Shakespeare Uncovered

Captioning made possible by Friends of NCI "What country, friends, is this?" That simple sentence is from one of my favorite Shakespearean plays. What country, friends, is this? RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

It's spoken by Viola at the beginning of "Twelfth Night" as she finds herself washed up on a foreign shore. For me, this play speaks to all our hopes and dreams, the chance to start again, the prospect of a whole new world. Like all of Shakespeare's happiest comedies, in "Twelfth Night,"we witness new life, new laughs, and eventually new love, and at the center of this play and driving the plots of all of Shakespeare's comedies are his extraordinary comic heroines. Most radiant, exquisite and unmatchable beauty-- RICHARDSON, In the strangely dark comedy of "Twelfth Night," there's the cross-dressing Viola....and that question's out of my part. One of the things that makes Shakespeare an amazing dramatist, I think, is his sympathy for female characters. I pray you, tell me if this be the lady of the house, for I never saw her. He creates these fascinating, mischievous, interesting, funny female characters, and there's kind of no one like them in dramatic history, really. Are you a comedian? No,

my profound heart

and yet, by the very fangs of malice I swear, I am not that I play. One of the things that's fabulous about Shakespeare is the way he understand the psychology of women, or maybe creates the psychology of women. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

And few women in any drama can match the heroine of Shakespeare's sweetest and most romantic comedy-- Rosalind in "As You Like It." What said he? How looked he? Wherein went he? What makes him here? Did he ask for me? Where remains he? How parted he with thee and when shalt thou see him again? Answer me in one word.

MAN

The sheer sophistication, the verve, the dramatic and verbal range of Shakespeare's female parts is quite unprecedented. There's no doubt Shakespeare loved strong women. Thou bringest me out of tune. Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak. In this film, I want to explore how Shakespeare's comedies still have the power to entertain, enthrall, and move us just like they did 400 years ago.

BATE

Historically, people have paid more attention to Shakespeare's tragedies and history plays than this comedies, but that's a huge mistake. In terms of thinking about what it is to be human, what it is to live in society, and, above all, what it's like to live in personal relationships-- men and women together, families-- the comedies are the place where Shakespeare really works that out in a profound way. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

Shakespeare has been part of my life ever since I can remember. Generations of my family have fallen in love with Shakespeare's dramatic poetry and have played some of his most famous roles. So here at the Old Vic, one of the oldest theaters in London from 1818, I've always found it incredibly exciting to be in theaters, whether they're empty or filled, obviously, or watching a performance, and the last performance that I saw here of Shakespeare's was "Twelfth Night," but it was here in 1937 that my grandfather Sir Michael Redgrave was doing a production of "Hamlet" with Sir Laurence Olivier playing Hamlet and my grandfather playing Laertes, and at the curtain call, Laurence Olivier stopped, and he said to the audience, "Ah, tonight a great actress is born. Laertes has a daughter," and that was the night my mother Vanessa was born, and it was announced on this stage. Dear Celia, I show more mirth than I am mistress of; and would you yet I were merrier? RICHARDSON, My mother Vanessa Redgrave was just 24 and starting out on her acting career when she played Rosalind in "As You Like It"in 1961. What think you of falling in love? Marry, I prithee, do, to make sport withal. So, Mum, what was your first experience of Shakespeare? Was it reading it or performing it? Reading. I found looking along the bookshelf because I learnt to read when I was 4. When I was around 7, I found something called "The Merchant of Venice"-- "That sounds exciting"-- and I opened it and read it from start to finish, and I became enthralled with the story of this merchant and Portia and Shylock. I was really caught by Portia's great speech-- "The quality of mercy is not strain'd, "It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath

it is twice blest"-- because that, to my imagination, sounded like what should happen in life, and I'd got a nanny who somewhat punished me, and I felt the quality of mercy was missing. Oh... Ha ha ha! RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

Given my family, maybe it's not surprising I ended up acting, but in Shakespeare's case, there was nothing in his background to prepare him for life in the theater. Born in the rural town of Stratford, he first tried to make a living running his father's glove business. By the tender age of 18, he was already married to an older woman-- Anne Hathaway. It was a shotgun wedding. She was 3 months pregnant.

WOMAN

The interesting thing, is, of course, that she was the right age to be married at 26. He was the one who was all wrong. He was 18, but he was Shakespeare. He wasn't an ordinary man. He was an extraordinary man, and I tend to think it does him more credit to think that he was attracted to an extraordinary woman. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

Extraordinary woman or not, it seemed a very ordinary start for the man who would become the most famous playwright in history. Two years after the birth of their daughter Susanna, The Shakespeares has twins, who were baptized in Stratford Church on February 2, 1585. The children were named Hamnet and Judith Shakespeare. William, now father of 3, was not yet 21 years old.

MAN

I think he was a very ambitious young man. He was clearly-- Obviously, he was a very talented young man, and I think he was ambitious for literary fame, and, of course, he wouldn't have had much outlet for that unless he'd gone to London. He couldn't earn a living in Stratford. Stratford was a town of 2,000 people. Most towns of 2,000 people can't support a poet. So I figure that she said to him, "Will, I can't bear to see you like this. There's no future for you here. Go to London." RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

The next historical evidence shows him working as an actor in late 16th-century London. So he had left his wife and 3 children behind him.

GREER

I mean, what's special about Shakespeare is the poetry. To expect him to be a nice bloke I think might be pushing it. Is not your name, sir, called Antipholus? And is not that your bondman Dromio? RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

Certainly almost as soon as he starts his new career, Shakespeare seems to demonstrate a precocious skill. One of this very first plays is "The Comedy of Errors."

WOMAN

This is someone who has a consummate sense of theater and theatrical value from the moment he starts writing. The structure of an early play like "Comedy of Errors" is phenomenal. It's a farce, and nobody puts a foot wrong in terms of coming and going, as the plot is always the wrong person on stage at the wrong time. To be able to do that as, technically, apprentice work is astonishing. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

And while Shakespeare's family and his new twins might have been out of sight, they certainly don't appear to be out of mind, as twins are the central point of life of this play.

Laughter

VOICE-OVER

I see two husbands.

BATE

There are occasional twins elsewhere in the drama of the period inherited from the classical tradition, but no other writer is as interested in twins as Shakespeare is, and that must, at some level, be because he had twins himself. Which of you two did dine with me to-day? I, gentle mistress. And are not you my husband? No. Shakespeare uses that as the basis for his early comedy "The Comedy of Errors," but in a typically Shakespearean way, he decides it's not enough to have one pair of twins. He has two. So we get the Antipholus brothers, and then they each have a slave called Dromio, and they, too, are identical twins. So immediately, the potential for comedy, for farce, for mistaken identity is doubled. Methinks you are my glass,

and not my brother

I see by you I am a sweet-faced youth. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

Shakespeare had written a hit comedy, and when he returned to the subject of twins some 6 or 7 years later in "Twelfth Night," it seems that his family was even more on his mind. The twins in this play are, like his own, a boy and a girl-- Viola and Sebastian... but there was a tragic dimension to the presence of twins in this play. In 1596, one of Shakespeare's twins, his son Hamnet, died at the age of 11.

BATE

We know so little about that relationship with his son, but it was such a huge thing to have a son. The son was the vouchsafe of immortality, the son, the heir, that keeps the name going. To have lost your only son, it was an enormous thing for Shakespeare. Shakespeare's plays are never directly autobiographical, but all writers draw on their own experience and feeling. So it can't be a coincidence that "Twelfth Night," this very bittersweet comedy in which the idea of the loss of a brother is so central. It can't be a coincidence that that is written only a few years after the death of Shakespeare's only son Hamnet who was one of a pair of twins. Viola is a girl twin who believes that her brother is lost, and that loss is central to the mood of the play. What country, friends, is this? This is Illyria, lady. And what should I do in Illyria? My brother he is in Elysium.

MAGUIRE

The overlap between comedies and tragedies is palpable. Death hangs over comedies frequently just as much as it concludes tragedies. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

Alone in a foreign land, her brother and protector apparently drowned, Viola, to preserve her safety, chooses to disguise herself as a man and seek employment with the local duke-- the Governor of Illyria Orsino. "Conceal me what I am, and be my aid "For such disguise as haply shall become "The form of my intent. I'll serve this duke."...continue these favors towards you, Cesario, you are like to be much advanced.

MAGUIRE

At the start of "Twelfth Night," you've got Viola dressing up not just as a boy, but as her brother. You don't need to read Freud to know where that's coming from. I mean, Freud says classic first stage of mourning is, you want to incorporate the lost person into yourself. She does that in terms of costume. Give me some music. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

Taking the name Cesario, Viola succeeds in gaining employment with the duke.

BATE

In several of the comedies, a basic motif is the idea that when you go on a journey to a new environment, a dangerous environment, disguise is often necessary, and disguise becomes a form of liberation. You can sort of discover yourself through disguise. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

But whatever the self-discoveries, much of the comedy comes from the problems the disguised character encounters. Viola, disguised as a man, almost immediately falls in love with the duke, but she just can't show it, even when the duke questions her about the person Cesario has fallen for. What kind of woman is't? Of your complexion. She is not worth thee, then. What years, i' faith? About your years, my lord. Too old by heaven. RICHARDSON, The duke has no idea that this boy is a girl, and just to complicate matters further, he is already in love with another woman.

DICKSON

One of Shakespeare's great themes, the idea of falling in love with the wrong person or the idea that falling in love with a person who's fallen in love with somebody else... Come hither, boy. it can be really dangerous because, "A,"it can be really exposing, but, "B,"it can land you in all sorts of strange situations and untying them all and making them resolve is partly what makes these plays so fascinating to watch. My life upon't, young though thou art, thine eye Hath stay'd upon some favor that it loves.

MAN

The mask that she puts on allows Viola, even though she's dressed as Cesario, to lose her self-consciousness a little bit and allows... RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

At the replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, actors are rehearsing the scene in which Viola, dressed as the boy Cesario, talks to Orsino about love. The question is whether being disguised as a man actually liberates her to talk about her feelings in a way she couldn't if Orsino knew she was a woman.

WOMAN

It made me think, she got the physical mask on her, so maybe she doesn't have to do anything emotionally or mentally to kind of block how she's actually feeling.

MAN

Is it the fact that here's a man who is pontificating about the pain that he's in and all that kind of stuff? Is that what it is? I thought I'd come in on the pain of love. I thought that was a good cue. See? Perfect. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

I've come to sit in on rehearsals. So where were you in the scene? I'm really excited. Young though thou art, thine eye

Hath stay'd upon some favor that it loves

Hath it not, boy? A little, by your favor. What kind of woman is't? Of your complexion. Heh. She is not worth thee, then. What years, i' faith? About your years, my lord. Ha ha! Too old by heaven.

HOWELL

It's a very direct response. "What kind of woman is it?" "Of your complexion." It's kind of, "Oh, OK." Off subject just a second just because with the whole subject of dressing up and opposite sexes and men playing women, women playing men, et cetera, and what does any of this mean, and just talking and watching, it suddenly occurred to me that I think that the general message is that, you know, age, gender, et cetera, none of it matters, and that's what's so useful about the disguise because we get to love each other best just from one essence to another. Whatever might happen in this scene and whether this person is a boy or this person is a girl, as you say, is sort of irrelevant. She pricks his pomposity.

RICHARDSON

Yes, but then it goes another layer, doesn't it, because it's not only the deception of disguises, but our deceptions of ourselves because then the person that he does end up fully in love with is next to him and is none of the things that he thinks he loves, and that's why it's all so clever, because the story surprises everyone, including themselves. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

So now, still oblivious to his servant's feelings, Orsino instructs Cesario to woo the woman he loves, Olivia, on his behalf. Get thee to yond same sovereign cruelty. Once more, Cesario,

Get thee to yond same sovereign cruelty

Tell her... RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

The idea of female characters dressing up as young men may have been a comic device, but it had practical advantages. Just open it a little.

DICKSON

In Shakespeare's time, women did not play professional roles. Professional actresses weren't known until 50, 60 years after Shakespeare died, and so female parts were always played by men.

WOMAN

Do what women do when they put lipstick on. They go... What, like that?Yes.

BATE

You've got boys playing the part of girls. If you can have a boy playing the part of a girl who then dresses up as a boy, it becomes kind of easier for your boy actors, and it allows you to make a series of jokes about gender, cross-dressing, boys playing girls. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

The tradition of boys playing the parts of girls continues to this day at Dulwich College in South London. It's a school which was founded by one of Shakespeare's contemporaries and which may well have trained boy actors for the early 17th-century stage. Today they are also trying out the scene in which Orsino commands Viola as Cesario to visit Olivia and use his charms to win her over to Orsino's love. The feather has got broken since yesterday. Cesario, address thy gait unto her; she never will admit me.

BATE

Shakespeare and the audience always know that Cesario is really Viola, that the boy is really a girl... For they shall yet belie... but Shakespeare and the audience also know that Viola is really a boy actor, that the girl is really a boy. So there's a lot of language to do with impersonating the voice of the other gender. Thy small pipe is as the maiden's organ, shrill and sound. There's a real fascination with the sort of beautiful, androgynous teenager that both men and women fall in love with. The honorable lady of the house, which is she? RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

Viola, dressed as the young man Cesario, then has to visit Olivia on the duke's behalf. This will turn out to be a crucial scene in the unfolding narrative. Viola is deeply conflicted. In love with the duke herself, she's now supposed to persuade Olivia to accept his suit. The honorable lady of the house, which is she? Speak to me; I shall answer for her. Your will? Most radiant, exquisite and unmatchable beauty-- I pray you, tell me if this be the lady of the house,

for I never saw her

I would be loath to cast away my speech, for besides that it is excellently well penned, I have taken great pains to con it.

GARBER

Well, now Viola is in a very interesting situation because she is, in some ways, quite unfree. Whence came you, sir? I can say little more than I have studied, and that question's out of my part. She is trapped in her disguise. She falls in love with Orsino and doesn't feel that she can declare her love because she's supposed to be disguised as a young man, as Cesario. Are you a comedian? No,

my profound heart

and yet, by the very fangs of malice I swear, I am not that I play. Are you the lady of the house? If I do not usurp myself, I am.

GARBER

Olivia is also trapped. I mean, Shakespeare, again, does this so beautifully to make the two women analogous to one another. Each has a brother. Olivia's brother has died. She is mourning him. So she's trapped in this memorial moment... Good madam, let me see your face. Have you any commission from your lord to negotiate with my face? and the surprising arrival of Viola dressed as Cesario somehow frees Olivia.

You are now out of your text

but we shall draw the curtain and show you the picture.

GARBER

She draws the curtain, shows her face, and this is, in a way, the reawakening of Olivia. Now she herself is vulnerable. Now she herself is willing to learn to love. Look you, sir,

such a one I was this present

is't not well done? Excellently done, if God did all. 'Tis in grain, sir; 'twill endure wind and weather. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

There's so much about proving love and the challenges of love rather than a straightforward narrative. It's as though the characters, they're constantly challenging each other about, "How would you love me?" "I will prove to you how I love you." Also, the woman can only declare her love if she's pretending to be someone else. True. Viola can only declare her love by creating somebody else, and when she goes to woo Olivia, Viola, the young man, says, "Build me a willow cabin at your gate," and that's one of the most beautiful Shakespeare speeches. RICHARDSON, The famous willow cabin speech emerges when Olivia challenges Cesario to say just what he would do if he loved her as much as Orsino claims to. If I did love you in my master's flame-- Why, what would you? Make me a willow cabin at your gate, And call upon my soul within the house; Write loyal cantons of contemned love And sing them loud even in the dead of night. RICHARDSON, Viola is, of course, talking as much about her own love for Orsino as she is pretending to talk about his love for Olivia, and her sincerity will have comic consequences. "Olivia!" O, You should not rest Between the elements of air and earth, But you should pity me! You might do much. And with that, Olivia falls in love with the messenger, and not the message. Cesario, by the roses of the spring, By maidhood, honor, truth and every thing, I love thee so. RICHARDSON, And just in case all this mistaken identity and misplaced love isn't complicated enough, in this play, Shakespeare also introduces one of his most famous and popular subplots.

BATE

Shakespeare's imagination was so fertile that he could never resist weaving many different elements into each play. So there are some examples where what ostensibly seems to be the subplot just brought on for comic relief almost takes over the play itself. There dwelt a man in Babylon, lady, lady! RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

In "Twelfth Night,"the subplot involves a character called Malvolio. Malvolio is the pompous steward of Olivia's household. Is there no respect of place, persons, nor time in you? RICHARDSON, The rest of the household have a plan to embarrass him. For actors and audiences alike, Malvolio, here played by Sir Alec Guinness, is one of the most popular roles in Shakespeare. She shall know of it, by this hand. Ha ha ha!

DICKSON

Olivia's steward Malvolio is persuaded that Olivia has, in fact, fallen in love with him. Lie thou there. Some of the other members of the household write a letter that he picks up and thinks it's a love note addressed by Olivia to him... What dish o' poison has she dressed him! "I may command where I adore." Why,

she may command me

I serve her; she is my lady. and undergoes this profound and humiliating experience of coming out dressed in a special costume that the letter has told him to dress in, and Olivia, of course, is completely bemused. How now, Malvolio! Sweet lady, ho, ho.

BATE

The whole story of Malvolio is supposed to be the subplot, the background, the comic relief, but the evidence of all the early performances is that Malvolio is what people remembered. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

The popularity of the Malvolio story helped to make "Twelfth Night" one of the very first Shakespeare plays ever filmed, silently in 1910, with the distinguished actor Charles Kent in the role of Malvolio.

BATE

Malvolio almost becomes the star of the play. Indeed, when King Charles I bought a copy of Shakespeare's collected plays, on the contents list, he crossed out some of the titles. So "Twelfth Night," he crossed it out and called it "Malvolio." RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

In fact, the joke goes a bit too far for my taste, and Malvolio is driven almost mad... but by the end of the play, all is resolved. Viola's brother Sebastian appears, and Olivia, now thinking that he is Cesario, promptly marries him. If you mean well, Now go with me and with this holy man Into the chantry by. RICHARDSON, Viola is revealed to be a woman, and Orsino, realizing his mistake, falls in love with her... and the twins Viola and Sebastian are movingly reunited.

MAN

The end of "Twelfth Night" is infallibly moving, infallibly overwhelming, but what's overwhelming is the reconciliation of the twins. What's overwhelming is the image of the two twins finding each other and knowing each other not to be dead. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

And given the recent death of Skespeare's own son, one of his twins, one can only wonder at the emotion the playwright invested in this resolution.

BATE

In the work of the imagination in the play, the story, you can have a magical recovery. That which is lost can be found. You can have a kind of resurrection, and, of course, this is what happens at the end of "Twelfth Night." The brother and the sister are restored. You don't have to be some kind of Freudian psychoanalyst to see a real sense of wish fulfillment in Shakespeare as he writes that. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

But Shakespeare's comedies haven't survived 400 years just because of cross-dressing and mistaken identity. They've also lasted because of the strong female roles and, of course, the women who eventually played them. In 1660, 44 years after Shakespeare's death, women were finally allowed to act in public. I've gone to the National Portrait Gallery in London to find out how the first actresses left their mark on the stage. This is a wonderful portrait of the actress Dorothea Jordan, who was one of the most successful comic actresses of her time, and she was renowned for her britches roles, for her cross-dress roles, and here, she's playing Rosalind in "As You Like It," and, of course, Rosalind was one of the biggest and juiciest... Still is. roles--still is-- cross-dress roles in Shakespeare's comic dramas, and she was famous for this role. She was loved by audiences. Of course, the idea that they were exposing their thighs and their ankles and their calves in this way generated a huge kind of moral debate about the dissolute, decadent theater, exactly, but also women's sexuality was on the line in a way that men's sexuality wasn't. RICHARDSON, One wonders what Shakespeare would have made of the first actresses to play his roles.

GREER

I think Shakespeare regarded women as people, which doesn't mean that he was a feminist. Shakespeare thought women were endowed with sexuality and that that sexuality was active. The women in the comedies are highly sexed... physically generous, eloquent, active. I think when it comes to certain things, Shakespeare thought women were superior to men-- in their constancy, for one, in their common sense, for another. Shakespeare's female characters seem to be older, more world-wise, and smarter than the boys.

RICHARDSON

When I think of strong women in Shakespeare, I automatically think of the comedies and one play in particular-- "As You Like It." The play is set in the forest of Arden on the fringes of Stratford. Of all of Shakespeare's plays, this is probably the one that is closest to home, but what makes this comedy particularly special for me is that it's here that Shakespeare gives us one of his strongest female roles-- the feisty, fabulous, and beguiling Rosalind. The little strength that I have, I would it were with you. I think "As You Like It" is the play where Shakespeare is at utterly full command of all his comic resources. There's almost a kind of musical, operatic quality to it. Now Hercules be thy speed, young man! RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

"As You Like It" is, at its heart, a simple love story between Rosalind and a young man called Orlando.

WOMAN

Rosalind is a special character because she leads that play. Orlando beats the giant wrestler... O excellent young man! and in doing so, he meets Rosalind, and Rosalind falls instantly for him. Wear this for me. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

Rosalind was the breakthrough role for my mother when the Royal Shakespeare Company production of the play was shown on television in 1963. It made her a star. One out of suits with fortune, That could give more, but that her hand lacks means.

RICHARDSON

There's a famous story, isn't there, about you playing Rosalind What's that? during the previews.Oh, yes. Your director came to you and said, "Vanessa, we've got a problem." Yes. He said, "Vanessa, if you don't give yourself to this play, "you're going to ruin the entire production and everything in it," and-- But did you know what he meant by that? Didn't you already feel that you were giving yourself to the play in every available way? I knew that he had to be right. Ha ha ha! I knew that he had to be right, and I suddenly thought, "All right. "I'll just go on as you go on when you're going to do a high dive into a swimming pool." You abandon all thoughts of controlling, of how you're going to be. You just give yourself to the water. In that sense, I understood it, and I guess it happened. O, how full of briers is this working-day world! Come, come, wrestle with thy affections. O, they take the part of a better wrestler than myself! RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

Rosalind is the daughter of a banished duke. Her uncle has deposed her father and taken his title... Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste. RICHARDSON, and now he intends to banish her. Me, uncle? You, cousin. Within these 10 days if that thou be'st found So near our public court as 20 miles, Thou diest for it. I-- I do beseech your grace, Let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me. Thou art thy father's daughter; there's enough. So was I when your highness took his dukedom; So was I when your highness banish'd him. She completely lays it on the table. You, niece, provide yourself.

RICHARDSON

It's really something. I haven't ever seen this before. I've seen one clip, and they always show the same one, but I haven't seen any of this.

BATE

Given that Shakespeare was writing for an all-male acting company-- the female parts were played by the apprentices, the junior actors-- it's quite astonishing and unprecedented that the role of Rosalind is so huge. It's by far the biggest role in the play. It's one of the very biggest roles in the whole of the Shakespearean cannon, and she completely dominates the action of the play. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

Banished from the palace, Rosalind, here played by Helen Mirren, must come up with a plan enabling both her and her cousin to escape to the forest in safety.

MIRREN

I wanted to play Rosalind because it's a very famous Shakespearean character, one of the really great, great female roles. Were it not better, Because that I am more than common tall, That I should suit me all points like a man? Somehow, Shakespeare found a way around this issue with women of putting women into men's clothing and, therefore, giving them this ability to speak in a free way. Pray you, bear with me. He found a way to give women a voice. It's a great gift to womankind in many ways. They're all so smart, Shakespeare's women. Well, this is the forest of Arden.Aye. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

So once again, our heroine is dressed as a boy, and, as usual, Shakespeare makes the most of the sexual innuendos.

BATE

Shakespeare likes dropping little hints. When Rosalind cross-dresses as a boy, she chooses the name Ganymede. Now, Ganymede was the name of the cup bearer of Jupiter, but in various classical sources, there was a strong suggestion that Ganymede didn't only bear Jupiter's cup, that he also provided him with some sexual services, and so the term "Ganymede" became slang for the boy lover of a man. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

Rosalind's adventures in unconventional love now continue. She meets a shepherd, Silvius, and the woman he loves--Phebe. Of course, Phebe will fall in love with the young man Ganymede. 'Od's my little life, I think she means to tangle my eyes too! No, faith, proud mistress, hope not after it. RICHARDSON, These are the typical comic devices of Shakespearean theater, filmed here on location in a real forest. 400 years after the original production, director Thea Sharrock presented the play on the kind of stage that was, perhaps, most suitable-- Shakespeare's Globe, but, as always, it was the character of Rosalind that was center stage. Well, this is the forest of Arden. Ay. Therefore courage, good Aliena! I pray you, bear with me; I cannot go no further. Rosalind is everything. She is funny. She's witty. She's clever. She's quick. You know, she's got unbelievable strength. She's loyal. She's independent. You know, she's all of these complex things that all of us are, really, but she could run the country at the same time. What did he when thou sawest him? What said he? How looked he? Wherein went he? What makes him here? Did he ask for me? Where remains he? How parted he with thee and when shalt thou see him again? Answer me in one word.

SHARROCK

She's a lot bigger than most of us are, and it is incredible how Shakespeare has managed to put all of those characteristics into one person, and, of course, the fact that it's a lady makes it even more interesting. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

By this stage in the play, Orlando has gone to the forest to find Rosalind, not knowing, of course, that she's now disguised as a man. He's been pinning poems about her on all the trees, but he meets the play's most cynical and unromantic character-- Jaques. Mar no more trees with writing love-songs in their barks. I pray you, mar no more of my verses with reading them ill-favoredly. Rosalind is your love's name? Yes, just. I do not like her name.

ROXISON

In the forest, Rosalind starts discovering these poems on trees. Who on earth has written these poems "deifying the name of Rosalind," as she says? Orlando. Orlando Aah!Aah! And instead of just going, "I'm here. It's all gonna be all right," Rosalind thinks, "Hey, wait a minute. "I'll test him. I'll keep my disguise as Ganymede..." Do you hear, forester? "and I will give him lessons in love." There is a man haunts the forest, that abuses our young plants by carving "Rosalind" in their barks. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

Rosalind's determination to test Orlando's love leads to one of Shakespeare's most famous comic scenes, in which, still dressed as a boy, she offers to pretend to be a girl who will behave so badly, she will cure Orlando of his love....wherein Rosalind is so admired? I swear to thee, youth, by the white hand of Rosalind, I am that he, that unfortunate he. I swear to thee, youth, by the white hand of Rosalind, I am that he, that unfortunate he. I profess curing it by counsel. Well, of course, Rosalind's contention is that she can-- pretending that she's Ganymede, not Rosalind-- Yes. that she can cure Orlando of his love because, she declares, "Love is merely a madness." Have you ever cured any so? "Yes, one, and in this manner. He was to imagine me his love, his mistress..."...and

I set him every day to woo me

at which time would I, being but a moonish youth, grieve, be effeminate, changeable, longing and liking, proud, fantastical, apish, shallow, inconstant... "...inconstant, full of tears, "full of smiles, "for every psion something and for no passion truly any thing..."...as boys and women are for the most part cattle of this color; would now like him, now loathe him; now entertain him, then forswear him; now weep for him, then... "spit at him; "that I drave my suitor from his mad humor of love to a living humor of madness..." which was, to forswear the full stream of the world, and to live in a nook merely monastic. And thus I cured him... "...and this way will I take upon me "to wash your liver as clean "as a sound sheep's heart, that there shall not be one spot of love in't." I would not be cured, youth. I would cure you. That is a wonderful scene. It's one of the most wonderful, teasing, merry, heartfelt scenes that were ever written for a woman. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

It's believed that Shakespeare wrote "As You Like It" during the cold winter of 1599. The company were using the winter break to build their open-air theater the Globe on Bankside, near where the modern replica now stands. It's a play that seems to convey a certain magic to actors and audiences alike. Whew. Here I am, my first time ever on this incredible stage here at the Globe. I always feel that there's something very magical about stages. They're almost like churches or something. They always send shivers up my spine, and we're all shivering because it's snowing. It's really stunning, the detail here. I always feel that there's an element in theaters of some of the energy of the productions and the audience that have been here. You feel the history, and I think that synthesis of performers and audience is what theater is all about and, obviously, especially during Shakespeare's time, as 400 years ago-- Sorry. This is just so beautiful, this falling snow. I think that synergy would have been completely maximized because in those days, audiences were so much more vocal. You know, people could've been heckling or crying or shouting with joy, and I think that would have elevated-- You know, like a sports arena or gladiators, it raised the stakes. RICHARDSON, As part owner of the theater, Shakespeare was a show business impresario, and "As You Like It"was a hit. Now, as then, the Globe Theatre seems to magnify the experience. Why, how now, Orlando! RICHARDSON, At it's climax, Rosalind proposes a fake marriage ceremony which, much to the audience's delight, is sealed with a kiss for Orlando from a character whom the audience knows is Rosalind but he still thinks is a boy. I take thee, Rosalind, for wife.

SHARROCK

I mean, the love story in "As You Like It" is the central narrative, isn't it, and watching two people magnetically fall in love with each other is a complete joy, and watching that every night with 1,000 people was a complete delight from beginning to end.

ROXISON

We know that eventually it will work out, but it's hugely complicated because Rosalind is dressed as a man. Orlando doesn't even realize that it's Rosalind. Rosalind is busy wooing him in the guise of Ganymede pretending to be Rosalind. Meanwhile, Phebe, the shepherdess, has fallen in love with Rosalind thinking that she's a man, and Silvius is in love with Phebe. So we've got this ridiculous kind of love quartet that clearly has to be resolved. We know it will be because it's a Shakespeare comedy... Down on your knees, And thank heaven, fasting,

for a good man's love

For I must tell you friendly in your ear,

you are not for all markets

Hoo hoo hoo! Ha ha ha! Cry the man mercy; love him. but it takes some engineering on Rosalind's part, and she says, "Right. "You'll all meet me here tomorrow, and then it'll all be sorted out." To-morrow meet me all together. I will marry you, if ever I marry woman,

and I shall be married to-morrow

I will satisfy you, if ever I satisfied man,

and you shall be married to-morrow

I will content you, if what pleases you contents you, and you shall be married to-morrow.

ROXISON

There are certain moments of convenience, but it seems to me, the important thing is that somehow when people come to the forest of Arden, there is some element of transformation. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

"As You Like It"will close with 4 weddings and no funerals, but that won't please the play's great voice of cynicism--Jaques. It may be one of the smaller roles, but it always attracts the greatest of actors, here played by Kevin Kline. There is, sure, another flood toward, and these couples are coming to the ark. Jaques at the end of "As You Like It" is still a satirist, and he doesn't approve of all these marriages, and he's got wonderful, acerbic comment about, "There must be another flood coming because all these couples are coming towards the ark." He's invited to participate in the dancing at the end...

To your pleasures

I am for other than for dancing measures.

MAGUIRE

and he says, "I'm for other than for dancing measures," you know, "Count me out of this one." Jaques, stay. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

He's at least consistent. Jaques is the voice in the play that has constantly sought to belittle to joys of love with a healthy dose of unromantic realism. One man in his time plays many parts, His acts being 7 ages.

BATE

Jaques most famous speech, the 7 ages of man, when you go through those 7 ages, you get to the end, and there's a real sense of bitterness and emptiness. And his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion. The last stage, "mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans everything," the sense that for all the joy of the comedy, in the end, what you're left with is death. What you're left with is a skull. We're not so far away from "Hamlet,"after all. Sans everything.

MIRREN

I think Shakespeare believed in love and in making a marriage that's to do with love when actually the idea of marrying for love was quite peculiar. Shakespeare almost always talks about marriage as love, love matches, but he's very, very conscious of the fact that love is a tricky thing. I personally feel that Shakespeare, in some ways for us, he is a bible. For all actors, he is, isn't he, male and female. For us women, they're incredible roles. Yes, and if you hope to one day be on a Beethoven level of playing, you better learn to play Beethoven, and Shakespeare is like Beethoven. And actually, if you think about it, within every Shakespearean heroine role are the seeds for any performance of an actress that we've ever seen in any role. And different versions of the same woman. Yes, Yeah. and Shakespeare showed every single side of women. That's why the roles are so rich.Yes. He championed us. He clearly loved women. Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak. Sweet, say on. RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

Shakespeare's great comic heroines are comic, and they are romantic, but they're so much more than that. For all their fairy-tale qualities, the comedies also retain an edge of doubt and cynicism.

GREER

One of the important things about Shakespeare is, he's not trying to say anything. He's not trying to tell you how to think. What he is saying to you is, "Think." RICHARDSON,

VOICE-OVER

Even the greatest theater is a piece of make-believe. A play is called a play for a reason. This is the source of their power. We enter the theater like Viola washed up on the shore of Illyria or Rosalind arriving in the forest ready to pretend, yet we unexpectedly encounter something real. At the heart of these plays is a tale that we can all relate to. One person trying to love another has got to be the oldest story of all, but it's never been more beautifully told than by Shakespeare. Captioning made possible by Friends of NCI Captioned by the National Captioning Institute --www.ncicap.org--

ANNOUNCER

Next time, Derk Jacobi co Watch extended interviews and full episodes, find out which Shakespeare character you are, and the learn the anatomy of a Shakespeare scene at pbs.org. A two-disc set of "Shakespeare Uncovered" is available on DVD for $34.99 plus shipping. To order, call 1-800-336-1917.