Performing Shakespeare’s Tragedies Today: The Actor’s Perspective

What does it mean to perform Shakespeare’s Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedies in the modern theatre? This book brings together the reflections of a number of major classical actors on how these works can most powerfully be realized for today’s audiences. Concentrating on the ‘great’ tragedies - Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear - the actors offer unique insights into some of the most demanding and rewarding roles in world drama, by showing what it is like to play them on stage. Ten perceptive and articulate performers reflect on their experiences of ten major roles: the Ghost, Gertrude and Hamlet; Iago, Emilia and Othello; Lady Macbeth and Macbeth; Lear’s Fool, and King Lear. Together, these essays provide a peculiarly intimate set of trade secrets about what techniques, ideas and memories actors may use when approaching tragic roles in Shakespeare’s most challenging plays.

• Brings together accounts by ten major classical actors, including Sir Antony Sher, Samuel West and Imogen Stubbs • Offers the reader a fascinating insight into the trade secrets, techniques and ideas actors employ when playing these Shakespearean roles • Includes ten production photographs of each contributor in their particular role

Introduction Michael Dobson; Hamlet: The Ghost Greg Hicks; Gertrude Imogen Stubbs; Hamlet Samuel West; Othello: Iago Sir Antony Sher; Emilia Amanda Harris; Othello Nonso Anozie; Macbeth: Lady Macbeth Sian Thomas; Macbeth Simon Russell Beale; King Lear: Lear’s Fool John Normington; King Lear David Warner.