'ACTING GOOD PARTS WELL': SIR IAN McKELLEN IN SHAKESPEARE by HILARY EDITH W. LONG A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts of the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY The Shakespeare Institute School of English Faculty of Arts The University of Birmingham March 2000 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. SYNOPSIS This thesis examines the performances which have earned Sir lan McKellen a reputation as one of the foremost Shakespearean actors of the day. His reputation has been built on five major performances: Richard II, Macbeth, Coriolanus, lago and Richard III. His performances as Hamlet, Romeo, Leontes and Kent were only limited successes. This thesis places McKellen's performances in these roles in the specific context of the production as a whole. Where it is relevant it assesses the significance of the casting of other roles, the influence of the personality, style and interests of the director, the policy of the theatre company and the impact of the performance space. This thesis identifies patterns in McKellen's work determined by his own personality and sexuality, the Cambridge education he shares with Sir Peter Hall, John Barton and Trevor Nunn, and his relationships with other actors. The Introduction considers the characteristics of a McKellen Shakespeare performance and assesses the importance of his intellectual approach to the text. It looks at how his sexuality has influenced his performances. His devotion to touring is also highlighted. Chapter 1 concentrates on the Shakespeare roles McKellen played early on in his career. Chapter 2 is devoted to McKellen's celebrated performance as Richard II. Chapter 3 examines McKellen's interpretation of Hamlet. Chapter 4 looks at his performance as Edgar in the Actors' Company's King Lear and his taking over the role of The Bastard in the Royal Shakespeare Company's King John. Chapter 5 considers his performance as Romeo and chapter 6 his interpretation of Leontes. The success of McKellen's portrayal of Macbeth is scrutinised in Chapter 7, and his Sir Toby Belch in a touring production is also examined. Chapter 8 assesses the strengths and weaknesses of his performance as Coriolanus at the National Theatre. His NCO lago is explored in Chapter 9. Chapter 10 looks at the difficulties McKellen confronted when playing Kent and Chapter 11 the success of his portrayal of Richard III. Length: approximately 75,000 words TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations i Acknowledgements iii List of Abbreviations iii Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Early Roles 20 Chapter 2 Richard II 36 Chapter 3 Hamlet 59 Chapter 4 Parti: King Lear - Actors' Company (1974) 79 Part 2: King John-RSC (1975) 83 Chapter 5 Romeo and Juliet 92 Chapter 6 The Winter's Tale 116 Chapter 7 Parti: Macbeth 134 Part 2: Twelfth Night 152 Chapters Coriolanus 158 Chapter 9 Othello 196 Chapter 10 King Lear - National Theatre (1990) 221 Chapter 11 Richard m 244 Conclusion 274 Appendix A Stage appearances by McKellen in professional Shakespeare productions 277 Appendix B Production Information 279 Bibliography 307 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS (Between Chapters 7 and 8 - pp. 157-158) Fig. 1 lan McKellen as Richard II (photograph: Observer newspaper) Fig.2 lan McKellen as Romeo and Francesca Annis as Juliet (photograph: Nobby Clark, Shakespeare Centre) Fig. 3 lan McKellen as Romeo and Francesca Annis as Juliet (photograph: Nobby Clark, Shakespeare Centre - this image has been marked up for a poster hence the white outline) Fig.4 lan McKellen as Leontes (photograph: Donald Cooper, Shakespeare Centre) Fig.5 The set for The Winter's Tale RSC 1976 (photograph: Joe Cocks, Shakespeare Centre) Fig. 6 lan McKellen as Macbeth and Judi Bench as Lady Macbeth (photograph: Joe Cocks, Shakespeare Centre) Fig. 7 lan McKellen as Macbeth and Judi Bench as Lady Macbeth (photograph: Joe Cocks, Shakespeare Centre) Fig. 8 lan McKellen as Caius Martius (photograph: John Haynes, NT publications) Fig. 9 lan McKellen as Caius Martius and Irene Worth as Volumnia (photograph: John Haynes, Coriolanus at the National by Kristina Bedford) Fig. 10 lan McKellen as Caius Martius (photograph: John Haynes, Coriolanus at the National by Kristina Bedford) Fig. 11 lan McKellen as Caius Martius (photograph: John Haynes, publicity department at the National Theatre) Fig. 12 lan McKellen as lago (photograph: The Listener) Fig. 13 lan McKellen as lago and Imogen Stubbs as Desdemona (photograph: Stuart Morris, Independent newspaper) Fig. 14 lan McKellen as Kent and Brian Cox as King Lear (photograph: Neil Libbert, The Lear Diaries by Brian Cox) Fig. 15 lan McKellen as Richard III (photograph: John Haynes, The Lear Diaries by Brian Cox) Fig. 16 lan McKellen as Richard III and Brian Cox as Buckingham (photograph John Haynes, The Lear Diaries by Brian Cox) Fig. 17 lan McKellen as Richard III (photograph: Alex Bailey, William Shakespeare's Richard III, a screenplay by lan McKellen and Richard Loncraine) Fig. 18 lan McKellen as Richard III (photograph: Alex Bailey, William Shakespeare's Richard III, a screenplay by lan McKellen and Richard Loncraine) Ill ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to the National Theatre and the Shakespeare Centre for giving me access to the relevant promptbooks. Thanks are due to Joy Leslie Gibson for her generous gifts of material and 'insider' knowledge, to Mr E.J. Ebutt at Birmingham Central Library for his courtesy and thoroughness. At the Shakespeare Institute Library thank you to Jim Shaw for being interested in the subject and offering helpful suggestions and to Kate Welch for her patience assistance. I appreciated lan McKellen answering my letters and am beholden to Russell Jackson for his supervision. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS RSC - Royal Shakespeare Company LWT - London Weekend Television BBC - British Broadcasting Corporation INTRODUCTION This thesis examines the Shakespeare performances which have largely contributed to Sir lan McKellen's reputation as one of the foremost actors of the day. My definition of a classical actor is simply an actor who establishes a reputation in revivals of what are recognised as being seminal texts rather than in new plays. McKellen's identification with classical acting is all the more interesting when one considers that he has appeared in as many new plays as revivals. With the exception of Martin Sherman's Bent, however, McKellen's impact has not been as great in new plays. It should be noted that he himself dislikes the tag of 'classical' actor, preferring to be called a serious actor. McKellen's reputation as one of the best actors of Shakespeare in this country seems to have been built on five major performances: Richard II, Macbeth, Coriolanus, lago and Richard III. His performances as Hamlet, Romeo, Leontes and Kent were only limited successes. One aspect of his performance that is often remarked on is his vocal delivery. Critics and audience alike are more likely to remember how McKellen said a certain line than what stage business accompanied it, although in his best moments the two are symbiotic. This provides a clue as to what differentiates McKellen from his peers. One of the hallmarks of a McKellen Shakespeare performance is his obvious love of the language. He believes that 'Shakespeare should, on the whole, be aural primarily rather than visual. If you don't get the language, then you've lost the heart of the matter.' 1 When rehearsing a Shakespeare role he gets to know 'exactly what the words mean' Only then can he understand the emotions behind them: I'm persuaded that in order to act Shakespeare well, you have to understand the 1 Shakespeare Quarterly. Vol 33 (1982), p. 140. words, absorb the meaning in all your being, and then rattle the lines out the way John Gielgud does.2 Both Gielgud and McKellen have been praised for speaking the verse as if they were creating the words to express the emotion on the spot, 'coining5 rather than reciting it. It is interesting that McKellen cites Gielgud as a role model: most actors of promise from the 1950's onwards have been hailed by the press as the next Olivier rather than the next Gielgud.3 His placing himself in the tradition of the 'beautiful voice' testifies to an element of the old-fashioned in McKellen's approach. Since 1945 perhaps the most important development in British acting has been the change in balance between vocal and physical technique. In British Theatre Since 1955 - A Reassessment published in 1979, Ronald Hayman wrote that drama schools now devoted more time to the actor's body and less to his voice: 'it can no longer be said of British actors that they are dead below the neck'.4 English actors had a reputation for being unable to use their bodies expressively on stage. Kenneth Tynan, writing about Gielgud's one-man Shakespeare show The Ages of Man, commented: 'I have always felt that Sir John Gielgud is the finest actor on earth from the neck up.'5 The tradition of acting Shakespeare in Britain changed in the late 1940's and Laurence Olivier was one of the exponents of the new style. At the beginning of his Shakespeare career Olivier was criticised for speaking the verse badly. In his review of Romeo and Juliet at the New Theatre in 1935 (in which Olivier and Gielgud alternated the roles of Romeo and Mercutio), James Agate wrote: 'Mr Olivier's Romeo showed himself very 2 Shakespeare Quarterly.