0:00:02 > 0:00:03William Shakespeare,
0:00:03 > 0:00:08hardly a name that you would expect to thrill Britain's teenagers
0:00:08 > 0:00:12but over the last year thousands have taken part in a nationwide competition
0:00:12 > 0:00:17to perform a Shakespearean speech off by heart.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20Friends, Romans, countrymen! Lend me your ears.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24But, wherefore, villain, didst thou kill...?
0:00:24 > 0:00:27See how she leans her cheek upon her hand.
0:00:27 > 0:00:32At stake, a place in the grand final, hosted by Jeremy Paxman,
0:00:32 > 0:00:36performing for a 1,000-strong audience and three respected judges,
0:00:36 > 0:00:39on stage at one of the most prestigious venues in the UK,
0:00:39 > 0:00:44the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.
0:00:44 > 0:00:49After two rounds of competition, and workshops across the country,
0:00:49 > 0:00:54the shortlist has now been whittled down to nine children,
0:00:54 > 0:00:58all with very different backgrounds but all sharing one passion,
0:00:58 > 0:01:00for Shakespeare's language.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05With five days to go before the final,
0:01:05 > 0:01:08they are thrown into the dramatic world, working with the Royal Shakespeare Company
0:01:08 > 0:01:13to polish and perfect their performances.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17They'll deliver one speech each and then three will go forward
0:01:17 > 0:01:20to perform the most famous speech of them all.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23- To be...- Or not to be.
0:01:23 > 0:01:24That is the question.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26Whether it is nobler in the mind...
0:01:26 > 0:01:29To suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
0:01:29 > 0:01:34Or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38It's a life-changing experience for all of them
0:01:38 > 0:01:41but only one can take home the prize
0:01:41 > 0:01:44for delivering Shakespeare Off By Heart.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59All the world's a stage and all the men and women, merely players.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02Oh, my God!
0:02:02 > 0:02:03LAUGHTER
0:02:05 > 0:02:09Shakespeare's verse is a challenge for every one of the finalists.
0:02:09 > 0:02:10Full of strange oaths...
0:02:10 > 0:02:11Oh, my God!
0:02:13 > 0:02:15Jack, by far the youngest competitor,
0:02:15 > 0:02:18is performing in his second language.
0:02:18 > 0:02:20You either get Shakespeare, or you don't
0:02:20 > 0:02:23and I've always felt that I got Shakespeare
0:02:23 > 0:02:27sometimes even more than I got things that are drama now.
0:02:28 > 0:02:34Neil is determined to overcome dyslexia and do his country proud.
0:02:34 > 0:02:36Being asked questions by everyone, what's haggis like?
0:02:36 > 0:02:37Do you wear a kilt?
0:02:37 > 0:02:42The traditional questions but, yeah, kind of like representing Scotland, really,
0:02:42 > 0:02:45because I'm the only Scottish person here.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49Jacinta, from Wales, will be playing the part of an English king.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53I try and think of a character that I know that's a bit manly
0:02:53 > 0:02:55and gruff and everything.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01I think about Shrek, he's quite manly.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05James struggles with Shakespeare's language.
0:03:05 > 0:03:07I remember when I've been in the car with my dad
0:03:07 > 0:03:11and I go, "I can't do it there's too many lines, there's too many lines!"
0:03:11 > 0:03:13I just used to repeat it over and over and over again
0:03:13 > 0:03:16until I eventually just got it.
0:03:17 > 0:03:22They all suffer from a problem shared by every actor on the planet.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24I have to admit I do struggle with nerves.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26I go on the stage and I'm like...
0:03:26 > 0:03:28Nervous, all the time. I'm always nervous.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31Yes, really nervous.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33I'm still nervous. I'm thinking, "I'm nervous, I'm nervous."
0:03:33 > 0:03:35Do I get nervous?
0:03:35 > 0:03:37Do I really get nervous?
0:03:37 > 0:03:41If they want to know what it's like to be a professional actor,
0:03:41 > 0:03:43they have to rehearse like crazy.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46We're doing a quick hop here, because we're in a race against time.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48This is what we do in a rehearsal room.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51No actor pops out speaking Shakespeare.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53Well, not one that I've met, anyway!
0:03:53 > 0:03:55You have to do this work.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00This is not a school production, it's the real deal.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04Like going from go-kart racing to Formula One in a single step.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08Back here, you'll also have the stage manager who'll be looking after the actors
0:04:08 > 0:04:11and they'll have a screen where they're watching the stage.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13They'll be to see everything that's going on on stage
0:04:13 > 0:04:17and if anything looks like it's going wrong, or if someone hurts themselves
0:04:17 > 0:04:22or, is not very well, they can step in and call a stop to this show.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24Has it ever happened where they've had to go onstage?
0:04:24 > 0:04:29Theatre's live, you know, sometimes an actor does hurt themselves in a fight scene
0:04:29 > 0:04:32or sometimes a piece of scenery doesn't do what it's supposed to do.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38Struan Leslie, the RSC's movement director
0:04:38 > 0:04:41takes the finalists onto the main stage.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45This is no school hall.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47What's your sense of the space?
0:04:47 > 0:04:51So much bigger but smaller, it's that strange thing.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53It's a bit like a kind of TARDIS, in reverse.
0:04:53 > 0:04:55But, really intimate, you know.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59If somebody's sitting up there, they're only 15 metres away.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04None of them has played on anything like it before
0:05:04 > 0:05:06and amid the camaraderie, they all know
0:05:06 > 0:05:10that they're competing against each other.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13I would like to win but I think if it happens, it happens.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16I would like to win but I'm sure there are other contestants
0:05:16 > 0:05:21that were picked for a reason and so they will be fierce competition.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23Because I know that everyone else has gone as far as I have
0:05:23 > 0:05:27to do this and so we're all almost of equal skill.
0:05:27 > 0:05:29But, of course, I want to win!
0:05:31 > 0:05:35They'll be performing in front of three judges who really know their stuff.
0:05:35 > 0:05:39The actress, Imogen Stubbs, who has performed Shakespearean roles
0:05:39 > 0:05:43from Desdemona in Othello to Gertrude in Hamlet.
0:05:43 > 0:05:47The historian and Shakespeare authority, Simon Schama
0:05:47 > 0:05:53and the actor Samuel West, a famous Hamlet of the RSC in 2001.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58As the scale of the challenge sinks in,
0:05:58 > 0:06:03the finalists see how professional actors perform in the RSC's current production,
0:06:03 > 0:06:05The Taming Of The Shrew.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11I knew you at the first, you were a moveable.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13What's a moveable?
0:06:13 > 0:06:15A join'd stool.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19Thou hast hit it. Come, sit on me.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23When I looked at the stage and the actors, it really goes to show
0:06:23 > 0:06:26how even just the slightest movement can make everyone's heads turn.
0:06:26 > 0:06:28When you feel you have to move across the stage, you really don't,
0:06:28 > 0:06:31you just have to take a couple of steps.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35With my tongue in your tail.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38It's good so far. It's a bit...
0:06:38 > 0:06:40..graphic.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42It's good, it's good.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44Argh!
0:06:45 > 0:06:48It's really funny and as Emily said,
0:06:48 > 0:06:50kind of graphic.
0:06:50 > 0:06:51The warning said nudity,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54but I don't think they'd take it that far!
0:06:59 > 0:07:03Ladies and gentlemen of the Off By Heart Company, this is your quarter-hour call.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06Ladies and gentlemen of the Off By Heart Company,
0:07:06 > 0:07:08this is your quarter-hour call, you have 15 minutes.
0:07:08 > 0:07:0915 minutes, thank you.
0:07:11 > 0:07:16On the day of the final, each of the nine performers is expected
0:07:16 > 0:07:21to be in complete control of Shakespeare's language and meaning.
0:07:21 > 0:07:22Come on then, team.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30To ease their nerves backstage, the actor, Samuel West,
0:07:30 > 0:07:33gives them a few quick tips.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35I don't know if you'll find it useful,
0:07:35 > 0:07:37I learn it when I'm dancing.
0:07:37 > 0:07:39LAUGHTER
0:07:39 > 0:07:42- Do you?- No, I don't dance.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44Yes, he does. Yes, he does!
0:07:44 > 0:07:47I don't really dance, either, but if you're learning a speech
0:07:47 > 0:07:49that has an iambic pentameter and you go,
0:07:49 > 0:07:52"for God's sake let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories."
0:07:52 > 0:07:56And you go, dum dum, it's got two full syllables to the death of King!"
0:07:56 > 0:07:59You know, you do it while you're doing the washing up, or whatever.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03The verse just goes in so much faster. That's my trick.
0:08:03 > 0:08:04LAUGHTER
0:08:15 > 0:08:19Well, hello, and welcome to the final of Shakespeare Off By Heart.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22It's a sort of X Factor for people with brains.
0:08:22 > 0:08:262,000, 13 to 15-year-olds from right across United Kingdom
0:08:26 > 0:08:29have now been whittled down to a mere nine.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32Here at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon,
0:08:32 > 0:08:35one of them will emerge the winner.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39Each of the nine will perform a speech from Henry V or Romeo and Juliet.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43The three judges will then choose a final three
0:08:43 > 0:08:46who will perform the most famous soliloquy in the world.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50First of all, please welcome our three judges,
0:08:50 > 0:08:52the actors, Samuel West and Imogen Stubbs
0:08:52 > 0:08:55and the historian, Simon Schama.
0:08:55 > 0:08:57APPLAUSE
0:09:02 > 0:09:04What are you looking for, Simon?
0:09:04 > 0:09:07A sense that Shakespeare's language is of our time as well
0:09:07 > 0:09:09as the Elizabethan time.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12We're looking for passion, eloquence,
0:09:12 > 0:09:17people who don't take Shakespeare is sort of stick on beards and dangling swords.
0:09:17 > 0:09:21That it's the language that's the most glorious thing ever done in English.
0:09:21 > 0:09:22That's easy, isn't it?
0:09:22 > 0:09:23Er...
0:09:23 > 0:09:25No pressure.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28It sort of raises the question, though, of why anyone should feel
0:09:28 > 0:09:32the need to learn Shakespeare, doesn't it?
0:09:32 > 0:09:34What's the point. You two, obviously, it's your job.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37It makes waiting for a bus, a bit less boring.
0:09:37 > 0:09:38LAUGHTER
0:09:38 > 0:09:40I'm serious, if this stuff's going round through you.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43You're in the company of some of the greatest stuff written.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46It's like a beat going through you and it can be your friend
0:09:46 > 0:09:49and your inspiration for the rest of your life.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51- Is it difficult? - It is very, very difficult.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53I think for this age group,
0:09:53 > 0:09:57Shakespeare writes the most wonderful stuff about being human
0:09:57 > 0:09:59but it's very hard to make yourself sound like a human being
0:09:59 > 0:10:02when you first try with Shakespeare, it's like speaking another language.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05If you don't have the life experience, it makes it hard.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08When you get it, when you solve that riddle, when you're gifted with that eloquence
0:10:08 > 0:10:11coming out of your mouth, it's a dream, it's wonderful.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13You can only feel it when you speak it.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16Right, I don't envy you your job, thank you very much for now.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18Let's get on with it, then.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21APPLAUSE
0:10:21 > 0:10:24# Lift up the voice, just carry on singing #
0:10:24 > 0:10:2915-year-old, Femi, grew up in a large Nigerian family in South London.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34A born performer, he sings and dances, as well as acts
0:10:34 > 0:10:37and is not short of ambition.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39Yeah, I want to be famous.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43I've said it since I was seven, I want to be famous.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47I would like to be in the drama industry, the acting industry first
0:10:47 > 0:10:52and then, obviously, if there's different opportunities
0:10:52 > 0:10:55like dancing and singing, I'll just take that opportunity as well.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57# Like the way you hold me #
0:10:57 > 0:11:02I mean, before I get to the stage, before I actually walk on the stage, I'm like...
0:11:03 > 0:11:08When I'm on the stage I'm like, "Yeah!" I don't know what happens.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11When I'm on stage it's just a whole different story.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16I used to be watching TV, I'm thinking,
0:11:16 > 0:11:18"imagine me in that TV screen right there.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22"Will people at home be thinking of me?" And just thinking, "Yeah."
0:11:22 > 0:11:26I'd love to be on the stage acting. I'd love to sing in choirs.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29I'd love to be dancing on stage and all of that.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32Well, here's my family and friends.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36Here's Tina, my cousin, Angie, my other cousin...
0:11:36 > 0:11:41Femi's mother and entire family will be cheering him on all the way.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43My wonderful mum.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46And I feel happy, excited.
0:11:46 > 0:11:48I feel privileged as well, you know.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52Just to have a boy who's very talented
0:11:52 > 0:11:57and very gifted at what he does and he does work hard at what he does.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01Acting, anything, he really works hard for it.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04My aunty and my dad.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07My mum keeps pressuring me like, "Learn your lines, learn your lines."
0:12:07 > 0:12:10Every single day, "learn your lines, learn your lines."
0:12:10 > 0:12:13"OK, mum, I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm watching EastEnders!"
0:12:13 > 0:12:14So, yeah.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18How oft when men are at the point of death
0:12:18 > 0:12:20have they been merry?
0:12:20 > 0:12:22I first began to notice Femi
0:12:22 > 0:12:26when he auditioned for the annual school production.
0:12:26 > 0:12:27He had a very small role
0:12:27 > 0:12:31but he was one of the keenest chorus people I've ever met in my life.
0:12:31 > 0:12:36He just demonstrated from the onset, that he was a young man with enormous potential.
0:12:39 > 0:12:44So, not only is he extremely talented in terms of his singing,
0:12:44 > 0:12:46his dancing, he's proven himself
0:12:46 > 0:12:51to be an incredibly talented young Shakespearean, or straight actor.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54How can I call this a lightning?
0:12:54 > 0:12:59Femi will be performing Romeo's death scene from Romeo and Juliet.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02Don't put your hands to your face, cover your mouth
0:13:02 > 0:13:04because you can't hear.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08You started so lovely out to us, you are talking to us
0:13:08 > 0:13:12and you went in, you retreated more and more. Don't.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14Yeah, he's really good.
0:13:14 > 0:13:15He is teaching me a lot
0:13:15 > 0:13:19and making me understand why Shakespeare was invented.
0:13:19 > 0:13:21Why Shakespeare is here.
0:13:21 > 0:13:23Why they do Shakespeare.
0:13:23 > 0:13:28How does it feel to see the woman that you love lying there dead?
0:13:28 > 0:13:30OK? Yeah?
0:13:30 > 0:13:34Shakespeare wrote this so that he'd be telling the audience
0:13:34 > 0:13:35how that feels.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38We've seen him several times on stage
0:13:38 > 0:13:40but this is something different, this is massive.
0:13:40 > 0:13:44It's going to be shown on TV, as well.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47So we're really happy for him.
0:13:47 > 0:13:49- And proud of him, as well. - Yeah, proud of him
0:13:52 > 0:13:56Femi's mother even insisted he wears his best suit for the final.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59Here...
0:13:59 > 0:14:04Here will I remain with worms that are thy chambermaids.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08O, here will I set to my everlasting rest.
0:14:08 > 0:14:12And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars from this world wearied flesh.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21Eyes, look your last!
0:14:21 > 0:14:23Arms, take your last embrace.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28And lips...
0:14:31 > 0:14:33O you the doors of breath
0:14:35 > 0:14:38seal with the righteous kiss.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43A dateless bargain to engrossing death!
0:14:44 > 0:14:46Come...
0:14:48 > 0:14:51Bitter conduct. Come.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54Unsavoury guide, thou desperate pilot.
0:14:54 > 0:14:58Now at once, run on.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!
0:15:01 > 0:15:05Here's to my love.
0:15:05 > 0:15:07O true apothecary.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14Urgh!
0:15:14 > 0:15:16Urgh!
0:15:20 > 0:15:22Ah!
0:15:22 > 0:15:24Thy drugs are quick.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30Thus...
0:15:30 > 0:15:32..with a kiss...
0:15:35 > 0:15:37I die.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42APPLAUSE
0:15:45 > 0:15:48He's a wonderfully watchable boy.
0:15:48 > 0:15:50- You know, you couldn't not be swept...- Absolutely.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54He has you in the palm of his hands and especially in that space
0:15:54 > 0:15:56he's got a marvellous energy.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59You just know... I can really see him going on to be an actor.
0:15:59 > 0:16:01Yeah, indeed.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04Because he has fantastic enthusiasm, so that carries a long way.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07- If I was being honest, I couldn't hear everything he said. - No, I couldn't either.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11I think he needs to work on that. I think he's worked on it very hard and will go on working on it
0:16:11 > 0:16:13but he has trouble articulating some of it.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16- He needs to trust the verse more.- Mmm.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18Run...
0:16:18 > 0:16:21It adds a precious seed to the eye.
0:16:21 > 0:16:25The finalists' first taste of the RSC was a workshop with Cicely Berry.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28When the suspicious head of theft is stopped.
0:16:28 > 0:16:34A veteran voice coach who's worked with everyone from Dame Peggy Ashcroft to Samuel L Jackson.
0:16:36 > 0:16:38The first thing I want to say is,
0:16:38 > 0:16:43that there is no one right way of saying a line.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46All right? There's no right way.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50Everybody has a different feel about a line,
0:16:50 > 0:16:52feel of what it means, we're all different.
0:16:52 > 0:16:57The expense of spirit in a waste of shame is lust.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01In Shakespeare's day, this is the important thing I want to say,
0:17:01 > 0:17:06in Shakespeare's day, only 8% of people could read.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10They couldn't read, most of them.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14They went... He was the most popular playwright.
0:17:14 > 0:17:20They went to see his plays but they understood it by listening,
0:17:20 > 0:17:23by hearing the sounds of that language
0:17:23 > 0:17:28and where the sound and the rhythm takes us.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31All right! Gather again.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33I get bored very quickly.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38Emily is 15 and hails from the West Country.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41She'll be performing a speech in which Juliet
0:17:41 > 0:17:44prepares to lose her virginity to Romeo.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47When she is saying, "gallop apace,"
0:17:47 > 0:17:50she's not being poetic in describing it,
0:17:50 > 0:17:55she's actually telling us what she feels inside.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59Do you know what I mean? She is hot for him and wants him.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02To tell the truth, I didn't want to do a lovely dovey piece.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05That's one piece, "I don't want to do it, I don't want to be in love!"
0:18:05 > 0:18:09because, I find, it really difficult to act.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12It's definitely pushed my boundaries.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17Acting is a fairly new hobby for Emily,
0:18:17 > 0:18:21who discovered her enthusiasm after appearing in a school play.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25It was only about a year ago when in school we did a drama piece
0:18:25 > 0:18:27and I thought, "I really like this."
0:18:27 > 0:18:29I was really getting into it.
0:18:29 > 0:18:34And, erm, after we had the sort of scripted bit over with,
0:18:34 > 0:18:36I was, "I would like to do that again" kind of thing.
0:18:36 > 0:18:41So I auditioned for some other plays and I now go to an after-school, out-of-school, session
0:18:41 > 0:18:44and it's really just gone from there, to be honest.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46It's funny really because she's... I mean, you know
0:18:46 > 0:18:50when they were at primary school it was a case of having to be in some of the productions and stuff.
0:18:50 > 0:18:53It's something she's never really done
0:18:53 > 0:18:56and then when this Shakespeare thing kicked off,
0:18:56 > 0:19:00- she came home and told us vaguely what was going on, didn't she?- Yeah.
0:19:00 > 0:19:01She had this...
0:19:01 > 0:19:02She burst into tears at the same time
0:19:02 > 0:19:07because she said she'd recently lost her best friend with leukaemia
0:19:07 > 0:19:10and she was like, "I've got to go for it" kind of thing, you know.
0:19:10 > 0:19:15"Life's just too short to sit back" and "I'm really going to get out there and have a go
0:19:15 > 0:19:17"and experience all these things."
0:19:17 > 0:19:19Next thing is, she's gone through the school heats
0:19:19 > 0:19:23and she's in the regional finals and it's like, "Oh, my God!"
0:19:23 > 0:19:26- It's really fired something, hasn't it?- Mm.
0:19:26 > 0:19:28It's really hit the something somewhere that's clicked.
0:19:28 > 0:19:32I think she's gone through every single YouTube video there is,
0:19:32 > 0:19:36with every Shakespeare performance there ever was, kind of thing.
0:19:36 > 0:19:38- It's funny, isn't it?- Yeah.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41I can hear her in the morning at three o'clock listening to Hamlet.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43It's like, "turn the TV off!"
0:19:43 > 0:19:45Quite funny.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49Emily's nerves means that she tends to race through her speech.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53Director Justin Audibert tries to slow her down.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds
0:19:56 > 0:19:58towards Phoebus' lodging.
0:19:58 > 0:20:00Such a Wagoner as Phaethon would whip you to the west...
0:20:00 > 0:20:03If you are telling me the information for the first time,
0:20:03 > 0:20:06if you were telling somebody, that's what you are doing, you're telling us all
0:20:06 > 0:20:08information for the very first time.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10- Slower.- Yeah.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13- When I get nervous, I get faster.- If I said to you...
0:20:13 > 0:20:15SPEAKS VERY QUICKLY
0:20:15 > 0:20:17- Yeah.- You'd be like, "What, what you want Justin?"
0:20:17 > 0:20:21If I said to you, Emily, I could do with a cup of water,
0:20:21 > 0:20:22- could you get me one?- Yeah.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25- You might get me a cup of water, might you?- Mm.- Yeah?
0:20:25 > 0:20:29- That's the difference. You've got to tell us so we can understand it.- OK.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32All right, tell me again, you started beautifully.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steed,
0:20:35 > 0:20:37towards Phoebus' lodging.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39Such a Wagoner as Phaethon would whip you to the west
0:20:39 > 0:20:42and bring in cloudy night immediately.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45Emily prepares for her final performance.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50Cicely Berry gives an extra workshop specifically about nerves.
0:20:51 > 0:20:56It's very important to realise that we all get nervous.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59I don't know one actor in all the hundreds I've worked with
0:20:59 > 0:21:03who doesn't get nervous going on a stage
0:21:03 > 0:21:07and being seen by a whole load of people.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10I think it's a good thing because it means you care,
0:21:10 > 0:21:11do you see what I mean?
0:21:11 > 0:21:15You care, you do the best you can.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19I can't tell you how not to be nervous but what I can do,
0:21:19 > 0:21:22I think, is really valuable,
0:21:22 > 0:21:26is to give you a few tips of ways
0:21:26 > 0:21:29of not letting that affect your voice.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33With me, it's not my voice that shows nerves, it's my hand shakes,
0:21:33 > 0:21:35my hand shakes.
0:21:35 > 0:21:40No, what we're going to do will help everything, you see.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43Just think about your shoulders
0:21:43 > 0:21:46because it is the shoulders that get so tense, isn't it?
0:21:46 > 0:21:50Open your mouths wide and sigh out.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56This time I'm going to ask you to breathe out for ten counts.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00And, out, two, three, four...
0:22:00 > 0:22:01APPLAUSE
0:22:01 > 0:22:05Now, Emily from the West Country takes to the stage
0:22:05 > 0:22:09with A speech from Act III of Romeo and Juliet.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13Juliet is impatient for news of Romeo.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15APPLAUSE
0:22:21 > 0:22:24Gallop apace, you fiery footed steed towards Phoebus' lodging.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27Such a Wagoner as Phaethon would whip you to the West
0:22:27 > 0:22:31and bring in cloudy night immediately.
0:22:31 > 0:22:35Spread thy close curtains, love performing night
0:22:35 > 0:22:38that runaway's eyes may wink and Romeo
0:22:38 > 0:22:40leap to these arms untalk'd of
0:22:40 > 0:22:43and unseen.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45Adrenaline normally kicks in after you've done.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48For me, halfway through I'm...
0:22:48 > 0:22:50It's a bit like, "Oh God."
0:22:51 > 0:22:55Come civil night, thou sober suited matron, all in black.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58Learn me how to lose a winning match
0:22:58 > 0:23:01play'd for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.
0:23:03 > 0:23:05Oh my God!
0:23:05 > 0:23:06I've lost it. Can I star...
0:23:08 > 0:23:10Can I start again, please?
0:23:10 > 0:23:11Sorry...
0:23:22 > 0:23:27Gallop apace you fiery footed steed towards Phoebus' lodging.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30Such a Wagoner as Phaethon would whip you to the West and bring...
0:23:30 > 0:23:32Emily, I thought she did very well starting again
0:23:32 > 0:23:36- and was infinitely better the second time, which is pretty hard to do.- She was.
0:23:36 > 0:23:41- She actually looked up. - I wouldn't even, you know...
0:23:41 > 0:23:45I thought she was the least in command of meaning, I have to say.
0:23:45 > 0:23:47I think that probably wasn't her time
0:23:47 > 0:23:49but I did take my hat off to her that she started again.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53Incredibly brave without a doubt.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57Oh...
0:23:59 > 0:24:02I forgot it halfway through. I had to start again.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05That wasn't the best but...
0:24:05 > 0:24:08I think the nerves have kicked in again.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13# Come, monsieur, sit yourself down
0:24:13 > 0:24:16# and meet the best innkeeper in town #
0:24:16 > 0:24:22Ben, 15 and from Lincolnshire, aspires to an acting career.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25I would like to be an actor, yeah, when I'm older.
0:24:25 > 0:24:27I know it's really hard business, to be honest.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31But, erm, I'd just love to be in the arts industry.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34# Master of the house, doling out the charm... #
0:24:34 > 0:24:40Ben is very driven, he's very competitive. He loves a challenge.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42He's been doing drama since he was eight
0:24:42 > 0:24:45and he's not really stopped since.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48I don't know where it comes from but the more he does it,
0:24:48 > 0:24:51the more driven he becomes.
0:24:52 > 0:24:54Ben won a scholarship to a private boys school
0:24:54 > 0:24:59and he's down to perform the famous balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet,
0:24:59 > 0:25:02although he's not that keen on the character of Romeo.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06I think Romeo's quite naive, to be honest.
0:25:06 > 0:25:07They both are, really.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10But Romeo is so obsessed with Juliet
0:25:10 > 0:25:15that he forgets pretty much all the morals that he has been taught.
0:25:16 > 0:25:20In a way, what he's doing is he's throwing all of his beliefs out of the window
0:25:20 > 0:25:24just to be with this one girl, which, I think, is slightly naive.
0:25:24 > 0:25:26Maybe that's what he thought.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29Have we got time to do one more thing?
0:25:29 > 0:25:30You'd like to, wouldn't you? Yes?
0:25:30 > 0:25:32- Yes!- Yes!
0:25:32 > 0:25:34CICELY LAUGHS
0:25:36 > 0:25:39For me, I think drama is one of the only ways to be able
0:25:39 > 0:25:43to express yourself fully because I used to have really,
0:25:43 > 0:25:47big problems with confidence and now that I've got the whole drama thing going,
0:25:47 > 0:25:52I can talk to anyone and not have a problem with it.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58Ben's father died a year ago.
0:26:00 > 0:26:04I want to reflect on things that have happened to me over my life
0:26:04 > 0:26:07and incorporate them into the play and into my monologue,
0:26:07 > 0:26:10sort of get the message across.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13Things like, sort of the grief he's feeling at the loss
0:26:13 > 0:26:18of someone close to him or, you know, he's not really sure about himself,
0:26:18 > 0:26:21what he could do, what he shouldn't do.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23Erm, generally sort of his morals in life.
0:26:23 > 0:26:25APPLAUSE
0:26:31 > 0:26:33But soft.
0:26:33 > 0:26:35What light through yonder window breaks.
0:26:37 > 0:26:39It is the east and Juliet is the sun.
0:26:40 > 0:26:45Arise, fair sun and kill the envious moon
0:26:45 > 0:26:48who is already sick and pale with grief that thou her maid
0:26:48 > 0:26:51art far more fair than she.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56Be not her maid, since she is envious.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59Her vestal livery is but sick and green
0:26:59 > 0:27:02and non but fools do wear it. Cast it off.
0:27:02 > 0:27:04It is my lady.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07O, it is my love! O, that she knew she were.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10Well, I think, Ben was lovely
0:27:10 > 0:27:12because he seemed to be utterly credible as a Romeo.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15I put down, "realty in love."
0:27:15 > 0:27:18Realty in love and he also was brave enough to pause and think
0:27:18 > 0:27:22- when he wanted to pause and think which is always nerve wracking. - Massive hands, though.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25- Massive hands. - More hands than anybody else.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29- Yes, but you're playing up to a balcony and it's very tempting, isn't it?- That's true.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31See how she leans her cheek upon her hand.
0:27:32 > 0:27:37O, that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40She speaks!
0:27:42 > 0:27:45O, speak again bright angel!
0:27:45 > 0:27:49For thou art as glorious to this night being o'er my head
0:27:49 > 0:27:51as is a winged messenger of heaven.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54unto the white, upturned, wandering eyes of mortals
0:27:54 > 0:27:57that fall back to gaze on him when he bestrides
0:27:57 > 0:28:02the lazy puffing clouds and sails upon the bosom of the air.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05APPLAUSE
0:28:05 > 0:28:07CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:28:07 > 0:28:11I thought Ben's interpretation, his understanding was pretty top.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15He has a slight habit of pausing in the middle of verse lines,
0:28:15 > 0:28:17- which he could get rid of.- Yeah.
0:28:17 > 0:28:20I mean, there is a lot in that speech that makes you,
0:28:20 > 0:28:21"Oh, that she knew...
0:28:21 > 0:28:23"See how she..."
0:28:23 > 0:28:26- Mm.- Just let the verse carry you through.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29He did very well at the end, there some very long sentences at the end
0:28:29 > 0:28:31and he did that extremely well.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34- He did that beautifully. - It's a hard speech, isn't it?
0:28:34 > 0:28:36Even though we're all saying it's a teen speech because
0:28:36 > 0:28:39it's got all these jokes in the middle and you both want to cuddle him
0:28:39 > 0:28:44and laugh with him and the fantastic kind of twitchy...
0:28:44 > 0:28:46The note was the same but more so.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50- He started interpreting it and I said "Yeah, keep going in that direction."- Yeah, yeah.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53Because it's really helpful.
0:28:55 > 0:28:57One of the challenges the children face
0:28:57 > 0:29:02is performing in an exposed space, similar to the one Shakespeare would have used,
0:29:02 > 0:29:06thrust forward with the audience on three sides.
0:29:06 > 0:29:09And walk around the stage and find yourself somewhere comfortable. Great.
0:29:11 > 0:29:13All right, I want to do just a little exercise. OK?
0:29:13 > 0:29:16Basically, what we're going to do, is a bit of call and response. OK?
0:29:16 > 0:29:19You'll say line to them and they'll say a line back down to you.
0:29:19 > 0:29:21It will give you a sense of what it feels like
0:29:21 > 0:29:25and how much you need to project and where you need to come from.
0:29:25 > 0:29:28OK, Nuha, you can give yours to Amy.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32I have faint cold fear of thrills through my veins.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36- I have a faint cold fear of thrills through my veins.- Fantastic!
0:29:36 > 0:29:40And, again. Give us it again. This time I'm going to give you the challenge of getting
0:29:40 > 0:29:43it to her in a whisper but I wanted to hear every word of it.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46Keep that whisper really energised.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49I... I can't whisper any more!
0:29:49 > 0:29:53Erm, I have a faint cold fear of thrill through my veins.
0:29:53 > 0:29:57I have a faint cold fear of thrill through my veins.
0:29:57 > 0:30:01Nuha, whose Muslim family emigrated to West London from Sri Lanka,
0:30:01 > 0:30:04entered the competition on her own initiative.
0:30:06 > 0:30:08I like reading a lot of classics.
0:30:08 > 0:30:10I'm trying to finish as many as I can.
0:30:10 > 0:30:12I do have kind of a passion for maths and history
0:30:12 > 0:30:17so I do like doing maths. I work well with numbers.
0:30:17 > 0:30:22When I'm not at school I like going ice-skating and riding my bike.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25That's the only fitness I do, otherwise I'm very unfit
0:30:25 > 0:30:29and the least athletic person you can find.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32Her relationship with Shakespeare came from her father
0:30:32 > 0:30:36who first learned English by reading tales from Shakespeare.
0:30:38 > 0:30:41I did the same thing what my father did to me.
0:30:41 > 0:30:44I went to Wimbledon when she was a very young child.
0:30:44 > 0:30:48I wanted Shakespeare books, like stories of Shakespeare.
0:30:48 > 0:30:51Then, which was also with pictures and all that,
0:30:51 > 0:30:53from the Wimbledon bookshop there.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56I gave it to my daughter as a very small young child.
0:30:56 > 0:30:58Then she was also reading it. She has the book.
0:30:58 > 0:31:02My dad has this opinion of Shakespeare, and his mother also shared it,
0:31:02 > 0:31:06that the morals that Shakespeare had, the good morals in his characters
0:31:06 > 0:31:11were almost the same morals that religion teaches you to have as well,
0:31:11 > 0:31:14the idea of being trustworthy, loyal and respectful.
0:31:14 > 0:31:16It just added to the learning curve of growing up
0:31:16 > 0:31:18and becoming who we were.
0:31:18 > 0:31:20To be or not to be...
0:31:20 > 0:31:23As well as learning her lines, Nuha has to think carefully
0:31:23 > 0:31:26about her selection of hair covering for the final.
0:31:26 > 0:31:28The headscarf, to me, is more of a day-to-day thing
0:31:28 > 0:31:30so if I'm meeting up with friends or going to school,
0:31:30 > 0:31:32I wear my headscarf but when it comes to acting,
0:31:32 > 0:31:36especially for my drama GCSE exam, I will wear a scarf cap,
0:31:36 > 0:31:41only because I feel with the headscarf it blocks my peripheral vision
0:31:41 > 0:31:44and I feel a bit more conscious when I'm wearing it.
0:31:44 > 0:31:46Whereas when I'm wearing a scarf cap,
0:31:46 > 0:31:50I'm a bit more me in that sense so I'll be able to act to my full percentage,
0:31:50 > 0:31:54rather than being just a bit more reserved as I normally am.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59Though her parents are happy for Nuha to act as a hobby,
0:31:59 > 0:32:01they have different plans for her career.
0:32:03 > 0:32:05As far as our tradition and culture and all that,
0:32:05 > 0:32:07religion is also concerned,
0:32:07 > 0:32:12we are not, you know, very keen to do acting as a profession.
0:32:12 > 0:32:15'As far as we're concerned, we want her to study
0:32:15 > 0:32:16'and, you know, become somebody.
0:32:16 > 0:32:20'And then this can be part of, you know, enjoyment.
0:32:20 > 0:32:22'I mean, she can enjoy by acting. It's up to her.
0:32:22 > 0:32:24'As a profession, I mean, of course...'
0:32:24 > 0:32:26you know, we are drawing a line there.
0:32:26 > 0:32:28HE LAUGHS
0:32:28 > 0:32:30- Drawing the line? - Yeah, between that, you know.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33We don't want her to be in that kind of profession, like, you know,
0:32:33 > 0:32:36'that is an open profession there, you know.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39'You would rather she did a proper job?'
0:32:39 > 0:32:40Yes.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43HE LAUGHS
0:32:45 > 0:32:48How if, when I am laid into the tomb,
0:32:48 > 0:32:50I wake before the time Romeo Come to redeem me?
0:32:50 > 0:32:53There's a fearful point!
0:32:53 > 0:32:57Nuha's speech involves Juliet contemplating faking her own death
0:32:57 > 0:33:00as a way of escaping her arranged marriage.
0:33:00 > 0:33:02And there die strangled Ere my Romeo comes?
0:33:02 > 0:33:05'I'm a spontaneous kind of person, so I guess it depends...'
0:33:05 > 0:33:07which way the audience is going.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10I could be portraying Juliet as a really innocent person
0:33:10 > 0:33:13or I could portray her as someone who's very rebellious.
0:33:13 > 0:33:18'And the idea of her loving Romeo is a very innocent emotion,
0:33:18 > 0:33:19'and she's so young.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22'And the fact that she's willing to die for him...'
0:33:22 > 0:33:24is very contradictory.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27And I'm really unsure as how to portray her
0:33:27 > 0:33:30because she's got lots of conflicting sides to her.
0:33:30 > 0:33:33And that's really difficult to portray because, again,
0:33:33 > 0:33:36it's completely up to me and I don't know how to go about doing that.
0:33:36 > 0:33:38And have you been in love like that yourself?
0:33:38 > 0:33:39No.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41SHE LAUGHS
0:33:41 > 0:33:42'Fraid not!
0:33:42 > 0:33:47Justin Audibert is determined to up the energy in Nuha's performance.
0:33:47 > 0:33:48..The heat of life.
0:33:48 > 0:33:50I'll call them back again To comfort me:
0:33:52 > 0:33:53Nurse!
0:33:57 > 0:33:59What should SHE do here?
0:33:59 > 0:34:00OK, so that's a good example THERE.
0:34:00 > 0:34:04I just think that change of thought needs to be 10% more energised.
0:34:04 > 0:34:06It's like you go, "I'm going to go and make a sandwich."
0:34:06 > 0:34:08"No, I'm not!" Do you know what I mean?
0:34:08 > 0:34:09You just need to change it more.
0:34:09 > 0:34:12Like, it just needs to be bigger, the difference between the two.
0:34:12 > 0:34:13All right?
0:34:13 > 0:34:16So, you're going to call the nurse, but then you realise, actually,
0:34:16 > 0:34:19that's a terrible idea, and it's better off just being on your own.
0:34:19 > 0:34:21So, definitely you're going to be on your own.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24Be more definite about things. Just that.
0:34:24 > 0:34:26I'll call them back again To comfort me...
0:34:26 > 0:34:29'Nuha speaks the verse very intelligently...'
0:34:29 > 0:34:32and she's worked out the emotional journey
0:34:32 > 0:34:34of her characters very clearly.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39Her performance, at times, is too small and too contained.
0:34:39 > 0:34:41And Nuha's probably one where she needs to think,
0:34:41 > 0:34:45"OK. I've got to hit 600-1,000 people with this."
0:34:48 > 0:34:50Romeo, Romeo, here's drink.
0:34:52 > 0:34:54I drink to thee.
0:34:54 > 0:34:56Fantastic! I think that's the level it needs to be at.
0:34:56 > 0:34:58Do you know what I mean?
0:34:58 > 0:35:00It's just that bit more energy in everything that you do.
0:35:00 > 0:35:02'It's so good.
0:35:02 > 0:35:07'It's SO good, like, but it just needs that 10% that you gave then.
0:35:07 > 0:35:09'It just makes such a difference to it.'
0:35:09 > 0:35:11APPLAUSE
0:35:16 > 0:35:21I have a faint cold fear Thrills through my veins,
0:35:21 > 0:35:24That almost freezes up The heat of life:
0:35:26 > 0:35:29I'll call them back again To comfort me:
0:35:29 > 0:35:30Nurse!
0:35:32 > 0:35:33What should SHE do here?
0:35:33 > 0:35:36My dismal scene needs I Must act alone.
0:35:41 > 0:35:42Come, vial.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50What if this mixture Do not work at all?
0:35:50 > 0:35:54Shall I be married then Tomorrow morning?
0:35:54 > 0:35:56No!
0:35:58 > 0:36:00No: this...
0:36:02 > 0:36:04Shall forbid it...
0:36:07 > 0:36:09We all loved what she did.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12She's the only person who recognised a line of monosyllables.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15- She did, didn't she? She went, "bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom." - I noticed that too.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18- She has music in her.- Yes.
0:36:18 > 0:36:22I have a faint cold fear Thrills through my veins,
0:36:22 > 0:36:24That almost freezes up The heat of life...
0:36:24 > 0:36:28Also, there's a thing that it can be rhetorical.
0:36:28 > 0:36:30If you have a question, when she has so many questions,
0:36:30 > 0:36:32"What happens if this happens?"
0:36:32 > 0:36:34And she actually asks the question.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36She actually asks the audience or to herself, you know.
0:36:36 > 0:36:40It doesn't become a rhetorical device. She goes, "Oh my God! What would happen if that happened?"
0:36:40 > 0:36:45And the whole speech stopped and then she went, from there,
0:36:45 > 0:36:48"Maybe this would happen." And it was not watching a play.
0:36:48 > 0:36:50She has an extraordinary maturity as an actress which is odd
0:36:50 > 0:36:53cos she's playing a relatively immature character
0:36:53 > 0:36:55compared to many.
0:36:56 > 0:36:57O, look!
0:36:59 > 0:37:01Methinks I see my cousin's ghost Seeking out Romeo,
0:37:01 > 0:37:03That did spit his body Upon a rapier's point:
0:37:03 > 0:37:05Stay, Tybalt, stay!
0:37:11 > 0:37:12Romeo...
0:37:15 > 0:37:20Romeo, Romeo, here's a drink.
0:37:20 > 0:37:22I drink to thee.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33WHISPERS: Really good. So much fun.
0:37:33 > 0:37:36It's like you own the space, so it's really good fun.
0:37:44 > 0:37:46Amy, a 14-year-old from Northern Ireland,
0:37:46 > 0:37:49goes to a Catholic school in Belfast,
0:37:49 > 0:37:51a city where Romeo and Juliet is popular
0:37:51 > 0:37:54and the tale of feuding families has a special resonance.
0:37:59 > 0:38:02Amy enjoys one of the great qualities in Shakespeare,
0:38:02 > 0:38:04the complexity of writing that can work
0:38:04 > 0:38:07on many different levels at the same time.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09'Once you've learnt what you have to say...'
0:38:09 > 0:38:14and you've read it, and you start to think about the subtext of it,
0:38:14 > 0:38:17it's much easier to convey different emotions in different ways.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20So, you can be angry but kind of sad at the same time,
0:38:20 > 0:38:22but kind of underlying layers of it.
0:38:22 > 0:38:24'So, once you understand it,
0:38:24 > 0:38:26'it's definitely a lot easier.'
0:38:26 > 0:38:28'Possibly, the challenge is that...'
0:38:28 > 0:38:31Juliet is close to her character in age,
0:38:31 > 0:38:34and therefore, you don't want it to become cliched and stereotyped.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38'There can be a dangerous safety where you think,
0:38:38 > 0:38:41'"I know this character. I can identify with this character."
0:38:41 > 0:38:44'Therefore, there may not be the same intensity. She's going to have to work through...'
0:38:44 > 0:38:49"How do I convey this emotion as Juliet, not as me?"
0:38:50 > 0:38:54'I like being someone completely different and surprising people.'
0:38:54 > 0:38:56You know, whenever you come off stage,
0:38:56 > 0:38:58people go, "I wasn't expecting that!"
0:39:00 > 0:39:04'She's always been a very quiet, unassuming girl.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08'But beneath that is a very steely individual.'
0:39:10 > 0:39:15And she certainly has absolutely no precedent in the family for acting.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18But she has a great love of literature, great love of reading.
0:39:18 > 0:39:20'And I suppose it's not particularly
0:39:20 > 0:39:25'funny that she would eventually turn to the theatre.'
0:39:25 > 0:39:27There is no end,
0:39:27 > 0:39:30No limit, measure or bound
0:39:30 > 0:39:32In that word's death...
0:39:32 > 0:39:36Amy's emotional speech comes as Juliet, just married,
0:39:36 > 0:39:39discovers that Romeo has killed her cousin, Tybalt.
0:39:39 > 0:39:41Lovely! OK? Lovely!
0:39:41 > 0:39:44And this time, your senses...
0:39:44 > 0:39:46You know, you're struggling against these tears.
0:39:46 > 0:39:50It's a really lovely thing to play, that you're struggling against these tears.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53That's why you've got to work it out cos if you don't talk, you're going to go mad.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57That's why she's talking. Otherwise, he could have just written a sign which said, "She cries."
0:39:57 > 0:40:00OK? Yeah? He'd have written, "Have a good cry."
0:40:00 > 0:40:01He hasn't written that.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04He's written a story that's her working out
0:40:04 > 0:40:07whether she should mourn for Tybalt or whether she should mourn for Romeo
0:40:07 > 0:40:09or whether she should mourn for herself
0:40:09 > 0:40:10or whether she should mourn for.
0:40:10 > 0:40:13So, that's what you've got to do.
0:40:13 > 0:40:14You've got to work it all out.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19Shall I speak ill of him That is my husband?
0:40:23 > 0:40:25Ah!
0:40:25 > 0:40:27Poor my lord,
0:40:27 > 0:40:29What tongue shall smooth thy name,
0:40:29 > 0:40:32When I, thy three-hours wife, Have mangled it?
0:40:34 > 0:40:38But, wherefore, villain Didst thou kill my cousin?
0:40:40 > 0:40:44That villain cousin Would have kill'd my husband...
0:40:44 > 0:40:47Her understanding of the text is really first-class.
0:40:47 > 0:40:50It was incredibly nimble, and she really played the part.
0:40:50 > 0:40:53Again, she has that habit of emphasising things
0:40:53 > 0:40:57with her hands, which is her default position.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00If you shut your eyes, it's a better performance.
0:41:00 > 0:41:02I thought she did wonderfully, carrying through.
0:41:02 > 0:41:04It got better and better, the speech.
0:41:04 > 0:41:07There's something terribly sweet about glasses then wiping your eyes.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10Good choice. Good choice of action, you know,
0:41:10 > 0:41:12'to get yourself into the part.'
0:41:13 > 0:41:15Back, foolish tears,
0:41:15 > 0:41:17Back to your native springs;
0:41:17 > 0:41:19Your tributary drops belong to woe,
0:41:19 > 0:41:22Which you, mistaking, Offer up to joy.
0:41:22 > 0:41:25My husband lives, That Tybalt would have slain
0:41:25 > 0:41:28And Tybalt's dead, That would have killed my husband:
0:41:28 > 0:41:30All this is comfort
0:41:30 > 0:41:31Wherefore weep I then?
0:41:38 > 0:41:40WHISPERS: It's so good. It went really well.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43I thought my voice kind of cracked.
0:41:43 > 0:41:45I was like, "That's not right."
0:41:45 > 0:41:49But it went well. I got a good reaction, so that's good.
0:41:56 > 0:41:57The four remaining finalists
0:41:57 > 0:41:59have been assigned soliloquies
0:41:59 > 0:42:02from Shakespeare's most patriotic play, Henry V.
0:42:02 > 0:42:06The play begins with a prologue that asks for the audience's imagination
0:42:06 > 0:42:09in conjuring up the battlefields of France
0:42:09 > 0:42:11on the bare boards of a theatre.
0:42:14 > 0:42:16Jack, from Portsmouth on the South coast,
0:42:16 > 0:42:18has been given the tricky speech.
0:42:18 > 0:42:19APPLAUSE
0:42:28 > 0:42:30O for a Muse of fire,
0:42:30 > 0:42:34That would ascend The brightest heaven of invention,
0:42:34 > 0:42:36A kingdom for a stage,
0:42:36 > 0:42:41Princes to act and monarchs To behold the swelling scene...
0:42:42 > 0:42:45At 13, he's the youngest finalist.
0:42:45 > 0:42:47'Really, it doesn't really concern me...'
0:42:47 > 0:42:48that I'm the youngest
0:42:48 > 0:42:53because I get on with all the others really well and everything.
0:42:53 > 0:42:57'It's quite nice to be the youngest because then I know that, now...'
0:42:57 > 0:43:00the older ones are so advanced that I can see where my limits are.
0:43:00 > 0:43:02And that's what I really came here to find out,
0:43:02 > 0:43:05'so it's really helped me, having the older people here.'
0:43:07 > 0:43:12Jack's engagement with Shakespeare is all the more remarkable
0:43:12 > 0:43:16because he spent his first five years living abroad,
0:43:16 > 0:43:18speaking a different language.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21'He was really struggling with the English language...'
0:43:21 > 0:43:24based on the fact that we brought him up
0:43:24 > 0:43:26over in Bulgaria for five-and-a-half years.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29So, coming back to the UK,
0:43:29 > 0:43:31- having been in a- completely- different environment
0:43:31 > 0:43:35for so many years, and then,
0:43:35 > 0:43:37having a love of the English language,
0:43:37 > 0:43:40and obviously studying Shakespeare as he is now
0:43:40 > 0:43:42and really getting and understanding it,
0:43:42 > 0:43:44I think that's been quite outstanding, really.
0:43:46 > 0:43:50As well as acting, Jack enjoys some more physical pursuits.
0:43:50 > 0:43:52'I think karate,
0:43:52 > 0:43:53'it really helps me to...'
0:43:53 > 0:43:56concentrate in difficult situations.
0:43:56 > 0:43:58It really teaches me discipline.
0:43:58 > 0:44:00And I am quite, sometimes...
0:44:00 > 0:44:02quite not a child, so I am going to have to
0:44:02 > 0:44:05sort of deal with some stick from people at school.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09'So, if people do start, it gives you the discipline
0:44:09 > 0:44:11'to know when to sort of keep calm.'
0:44:11 > 0:44:12Step forward. Punch!
0:44:13 > 0:44:15But pardon,
0:44:15 > 0:44:17Gentles all,
0:44:17 > 0:44:20The flat unraised spirits
0:44:20 > 0:44:23Who have dared on this Unworthy scaffold
0:44:23 > 0:44:25To bring forth so great an object:
0:44:27 > 0:44:31Can this cockpit Hold the vasty fields of France?
0:44:31 > 0:44:34Or may we cram within this wooden O
0:44:34 > 0:44:37The very casques that did Affright the air at Agincourt...
0:44:37 > 0:44:40'Can we talk about Jack, actually?'
0:44:40 > 0:44:44What I thought was fantastic about him was that...
0:44:44 > 0:44:47The Choruses, in any case, are kind of grandiose,
0:44:47 > 0:44:50slightly panto mimic kind of persona.
0:44:50 > 0:44:52- And he sort of really went for it. - He really enjoyed it.
0:44:52 > 0:44:53He went down on one knee.
0:44:53 > 0:44:58- "The vasty fields of France," when he moved from scene to scene.- Yeah.
0:44:58 > 0:45:01And I just thought there was a much bigger, older actor, really,
0:45:01 > 0:45:03kind of impending.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06He was very strong on the conjuration.
0:45:06 > 0:45:07Think when you talk of forces that you see.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10"OK, we WILL see them! That's great! Jack, you're our guide."
0:45:12 > 0:45:15Think when we talk of horses, That you see them,
0:45:15 > 0:45:20Printing their proud hoofs I' the receiving earth
0:45:20 > 0:45:23For 'tis your thoughts That must now deck our kings,
0:45:23 > 0:45:27Carry them here and there Jumping o'er times,
0:45:27 > 0:45:31Turning the accomplishment Of many years into an hour-glass:
0:45:33 > 0:45:37For the which supply, Admit me Chorus to this history
0:45:37 > 0:45:41Who prologue-like Your humble patience pray
0:45:41 > 0:45:44Gently to hear, kindly to judge,
0:45:44 > 0:45:45Our play.
0:46:00 > 0:46:04Now, Jacinta from North Wales with one of the most famous speeches
0:46:04 > 0:46:07in the whole of Shakespeare's Henry V.
0:46:07 > 0:46:09It's his rallying cry to his troops.
0:46:09 > 0:46:13APPLAUSE
0:46:18 > 0:46:22Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
0:46:22 > 0:46:25Or close the wall up with our English dead.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
0:46:28 > 0:46:31As modest stillness and humility.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39Jacinta grew up in a small town in North Wales.
0:46:39 > 0:46:43As someone who has always struggled with confidence,
0:46:43 > 0:46:47playing a powerful male king might be a bit of a stretch.
0:46:47 > 0:46:50All I have to portray is his feelings and emotions,
0:46:50 > 0:46:54and so it doesn't really matter if I'm a man or a woman,
0:46:54 > 0:46:57it is just showing their feelings at that point.
0:46:59 > 0:47:04I think when she went for the first leg in Manchester,
0:47:04 > 0:47:09she felt a little bit intimidated by the people there, she said
0:47:09 > 0:47:13she had people looking at her as if she wasn't going to win it,
0:47:13 > 0:47:16but when the winner was announced and it was her, she said a few of
0:47:16 > 0:47:20the other competitors looked around as if, "she didn't win it, did she?"
0:47:20 > 0:47:23And that's how she is, she likes to do it quietly,
0:47:23 > 0:47:25and she just does it when she needs to do it.
0:47:25 > 0:47:29Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
0:47:29 > 0:47:31And teach them how to war.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35I don't know, cos I'm quite used to just being in the background,
0:47:35 > 0:47:38I'd like to put myself out there, I don't get competitive,
0:47:38 > 0:47:41I just get annoyed with myself if my performance hasn't been as good
0:47:41 > 0:47:44as usual, cos as long as I try my best that's all that matters to me.
0:47:46 > 0:47:51It sounds so cheesy. Gosh. It really does!
0:47:52 > 0:47:56Hoop, hoop! Good girl.
0:47:56 > 0:48:00Henry V is one of Shakespeare's most demanding roles.
0:48:00 > 0:48:04It's a fantastic speech, it'll be a fabulous challenge for her
0:48:04 > 0:48:07to do it, I know she's looking forward to it hugely.
0:48:07 > 0:48:11She's a big personality, again,
0:48:11 > 0:48:15that is sometimes hidden because you see this nice, quiet,
0:48:15 > 0:48:18well-spoken young lady, but actually she has a big personality
0:48:18 > 0:48:23on stage, so I know she's got that to carry this speech forward.
0:48:23 > 0:48:28During the workshops in Stratford, assistant director Rae McKen
0:48:28 > 0:48:30has had to work hard to help Jacinta develop a persona
0:48:30 > 0:48:33with the confidence and authority of a Shakespearean monarch.
0:48:33 > 0:48:38Cry "God for Harry, England and Saint George!"
0:48:38 > 0:48:41Wow!
0:48:41 > 0:48:43- Crikey, Moses!- Wow!
0:48:43 > 0:48:47- Can you feel the difference? - I'm feeling it.- Yeah?
0:48:50 > 0:48:55That had no need there for prepared gestures at all but they all came.
0:48:55 > 0:48:59- They came naturally.- They all came, where you felt they needed to come.
0:48:59 > 0:49:04For there is none of you so mean and base,
0:49:04 > 0:49:06That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
0:49:10 > 0:49:12Straining upon the start.
0:49:12 > 0:49:13The game's afoot:
0:49:13 > 0:49:16Follow your spirit and upon this charge
0:49:16 > 0:49:21Cry "God for Harry, England and Saint George!"
0:49:21 > 0:49:25APPLAUSE
0:49:31 > 0:49:34(Congratulations! That was good.)
0:49:34 > 0:49:36(Well done.)
0:49:36 > 0:49:40Throughout their time in Stratford, these young performers
0:49:40 > 0:49:44are being asked to rethink the way they breathe, walk, look and think.
0:49:44 > 0:49:49Every word of Shakespeare, every move they make,
0:49:49 > 0:49:51requires meaning and purpose.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54How are you going to know where the space is?
0:49:54 > 0:49:57No one will be there, use your eyes, look for it. Where is it?
0:49:57 > 0:50:01The panto season is over, but it might be behind you.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04Proscenium stage is like looking at a painting.
0:50:04 > 0:50:08Two-dimensional, things generally work in lines across the space,
0:50:08 > 0:50:10whereas with this, it's much more like sculpture.
0:50:10 > 0:50:13The difference is you're not just being the sculpture,
0:50:13 > 0:50:15you actually have to think like a sculptor,
0:50:15 > 0:50:19you have to think about making three-dimensional space.
0:50:19 > 0:50:23Stop, stop, if we were in a playground or on a field,
0:50:23 > 0:50:25if you saw space, would you move like this?
0:50:27 > 0:50:30- Would you? What would you do?- Run!
0:50:30 > 0:50:31You'd pace your weight forward and run.
0:50:31 > 0:50:34Something really funny happens here.
0:50:34 > 0:50:36Not just in this theatre, all over the world,
0:50:36 > 0:50:38if you see a space, get into it.
0:50:38 > 0:50:40People go, "I'm just going to walk in a really weird manner."
0:50:40 > 0:50:43As opposed to just getting down and pelting, get there.
0:50:43 > 0:50:45Come on, let's go. Thank you very much.
0:50:51 > 0:50:52No, come back!
0:50:57 > 0:51:01With only two performances to go, next up is 14-year-old Neil.
0:51:01 > 0:51:03He's the star drama pupil
0:51:03 > 0:51:07at his school on the north-east coast of Scotland.
0:51:10 > 0:51:11Even since he was tiny,
0:51:11 > 0:51:15I remember seeing you age two at nursery dancing in front of
0:51:15 > 0:51:19the littler kids in their high chairs just to get them to laugh.
0:51:19 > 0:51:23It's always been just what you've done.
0:51:23 > 0:51:27Neil's dyslexia means learning Shakespeare off by heart
0:51:27 > 0:51:29poses difficulties.
0:51:29 > 0:51:33That's the one thing, learning lines, it's really boring,
0:51:33 > 0:51:36and it's one of my least favourite parts of drama,
0:51:36 > 0:51:39but as soon as they're in there, you can do so much more with them,
0:51:39 > 0:51:44you can change them round, make them come to life, really.
0:51:44 > 0:51:46Neil's a bit dyslexic,
0:51:46 > 0:51:50so that makes it even more difficult to learn them.
0:51:50 > 0:51:54It's the one thing you're absolutely determined to do.
0:51:54 > 0:51:56When you get a bit of text to learn,
0:51:56 > 0:51:58you are determined to learn it.
0:51:58 > 0:52:00How he comes o'er us with our wilder days.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04Neil's diffidence means his performance sometimes lacks energy.
0:52:04 > 0:52:09Rae McKen is determined to change that for his speech,
0:52:09 > 0:52:13in which he has to play the king at war with the Dauphin of France.
0:52:13 > 0:52:18You cannot stand on stage and speak nicely,
0:52:18 > 0:52:23which you are doing very well and which a lot of people do very well.
0:52:23 > 0:52:26But the audience won't feel anything.
0:52:26 > 0:52:31They have to feel, and in order for them to feel, you have to work hard.
0:52:31 > 0:52:33So even though you're not actually going to be running up
0:52:33 > 0:52:37and down the stage like a maniac, you need to, inside,
0:52:37 > 0:52:40be working that hard to get it out across to the audience.
0:52:40 > 0:52:44Allow yourself to be physically loose, don't get stuck in,
0:52:44 > 0:52:48"I am a king, I will do my gestures, I will be a king."
0:52:48 > 0:52:51You have a nice, loose physicality, use it.
0:52:51 > 0:52:53There's no reason why you can't do a modern Henry,
0:52:53 > 0:52:58he can't be a bit like, "Yeah, yeah, Dauphin's being an idiot, man.
0:52:58 > 0:53:01"Why has he sent me these balls? What's that about?
0:53:01 > 0:53:04"You wait till I throw them back at him, then we'll see."
0:53:04 > 0:53:09Now, Neil from north-east Scotland will deliver Henry V's
0:53:09 > 0:53:15declaration of war on France from Act I, Scene II.
0:53:15 > 0:53:18But I will rise there with so full a glory
0:53:18 > 0:53:21That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,
0:53:21 > 0:53:24Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.
0:53:24 > 0:53:29And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his
0:53:29 > 0:53:33Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones, and his soul
0:53:33 > 0:53:37Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance
0:53:37 > 0:53:41That shall fly with them. For many a thousand widows
0:53:41 > 0:53:46Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands.
0:53:46 > 0:53:51Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down
0:53:51 > 0:53:54And some are yet ungotten and unborn
0:53:54 > 0:53:58That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn.
0:53:58 > 0:54:00They all had individual qualities.
0:54:00 > 0:54:02Neil's power is very extraordinary though.
0:54:02 > 0:54:07- Hang on, let's just quickly... - In Dauphin.- In Dauphin, yes.
0:54:07 > 0:54:09He's got an extraordinary presence on stage.
0:54:09 > 0:54:11He's extremely still, isn't he?
0:54:11 > 0:54:13He's very still, he's got a very powerful voice
0:54:13 > 0:54:16and it may have been a bit one-notey
0:54:16 > 0:54:21but his presence on stage is remarkable for somebody of that age, I think.
0:54:21 > 0:54:24I think he used the images and emotions he had.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27He's got roots, not feet. He really goes into the floor, he's amazing.
0:54:27 > 0:54:29I thought he was very good
0:54:29 > 0:54:33but I didn't get swept away by that particular monologue.
0:54:33 > 0:54:35I totally agree with you, he was very centred, very still.
0:54:35 > 0:54:39He used all the energies and emotions he had available at his age.
0:54:39 > 0:54:43But this lies all within the will of God,
0:54:43 > 0:54:46To whom I do appeal, and in whose name
0:54:46 > 0:54:49Tell you the Dauphin I am coming on,
0:54:49 > 0:54:52To venge me as I may and to put forth
0:54:52 > 0:54:56My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause.
0:54:56 > 0:55:00So get you hence in peace, and tell the Dauphin
0:55:00 > 0:55:02His jest will savour but of shallow wit,
0:55:02 > 0:55:06When thousands weep more than did laugh at it.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10Convey them with safe conduct. Fare you well.
0:55:12 > 0:55:17APPLAUSE
0:55:17 > 0:55:21The last performer in the final is 15 year-old James
0:55:21 > 0:55:23who won the Leeds heat.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26He lives on an estate in York with his dad,
0:55:26 > 0:55:30his sister and his pet boa constrictor.
0:55:31 > 0:55:32We're getting the snake out now.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38She's called Cleopatra which is what my sister called her
0:55:38 > 0:55:41because that was the name of my dad's snake that he had
0:55:41 > 0:55:44when he was about our age, I think.
0:55:47 > 0:55:51Theatre has really increased my confidence
0:55:51 > 0:55:54because you might have noticed in my speech, I have a slight stammer.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57When I was younger, I had a really bad stammer
0:55:57 > 0:56:03and I always stuttered in my words and whatnot.
0:56:03 > 0:56:07When I went on to do things in stage and theatre,
0:56:07 > 0:56:10if I had a script I wouldn't stutter. I'd be word-perfect.
0:56:10 > 0:56:12Cos I was quite a fluent reader.
0:56:12 > 0:56:15That really increased my confidence.
0:56:15 > 0:56:16I'd be quiet and shy off stage,
0:56:16 > 0:56:20but when I was on stage, I'd be acting my heart out, you know.
0:56:20 > 0:56:23Stir up the Athenian youth to merriment. Awake...
0:56:23 > 0:56:26James's father John has noticed how much confidence
0:56:26 > 0:56:29drama has given his son.
0:56:29 > 0:56:31...to funerals, the pale companion..
0:56:31 > 0:56:34It's lovely, actually. It's really nice to see him maturing
0:56:34 > 0:56:36and blossoming like that,
0:56:36 > 0:56:40because he starts to ask questions around the thing.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43It's not just the acting. It's all the things around it.
0:56:43 > 0:56:46And it's just nice.
0:56:46 > 0:56:49He's not the brightest lad in the world. I love him to bits.
0:56:49 > 0:56:52But we're not academic.
0:56:52 > 0:56:54But he's got quite an enquiring mind.
0:56:54 > 0:56:57And it's nice to spark that
0:56:57 > 0:56:59and get him to think around things.
0:57:02 > 0:57:06James is like a full-on actor.
0:57:06 > 0:57:08You really never know what you're getting with him.
0:57:08 > 0:57:11He's very theatrical He's very over-the-top.
0:57:11 > 0:57:12It's either his way or no way.
0:57:12 > 0:57:14Thanks(!)
0:57:14 > 0:57:17But he's lovely. He's very kind. He's sweet.
0:57:17 > 0:57:18Any time I need help with Shakespeare,
0:57:18 > 0:57:20for auditions or anything,
0:57:20 > 0:57:22he's very critical.
0:57:22 > 0:57:25He's really judgemental, but he's good. He is good, yeah.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28If there's anything that I would completely devote my life to,
0:57:28 > 0:57:29it would be acting.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32I just enjoy it so much. I think it's absolutely great,
0:57:32 > 0:57:33and there's so much to it.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36It's what I'm not going to give up on.
0:57:36 > 0:57:38I'm not going to get ahead of myself,
0:57:38 > 0:57:41but I really, really love theatre.
0:57:41 > 0:57:43Even now, I'm learning more about it.
0:57:43 > 0:57:47There's even more I'm learning about it.
0:57:47 > 0:57:48You never stop learning...
0:57:48 > 0:57:51Even if I do become successful, even by the age of 60,
0:57:51 > 0:57:54if I'm still doing it, I'll still be learning and learning.
0:57:54 > 0:57:56It's really, really great.
0:57:59 > 0:58:04This day is called the feast of Crispian.
0:58:04 > 0:58:07He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
0:58:07 > 0:58:10will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
0:58:10 > 0:58:14and rouse him at the name of Crispian.
0:58:14 > 0:58:17He that shall see this day, and live old age,
0:58:17 > 0:58:21will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, and say,
0:58:21 > 0:58:23"Tomorrow is St Crispian".
0:58:23 > 0:58:27Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, and say,
0:58:27 > 0:58:30"These wounds I had on Crispin's day."
0:58:32 > 0:58:36Old men forget. Yet all shall be forgot,
0:58:36 > 0:58:41but he'll remember with advantages what feats he did that day.
0:58:41 > 0:58:47Then will our names, familiar in his mouth as household words,
0:58:47 > 0:58:53Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot,
0:58:53 > 0:58:56Salisbury and Gloucester, be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.
0:58:56 > 0:59:00This story shall the good man teach his son.
0:59:00 > 0:59:05And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
0:59:05 > 0:59:09from this day to the ending of the world,
0:59:09 > 0:59:11but we in it shall be remembered.
0:59:11 > 0:59:14The thing I thought was fantastic about James's performance
0:59:14 > 0:59:17was it started because he's dealing with people who wanted to go.
0:59:17 > 0:59:20And he had a sort of "piss-off voice", really.
0:59:20 > 0:59:22Then, through the course of the speech,
0:59:22 > 0:59:25I think it was fantastic when he managed, this kid,
0:59:25 > 0:59:30managed to switch to the people who had been there
0:59:30 > 0:59:32talking to old geezers who hadn't, or those who had.
0:59:32 > 0:59:34There were all sorts of...
0:59:34 > 0:59:35You had a kind of vision
0:59:35 > 0:59:38of what it was going to be like, years on. From a kid!
0:59:38 > 0:59:43"Stripping their sleeve", and... "I know here tomorrow!"
0:59:43 > 0:59:46We few,
0:59:46 > 0:59:48we happy few.
0:59:48 > 0:59:50We band of brothers!
0:59:50 > 0:59:53For he today that sheds his blood with me
0:59:53 > 0:59:56Shall be my brother!
0:59:56 > 1:00:02Be he ne'er so vile. This day shall gentle his condition.
1:00:02 > 1:00:05And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
1:00:05 > 1:00:08Shall think themselves accursed they were not here.
1:00:08 > 1:00:13And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
1:00:13 > 1:00:16That fought with us upon St Crispin's day!
1:00:16 > 1:00:18APPLAUSE
1:00:18 > 1:00:20I thought he was phenomenally good.
1:00:20 > 1:00:25What was wonderful with James is he started off very gently.
1:00:25 > 1:00:26As I was saying to you,
1:00:26 > 1:00:29I thought gradually the speech sort of took over.
1:00:29 > 1:00:31He then gave himself to the speech,
1:00:31 > 1:00:35rather than trying to command where the speech went.
1:00:35 > 1:00:37WHISPERS: I think it was OK.
1:00:37 > 1:00:38I'm very nervous, though.
1:00:38 > 1:00:42I'm glad I did it.
1:00:42 > 1:00:45It's weird.
1:00:45 > 1:00:47I don't feel how I thought I'd feel.
1:00:47 > 1:00:49I'm very nervous and jittery, but I think I'm quite calm.
1:00:54 > 1:00:57The first half of the final is complete.
1:00:57 > 1:01:00The nine performers will now be whittled down
1:01:00 > 1:01:02to a final three,
1:01:02 > 1:01:05who will each perform the same soliloquy from Hamlet.
1:01:05 > 1:01:07"To be, or not to be?"
1:01:10 > 1:01:12Right, do we have a clear sense - maybe we do -
1:01:12 > 1:01:15of the three we would like to hear from again?
1:01:15 > 1:01:18That we would like to come round every Sunday?
1:01:18 > 1:01:22Let's just see if we have any correspondence at all.
1:01:22 > 1:01:24So... Sam.
1:01:24 > 1:01:26Mine would be Neil,
1:01:26 > 1:01:30and James, and Nuha.
1:01:30 > 1:01:32With a possible
1:01:32 > 1:01:34another look at Amy.
1:01:34 > 1:01:37It's really hard to sort of tell
1:01:37 > 1:01:39how they think your speech went,
1:01:39 > 1:01:42because, when you have a quick glance at them when you're on stage,
1:01:42 > 1:01:44they're there.
1:01:44 > 1:01:46It's almost that they're not allowed to smile at you.
1:01:46 > 1:01:48They're there, and they're, like..."Yup".
1:01:49 > 1:01:53I wish you the best. Yeah!
1:01:53 > 1:01:56I really liked Nuha.
1:01:56 > 1:01:59I liked Nuha very much, too. So we've got one.
1:01:59 > 1:02:03I think she's wonderful, so we all agree on that one.
1:02:03 > 1:02:05We all agree. That's one.
1:02:05 > 1:02:07I liked Ben.
1:02:07 > 1:02:09I liked...
1:02:09 > 1:02:11I liked... Oh, it's so difficult.
1:02:11 > 1:02:13They were all so good.
1:02:13 > 1:02:16They were, but life is difficult.
1:02:16 > 1:02:19And I liked Jack. I liked Amy.
1:02:19 > 1:02:21And I liked Femi.
1:02:21 > 1:02:24My God, I won't be able to breathe.
1:02:24 > 1:02:28Say my name! Come and say my name!
1:02:28 > 1:02:32It's three people. Can I just be one of them,
1:02:32 > 1:02:34at least?
1:02:34 > 1:02:36Since you're the one who doesn't go for it,
1:02:36 > 1:02:40I would want to make a strong case for James.
1:02:40 > 1:02:43I know it's a familiar speech.
1:02:43 > 1:02:45I thought it was brilliantly modulated.
1:02:45 > 1:02:47I thought he owned the language.
1:02:47 > 1:02:50I really did. Meaning by meaning.
1:02:50 > 1:02:52I thought he was phenomenally good.
1:02:52 > 1:02:55Is that OK? I don't want to force this on you.
1:02:55 > 1:02:58- Absolutely James? - Nuha and James, OK.
1:02:58 > 1:03:01Winning, or getting through, anyway
1:03:01 > 1:03:03would just be like a bonus now.
1:03:03 > 1:03:05But a good bonus. A really good bonus!
1:03:05 > 1:03:08I'm going to vote for Amy, actually.
1:03:08 > 1:03:13For many reasons. I know the voice is a little weaker.
1:03:13 > 1:03:18She has then... if we see her again, it's a meditative piece.
1:03:18 > 1:03:22I mean, Ben is the more forthright, in a way.
1:03:24 > 1:03:26I think I'd vote for Ben.
1:03:26 > 1:03:28You would?
1:03:28 > 1:03:31"Nervous" doesn't really cover it, actually.
1:03:31 > 1:03:33I feel like I have some weird alien in my stomach.
1:03:33 > 1:03:35APPLAUSE
1:03:37 > 1:03:41Welcome back to the final of the BBC Shakespeare Off By Heart.
1:03:41 > 1:03:44The judges have considered their decision, so please welcome
1:03:44 > 1:03:47the nine finalists back on stage.
1:03:47 > 1:03:49APPLAUSE
1:03:49 > 1:03:51Jack, from the south coast of England.
1:03:51 > 1:03:52Neil, from Northeast Scotland.
1:03:52 > 1:03:54Jacinta, from North Wales.
1:03:54 > 1:03:57James, from Yorkshire, Ben, from the Midlands,
1:03:57 > 1:03:58Emily, from the West Country,
1:03:58 > 1:04:01Amy, from Northern Ireland. Nuha, from London,
1:04:01 > 1:04:03and Femi, from London.
1:04:03 > 1:04:05APPLAUSE
1:04:07 > 1:04:09You're very smiling for people I'd imagine
1:04:09 > 1:04:11will be rather nervous at this point.
1:04:11 > 1:04:12LAUGHTER
1:04:12 > 1:04:15I suppose you are, but I just want to say one thing.
1:04:15 > 1:04:18Whatever the judges decide, the judges' decision is final,
1:04:18 > 1:04:19even if it's wrong.
1:04:19 > 1:04:21LAUGHTER
1:04:21 > 1:04:23But, it's a fantastic achievement.
1:04:23 > 1:04:242,000,
1:04:24 > 1:04:26down to nine.
1:04:26 > 1:04:29And you've done it, so congratulations to all of you.
1:04:29 > 1:04:32APPLAUSE
1:04:38 > 1:04:42Let's find out who the final three are, and welcome on stage
1:04:42 > 1:04:44Simon Schama, chairman of the judges.
1:04:44 > 1:04:45APPLAUSE
1:04:45 > 1:04:48Don't want to be in your shoes!
1:04:48 > 1:04:49HE LAUGHS
1:04:49 > 1:04:50I know - parents!
1:04:50 > 1:04:52LAUGHTER
1:04:52 > 1:04:56It's all very well having Paxman here. We love him.
1:04:56 > 1:05:00But the person I really want to be presenting
1:05:00 > 1:05:02is that great actor, William Shakespeare.
1:05:02 > 1:05:04He would have loved you all.
1:05:04 > 1:05:07He was an actor, remember, as well as a writer.
1:05:07 > 1:05:09He would have loved you. You'd have all been hired
1:05:09 > 1:05:12for the Globe, right away.
1:05:12 > 1:05:13So, many congratulations.
1:05:13 > 1:05:17We were moved. I had so many hairs go up on the back of my neck,
1:05:17 > 1:05:19I started to get a Mohawk.
1:05:19 > 1:05:21LAUGHTER
1:05:21 > 1:05:22It was really utterly wonderful.
1:05:22 > 1:05:25So many, many congratulations.
1:05:25 > 1:05:27You should be very, very proud of yourselves.
1:05:27 > 1:05:32But, we had to do the dirty deed.
1:05:32 > 1:05:35And the three Hamlets -
1:05:35 > 1:05:38the first is going to be Nuha.
1:05:38 > 1:05:40APPLAUSE
1:05:46 > 1:05:49The second Hamlet is James.
1:05:49 > 1:05:52APPLAUSE
1:05:54 > 1:05:56And the third Hamlet is Amy.
1:05:56 > 1:05:58Congratulations!
1:05:58 > 1:06:00APPLAUSE
1:06:05 > 1:06:06Thank you all very much. Thank you.
1:06:06 > 1:06:08APPLAUSE
1:06:19 > 1:06:21Now, Hamlet is a notoriously difficult part to play.
1:06:21 > 1:06:24"To be, or not to be" is the most well-known
1:06:24 > 1:06:25of all Shakespeare's speeches
1:06:25 > 1:06:28So, while the three finalists are collecting their thoughts,
1:06:28 > 1:06:32Sam West - who played Hamlet here in 2001,
1:06:32 > 1:06:35and learn from him what the challenges are. Sam.
1:06:35 > 1:06:37APPLAUSE
1:06:43 > 1:06:45It must be one of the most terrifying things, isn't it?
1:06:45 > 1:06:48Well, the audience know the speech at least as well as you do.
1:06:48 > 1:06:50At least if you dry, they can help!
1:06:50 > 1:06:54But, like all soliloquies, the question is, "Am I talking to myself,
1:06:54 > 1:06:55"or am I talking to the audience?"
1:06:55 > 1:06:57And, like all Shakespeare plays,
1:06:57 > 1:06:59There isn't one answer.
1:06:59 > 1:07:01There are as many answers as there are Hamlets.
1:07:01 > 1:07:05If I think the speech is about, "Do I kill myself, or not?"
1:07:05 > 1:07:08I probably go around talking like this,
1:07:08 > 1:07:10but in a voice loud enough for you to be able to hear it.
1:07:10 > 1:07:13If I think the speech is about something bigger -
1:07:13 > 1:07:17"Is life worth living, or not. Is it worth existing, or not?"
1:07:17 > 1:07:20I probably turn the lights on, and ask you all.
1:07:20 > 1:07:22Which is how I did it.
1:07:22 > 1:07:25The speech doesn't include the word "I".
1:07:25 > 1:07:27And it also doesn't really include any plot,
1:07:27 > 1:07:29so you could quite easily cut it.
1:07:29 > 1:07:30LAUGHTER
1:07:30 > 1:07:32- It's up to you. - Interesting decision!
1:07:32 > 1:07:34LAUGHTER
1:07:34 > 1:07:35You'd make your Hamlet quite cross,
1:07:35 > 1:07:38but it might be better for the play, who knows?
1:07:38 > 1:07:41But, these guys. These are 13 to 15-year-olds.
1:07:41 > 1:07:43It's a tough thing to do at that age, isn't it?
1:07:43 > 1:07:45It is. It's remarkable.
1:07:45 > 1:07:47We have had an absolutely extraordinary time,
1:07:47 > 1:07:48and a really difficult decision.
1:07:48 > 1:07:51But I have to say, one of the wonderful things
1:07:51 > 1:07:54is seeing Romeo & Juliet spoken by people of the right age.
1:07:54 > 1:07:56LAUGHTER
1:07:56 > 1:07:59And the depth and power that people have.
1:07:59 > 1:08:01If you're playing Romeo, and you think you've just got off
1:08:01 > 1:08:04with a nice pretty girl at a party,
1:08:04 > 1:08:06and then she says, "No, no, no. My love is boundless as the sea,"
1:08:06 > 1:08:09you don't know what you're getting into.
1:08:09 > 1:08:12"If you marry me." And he goes, "Oh, help!"
1:08:12 > 1:08:14But that's Juliet all over.
1:08:14 > 1:08:16And the fact it comes out the mouth of a 13-year-old
1:08:16 > 1:08:18makes it all the more powerful.
1:08:18 > 1:08:20- Sam, thank you very much. - Not at all.
1:08:20 > 1:08:22APPLAUSE
1:08:26 > 1:08:28So, time to get on with it,
1:08:28 > 1:08:30and hear the first of those great soliloquies,
1:08:30 > 1:08:33which comes from Nuha.
1:08:33 > 1:08:36APPLAUSE
1:08:41 > 1:08:43To be, or not to be?
1:08:43 > 1:08:46That is the question.
1:08:46 > 1:08:48Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
1:08:48 > 1:08:53the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
1:08:53 > 1:08:56Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
1:08:56 > 1:09:00and, by opposing, end them?
1:09:01 > 1:09:05To die.
1:09:05 > 1:09:07- To sleep.- No more,
1:09:07 > 1:09:11and by a sleep to say we end the heartache,
1:09:11 > 1:09:15and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to,
1:09:15 > 1:09:19'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.
1:09:21 > 1:09:24To die, to sleep.
1:09:24 > 1:09:26To sleep, perchance to dream.
1:09:26 > 1:09:31Ay, there's the rub. For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come
1:09:31 > 1:09:37when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause?
1:09:37 > 1:09:42There's the respect that makes calamity of so long life.
1:09:42 > 1:09:46For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
1:09:46 > 1:09:50the oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
1:09:50 > 1:09:53the pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
1:09:53 > 1:09:55the insolence of office,
1:09:55 > 1:09:58and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes,
1:09:58 > 1:10:01when he himself might his quietus make
1:10:01 > 1:10:05with a bare bodkin?
1:10:06 > 1:10:09Who would these fardels bear,
1:10:09 > 1:10:14to grunt and sweat under a weary life,
1:10:14 > 1:10:20but that the dread of something after death...
1:10:20 > 1:10:25..that undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns,
1:10:25 > 1:10:28puzzles the will, and rather makes us bear those ills we have
1:10:28 > 1:10:31than fly to those that we know not of?
1:10:32 > 1:10:39Thus, conscience does make cowards of us all.
1:10:39 > 1:10:42And thus, the native hue of resolution
1:10:42 > 1:10:46is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought
1:10:46 > 1:10:49and enterprises of great pith and moment.
1:10:49 > 1:10:52With this regard, their currents turn awry,
1:10:52 > 1:10:55and lose the name of action.
1:10:57 > 1:11:00APPLAUSE
1:11:02 > 1:11:06It's decision time for the judges.
1:11:06 > 1:11:08It's an extraordinarily difficult thing
1:11:08 > 1:11:10to choose between two girls and a boy,
1:11:10 > 1:11:13playing a part which forms itself around the character
1:11:13 > 1:11:15of the person who's doing it,
1:11:15 > 1:11:18in a moment where their character is not the most important thing.
1:11:18 > 1:11:20We had one completely inner, and one completely public.
1:11:20 > 1:11:24I think Amy had the thought, and she knew the speech,
1:11:24 > 1:11:27and she was absolutely in control of the meaning,
1:11:27 > 1:11:30but the voice didn't quite follow the understanding, always.
1:11:30 > 1:11:32She had a wonderful through line on the thing.
1:11:32 > 1:11:34She's absolutely marvellous...
1:11:34 > 1:11:39Conscience does make cowards of us all.
1:11:39 > 1:11:42And thus, the native hue of resolution
1:11:42 > 1:11:44is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
1:11:44 > 1:11:47and enterprises of great pith and moment.
1:11:47 > 1:11:50With this regard, their currents turn away,
1:11:50 > 1:11:52and lose the name of action.
1:11:52 > 1:11:54I thought James was pretty damn good.
1:11:54 > 1:11:56He dried on one line, which was a shame.
1:11:56 > 1:11:58- "Conscience does make cowards of us all".- Yeah.
1:11:58 > 1:12:02But I absolutely believed his changes of mind,
1:12:02 > 1:12:05and I think he's very gifted indeed.
1:12:05 > 1:12:07To sleep.
1:12:07 > 1:12:10Ah, to sleep,
1:12:10 > 1:12:12perchance to dream.
1:12:12 > 1:12:14Ay, there's the rub!
1:12:14 > 1:12:16He's got a lovely gentle quality.
1:12:16 > 1:12:21I think his arms got in the way, from nerves or whatever.
1:12:21 > 1:12:24Sometimes he was hiding behind them, or using them
1:12:24 > 1:12:26to express thought or trouble
1:12:26 > 1:12:29in a way that distracted. He could have trusted himself,
1:12:29 > 1:12:31cos he's good enough to trust himself.
1:12:31 > 1:12:34I did want to pull his arms down and say, "Just say it".
1:12:34 > 1:12:35I wanted to say to a lot of people today,
1:12:35 > 1:12:37"Do it again, with your hands in your pockets".
1:12:37 > 1:12:42One reason that I thought Nuha's choice, and the way she opened -
1:12:42 > 1:12:44which I've never seen before-
1:12:44 > 1:12:46was so brave and clever,
1:12:46 > 1:12:49was that there is a sort of jocund, self-mocking,
1:12:49 > 1:12:52philosophical black quality to Hamlet.
1:12:52 > 1:12:55It's Hamlet the actor, after all,
1:12:55 > 1:12:58who thinks he can teach other actors how to act.
1:12:58 > 1:13:00This constant kind of jokey
1:13:00 > 1:13:02gallows humour about Hamlet.
1:13:02 > 1:13:05I felt that was amazing to have that.
1:13:05 > 1:13:07I've seen lots and lots of Hamlet,
1:13:07 > 1:13:09including David Warner.
1:13:09 > 1:13:11Never seen the opening taken like that.
1:13:11 > 1:13:14She just threw it at the audience. "OK, this is the problem".
1:13:14 > 1:13:18To be, or not to be? That is the question.
1:13:18 > 1:13:21Whether 'tis nobler in the mind
1:13:21 > 1:13:23to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
1:13:23 > 1:13:25or to take arms...
1:13:25 > 1:13:28The challenge is to make any Shakespeare speech
1:13:28 > 1:13:30that people know well,
1:13:30 > 1:13:34one that you've just made up, or the centrepiece of a new play,
1:13:34 > 1:13:37whatever you want to call it, that makes it refresh,
1:13:37 > 1:13:40but challenging the audience with that first line
1:13:40 > 1:13:43is actually not only thrilling,
1:13:43 > 1:13:44and tickles your ear,
1:13:44 > 1:13:46but it's also deeply unfashionable.
1:13:46 > 1:13:48We are a very inner age.
1:13:48 > 1:13:51And we think about psychology, and we think about feelings.
1:13:51 > 1:13:52She has all of these things,
1:13:52 > 1:13:55but she comes on and plays the public Hamlet,
1:13:55 > 1:13:56she plays the political Hamlet.
1:13:56 > 1:13:58She says, "You! What will you do about this?
1:13:58 > 1:14:00"You will die. Why don't you kill yourself?
1:14:00 > 1:14:04"Because you're frightened of what will happen afterwards. Thank you!
1:14:04 > 1:14:06"What will we do now? I don't know." You know what I mean?
1:14:06 > 1:14:10Who would these fardels bear -
1:14:10 > 1:14:12to grunt,
1:14:12 > 1:14:16and sweat under a weary life,
1:14:16 > 1:14:19But that the dread of something after death,
1:14:19 > 1:14:22the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns,
1:14:22 > 1:14:24puzzles the will,
1:14:24 > 1:14:26and makes us rather bear those ills we have
1:14:26 > 1:14:29than fly to others we know not of?
1:14:29 > 1:14:31APPLAUSE
1:14:39 > 1:14:43Welcome back. The judges have made their decision.
1:14:43 > 1:14:45So let's welcome our three finalists back on stage.
1:14:45 > 1:14:49James, Amy, and Nuha.
1:14:49 > 1:14:51APPLAUSE
1:15:02 > 1:15:06Well, I'm holding in my hands a star.
1:15:06 > 1:15:09But, you'll agree with me, ladies and gentlemen,
1:15:09 > 1:15:14we've seen nine brilliant stars performing their hearts out.
1:15:14 > 1:15:16APPLAUSE
1:15:20 > 1:15:22So, it is indeed
1:15:22 > 1:15:25almost unbearable to have to single one out.
1:15:25 > 1:15:28I want to specially congratulate the three Hamlet stars.
1:15:28 > 1:15:32But, there is one star
1:15:32 > 1:15:35that just kind of exploded, I think,
1:15:35 > 1:15:37in heavens, and that is Nuha.
1:15:37 > 1:15:39APPLAUSE
1:15:43 > 1:15:45Congratulations.
1:16:18 > 1:16:21THEY CLAP
1:16:21 > 1:16:23This is just crazy.
1:16:23 > 1:16:25Get out there.
1:16:25 > 1:16:27It's crazy. Someone pinch me!
1:16:27 > 1:16:31Is Nuha your daughter? Many, many congratulations.
1:16:31 > 1:16:33Yes, congratulations.
1:16:33 > 1:16:36I have to say, I really hope she becomes an actor.
1:16:36 > 1:16:38I think she's very remarkable.
1:16:38 > 1:16:40She IS astonishing.
1:16:40 > 1:16:42She's employable now.
1:16:42 > 1:16:44She could be playing on that stage.
1:16:44 > 1:16:46She could be on that stage right now.
1:16:46 > 1:16:48I hope you'll give her the chance, cos she's very amazing.
1:16:54 > 1:16:56APPLAUSE
1:16:56 > 1:16:58Weirdly, I think the people
1:16:58 > 1:17:00that dedicate themselves to the 400-year-old language
1:17:00 > 1:17:02are the real rebels.
1:17:02 > 1:17:04Because they dare to care.
1:17:04 > 1:17:06When you have to speak verse,
1:17:06 > 1:17:08it's impossible not to care about it.
1:17:08 > 1:17:10The other things is,
1:17:10 > 1:17:12it goes through you like a beat.
1:17:12 > 1:17:14If you play Hamlet,
1:17:14 > 1:17:16which is a 1,500-line part,
1:17:16 > 1:17:18and you come off stage at 11 o'clock, and you think,
1:17:18 > 1:17:22"Why do I feel like I'm in a club at 3am, without any drugs in me?"
1:17:22 > 1:17:24Because of the beat of the verse.
1:17:24 > 1:17:26Because it's a heartbeat that keeps you going,
1:17:26 > 1:17:27and makes you excited.
1:17:27 > 1:17:30You don't need to be an actor to feel that,
1:17:30 > 1:17:33you just need to have some verse in your head, some verse memorised.
1:17:38 > 1:17:41I think that this caricature
1:17:41 > 1:17:44that is perpetrated by various parts of the media,
1:17:44 > 1:17:48about how the youth of today don't know anything,
1:17:48 > 1:17:51aren't interested in anything.
1:17:51 > 1:17:53It's just rubbish, and it's not fair.
1:17:53 > 1:17:57We saw nine children today,
1:17:57 > 1:17:59representative of 2,000,
1:17:59 > 1:18:03representative of untold thousands and thousands more
1:18:03 > 1:18:06who actually appreciate words, and drama,
1:18:06 > 1:18:08and the human story.
1:18:08 > 1:18:12I thought it was really exhilarating, actually.
1:18:12 > 1:18:14APPLAUSE
1:18:17 > 1:18:19You're right, they were great.
1:18:19 > 1:18:22That's it, the result of a year-long talent search,
1:18:22 > 1:18:23and the wonderful final.
1:18:23 > 1:18:27Please welcome back all of them on stage now.
1:18:27 > 1:18:30APPLAUSE
1:18:54 > 1:18:57Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd