Shakespeare Magazine 15

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“Murder while I smile...” Back in 1996, Sir Ian McKellen starred in a vivid, outrageous and visceral screen adaptation of <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s Richard III. In this classic archive 38 shakespeare magazine
1930s England. I an McKellen pulls himself up in his chair and fixes me with the steely glare that generally precedes murder most foul in his extraordinary performance as the eponymous hunchbacked schemer in Richard Loncraine’s visually stunning Richard III. “Let me throw back the challenge,” he demands. “What’s that line about?” The line in question is “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” – one of two that even those of us who nodded off in Eng Lit lessons will recognise from the play (the other being “Now is the winter of our discontent…”). McKellen’s daring screenplay, developed from Richard Eyre’s stage adaptation, strips away more than 40 extraneous characters, prunes two-and-a-half hours from the play’s usual running time, and commits the ultimate sacrilege of tidying up the Bard’s archaisms. No ‘thees’, ‘thous’ or ‘withals’ here. But Richard’s desperate boost to the equine exchange rate remains jarringly unaltered in the vivid alternate ’30s England setting, striking the only real false note. He’s sitting in a jeep at the time, f’chrissakes. McKellen is not persuaded that a mechanic might have been more use. “I think people now understand that what that line is about is a man who is desperately trying to get back into the battle and can’t because of the situation he’s in,” he insists. “I think our version’s as good as any other.” McKellen and Loncraine are holding court at Bristol’s Marriott Hotel as part of a gruelling regional press tour to promote this most accessible of <strong>Shakespeare</strong> adaptations. They’ve already done Birmingham today and are dashing off shortly to attend a specially-arranged schools’ screening. McKellen has thoughtfully bashed out answers to the six most commonly asked questions about the film (“Why does Richard III talk to the camera?” “Has cinema always been important to you?” and so on), but even these cannot anticipate the demands of newspaper hacks charged with uncovering a Local Angle. No, he corrects the poor woman from the Evening Post who hasn’t seen the film, he has never played in anything at the Old Vic, and since he’s only spending four hours in Bristol he cannot offer an opinion on our lovely city. They make an odd couple, Loncraine and McKellen. The latter’s a famously gay theatrical knight whose stage career has been conspicuously more successful than his screen one. The former’s remarkable career began in the swinging ’60s when he marketed such groovy executive toys as the moneyspinning Newton’s Cradle. He then graduated to Tomorrow’s World, where he made a further 70 short films about fab gadgets shakespeare magazine 39
Page 1 and 2: shakespeare At last! A magazine wit
Page 3 and 4: shakespeare At last! A magazine wit
Page 5 and 6: Welcome Welcome Photo: David Hammo
Page 7 and 8: At last! A magazine with all the Wi
Page 9 and 10: Olivia Hussey The Girl Stays in th
Page 11 and 12: Olivia Hussey Olivia signing autog
Page 13 and 14: Olivia Hussey “I’d see all the
Page 15 and 16: Romeo and Juliet The Power of Love
Page 17 and 18: Romeo and Juliet of course. Th
Page 19 and 20: Cinema Sarah I’m 58 and I was in
Page 21 and 22: Cinema Barbara Gathercole I watche
Page 23 and 24: Subtitles Shakespeare with Subtitl
Page 25 and 26: Subtitles Even Upstart Crow is bet
Page 27 and 28: Upstart Crow Something to Crow Abo
Page 29 and 30: Upstart Crow In classic sitcom Ups
Page 31 and 32: SHAKESPEARE for the CLASSROOM Nine
Page 33 and 34: Gary Andrews shakespeare magazine
Page 35 and 36: Gary Andrews shakespeare magazine
Page 37: A new American film version of Will
Page 41 and 42: Nazi imagery, but actually it’s o
Page 43 and 44: Shakespeare Uncovered A Very Shakes
Page 45 and 46: Planning to perform a short selecti
Page 47 and 48: Shakespeare in Schools “Shakespe
Page 49 and 50: Shakespeare in Schools question, l
Page 51 and 52: Shakespeare in Schools Students fr
Page 53 and 54: Book Review Year of the Mad King:
Page 55 and 56: Victorian Shakespeare Richard II,
Page 57 and 58: Victorian Shakespeare Much Ado Abo
Page 59 and 60: Please donate! A personal appeal fr
Page 61 and 62: Paterson Joseph “I could feel th
Page 63 and 64: Paterson Joseph particular scene.
Page 65 and 66: Kate Mulvany Photo by Prudence Upt
Page 67 and 68: Kate Mulvany Photo by TBC. What's

Shakespeare Magazine 15

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