Shakespeare's text is packed with clues that help the reader to hear
and the performer to act any speech. He also tells the actor when to
go fast and when to go slow and when to accent a particular word.
This book sets out to make going to Shakespeare performances or acting
in them a richer experience, and it should have a wide appeal to both
actors and audiences.
It also celebrates Sir Peter Hall's fifty years as a director of
Shakespeare; from his early days at Cambridge, through founding the
Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford on Avon in the early '60s, and
later to his fifteen years as the director of the Royal National Theatre
of Great Britain. Throughout these years, Peter Hall worked with the
greatest Shakespearean actors of our generation including Laurence
Olivier, John Gielgud, Edith Evans, Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft,
Charles Laughton and in later years Judi Dench, Anthony Hopkins, Ian
Holm, David Warner, and many others. Through this great line flows a
tradition of speaking and understanding Shakespeare that remains as
relevant and important today. And it is Hall's experience of working and
learning with these and many other actors over the years that underpins
the core of this book.
Sir Peter Hall is one of the major figures in theatre today. To date
he has directed over two hundred productions, including the world
premiere in English of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, and the
premieres of most of Harold Pinter's plays. His diary and autobiography
are published by Oberon Books.
