Speak the Speech

By Ed Kaye

​Shakespeare has never been more accessible. 
 
Theatres may be closed, but online streaming services provided by The National Theatre, The Globe and The RSC are providing us all with some of the finest shows their respective archives have to offer. Unsurprisingly, one writer keeps popping up.
 
Shakespeare has worked his way onto the laptops and televisions of the nation during this lockdown. Not only that, but we have all been treated to some of this country’s finest performers of Shakespeare. Paapa Essiedu, Tamsin Greig and Ralph Fiennes (to name a few) are perfect examples of what theatre-goers might call “a great Shakespearean actor”. 
 
Ask anyone to name a great Shakespearean actor, and chances are the same names will come to the fore. Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Mark Rylance, the list goes on.
 
But what makes a great Shakespearean actor? What separates them from the rest of the pack? How can the budding actor, drama school graduate or seasoned professional hope to earn this grand title? 
 
At GSA, where myself and most of ShakeItUp trained, performing Shakespeare well meant combining total understanding of both the meaning and rhythm of the text with bold and truthful gestures.
 
Sounds awfully actory, right? Basically you need to understand what you’re saying, say it in the rhythm which Shakespeare set out, and match your big words with a big physicality. 
 
 
Mastering the rhythm of Shakespeare’s text is the part where many performers get stuck.
 
Most of Shakespeare’s plays are written in lines of verse - like a line of poetry. These lines of poetry contain a rhythm called Iambic Pentameter. It sounds complicated, but you can achieve this rhythm by saying the words ‘I am’ (iambic) 5 times (pentameter). 
 
 
Iambic Pentametre         I         am          I           am    I            am         I               am    I    am  
 
Richard III                   Now       is         the         win -ter           of        our            dis-con-tent 
 
 
To talk about the rhythm of Shakespeare’s plays puts me at risk of turning this blog into an online GCSE English class. This highlights a significant problem for most actors approaching Shakespeare’s verse; it can seem too academic.
 
When an actor is about to perform one of Hamlet’s many soliloquies, surely their mind should be focused on their character’s desire for vengeance or painful grief, not on the rhythm of what they’re saying? 
 
What’s more, many actors will argue that their main job is to convey as much reality and truth through their performance as possible. Who in reality truthfully speaks in that rhythm? Surely no one, not even in Elizabethan England, has ever asked for a pint of beer in strict iambic pentameter?
 
How do actors overcome this challenge and ensure that the rhythm of the verse does not become an enemy to their performance? 
 
Peter Hall founded the RSC and has directed some of the most famous Shakespeare productions this country has produced. What was his approach to performing Shakespeare’s verse? 
 
According to Judi Dench, regimental.
 
“When Peter Hall directs, he stands at a lectern-and you’d be rehearsing in front of him-and he’d be looking at the lectern and beat out the meter”.
 
His focus on iambic pentameter was so concentrated that he would labour over single lines of verse for hours, to ensure that the actor performed to the rhythm of the verse. 
 
The result, when successful, is actors like Judi Dench. Actors who are so comfortable with the verse that when they speak it is like poetry. Not only that, but their extensive knowledge of the rules means they know how to break them; like a great jazz musician. 
 
Other directors, rather than following the meter, choose to ignore it.
 
The 2017 sell-out Almeida production of Hamlet, starring Andrew Scott as the titular role, garnered widespread critical and public acclaim. In an interview with the director Robert Icke, Scott confided how even with 20 years experience in the theatre, he had to deal with the same insecurities less experienced actors have when approaching Shakespeare.
 
“I’ve always thought that there was maybe something within Shakespeare that I didn’t possess…I don’t really understand what iambic pentameter is”. 
 
Was this an issue? Not for his director.
 
“We’ve invented this idea of verse speaking when I suspect (Shakespeare) wouldn’t have known what that was”.
 
A quick search of Scott’s ‘To Be or Not To Be’ on Youtube will show you that sticking to the meter was not on his mind. Instead, the rhythm of his delivery is constantly altering, with pauses and stresses on words which wouldn’t be seen in a Peter Hall production.
 
And yet many would argue that Scott’s performance was more realistic. They would say that a Shakespeare play is not a poetry recital, but a dramatic depiction of real life. No-one in real life speaks in verse, so why perform like that? 
 
Two opposing and highly successful approaches. The question is, which one will help the good actor to become the great Shakespearean actor?
 
The truth is that if I knew the answer, I’d be on the doors of The Globe Theatre as soon as it reopened, brashly preparing to show them my Romeo which they never asked for.
 
The fact that these two styles both yielded wildly successful results may prove that there is no one answer.
 
Perhaps the closest we can get to a firm answer lies in this crisis we all find ourselves in.
 
Shakespeare is currently being provided to many viewers who otherwise would not buy a ticket to one of his plays. People like my two older sisters. Their reasons for not seeing more Shakespeare is the same for many other frightened audience members: the language is too difficult to follow.
 
I recommended they watch The National Theatre’s production of Twelfth Night, which recently streamed YouTube. Whilst they may not have loved the whole production, they both agreed that Tamsin Greig was exceptional as Malvolia. What was it about her performance that they loved so much?
 
“We understood what she was saying, and she made us laugh.”
 
Perhaps the key for great Shakespearean acting is not becoming a master of the meter, but rather ensuring that what you say makes sense and moves your audience. Like any good acting. 
 
 
However you get there is up to you.