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  Shakespeare's texts don't tell you  
  how they must be played.

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  They're extraordinarily open to a   
 huge range of different,

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  and sometimes even contradictory   
 interpretations, and no two productions are
  ever the same.

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  And yet they all start from the   
 same point, words on the page.

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  But, who has best title to these   
 words and what they mean?

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  The actor, for whom they were   
 undoubtedly written, or the scholar?

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  Actors accuse scholars of reading   
 too much into the text…

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  ..and scholars accuse actors of   
 reading too little.

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  But it's a false quarrel, I   
 maintain. We're all in the same business…

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  ..and I hope that what you're   
 going to see in these programmes
  will prove this.

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  When we see a play on the stage or  
  on film or on television,

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  complete with music and lighting,   
 props and scenery,

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  with the actors made up and in   
 costume,

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  word perfect with every movement   
 and gesture, confident and significant,

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  it's easy to mistake the nature of  
  the process that went before.

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  Oh sure we know it had to be   
 rehearsed,

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  the cast had to learn their words   
 and practise their gestures.

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  But if we're not at the theatre   
 ourselves, what we don't realise is…

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  ..how many choices and decisions   
 have to be made…

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  ..in order to achieve each detail   
 in the finished performance.

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  Rehearsal isn't just getting the   
 polish on, it's also exploration,

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  interpretation and discovery, and   
 it's sometimes deciding what
  to leave out.

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  Actors have to make responsible   
 choices and this is intellectually
  very taxing.

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  In any particular production three  
  major variables combine,

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  the director, the actor, and the   
 text, which isn't quite as stable as you
  might think.

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  It may be cut, it often has to be.

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  Not even all the words are certain  
 , and it doesn't always render up its
  meaning easily.

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  Sometimes time itself and the   
 changes in our language have made
  obscure for us…

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  ..what the play's first audiences   
 would have found clear as glass.