Sir Kenneth Branagh's introduction to Shakespeare was via...
Jun 5, 2019 16:13:13 GMT
Mattsby, pacinoyes, and 1 more like this
Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2019 16:13:13 GMT
... Richard Chamberlain?!
Of course I've already sent this to pacinoyes - the preeminent living Shakespearean actor first encountered Shakespeare through an American's performance!
Mattsby pupdurcs ibbi - you guys may find this interesting, as well.
The production of Hamlet that Branagh is speaking of is quite good - Chamberlain, as the sole American in the cast, acquits himself very well - the madness is deeply felt, not just acted. A bevy of Emmys followed - Margaret Leighton won for her performance as Gertrude. Definitely check it out if you get the chance.
GD: What do you recall about your first encounter with him as a child?
KB: It was partly that the word was associated with being a cultural medicine, if you like. I come from a working-class background. My parents didn’t go to the theater, didn’t know who Shakespeare was, and I think there was a degree of intimidation. The first maybe encounter was on television when I was a child growing up in Belfast. I would’ve been eight, nine years old, and that was to see Richard Chamberlain on television, a popular actor who had a great television success as Dr. Kildare. He was quite the heartthrob and he played Hamlet on television, on mainstream U.K. television and that drew you to it. Even then I began to understand, “Oh, man from television series hit plays in Shakespeare.” That draws people in. That was the beginnings of it, and then really the turning point was seeing a production of “Romeo and Juliet” in a theater where the crowd, 1,100 kids my age were going crazy about a play that was about violence and gangs and teenage love and everybody getting wildly caught up in it and screaming with the fights, wolf-whistling the boys and the girls. That was my first visceral encounter with it and thinking, “God, when this works, you really lean forward.” So from intimidation to appreciation was where I went.
KB: It was partly that the word was associated with being a cultural medicine, if you like. I come from a working-class background. My parents didn’t go to the theater, didn’t know who Shakespeare was, and I think there was a degree of intimidation. The first maybe encounter was on television when I was a child growing up in Belfast. I would’ve been eight, nine years old, and that was to see Richard Chamberlain on television, a popular actor who had a great television success as Dr. Kildare. He was quite the heartthrob and he played Hamlet on television, on mainstream U.K. television and that drew you to it. Even then I began to understand, “Oh, man from television series hit plays in Shakespeare.” That draws people in. That was the beginnings of it, and then really the turning point was seeing a production of “Romeo and Juliet” in a theater where the crowd, 1,100 kids my age were going crazy about a play that was about violence and gangs and teenage love and everybody getting wildly caught up in it and screaming with the fights, wolf-whistling the boys and the girls. That was my first visceral encounter with it and thinking, “God, when this works, you really lean forward.” So from intimidation to appreciation was where I went.
Of course I've already sent this to pacinoyes - the preeminent living Shakespearean actor first encountered Shakespeare through an American's performance!
Mattsby pupdurcs ibbi - you guys may find this interesting, as well. The production of Hamlet that Branagh is speaking of is quite good - Chamberlain, as the sole American in the cast, acquits himself very well - the madness is deeply felt, not just acted. A bevy of Emmys followed - Margaret Leighton won for her performance as Gertrude. Definitely check it out if you get the chance.
