
in candlelight. The porter holds a solitary lamp at
the cave entrance and initiates the audience into
the space with whispered tales of battle. Actors are
both exposed and energised, echoed by an audience
unused to be being so close to the players.
“Setting has to have meaning,” Justin argues.
“I don’t think you can just put Hamlet on in a car
park.” He constantly emphasises the importance of
the setting informing the performance. Performing
Shakespeare in a unique space shouldn’t just be
about selling tickets to jaded punters – it’s an
opportunity to radically rethink the plays.
Underground Macbeth’s complicit atmosphere
makes us wonder – exactly how involved are we
with the tyranny we see, hear and feel?
“When Macbeth is talking to his court, the
audience play witness,” Justin explains, “almost
becoming his accomplices. In a way, the audience
are visible ghosts and become part of the whole
performance.”
Insane Root’s Macbeth makes these historic
caves feel like a modern-day dictator’s bunker. And
it’s one that the audience are challenged to face.
Find out more about Insane Root Theatre
insaneroot.co.uk
62 shakespeare magazine

Next issue
We hope you’ve enjoyed Issue Eleven of Shakespeare Magazine.
Here’s a taste of what we have coming up next time…
Year of the Bard
Shakespeare Magazine celebrates the
extraordinary highlights of 2016.
Margaret Atwood
Canada’s literary superstar explores Shakespeare’s
The Tempest in her new novel Hag-Seed.
Harriet Walter
The Shakespearean Dame talks about her acting
memoir Brutus and Other Heroines.
Shakespeare’s Storms
Braving the elements with Shakespeare’s Globe
Book Award winner Gwilym Jones.