Players of Shakespeare 2

This is the second volume of essays by actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Fourteen actors describe the Shakespearean roles they played in productions between 1982 and 1987. The contributors are Roger Allam, Frances Barber, Kenneth Branagh, Niamh Cusack, Ben Kingsley, Ian McDiarmid, Daniel Massey, Edward Petherbridge, Alan Rickman, Fiona Shaw, Antony Sher, Juliet Stevenson, David Suchet and Zoe Wanamaker. Each gives a unique insight into the preparation and performance of a major Shakespearean role and how a character is created through responding to Shakespeare’s text, within the context of a particular director’s conception and the environment established by the designer. A brief biographical note is provided for each of the contributors and an introduction places the essays in the context of the Stratford and London stages, and of the music and design for the particular productions.

List of illustrations; Foreword Russell Jackson; Introduction Daniel Massey; The Duke in Measure for Measure Edward Petherbridge; Armado in Love’s Labour’s Lost Ian McDiarmid; Shylock in The Merchant of Venice Fiona Shaw and Juliet Stevenson; Celia and Rosalind in As You Like It Alan Rickman; Jacques in As You Like It Zoe Wanamaker; Viola in Twelfth Night Kenneth Branagh; Henry V Roger Allam; Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet Niamh Cusack; Juliet in Romeo and Juliet Frances Barber; Ophelia in Hamlet Antony Sher; The Fool in King Lear Ben Kingsley; Othello David Suchet; Iago in Othello; Production credits; Further reading.

‘In this helpful and illuminating collection of fourteen essays by RSC actors describing the roles they played with the company between 1982 and 1987, light is shed on the unique hybrid that is theatre, being a fusion of the arts and the practical and intellectual virtues.’ Gerald Werson, The Stage and Television Today

‘... there is not one among these essays which does not contain at least something of interest: a fresh insight into the meaning of a line, or a plausible explanation of hitherto inexplicable conduct on the part of a character’. Charles Osborne, The Daily Telegraph