“The worst is not so long as we can say ‘This is the worst'"
Plus: Gone Girl, skunks, and why Bill Nighy doesn't do Shakespeare anymore
Reading King Lear During Hurricane Season
On the wall above my desk, I have a Post-it note with a quote from “King Lear”:
“The worst is not so long as we can say ‘This is the worst…’”
…One of the reasons I love the line is that it feels comic in a play that’s mostly tragic. Edgar starts out as a little silly, easily duped, and then becomes absurdly sad. The line is him throwing up his hands. Also, it feels true: Edgar declares the worst but then more life comes, both worse and better. He declares the worst, yet he cannot know—even those of us who are always looking for the worst cannot know—what might come next…
…Being alive right now can feel like hacking through lies, grasping desperately for truth. The sense that the chaos cannot, will not, stop. To claim to know, to make order, to offer hope, feels false. One of the gifts of “Lear,” to me, is that the play doesn’t give hope. Instead, it grounds you—after pages of manipulation and condemnations, of a king railing and a storm raging—in the fleeting but real value of speaking, sharing, something true.
Lynn Steger Strong in The New Yorker.
Memories of Cal Shakes
“When I played Richard II in the early ‘90s, I knew that character so well I’d vanish into him. I don’t remember opening night — I recall walking on for my first entrance and walking off at the end with no memory of what I’d done. I remember coming onstage one night in my Christ-like costume and hearing the audience murmur, thinking, ‘Damn, I’m hot tonight, burning it up,’ only to find later that a skunk had followed me partway on and, shunning center stage, went into the audience where he freely rummaged in people’s goodies.
Arthur Laurents said “Macbeth” in rehearsals
and then a Gypsy cast member broke their pelvis. Patti Lupone made him leave, turn, spit, and swear to counteract the curse. The article doesn’t reveal what she did to stop Eva Perón haunting her during Evita.
What is All’s Well about? Well…
Look. Marketing is hard.
Bill Nighy Stole a Complete Works
Yes, he pinched a book in order to learn Viola for his drama school audition, but the real news is that he doesn’t like the trousers in Shakespeare.
“The absence of classical work in my repertoire is due to the fact I can’t wear those trousers. It makes me sound very shallow but I’ve done some really serious plays in a decent lounge suit.”
He did however play Edgar, a character who famously doesn’t wear any trousers at all. Get that man some cross-garters and point him at a stage.
Knights in Togas
In 1916, actor Frank Benson was knighted by George V while still in costume as Julius Caesar.
Ian McKellen on The Winter’s Tale (2001)
It is a play he has acted in more than once. Yet he, too, was overwhelmed when the supposed statue of the dead Hermione stirred and came back to life.
''That's the most wonderful example,'' he said. ''Even for an audience that knows exactly what is going to happen, when the music starts playing -- oh, Shakespeare knew a thing or two about staging -- the effect is achieved. And the effect is to stop the heart before the tears start flowing.''
Upcoming
November 15 – Secrets of The National Archives: Shakespeare's will
Quick Links
Applications to be the next Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival are open.
Meryl Streep and Paul Rudd in Henry V. (No, not that one.1 The other one.)
Henry VI’s nurse asks him for a raise. (He was two.)
Shakespeare in American Communities now includes paid apprenticeships.
“Worms helped Titus slay Lavinia’s sons by making a hole in one of their eyes.”
Recommendations
Victorian theater magic.
I admire curatorial truthfulness: “To be totally honest this one's pretty boring.”
Oh. A skeleton made from the bones of eight different people who died 2,000 years apart. Fun.
And you thought “I gyve unto my wife my second best bed” was bad. Elihu Yale would like a word.
Have you seen Paul Rudd as Orsino? You should see Paul Rudd as Orsino.