Twelve Leading Actors on Twelve Key Roles (v2 Shakespeare On Stage)

‘This book gives some of the very best of Shakespeare’s twenty-first-century colleagues an opportunity to share insights that can only come from playing him’ Nicholas Hytner, from his Foreword



Twelve leading actors take us behind the scenes of landmark Shakespearean productions, each recreating in detail their memorable performance in a major role.





Roger Allam on his Falstaff in both Henry IV plays at Shakespeare’s Globe
Eileen Atkins on Viola in two productions of Twelfth Night seventeen years apart
Simon Russell Beale on Cassius in Deborah Warner’s modern-dress Julius Caesar
Chiwetel Ejiofor on his Donmar Warehouse Othello, directed by Michael Grandage
Sara Kestelman on Hippolyta and Titania in Peter Brook’s iconic white-box Dream
Ian McKellen on one of Shakespeare’s most demanding of roles: King Lear
Michael Pennington on stepping in at the eleventh hour as Timon of Athens
Alan Rickman on re-evaluating the melancholic Jaques in As You Like It
Fiona Shaw on Shakespeare’s Shrew, Katherine, in Jonathan Miller’s production
Patrick Stewart on his Las Vegas-set Shylock, a role he has played many times
Harriet Walter on Imogen in Shakespeare’s late romance, Cymbeline, at the RSC
Zoe Wanamaker on her National Theatre Beatrice, directed by Nicholas Hytner


Each actor leads us through the choices they made in rehearsal, and how the character works in performance, shedding new light on some of the most challenging roles in the canon. The result is a series of individual masterclasses that will be invaluable for other actors and directors, as well as students of Shakespeare – and fascinating for audiences of the plays.



Shakespeare On Stage: Volume 2 was shortlisted for the 2018 Theatre Book Prize.



‘Absorbing and original… Curry’s actors are often thinking and talking as that other professional performer, Shakespeare himself, might have done.’ TLS on Shakespeare On Stage: Vol. 1





‘A remarkably rich collection… as well as the thoughtful step-by-step analyses of rehearsal and performance, the interviews abound in striking perceptions of the plays as a whole’
– Shakespeare Survey

‘[Gives the reader] that amazing, engrossing feeling of listening to someone who is an expert in their field… one of the other joys of this book is the reminder that it brings of how intellectual acting is. These actors talk about the roles with great knowledge and affection… give [it] to a student to read and be inspired’
– Drama Magazine

‘These thorough and penetrating interviews are greatly illuminating’
– Word Matters – Journal of the Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama

‘[This] is becoming a fascinating series… a good read for fans of the performers, Shakespeare or acting in general’
– British Theatre Guide

Format: Paperback
Pages: 336
Imprint: UK Small Publisher
Publication date: 16/03/2017
Series: Shakespeare On Stage