When in Rome do as the Romans do. When in Stratford-upon-Avon, purchase everything you can that’s Shakespeare related, i.e. everything. This is my mantra anyway. When I went this summer I treated myself to Stanley Wells’ Great Shakespeare Actors which lay on the Shakespeare themed table in Waterstones so temptingly.
In his book, Wells has chosen thirty-nine masters of
Shakespeare. Not simply actors who can act Shakespeare but artists who bring
something new or profound to the work. Wells explains how these great
Shakespearean actors translate the works to us in the audience. So many people
get turned on to Shakespeare by a particular performance or performer, in this
way the actor has a crucial role. Wells has a difficult job in that he must recreate
what it was like to witness watching the actors in performance. To do this he
draws upon contemporary accounts, reviews, and autobiographies of the actors
and, for some of the more recent entries, his own memories of seeing them in
the flesh. In brief flashes he brings the experience of watching the actors to
vivid life. He goes to great lengths to help us envision the voice and movement
of these actors- we’re told of Georgian actress Sarah Siddons’ black eyes which
could ‘flash with ferocity’ and of Paul Schofield’s gravelly, nasal twang. This
is particularly beneficial for those performers we have no audio or visual
record of.
The stories that emerge are colourful, theatrical and full
of monumental egos. Anecdotes include: George Frederick Cooke’s drunken performance
as the ghost in Hamlet to the
alarming tale of Drury Lane favourite Charles Macklin murdering his co-star backstage.
As the book is assembled into mini, readable essays per actor it means you can
dip in and out quite happily, flitting between time periods. These entries give
a quick but in depth analysis of the actor’s life, major roles and noteworthy characteristics
of their style. This format makes for a great starting point for further
reading, with its tantalising glances of these figures. You’re bound to be
attracted to some actors more than others. I found myself drawn to the
intelligent and womanly actresses of the Victoria era such as Ellen Terry and
Helen Faucit. Faucit was keen to engage with the characters she played on a
real, empathetic basis. Wells quotes her thoughts on Ophelia’s
childhood envisioning it as one ‘with no playmates of her kind, wandering by
the streams, plucking flowers, making wreaths’. Gratefully, there is plenty of
backstage gossip thrown in too- we hear about the sexual appetites of Edmund
Kean as well as the bitchy rivalry between theatrical heavyweights Donald Wolfit
and John Gielgud.
At the heart of the book is a centuries long conversation
between actors about how the lines should be delivered. Wells tells us that in
one camp we have the actors who think of their craft as ‘an imitation of how
people behave in real life’ versus an exaggerated, majestic style favoured by
actors ‘acknowledging the artificiality of what they are doing.’ Throughout the
book styles pendulum between these extremes, at times co-existing together. Preparatory
methods also seem to be a crucial factor. Wells talks about the actors who
transform themselves to look like their characters, the greatest example being
Laurence Oliver as a hunchbacked, prosthetic everything Richard III. In the other
camp are those who adapt the character to their own appearance and quirks- Gielgud
remarked he wouldn’t stoop to impersonation. Written chronologically, the book charts the
fashions of acting and casting over time. We meet the first great female actors
to bring us the bounty of Shakespeare’s women. He highlights other trailblazers
–Ira Aldridge, the first Shakespearean black actor as well as those championing
the bard further across Europe and in America.
Stanley Wells is a rarity in that he has a gift of being
able to tread the fine line between academia and accessibility. He reminds us
that Shakespeare is there to be performed, heard and seen. The dedication of
the book is to all great Shakespearean actors not mentioned in the book which I
take to be a disclaimer that Wells has not intended this to be a definitive
list. A whole host of names don’t make the cut- Patrick Stewart, Vanessa
Redgrave and Helen Mirren to name a few. For the book’s younger readers, it is
disappointing not to see mentions of the heroes of our generation like David
Tennant, for example. Above all, the book emphasises that great Shakespeare acting
is like the plays themselves, something woven into history- growing, regenerating,
changing and modifying as times goes on.
For anyone interested in Shakespeare, acting and theatre
this is an essential. Shakespeare sticky notes, Shakespeare colouring pencils
and Elizabethan player’s masks probably aren’t - but I’ll keep buying them
anyway…
Who would make your list of Great Shakespearean actors? What
have been your favourite productions of Shakespeare?
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