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Description
In this programme actors Jeremy Irons and Michael Pennington and director David Giles talk about their different approaches to Shakespeare's Richard II. Using extracts from the productions the prog...ramme attempts to consider the character of Richard II and indicate to students that there is no definitive interpretation of the play - but much depends on the actor and the director involved.
Subtitle Number Time In Time Out Subtitle Text
100:00:01,00000:00:04,000(Jeremy Irons) I think, we must as actors and as students…
100:00:02,00000:00:06,000Old John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster…
200:00:05,00000:00:10,000..approach Shakespeare as being ours and make it work for us.
200:00:07,00000:00:11,000..hast thou according to thy oath and band brought hither Henry Hereford, thy bold son…
300:00:11,00000:00:13,000..here to make good the boisterous late appeal,
300:00:12,00000:00:14,000Say - oh yes, Andrew Gurr thinks that this means that…
400:00:13,00000:00:15,000which then our leisure would not let us hear,
500:00:15,00000:00:19,000against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray? -Gaunt: I have, my liege.
400:00:15,00000:00:19,000..and that's the important relevance of this line, but maybe he s not right.
500:00:19,00000:00:25,000Certainly the conclusions I've come to are just my conclusions…
600:00:20,00000:00:24,000Tell me moreover, hast thou sounded him if he appeal the Duke on ancient malice,
700:00:24,00000:00:29,000Or worthily as a good subject should, on some known ground of treachery in him?
600:00:25,00000:00:29,000..and I know that Derek Jacobi or Ian McKellen will come to others…
800:00:29,00000:00:32,000As near as I could sift him on that argument.
700:00:30,00000:00:32,000..and they will be equally valid and I think that's why…
900:00:32,00000:00:37,000On some apparent danger seen in him aimed at your highness, no inveterate malice.
800:00:32,00000:00:39,000..Shakespeare is constantly being done and done differently.
1000:00:38,00000:00:40,000Then call them to our presence.
1100:00:41,00000:00:44,000Face to face and frowning brow to brow…
900:00:41,00000:00:49,000Notes are not holy writ, what actors say about their interpretations is not holy writ,
1200:00:44,00000:00:49,000..ourselves will hear the accuser and the accused freely speak.
1000:00:49,00000:00:52,000it's just the way they happen to find it.
1300:00:51,00000:00:58,000High stomached are they both and full of ire. In rage as deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.
1400:01:04,00000:01:10,000(David Giles) What you do in rehearsal is try and look all the time…
1500:01:10,00000:01:13,000..for ways of making the text live.
1600:01:14,00000:01:18,000It is to put the emotion in with the intellect that is…
1700:01:19,00000:01:26,000..the most dangerous, difficult and private part of the rehearsal process.
1800:01:28,00000:01:37,000I always worry about over- simplifying what a play is about,
1900:01:38,00000:01:43,000as much as I would worry about simplifying what, by saying what a picture was about.
2000:01:44,00000:01:48,000I think anything like this plays on different people in different ways.
2100:01:48,00000:01:51,000(Narrator) Shakespeare's plays, though handed down to us as text,
2200:01:51,00000:01:53,000were written to be performed.
2300:01:53,00000:01:56,000The text really only comes to life when it's in production.
2400:01:56,00000:02:01,000Actors and directors are crucial in bringing their own imagination and skill to a play.
2500:02:01,00000:02:05,000In this programme, we're going to look at three very different productions of Richard II…
2600:02:06,00000:02:08,000..and talk to the actors and directors involved.
2700:02:08,00000:02:12,000They reveal a wide range in the way they interpret the character of the King,
2800:02:12,00000:02:14,000and the different elements of the play.