0:00:03 > 0:00:06Four years ago, we decided to make a documentary, using our own money...
0:00:06 > 0:00:09Credit card. ..and with our own resources..
0:00:09 > 0:00:12This could be the death of us, this. You know that? Yeah.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15..to discover why people are scared of Shakespeare.
0:00:15 > 0:00:20We couldn't understand it. You're dealing with a language you don't use on the street.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23I loved the poetry. They had to break it down, decipher it for us,
0:00:23 > 0:00:27turn it upside-down and roll it back and we still didn't figure it out.
0:00:27 > 0:00:28Because it's hard to read.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32We are Dan and Giles.
0:00:33 > 0:00:35And being children of the '80s
0:00:35 > 0:00:37we grew up watching Star Wars,
0:00:37 > 0:00:40Indiana Jones and Batman And Robin.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45Those stories were the ones we loved.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51But Shakespeare in the classroom was terrifying.
0:00:51 > 0:00:52What chance did he have?
0:00:52 > 0:00:55A load of old words in old books
0:00:55 > 0:00:57that we just didn't understand
0:00:57 > 0:01:01However, something in his words spoke to us in some way
0:01:01 > 0:01:03and we persevered,
0:01:03 > 0:01:05and both grew up and became actors.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08That's how we met. We're friends.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11So for us, as actors, playing Shakespeare
0:01:11 > 0:01:14is the pinnacle of acting achievement, but still terrifying.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20From school to stage, Shakespeare is both hero and villain.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22This paradox is what fascinated us.
0:01:22 > 0:01:27So we decided to grab our cameras, jump in our car and ask the world...
0:01:28 > 0:01:31..from Shakespeare's Globe Theatre to Hollywood.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34What is it about Shakespeare that inspires such love...
0:01:34 > 0:01:37Shakespeare is special.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39..and hate? I'm bored to tears by it.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42That's the thing with Shakespeare, you never get it right.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45Four years and a hundred interviews later
0:01:45 > 0:01:49this is the story of how we conquered our fear of Shakespeare.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01This is how we roll. This is how the Muse of Fire rolls.
0:02:01 > 0:02:05Er...not always sitting in a dressing gown.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10First off, we needed to know what the people out there on the street -
0:02:10 > 0:02:12our audience - had to say about Shakespeare,
0:02:12 > 0:02:15the most famous playwright in history.
0:02:15 > 0:02:17Do you know anything about Shakespeare? Anything?
0:02:17 > 0:02:20It had to be described to you by the teacher to understand it
0:02:26 > 0:02:29It was something that you had to write about.
0:02:29 > 0:02:31If you don't write, you don't pass your exams.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33Do you know anything about Shakespeare? No.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35Seen Macbeth. Who are you taking to?
0:02:35 > 0:02:38This is Nicole. Hi, Nicole.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40Nicole, yeah. Does she like Shakespeare?
0:02:40 > 0:02:41Nicole likes Shakespeare, yeah
0:02:41 > 0:02:44Her favourite one is Romeo And Juliet, I think. I'm sure.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47Othello? Othello. She likes Othello. Oh, that's a good one.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50Some people loved it and some people didn't.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52But everyone knew his name.
0:02:52 > 0:02:54Now, being jobbing actors is tough,
0:02:54 > 0:02:57but along the way, we've got to work with some great performers.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01Young, old, new and legendary.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05Maybe if we could get them to help us with our Shakespeare fears,
0:03:05 > 0:03:07we could help others with theirs.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10We needed help.
0:03:14 > 0:03:16Dear Ian. SIR Ian.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20Sir... Although he doesn't like "sir", does he?
0:03:20 > 0:03:22Sir Ian?
0:03:22 > 0:03:23I don't know.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26Dear Ian. Dear Ian. OK.
0:03:26 > 0:03:28'We drew up a list of people and places
0:03:28 > 0:03:30'we wanted to get to, and got to work.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32'Sent out letters and emails
0:03:32 > 0:03:36'and contacted everyone we could in any way we could.'
0:03:36 > 0:03:37Come this way.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40'We needed them to talk to us on camera
0:03:40 > 0:03:43'frankly and honestly about their relationship to Shakespeare.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48'All we could do was wait and see what would happen.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53'But whilst we waited, we grabbed our friends
0:03:53 > 0:03:55'to see how THEY felt about all this.'
0:03:55 > 0:03:57SHE LAUGHS
0:03:57 > 0:03:59I don't know, don't ask me.
0:03:59 > 0:04:04Shakespeare, you know, puts a rod of steel up your backside
0:04:05 > 0:04:07I walked in on the first day and thought,
0:04:07 > 0:04:10"I have no business to be here I don't know how to do this."
0:04:10 > 0:04:13Feel the fear and do it anyway
0:04:13 > 0:04:14HE EXHALES
0:04:16 > 0:04:18I'm not afraid to say I don't understand it.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21I've never been so sure that I was definitely out of my depth.
0:04:21 > 0:04:23And then, the moment came.
0:04:23 > 0:04:28Ian McKellen said yes! What?
0:04:28 > 0:04:29Yeah!
0:04:31 > 0:04:34We were off. If anyone could help us, it was Ian.
0:04:34 > 0:04:36He'd played with incredible acclaim
0:04:36 > 0:04:40every major Shakespeare role over the last 50 years.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43People shouldn't dodge the fact that
0:04:43 > 0:04:47to do a play that was written 400 years or more ago...
0:04:49 > 0:04:53..is, um...is a difficult thing for everyone involved.
0:04:53 > 0:04:57The actors and the people who have put the performance together
0:04:57 > 0:04:59and the people who are coming to see it.
0:04:59 > 0:05:03It's not as easy as watching an episode of Coronation Street
0:05:03 > 0:05:06Some of those words will be difficult to understand
0:05:06 > 0:05:08because they're not used any more.
0:05:08 > 0:05:09Um...
0:05:11 > 0:05:14Some of it will be difficult to understand because the syntax,
0:05:14 > 0:05:18the grammar, the arrangement of the words
0:05:18 > 0:05:23is, um...to our ear, old-fashioned, or a bit strange.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27But the story is being told here, now, in front of your eyes,
0:05:27 > 0:05:30in front of your ears and, er..
0:05:32 > 0:05:35..it's a mixture between the intense reality
0:05:35 > 0:05:40of being in the presence of the storytellers, of the actors
0:05:40 > 0:05:44and at the same time, always knowing you're in the presence of actors.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48And it's an act of imagination
0:05:48 > 0:05:54on behalf of the audience and the storytelling actors to say,
0:05:54 > 0:05:56"This story is unfolding for the first time
0:05:56 > 0:05:59"in front of your eyes and ears "
0:06:00 > 0:06:03If Ian still saw Shakespeare as a challenge,
0:06:03 > 0:06:04then what could be done to get over that?
0:06:04 > 0:06:07'That's what we were going to find out.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11'It had taken months of writing calling and asking.'
0:06:11 > 0:06:13Hi, it's Giles Terera.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15'And not taking no for an answer.'
0:06:15 > 0:06:19I was on hold for ten minutes and I'd rather call back another time.
0:06:19 > 0:06:20But it was paying off.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25Even people we never dreamed would find time for our project
0:06:25 > 0:06:28seemed happy and willing to come on board.
0:06:28 > 0:06:30Ewan McGregor was going to talk with us!
0:06:32 > 0:06:34I've seen some really nice, good Shakespeare.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37I've only ever treated it like another play.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40I've never thought about it as being particularly better
0:06:40 > 0:06:43or worse than any other kind of theatre
0:06:43 > 0:06:47And so I don't hold it in any high or low esteem, really.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51Um...of course, we can talk about playing it and that's...
0:06:51 > 0:06:54It is a different ball game when you start trying to act it
0:06:54 > 0:06:56You've got to approach it like any other play.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59You've got to approach it as...a story -
0:06:59 > 0:07:03in his case, usually really good stories with interesting characters.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06I've wanted to act since I was nine, so I was...
0:07:06 > 0:07:10It was in my...on the horizon, I suppose, of what I wanted to do.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12But, er...
0:07:12 > 0:07:15I didn't give it any thought when I was going through school
0:07:15 > 0:07:19And we really had...very little experience of it at school,
0:07:19 > 0:07:21other than reading it from books.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24It didn't really... It was awful. And nobody...
0:07:24 > 0:07:27It was just something I didn't really understand at that point
0:07:27 > 0:07:29And at this point now, too, as well.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31LAUGHTER
0:07:31 > 0:07:33Me too! I think a lot of people are like that.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37'We found Shakespeare tough at school,
0:07:37 > 0:07:39'but if Ewan McGregor found it tough,
0:07:39 > 0:07:42'how, we wondered, were the young people of today getting along
0:07:42 > 0:07:44'with the most famous playwright in history?'
0:07:44 > 0:07:49Hello! Three, two, one, and action!
0:07:49 > 0:07:52I don't like Shakespeare. I do but some plays are a bit boring
0:07:52 > 0:07:56Do you like or dislike Shakespeare? Shut up, Kate.
0:07:56 > 0:07:57I like Shakespeare.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00My introduction to Shakespeare
0:08:00 > 0:08:04was in the fifth year at my secondary comprehensive school
0:08:04 > 0:08:09And we were made to read, as part of the syllabus, Henry V.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12You should not give kids Shakespeare straightaway.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14What you should give them is drama.
0:08:14 > 0:08:19And I am convinced that the ones who are really passionate about it
0:08:19 > 0:08:22will end up finding Shakespeare themselves
0:08:22 > 0:08:24because he's the greatest ever playwright.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28Shakespeare serves to introduce you to, er...
0:08:28 > 0:08:30living, breathing, live performing
0:08:30 > 0:08:32on a high level of dramatic imagination.
0:08:32 > 0:08:34I was teaching my daughter, actually.
0:08:34 > 0:08:36She's playing Ariel in the school play.
0:08:36 > 0:08:38And I said, "This is really difficult.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41"Most pros don't understand it or don't bother with it."
0:08:41 > 0:08:42But she said, "Tell me anyway.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45And I told her and she picked it up in no time. And, um...
0:08:46 > 0:08:49The only rule, I said, "You can t breathe until the end of the line."
0:08:49 > 0:08:53Since 2001, every year, the Shakespeare Schools Festival
0:08:53 > 0:08:56takes thousands of young people from across the country
0:08:56 > 0:08:58and does mini versions of Shakespeare's plays.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01Go muster men. We must be brief
0:09:01 > 0:09:04Did they have as hard a time with the bard now
0:09:04 > 0:09:07as we did back in our schooling or was it changing?
0:09:07 > 0:09:09It's, like, old language, we don't understand it.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11And then Miss will tell us, explain, if she can.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14Well, I've heard of some of his plays
0:09:14 > 0:09:18and I think that he must've had a lot of time on his hands.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20You have to understand what you're saying a lot more.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22If you don't understand what you're saying...
0:09:22 > 0:09:24You don't know how to portray it. Exactly.
0:09:24 > 0:09:25That's a wrap.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28I went to see Romeo And Juliet at the Globe a couple of weeks ago
0:09:28 > 0:09:30as part of their education project.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34And that was like being in a football stadium.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37And talk about shouting in the dark. They had no option.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40This was the shouted version of Romeo And Juliet
0:09:40 > 0:09:43because nothing else was going to get across the crowd.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45But it was rather wonderful.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47And with our wish list becoming a reality,
0:09:47 > 0:09:50we discovered they were in good company.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54I find words which are completely... incomprehensible.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57Shakespeare's overwhelming. It's such a hard thing to deal with.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01That familiar feeling of giving up at a Shakespeare play.
0:10:01 > 0:10:03It's beyond me!
0:10:03 > 0:10:04I didn't understand it.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08I didn't understand why this was supposed to be so great.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11I knew that this was something to be taken seriously.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17Um...but I didn't quite know how to take it seriously.
0:10:17 > 0:10:18I'm very frightened of it.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21Although I know there's nothing to be frightened of.
0:10:21 > 0:10:23I've just never had a lot of great success in it.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26I think he's a very extravagant writer
0:10:26 > 0:10:30And we live in a time where people are terrified of extravagance.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32I got E for English at A-level
0:10:32 > 0:10:36I didn't know how to answer a question about King Lear.
0:10:36 > 0:10:37I mean, I couldn't, I...
0:10:39 > 0:10:42Everyone was saying the same thing.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45Your first experience can inform the way you feel about Shakespeare
0:10:45 > 0:10:47for the rest of your life.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49Ben Kingsley remembers well being 15,
0:10:49 > 0:10:51standing at the back of the theatre
0:10:51 > 0:10:54through Ian Holm's performance of Richard III.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58As Ian clumped across the stage
0:10:58 > 0:11:01I actually moved across the back of the auditorium
0:11:01 > 0:11:05to keep the minimum distance between myself and him.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08And as he went back again, I moved.
0:11:08 > 0:11:09Nobody stopped me. I moved again.
0:11:09 > 0:11:14I was walking, mirroring him, as a member of the audience.
0:11:15 > 0:11:19Um...I then fainted. I passed out because of the heat
0:11:19 > 0:11:23and, um...probably no breakfast
0:11:24 > 0:11:29And I was revived by a lady in the foyer, who said,
0:11:29 > 0:11:31"Would you like a glass of water?"
0:11:31 > 0:11:32And I said, "Yes, please."
0:11:32 > 0:11:34And I had my glass of water
0:11:34 > 0:11:37and I went back and watched the rest of the play.
0:11:37 > 0:11:39Our first experience wasn't in the theatre.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42It was a dusty old film in a cold classroom
0:11:42 > 0:11:44which just didn't speak to us.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47Yo! Come and talk to us. What did you make of the performance
0:11:47 > 0:11:49In high school,
0:11:49 > 0:11:54we were taught Macbeth and this one, and I never could get it.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56But I got it today.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59Macbeth is, like, it's about betrayal and murder
0:11:59 > 0:12:01And the guy just really wants to be powerful.
0:12:01 > 0:12:03He wants the power, he wants to be king.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06So that kind of thing just really moved me.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08I mean, that's what I'VE always wanted
0:12:08 > 0:12:11Playing it and seeing it, um..
0:12:11 > 0:12:15are both special things.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17I studied Shakespeare at school
0:12:17 > 0:12:18Oh, you did? How was it?
0:12:18 > 0:12:20It was pretty bad at school.
0:12:20 > 0:12:24It's very much nicer when you come and see a live performance.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28Then we saw an opportunity too good to miss.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32When this Donmar theatre production played in London
0:12:32 > 0:12:34under the direction of Michael Grandage,
0:12:34 > 0:12:37tickets sold out in hours and we couldn't get in.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40They had been invited to perform in Denmark,
0:12:40 > 0:12:43Hamlet's birthplace, and we asked if we could go, too.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45And they said yes!
0:12:45 > 0:12:49This is what we've been waiting for, sort of. Isn't it, G?
0:12:49 > 0:12:53Yeah. Very much so. Jude Law, Denmark...
0:12:53 > 0:12:55Hamlet. ..Hamlet. Say no more.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03We packed the car. Ta-da!
0:13:03 > 0:13:06Made her pretty, and once again, we were on the road.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14We're off to Helsingor.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16Helsingor? Helsingor.
0:13:16 > 0:13:18Helsingor. Helsingor.
0:13:18 > 0:13:20Yeah. Helsingor. Hel-sinyor.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23Signor? It's not Spanish.
0:13:23 > 0:13:24Helsingor. Helsingor.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27Helsingor. Because it came...
0:13:27 > 0:13:30Helsingor. Because the English would be... We say Elsinore.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33So it comes from... Elsinore. Don't worry about it.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35Everyone has heard of Hamlet,
0:13:35 > 0:13:38but we were heading to the very place it's set.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40We could hardly believe we were on our way.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42UPBEAT HARMONICA
0:13:45 > 0:13:48Wh-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa!
0:13:48 > 0:13:51We drivin' there, boy!
0:13:51 > 0:13:52LAUGHTER
0:13:59 > 0:14:02That's bad. Your car is pissing
0:14:07 > 0:14:11# Hamlet, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, Hamlet. #
0:14:14 > 0:14:19Shakespeare talks in this play about the golden roof of this castle
0:14:19 > 0:14:22The green is patina'd bronze.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26So when it was put up, that was a golden roof.
0:14:26 > 0:14:27And he talks about it.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30Suddenly, that just has a completely different
0:14:30 > 0:14:32vibration to it, those sort of lines.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36Helsingor Castle was a breathtaking place.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40But how would audiences react to watching Hamlet in his castle?
0:14:40 > 0:14:44And could this production, spoken in English, reach a foreign audience?
0:14:44 > 0:14:49Shakespeare's so infinite in its, um...ability
0:14:49 > 0:14:52to be different, to be reinterpreted continually
0:14:52 > 0:14:56And, you know, here we are in Helsingor doing Hamlet
0:14:56 > 0:14:59for the...700th time, probably
0:14:59 > 0:15:01that somebody's been here doing Hamlet.
0:15:01 > 0:15:03'Stepping into the shoes
0:15:03 > 0:15:06'of Shakespeare's most famous and iconic role,
0:15:06 > 0:15:08'Hamlet is intense for any actor.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12'But playing the Prince of Denmark IN Denmark with everyone watching,
0:15:12 > 0:15:14'well, how do you deal with THAT?'
0:15:14 > 0:15:17There's no way you can ever do a definitive Shakespearian role
0:15:17 > 0:15:20And certainly a definitive Hamlet.
0:15:20 > 0:15:21Because Hamlet, I think, shifts ..
0:15:23 > 0:15:27..with the time it's being done the person playing him,
0:15:27 > 0:15:30the audience that come, you know?
0:15:30 > 0:15:34And, er...your responsibility is to that audience and that production,
0:15:34 > 0:15:39not to 400 years of incredible actors who have played him before.
0:15:41 > 0:15:47Um...but shrugging that and not letting that legacy
0:15:47 > 0:15:50land heavily on your shoulders is quite hard.
0:15:50 > 0:15:52Alas, poor Yorick.
0:15:55 > 0:15:57I knew him, Horatio.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01I have been to all the Hamlet performances. Have you?
0:16:01 > 0:16:03More or less, for the last ten years.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06You're here to see...?
0:16:06 > 0:16:07Jude Law, of course.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10Jude Law? Not Hamlet? No.
0:16:10 > 0:16:12LAUGHTER
0:16:13 > 0:16:18Even now, we have audiences who are coming to it for the first time.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21And to them, the relevance amazes them,
0:16:21 > 0:16:23but then again, you think, "Why should it?"
0:16:23 > 0:16:27These have been written for audiences who were illiterate,
0:16:27 > 0:16:30who had no radio, who had no TV nothing.
0:16:30 > 0:16:35This was their only access, possibly, to their imagination
0:16:35 > 0:16:37other than lying in a bed thinking.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39Can anyone quote Shakespeare?
0:16:39 > 0:16:41Can anyone remember any lines from the play?
0:16:41 > 0:16:43Can anyone quote...? She can.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45Frailty, thy name is woman.
0:16:45 > 0:16:47True. Very good. That's from Hamlet.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51Shakespeare actually nailed the Danish...
0:16:51 > 0:16:56frame of mind really good in Hamlet.
0:16:56 > 0:16:58We're not about rethinking something.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00We're not about adding something.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04I've got a new reading of this or I'm going to do it in hysteria.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08It is what it is. In the end, you just have to say it.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10It's so rich
0:17:10 > 0:17:15in a way you've no chance to think that you can get everything...
0:17:17 > 0:17:19..every night in the language.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22But what you can get is a sense of...
0:17:22 > 0:17:24um...journey...
0:17:24 > 0:17:27emotionally, I think, through..
0:17:30 > 0:17:31..through that scale of writing
0:17:31 > 0:17:33We brought this play home.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36My God, we're in his court. This is amazing!
0:17:36 > 0:17:40And being able to declare to the sky, "Would the night come?"
0:17:40 > 0:17:42Or pointing out stars and saying,
0:17:42 > 0:17:45"You're like a star in the darkest night,"
0:17:45 > 0:17:47and there's a star, is a beautiful thing.
0:17:48 > 0:17:53The audience was clearly very excited, and we were excited, too.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57But would they feel the same after 3.5 hours of Shakespeare
0:17:57 > 0:17:58RAPTUROUS APPLAUSE
0:18:02 > 0:18:05It was absolutely fantastic. Amazing.
0:18:05 > 0:18:06It worked.
0:18:06 > 0:18:08It was really good. Did you enjoy it? Yes.
0:18:08 > 0:18:10OK, good.
0:18:10 > 0:18:14Jude Law's Hamlet, with its emphasis firmly on clarity and simplicity,
0:18:14 > 0:18:17had moved the Danish audience and moved us, too.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22Everyone was floating out inspired by these words
0:18:22 > 0:18:25written by Shakespeare 400 years ago.
0:18:25 > 0:18:27Did you enjoy the show, folks?
0:18:27 > 0:18:29It was amazing. And the environment.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33"To thine own self be true.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37"And it must follow, as the night the day,
0:18:37 > 0:18:40"thou canst not then be false to any man."
0:18:48 > 0:18:52It had been two years since we'd first started making this film.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54Not that we'd ever had any,
0:18:54 > 0:18:58but we were now DEFINITELY out of money and struggling to continue.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01The reality of trying to pay the bills
0:19:01 > 0:19:03and get work had finally caught up with us.
0:19:04 > 0:19:06I've been doing, what is it,
0:19:06 > 0:19:0916 days right through now, decorating a whole house.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12I'm on my way to meet Peter Hall
0:19:12 > 0:19:18for an audition for Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream,
0:19:18 > 0:19:20and I'm late.
0:19:20 > 0:19:25If anyone ever says that making this documentary was easy for us,
0:19:25 > 0:19:28they can have a look at this.
0:19:28 > 0:19:29This is my world.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32I'm done, I'm done, I'm done, I'm done.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35I go in, I meet Sir Peter, we talk about the film
0:19:35 > 0:19:38for about...ten minutes,
0:19:38 > 0:19:40maybe less than ten minutes,
0:19:40 > 0:19:43and then we read the thing once and that's it.
0:19:43 > 0:19:48Tiling, plumbing, three stitches in my thumb, bad back.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50Obviously, the best thing to do for this film
0:19:50 > 0:19:53would be to get a part in a high-profile Shakespeare.
0:19:53 > 0:19:55Maybe I'll get a call back, maybe not.
0:19:55 > 0:19:57This is it. This is how it is on the other side.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05I didn't get the Midsummer Night's Dream thing.
0:20:05 > 0:20:06Didn't you? No.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09He said it was great.
0:20:09 > 0:20:11And if he hadn't offered the part to...
0:20:11 > 0:20:13Well, if he hadn't offered Oberon to someone else,
0:20:13 > 0:20:15he'd have asked me to play Oberon.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20With Judi Dench? Yeah. Playing Judi Dench's lover.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22That gave us an idea.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25That could be a winner for Ms Dench.
0:20:25 > 0:20:27Or that little chocolate flower
0:20:29 > 0:20:31That looks like a real cracker
0:20:31 > 0:20:33'And it worked!'
0:20:44 > 0:20:47I've just been corresponding with Judi and she asked me to call you
0:20:47 > 0:20:50about fitting some time in for an interview.
0:20:52 > 0:20:58Great(!) Basically, we are about half an hour away
0:20:58 > 0:21:00from when we are meeting Judi Dench, and the car won't start.
0:21:00 > 0:21:02Giles, there's still time.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06Dear Dame Judy, sorry we're late. The car broke down.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09Oh, well, maybe YOU should do it?
0:21:09 > 0:21:10No, no, no. OK, all right. Fine
0:21:10 > 0:21:13Do you drive, Giles? No. There we go.
0:21:14 > 0:21:16Hallelujah!
0:21:16 > 0:21:17ENGINE CHUGS
0:21:17 > 0:21:19Doesn't sound very good, though does it?
0:21:19 > 0:21:21It'll get us there, it'll get us there.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24Hold tight, girl, hang together
0:21:25 > 0:21:27Good, let's go.
0:21:27 > 0:21:33This is the biggest pile of junk that I have ever been in.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36You what? This has gone all the way to Denmark!
0:21:36 > 0:21:38This is a pile of shit, this car.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42Let's go, let's go!
0:21:42 > 0:21:44That's so unfair.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49Golden lads and girls all must
0:21:49 > 0:21:52as chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
0:22:02 > 0:22:04There's a terrible fear about Shakespeare
0:22:04 > 0:22:06that it's a language we don't understand.
0:22:06 > 0:22:08It couldn't be easier. You know, what do you...?
0:22:08 > 0:22:11I remember having to read in the class.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15They said, "OK, you read six lines each. Six lines each."
0:22:15 > 0:22:19I think it was the ghastly Merchant Of Venice. Sorry, Will !)
0:22:20 > 0:22:23Six lines each. Regardless of who was saying them.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26Regardless of who was saying them! So it made a complete nonsense
0:22:26 > 0:22:28But if you say to a child...
0:22:30 > 0:22:32..you've fallen in love with somebody,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35or you know what the feeling of love is,
0:22:35 > 0:22:38or have you ever envied somebody, something, a toy?
0:22:38 > 0:22:41Have you ever got really angry about something?
0:22:41 > 0:22:44That's what Shakespeare's about It's all about those things.
0:22:44 > 0:22:45It's all about those things.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48And he says it better than anybody else.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50It's the prejudice in things, isn't it?
0:22:50 > 0:22:52And somebody telling you it's hard.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55And the fear that you're not going to understand it.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58Not going to be able to understand.
0:22:58 > 0:23:00Well, that's up to the actor.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05But some of those lines, some lines in Shakespeare...
0:23:08 > 0:23:12How did he...? You know, all that thing about sleep in Macbeth.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18(How did he think of that?)
0:23:19 > 0:23:21The death of each day's life.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25Sore labour's bath.
0:23:27 > 0:23:29Balm of hurt minds.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31Great nature's second feast.
0:23:33 > 0:23:34Well...
0:23:36 > 0:23:38..if you'd written that, you'd be up all night
0:23:38 > 0:23:41looking at yourself in the mirror, wouldn't you?
0:23:41 > 0:23:45Said like that, those lines could be about me,
0:23:45 > 0:23:47my neighbour, any of us.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51They seemed as natural as me speaking right now.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54So, what was it that made it so hard for me to say them?
0:23:55 > 0:23:58At the heart of Shakespeare's writing,
0:23:58 > 0:23:59there's a rhythm to his words.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03It's the pulse, the heartbeat that makes us all tick.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05It's called iambic pentameter.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17We were itching to try out some of the things we were discovering.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20And the National Theatre agreed to help us out.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22We put together a small company of actors.
0:24:22 > 0:24:24We were all agreed where we should start.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28The language, the verse, the iambic pentameter.
0:24:29 > 0:24:31So, what did it mean?
0:24:31 > 0:24:33For me, it just was scary.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36I went, "No, no, no, no, I don't want to do it anyway," and just made excuses.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40We were asked, just read it and get familiar with it.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43And the rhymings on every other line in some of the pieces.
0:24:43 > 0:24:45Just a bit...bit of a mess.
0:24:45 > 0:24:47I remember actually asking the question,
0:24:47 > 0:24:49"What's iambic pentameter?"
0:24:49 > 0:24:52And she said, "Shakespeare. It's Shakespeare's thing."
0:24:52 > 0:24:53LAUGHTER
0:24:53 > 0:24:56Dum-di-dum-di-dum-di-dum.
0:24:56 > 0:24:57Yeah! I remember... Oh, my God
0:24:57 > 0:25:00I remember us sitting as a class going, "Duh-dum,"
0:25:00 > 0:25:02and, like, tapping it out!
0:25:02 > 0:25:05Di-dum-di-dum. Di-dum-di-dum-di dum. Ba-bum-ba-bum-ba-bum.
0:25:05 > 0:25:06Di-dum-di-dum.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09La-la-dah-hee-dah-ha! Di-dum-di-dum. Di-dum-di-dum.
0:25:09 > 0:25:11Dum-da-da-da-da! Ti-tum-ti-tum
0:25:11 > 0:25:14Ta-tum-ta-tum-ta-tum-ta-tum-ta-tum. Ba-dah-duh-duh-duh-duh.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18La-ha-la-he-la-la-ho-la-he-la-ha la-hi-la-ha!
0:25:18 > 0:25:23I don't know...really what iambic pentameter is.
0:25:24 > 0:25:26Somebody has to tell me.
0:25:26 > 0:25:31I've never had a formal lesson in iambic pentameter.
0:25:31 > 0:25:32I don't understand it.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36I really was completely lost.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39And I felt like a fraud.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42And everyone else seemed to be really making sense of it.
0:25:42 > 0:25:43I think at the RSC, when I first went,
0:25:43 > 0:25:45no director had a clue about it
0:25:45 > 0:25:48But who DID have a clue was Cicely Berry.
0:25:48 > 0:25:50The great thing about Shakespeare,
0:25:50 > 0:25:54there's never really a full stop till the end of the play, actually.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58And everything, nothing is really a statement, a fact.
0:25:58 > 0:26:02It's always one thought which projects the next thought,
0:26:02 > 0:26:04which makes the next thought happen.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07So it's always acted and lifted through.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09"Wilt thou be gone?
0:26:10 > 0:26:12"It is not yet near day.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16"It was the nightingale and not the lark
0:26:16 > 0:26:19"that pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22"Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27"Believe me, love, it was the nightingale."
0:26:27 > 0:26:29The rhythm of the line
0:26:29 > 0:26:31is an indication from Shakespeare
0:26:32 > 0:26:35to the actor as to how they should say the line.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39De-dum.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41Stress stands on the dum.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44Wilt THOU be GONE?
0:26:44 > 0:26:47It isn't, "WILT thou be gone?"
0:26:47 > 0:26:50Because that would be not de-DUM, but DUM-de.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56WILT thou BE gone?
0:26:56 > 0:26:59DUM-de DUM-de. WILT thou BE gone?
0:26:59 > 0:27:01Well, that's a way of saying it
0:27:01 > 0:27:04but it's probably just a bit more complicated
0:27:04 > 0:27:05than Shakespeare wants it.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08Just follow the rhythm of the line.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11I'm always looking for that rhythm and trusting it.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15Wilt thou be gone?
0:27:16 > 0:27:18It is not yet near day.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23It was the nightingale and not the lark
0:27:23 > 0:27:25that pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree.
0:27:32 > 0:27:34Believe me, love.
0:27:35 > 0:27:37It was the nightingale.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42Something bit in and I started flying with it.
0:27:42 > 0:27:47And I remember that feeling of the first rehearsal where it happened
0:27:47 > 0:27:50of just...getting it, going, "Oh!"
0:27:50 > 0:27:52It tastes really good in your mouth.
0:27:52 > 0:27:54The words really...
0:27:54 > 0:27:57It's like a taste, almost. You know, it just works.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00The voice comes from the soul, from the heart, from who you are.
0:28:00 > 0:28:02And I think that's your anchor as an actor,
0:28:02 > 0:28:04out of which you can imagine yourself
0:28:04 > 0:28:06to be someone else and you can develop.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09So the thing that can make Shakespeare so difficult
0:28:09 > 0:28:12is the same thing that can make it fly.
0:28:12 > 0:28:14Steven Berkoff is someone who consistently wrestles
0:28:14 > 0:28:17that beast and comes out on top
0:28:17 > 0:28:22Shakespeare's 400-year-old language actually is not that complex.
0:28:22 > 0:28:27But when you're in a lot of costumes with togas and bits,
0:28:27 > 0:28:30it sounds so remote.
0:28:30 > 0:28:32But if you come in in a suit
0:28:32 > 0:28:36and a coat and you say, "What's the matter,
0:28:36 > 0:28:39"you dissentious rogues,
0:28:39 > 0:28:42"scratching the poor itch of your opinion?
0:28:42 > 0:28:44"Make yourself scabs.
0:28:44 > 0:28:46"What would you have, you curs?
0:28:46 > 0:28:50"That like not peace nor war.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53"The one affrights you, the other makes you proud."
0:28:55 > 0:28:57What's complex about that?
0:28:57 > 0:29:01Putting Shakespeare into costume works against you.
0:29:01 > 0:29:03Shakespeare never did it.
0:29:03 > 0:29:06He put all his actors in modern costume.
0:29:06 > 0:29:11Why we go back to Elizabethan little things, I have no idea.
0:29:11 > 0:29:13It doesn't work.
0:29:13 > 0:29:18It may look pretty for a few minutes, but it gets in the way
0:29:18 > 0:29:21And I think, as soon as someone comes on
0:29:21 > 0:29:24with a bit of chutzpah, is modern,
0:29:24 > 0:29:29they suddenly, "Oh! We can understand it. It makes sense.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32Of course, there have been thousands and thousands of productions
0:29:32 > 0:29:33of Shakespeare's 37 plays.
0:29:33 > 0:29:38Some old, some modern, some good, some just plain awful.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42But for us, there was one that rocked our world.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45A film that came out in our second year of drama school.
0:29:45 > 0:29:47Australian director Baz Luhrmann's
0:29:47 > 0:29:51supremely-modern take on Romeo And Juliet.
0:29:51 > 0:29:54Romeo And Juliet. Romeo And Juliet. There we are.
0:29:54 > 0:29:56Oh, look! That's it, there it is.
0:29:56 > 0:29:57They've got four copies.
0:29:57 > 0:29:59That film's amazing!
0:29:59 > 0:30:03I mean, even this stuff, like the sort of Latino gun culture.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06The colour and the excitement.. And all this sort of...
0:30:06 > 0:30:09Romeo + Juliet. Yeah. It's just ..
0:30:09 > 0:30:13Even that looks like a tattoo, doesn't it? A gang tattoo, almost.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16It was just...it was just exciting, it was sexy.
0:30:16 > 0:30:18It was exciting, it was raw.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21The guy who was... Mercutio. Mercutio.
0:30:21 > 0:30:24What's his name? I can't remember. His name was... That was it for me.
0:30:24 > 0:30:26It was, like, "There's a black person in Shakespeare."
0:30:26 > 0:30:28Yeah, that was it. Also, what was weird about that ..
0:30:28 > 0:30:31Never seen a black person in Shakespeare before.
0:30:31 > 0:30:33This is the one that is like.. That's the one that spoke to us
0:30:33 > 0:30:38Hit the button. In fact, we wouldn't be here now, like, with this..
0:30:38 > 0:30:41thinking about what's the next step
0:30:41 > 0:30:43if we hadn't seen this film. Exactly.
0:30:43 > 0:30:45We wouldn't have even started it, probably. No.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48If we can get to the Wizard of Oz... Baz Luhrmann.
0:30:48 > 0:30:51..and say, "Look, how do we...do this?"
0:30:51 > 0:30:54Hm. "How do you make it speak to now
0:30:54 > 0:30:56"and not be something that's like a history lesson?"
0:31:02 > 0:31:06Hi. Dan speaking. It'll come as no surprise what we did next
0:31:06 > 0:31:10We used every resource and every connection we could
0:31:10 > 0:31:11to reach the Wizard of Oz.
0:31:11 > 0:31:13My name's Dan. Hello.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15Whilst we tried to make America work...
0:31:15 > 0:31:18John, Muse, slate one, take one
0:31:18 > 0:31:21'..John Leguizamo, who played Tybalt in Baz's Romeo + Juliet,'
0:31:21 > 0:31:22and James Earl Jones,
0:31:22 > 0:31:25one of America's greatest Shakespearean actors
0:31:25 > 0:31:28and the voice of Darth Vader, were both in London.
0:31:30 > 0:31:32When was the first time you encountered Shakespeare?
0:31:32 > 0:31:36Uncle Bob. He was one of my favourite uncles-in-law
0:31:36 > 0:31:37Uncle Bob. He was one of my favourite uncles-in-law
0:31:37 > 0:31:39and he would visit in the summers.
0:31:39 > 0:31:43And we'd be out in the fields and he would start reciting stuff.
0:31:43 > 0:31:50"I came to BURY Caesar, not to praise him."
0:31:50 > 0:31:53Where did he get all THAT stuff !
0:31:53 > 0:31:57He was reciting Shakespeare, but like he loved it.
0:31:57 > 0:32:00And he was giving it some vernacular,
0:32:00 > 0:32:04he was sounding like an old-time black preacher
0:32:04 > 0:32:08but with the love of that language.
0:32:08 > 0:32:12And I sat back and I went to get my books, you know.
0:32:12 > 0:32:15Most American actors cannot say that they're Shakespearean actors,
0:32:15 > 0:32:21but Shakespeare belongs in the catalogue of...great works
0:32:21 > 0:32:23that we should all work on.
0:32:23 > 0:32:26I did study a little Shakespeare at school,
0:32:26 > 0:32:30I didn't really do it in my acting classes cos it wasn't something I...
0:32:30 > 0:32:33Not that I didn't like it, I liked it when I saw it,
0:32:33 > 0:32:35I just didn't feel like it was my thing.
0:32:35 > 0:32:37It was something that other people did, you know,
0:32:37 > 0:32:40it wasn't something that I was working towards.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43And then all of a sudden I did it in college
0:32:43 > 0:32:46and I really dug doing the scene. I mean, it took me months
0:32:46 > 0:32:49and months to work on it, it was so difficult.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52I think British people somehow do it a lot better than we do,
0:32:52 > 0:32:54they make it sound much more normal and natural,
0:32:54 > 0:32:57but at the same time Americans. . Why? I don't know, cos you guys
0:32:57 > 0:33:00maybe the way you guys annunciate or pronounce it
0:33:00 > 0:33:03or maybe the fact that you guys do it so much in school,
0:33:03 > 0:33:06you've already got a better handle on it than we do.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09But I think when Americans DO do it well...we destroy it.
0:33:09 > 0:33:14We do it so... Because we're trying to make it as conversational
0:33:14 > 0:33:19and as contemporary as possible which, you know, is a struggle
0:33:19 > 0:33:23The next morning, we had even more exciting news
0:33:23 > 0:33:26So Baz Luhrmann and Leonardo DiCaprio are going to be in LA
0:33:26 > 0:33:28So he said that we can go and speak to him.
0:33:28 > 0:33:32Leo maybe is a possibility, but not definite. Brilliant.
0:33:32 > 0:33:34Our plan whilst in the States
0:33:34 > 0:33:37was to speak to both some of the highest authorities on Shakespeare
0:33:37 > 0:33:40in America, as well as the man on the street.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43And, at the end of the road, to meet with Mr Baz Luhrmann,
0:33:43 > 0:33:46our Wizard from Oz out in LA.
0:33:48 > 0:33:53Oh, my God! This is about the last moment of calm.
0:33:53 > 0:33:57I know. It's impending. Can you feel it?
0:33:57 > 0:34:00I can't even cope with it. Let's go. GILES LAUGHS
0:34:05 > 0:34:09"We two alone shall sing like birds in the cage
0:34:09 > 0:34:13"And take upon us the mystery of things
0:34:13 > 0:34:16"As if we were God's spies."
0:34:17 > 0:34:20The same year Shakespeare wrote that in King Lear,
0:34:20 > 0:34:24the Puritans sailed from England and landed in Virginia and Boston.
0:34:24 > 0:34:27400 years on, and we're flying into Boston ourselves
0:34:27 > 0:34:30for our own adventures in the Brave New World.
0:34:30 > 0:34:32PILOT: Welcome to Boston...
0:34:41 > 0:34:44'Having landed in Boston, our plan was to first speak to Harold Bloom,
0:34:44 > 0:34:47'America's foremost scholar of Shakespeare,
0:34:47 > 0:34:50'currently residing in Yale. Then travel south
0:34:50 > 0:34:54'to speak to the first black Poet Laureate of America, Ms Rita Dove.
0:34:54 > 0:34:59'Then fly to LA and catch up with Baz.
0:34:59 > 0:35:03'Time was against us, and as we set off on our first 16-hour drive
0:35:03 > 0:35:06'we came across something
0:35:06 > 0:35:09'and someone that took us by complete surprise.'
0:35:09 > 0:35:11So we've driven down this road
0:35:11 > 0:35:15and we saw this little thing saying, "Stourbridge Repertory."
0:35:15 > 0:35:18Was it "Old Repertory"? No. Repertory Theatre. Stageloft.
0:35:22 > 0:35:27What's your surname? This is ideal. My name's Ed Cornely. Cornely? Yes.
0:35:27 > 0:35:31Half-Irish, half-French, but I'm really half-Italian.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35'It was clear in no time that Ed was not only a theatre nut
0:35:35 > 0:35:37'but a kindred Shakespeare evangelist,
0:35:37 > 0:35:42'staging at least one Shakespeare play a year in his 40-seat theatre.'
0:35:42 > 0:35:43THEY LAUGH
0:35:43 > 0:35:48A reasonable and considerable portion of our population
0:35:48 > 0:35:53that is scared, put off or mystified by Shakespeare.
0:35:53 > 0:35:59There are many schools who still, fortunately, have Shakespeare
0:35:59 > 0:36:03as part of the standard required curriculum,
0:36:03 > 0:36:07but it usually isn't more than one or two plays.
0:36:07 > 0:36:12And it's more common than not for them to not read the play at all.
0:36:12 > 0:36:17The unfortunate part is they so rarely see it
0:36:17 > 0:36:23that it's very hard for students to...to visualise,
0:36:23 > 0:36:25because they've got to crack the code.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29I try and do one Shakespearean play a year.
0:36:29 > 0:36:33One reason that I own the theatre is that I love Shakespeare.
0:36:33 > 0:36:35Thanks. My pleasure. Thanks so much.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39Really appreciate it. Yeah. A little serendipity. Absolutely.
0:36:39 > 0:36:42We were open and you were passing by.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46That was like...beautiful, affirming, warming. Like heaven
0:36:46 > 0:36:50Totally, like, almost tearful. I want to do more.
0:36:50 > 0:36:54I don't know what that means, but you know what I mean, don't you?
0:36:54 > 0:36:56Yeah, I do.
0:36:56 > 0:36:59DAN LAUGHS Good night.
0:36:59 > 0:37:01THEY LAUGH
0:37:01 > 0:37:04Next morning, we continued our journey south
0:37:04 > 0:37:06through Harvard to Yale.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09'Meeting the Everyman Ed at his theatre in Stourbridge
0:37:09 > 0:37:13'had made us wonder what the Ivy League students thought
0:37:13 > 0:37:14'of our finest export.'
0:37:14 > 0:37:17We did read, you know, Romeo And Juliet,
0:37:17 > 0:37:20read a bit of Hamlet, you know that's about it.
0:37:20 > 0:37:22So why the fascination?
0:37:22 > 0:37:24I think it has something to do with...
0:37:24 > 0:37:26I think Americans are always in search of their roots.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29In so many ways, because, you know,
0:37:29 > 0:37:33of course there were many, many cultures
0:37:33 > 0:37:38and people and languages here before people from Europe came
0:37:38 > 0:37:42But we are still taught and are still in love with the notion
0:37:42 > 0:37:43that we sort of arrived,
0:37:43 > 0:37:48and this is a new nation, a new country, a new land, it's still new.
0:37:48 > 0:37:50And everyone here is always searching for their roots,
0:37:50 > 0:37:52wherever they were from.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56We were in New Haven to meet Yale professor Harold Bloom.
0:37:56 > 0:37:57For the last 60 years,
0:37:57 > 0:38:01he's been an outspoken commentator on Shakespeare.
0:38:01 > 0:38:05In his book, Invention Of The Human, he contends that Shakespeare
0:38:05 > 0:38:09was the first author who depicted character rather than caricature.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12It was an insight that had helped both of us along our way.
0:38:14 > 0:38:19Young man, sit and have your tea. OK.
0:38:19 > 0:38:21Shakespeare has a hundred major characters
0:38:21 > 0:38:24and a thousand minor characters
0:38:24 > 0:38:27all of whom speak differently from one another,
0:38:27 > 0:38:29which is almost unbelievable.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33I mean, you can get to know them simply by the way they sound.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36It's very difficult...
0:38:36 > 0:38:41if you try to think of four or five writers beside Shakespeare,
0:38:41 > 0:38:45very difficult to know to what extent
0:38:45 > 0:38:50they can create consciousnesses that fight free of themselves.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53But in the end what makes the difference
0:38:53 > 0:38:57between him and any other writer, eastern or western, in human history
0:38:57 > 0:39:01so far as I can see - and I've spent my life reading
0:39:01 > 0:39:05is that there's nothing like it before him
0:39:05 > 0:39:07and nothing like it since him.
0:39:07 > 0:39:12What he shows us about human personality and character
0:39:12 > 0:39:18and emotion has doubtless been there since the beginning of time.
0:39:18 > 0:39:22But we wouldn't be able to see it if he hadn't noticed it for us
0:39:22 > 0:39:24because nobody noticed it before him.
0:39:24 > 0:39:29Are they your books, Giles? Yes I'll inscribe them, if I may.
0:39:29 > 0:39:34Ah! I wasn't going to ask. Would you hand me the three books? Of course.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37'As Harold signed our battered copies of his books,
0:39:37 > 0:39:39'we realised how relatively close we were
0:39:39 > 0:39:42'to the start of our explorations of Shakespeare.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45'Bloom, 80 years old,
0:39:45 > 0:39:48'his whole life given over to questioning
0:39:48 > 0:39:50'and unlocking Shakespeare.
0:39:50 > 0:39:55'We were humbled, honoured, inspired.'
0:40:10 > 0:40:14"Before I knew thee, Hal, I knew nothing."
0:40:14 > 0:40:18"And now to speak truly am I become little better
0:40:18 > 0:40:20"than one of the wicked."
0:40:32 > 0:40:35A couple of years ago we went. I know it was a comedy
0:40:35 > 0:40:38and I can't tell you what the name of it was,
0:40:38 > 0:40:40but we left during the intermission
0:40:40 > 0:40:44because we couldn't get anything out of it cos of the way they talked.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47That's interesting. We just couldn't understand it
0:40:47 > 0:40:51You know, so we were, you know lost in it, so...
0:40:51 > 0:40:54I think a lot of people feel like that, don't they?
0:40:54 > 0:40:57If you've never been to one before
0:40:57 > 0:41:01and don't know much about it and haven't read much, it can be..
0:41:01 > 0:41:05It was probably very good, but I just didn't understand it
0:41:05 > 0:41:08Shakespeare's not everyone's cup of tea, fair enough,
0:41:08 > 0:41:11but was Nina right in blaming herself for not understanding it
0:41:11 > 0:41:14or was it the performance itself?
0:41:14 > 0:41:17Either way, she'd been brave enough to give it a go
0:41:17 > 0:41:18and discover for herself.
0:41:18 > 0:41:21And that's all any of us can do
0:41:21 > 0:41:24But as actors, it's our responsibility
0:41:24 > 0:41:28to make that one opportunity to reach a new audience perfect
0:41:28 > 0:41:30I think for the masses today,
0:41:30 > 0:41:32because they're so visually orientated
0:41:32 > 0:41:37and not as...you know, wordsmiths.
0:41:37 > 0:41:40They're not orally... They don't listen as well as they see.
0:41:40 > 0:41:46I think that cinema helps Shakespeare be more comprehensible.
0:41:46 > 0:41:48And, you know, you're not going to like it
0:41:48 > 0:41:50if you don't see good performances.
0:41:50 > 0:41:55And I think the cliche is these talking heads with the, you know...
0:41:55 > 0:41:58There is a thing where Americans feel
0:41:58 > 0:42:01that English people do it better.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03And the English say, "No, that's not really true,
0:42:03 > 0:42:06"the Americans are more like the Shakespearean language at the time."
0:42:06 > 0:42:08The big problem in America
0:42:08 > 0:42:12is they're still fighting the 19th-century myth of the actor.
0:42:12 > 0:42:14You know, they think, "Oh, Shakespeare,
0:42:14 > 0:42:18"we've all got to stand up straight and do it in a particular manner."
0:42:18 > 0:42:21And they do end up acting with this bit of them.
0:42:21 > 0:42:24If you look at Marlon Brando playing Mark Anthony,
0:42:24 > 0:42:29he goes REALLY for the meaning of it.
0:42:29 > 0:42:34He goes really for the fact that he's talking to a thousand people!
0:42:34 > 0:42:38And then he finds within him,
0:42:38 > 0:42:42cos he's a great actor at his best...never lost the meter.
0:42:44 > 0:42:46American actor, so what?
0:42:46 > 0:42:49It doesn't make any difference But he...he found it.
0:42:49 > 0:42:53But he... You must start from what it means.
0:42:57 > 0:43:01We're going to go on a...a sort of picturesque route,
0:43:01 > 0:43:04according to the guy we spoke to at reception,
0:43:04 > 0:43:07down to Charlottesville, where we're speaking to Rita Dove.
0:43:07 > 0:43:09Rita Dove grew up
0:43:09 > 0:43:12to become the first black Poet Laureate of America.
0:43:12 > 0:43:17Her discovering Shakespeare at ten years old was part of that journey.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21Shakespeare Say - "He drums the piano wood crowing,
0:43:21 > 0:43:24"champion Jack in love and in debt,
0:43:24 > 0:43:26"and a tan walking suit with a flag on the pocket,
0:43:26 > 0:43:30"with a red eye for women, with a diamond-studded ear,
0:43:30 > 0:43:33"with sand and a mouthful of mush.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36"Poor me, poor me, I keep on drifting
0:43:36 > 0:43:38"like a ship out on the sea.
0:43:38 > 0:43:42"That afternoon, two students from the academe showed in the town
0:43:42 > 0:43:45"Munich was misbehaving, whipping his ass to ice
0:43:45 > 0:43:47"while his shoes soaked through
0:43:47 > 0:43:51"His guides pointed at a clock in a blue-tiled house
0:43:51 > 0:43:53"and tonight every song he sings
0:43:53 > 0:43:56"is written by Shakespeare and his mother-in-law.
0:43:56 > 0:43:59"I love you, baby, but it don't mean a goddamn thing."
0:43:59 > 0:44:04I would hear my mother, like, slicing the roast beef for dinner
0:44:04 > 0:44:08and saying, "Is that the dagger I see before me?"
0:44:08 > 0:44:11You know, and I thought she'd made it up
0:44:11 > 0:44:15but she was always...the little bits of Shakespeare.
0:44:15 > 0:44:17I'd heard of Shakespeare, but I didn't know anything.
0:44:17 > 0:44:19I didn't know...
0:44:19 > 0:44:23I didn't know enough to be afraid or to think that I couldn't do it,
0:44:23 > 0:44:28so I just opened it up. It had some beautiful old illustrations.
0:44:28 > 0:44:30And I started reading.
0:44:30 > 0:44:33And things that I didn't understand, I stopped.
0:44:33 > 0:44:36I didn't understand the Rape Of Lucrece, for instance.
0:44:36 > 0:44:39I just said... I was looking for the rape and couldn't find it, you know.
0:44:39 > 0:44:43But then I started reading the plays and they were amazing.
0:44:43 > 0:44:50And I didn't quite...get everything, but I got enough.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53So even though one may not understand,
0:44:53 > 0:44:57or the audience may not understand "Canst thou..." or whatever,
0:44:57 > 0:45:00you get it, you get the whole flow of things.
0:45:00 > 0:45:03You've just got to keep going and you get it.
0:45:03 > 0:45:07OK. I think we're good. 'Our time in the South was over
0:45:07 > 0:45:11'Next stop LA, and Baaaaaaz Luhrmann!'
0:45:11 > 0:45:14LA now.
0:45:14 > 0:45:18Haven't slept for 24 hours... but at least we're here.
0:45:18 > 0:45:21We'd booked ourselves into the budget hotel of the stars
0:45:21 > 0:45:24it's where Brad Pitt lived when he was trying to break into Hollywood.
0:45:24 > 0:45:28And in the room next door was where Janis Joplin died.
0:45:30 > 0:45:34Happy? Slightly concerned my credit card was declined.
0:45:34 > 0:45:36What colour is it?
0:45:39 > 0:45:43PIPES GROAN Turn that off. Turn it off!
0:45:43 > 0:45:45Let's go.
0:45:45 > 0:45:49We definitely weren't in Kansas any more.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52I just saw a 60-year-old Spider Man running.
0:45:52 > 0:45:54Random.
0:45:54 > 0:45:56Only in Hollywood.
0:45:56 > 0:45:58Superman...on the street.
0:46:01 > 0:46:02Only in Hollywood.
0:46:02 > 0:46:06It was a traditional script of a Shakespeare play, Romeo And Juliet,
0:46:06 > 0:46:08matched with the highly modern directorial style
0:46:08 > 0:46:10of visionary Baz Luhrmann,
0:46:10 > 0:46:12that had inspired us all those years ago.
0:46:12 > 0:46:15His film was set right here in Los Angeles,
0:46:15 > 0:46:17'so what did the people here make of Shakespeare?'
0:46:17 > 0:46:19Do you know anything about Shakespeare?
0:46:19 > 0:46:21Oh, heck no! We're Americans!
0:46:21 > 0:46:23Do you know anything about Shakespeare?
0:46:23 > 0:46:24He knows how to write about love.
0:46:24 > 0:46:28Never met him, but I like his stuff. OK.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31"To be or not to be, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind
0:46:31 > 0:46:34"to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or..."
0:46:34 > 0:46:36Does HE have a star? We could make him one.
0:46:36 > 0:46:41This is a first here on Hollywood Boulevard. The star of Shakespeare.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45Can you spell it? "We have shuffled off this mortal coil.. "
0:46:45 > 0:46:47"Shakespear." I love it!
0:46:47 > 0:46:51Is there an E? There is, yeah, but we can excuse that.
0:46:51 > 0:46:55Look at that. That's beautiful That's made my whole trip, that has.
0:46:55 > 0:46:58Shakespeare's now got his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01"Fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons. Be all my sins remembered"
0:47:01 > 0:47:03ALL CHEER
0:47:05 > 0:47:11Honey, you want some toast? Huh Love some.
0:47:11 > 0:47:14Hollywood Boulevard delivered on its promise.
0:47:14 > 0:47:18We'd had fun, met a load of great and wonderful people.
0:47:18 > 0:47:19It was our Yellow Brick Road
0:47:19 > 0:47:22and we were perfectly cued up for our Wizard from Oz.
0:47:24 > 0:47:26It was Baz time!
0:47:26 > 0:47:31We were on our way to meet the man whose film had changed our lives.
0:47:31 > 0:47:36Without his film we might never have become actors who love Shakespeare -
0:47:36 > 0:47:39we'd certainly never have started this epic journey.
0:47:39 > 0:47:41This is it, G. This is the one
0:47:41 > 0:47:43Yeah. We're coming here to speak to Baz Luhrmann.
0:47:43 > 0:47:45And no way would we be sitting in the reception
0:47:45 > 0:47:49of the Chateau Marmont, one of LA's grandest hotels.
0:47:49 > 0:47:52It had taken three-and-a-half years to get here.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56And although we were a little scared, we'd made it!
0:47:56 > 0:47:59So what lay behind that curtain How did it work?
0:47:59 > 0:48:03How did he do that magic that had affected so many of us
0:48:03 > 0:48:06Just how did this man take a 400-year-old play
0:48:06 > 0:48:08and bring it to a new generation,
0:48:08 > 0:48:11now seen by over 50 million people around the world?
0:48:13 > 0:48:17When I was a very small boy, I went to a Catholic primary school
0:48:17 > 0:48:19and we had what was called the library.
0:48:19 > 0:48:20The library was a cupboard like this
0:48:20 > 0:48:23and it had eight books or something on it - tiny.
0:48:23 > 0:48:29I went over and one of the books was a small, black, soft-cover book.
0:48:29 > 0:48:36I...I opened it and it had the title The Merchant Of Venice.
0:48:36 > 0:48:43And Sister...Duchant said, "That's one of our most important writers."
0:48:43 > 0:48:46"This is the greatest material ever written."
0:48:46 > 0:48:51So I opened it up and I read the first phrase of it.
0:48:51 > 0:48:53And she walked away and I just quietly closed it
0:48:53 > 0:48:55and put it back on the shelf and said,
0:48:55 > 0:49:00"I will never understand that in all my days."
0:49:00 > 0:49:04Sure, he was gifted, as sure as that he was a human being.
0:49:04 > 0:49:06And the more that the language is revealed
0:49:06 > 0:49:08and the more fantastic it is..
0:49:08 > 0:49:14It's not that he's so ordinary but that you feel you know him
0:49:14 > 0:49:18So how do you get from that to making a film of Romeo And Juliet?
0:49:18 > 0:49:23This idea in my mind of if Shakespeare was making a movie
0:49:23 > 0:49:25what would his choices be?
0:49:25 > 0:49:28What kind of cinematic language would he come up with?
0:49:28 > 0:49:32Everything in the film, Romeo Juliet, whether you agree or not,
0:49:32 > 0:49:36came specifically from a choice Shakespeare made
0:49:36 > 0:49:38on the Elizabethan stage.
0:49:38 > 0:49:39I mean, people often talk about ..
0:49:39 > 0:49:42Shakespeare was rock'n'roll music or pop music.
0:49:42 > 0:49:46Yes, well, Shakespeare used popular music in his plays.
0:49:46 > 0:49:47Every choice in the film
0:49:47 > 0:49:52was driven by, one, the single thing that Shakespeare set out to do
0:49:52 > 0:49:57and that was to connect that story with the audience at hand.
0:49:57 > 0:49:58And I wanted to do it
0:49:58 > 0:50:03by being inspired by Shakespeare's theatrical choices.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05So that was the guiding light.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08"What about all that broad comedy up front?
0:50:08 > 0:50:11You mean, "Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?"
0:50:11 > 0:50:15Shakespeare used broad, stand-up comedy to wake the audience up
0:50:15 > 0:50:17get their attention, then he undercuts it,
0:50:17 > 0:50:19tends to undercut it with drama
0:50:19 > 0:50:25And he's so deft, switching between comedy and tragedy.
0:50:25 > 0:50:28And to me that's the greatest lesson,
0:50:28 > 0:50:30because life is both great tragedy
0:50:30 > 0:50:34and walks the razor's edge of great comedy and vice versa
0:50:34 > 0:50:38which is why those great tragedarians like Brando...
0:50:38 > 0:50:40HE MUMBLES ..they're almost ridiculous.
0:50:40 > 0:50:42We all send them up because...
0:50:42 > 0:50:49because...it's about that... Because it's life.
0:50:49 > 0:50:53And life is a hair's breadth away from being hysterical,
0:50:53 > 0:50:57something that's tragic and vice versa.
0:50:57 > 0:51:01So for you, what's the key to making Shakespeare alive and accessible?
0:51:01 > 0:51:03You know, I wanted it American
0:51:03 > 0:51:07I wanted the setting...we wanted the setting contemporary.
0:51:07 > 0:51:09And then it becomes about language.
0:51:09 > 0:51:12What's the quick, clear, simple way of saying...
0:51:12 > 0:51:13where you see guns, read swords
0:51:13 > 0:51:16Or where you see swords or rapiers, read guns.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19And then you get a little idea "Boom! Swords!" - OK, I've got it.
0:51:19 > 0:51:23And so now we're using existing psychological signs and symbols
0:51:23 > 0:51:27or stuff in popular culture to help the audience quickly decode
0:51:27 > 0:51:30and get to the heart of the matter.
0:51:30 > 0:51:34There's a very simple adjudicator in all of this...
0:51:34 > 0:51:35and that is the audience.
0:51:35 > 0:51:40Does it or does it not affect and move?
0:51:40 > 0:51:43And that's covered in Hamlet, you know?
0:51:43 > 0:51:45And to me it's the beginning and the end of it.
0:51:45 > 0:51:47And one of these things will live on
0:51:47 > 0:51:50and wind-bagging will be gone with the wind!
0:51:50 > 0:51:53LAUGHTER Write that down!
0:51:53 > 0:51:55Well, I guess I should say it. Cut!
0:51:55 > 0:51:57LAUGHTER
0:51:57 > 0:51:59All right, thanks, guys. Thank you.
0:51:59 > 0:52:03Good on you. You know what? Good on you for doing this.
0:52:03 > 0:52:06It ain't easy to stick with something, to believe in something.
0:52:06 > 0:52:09It's not easy, it's hard and it's exhausting.
0:52:09 > 0:52:12You do just come away and you go, "Well, actually, we CAN do anything."
0:52:12 > 0:52:14"We can actually do anything we want."
0:52:19 > 0:52:22You climb up the hill
0:52:22 > 0:52:25and you get to the top and you've got to do something else after
0:52:25 > 0:52:30If you could do one thing tomorrow, anything, what would it be?
0:52:33 > 0:52:35Start a theatre company...
0:52:36 > 0:52:39..or make a film.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46I'm just going to tuck the old belly in. Just there sneaking out.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49Let's just tuck that in there. HE LAUGHS
0:52:49 > 0:52:52'America had well and truly exceeded our expectations.'
0:52:52 > 0:52:56We had spoken to so many amazing people and learnt so much.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59It couldn't end here, surely.
0:52:59 > 0:53:00We landed back in London,
0:53:00 > 0:53:05and founding artistic director of the Globe Theatre and actor
0:53:05 > 0:53:08Mark Rylance invited us to be part of a performance
0:53:08 > 0:53:11that could put to the test everything we'd learned.
0:53:11 > 0:53:13Pop-up Shakespeare.
0:53:15 > 0:53:18CHEERING
0:53:18 > 0:53:22The idea of Pop-Up Shakespeare
0:53:22 > 0:53:26is this, really, that there are a number of actors
0:53:26 > 0:53:28in this square beneath us
0:53:28 > 0:53:32who have all prepared a couple of speeches,
0:53:32 > 0:53:35bits from Shakespeare, maybe some scenes,
0:53:35 > 0:53:38and they go up to unsuspecting members of the public
0:53:38 > 0:53:39and they ambush them.
0:53:39 > 0:53:43I heard myself proclaimed. He can't hear you.
0:53:43 > 0:53:46And that's... that's basically the idea.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49I heard myself proclaimed. Have you? You're lucky.
0:53:49 > 0:53:51And by the happy hollow of the tree, escaped the hunt.
0:53:51 > 0:53:53You're lucky, I don't want to be proclaimed.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56..may I hope from thee. That no revenue hast...
0:53:56 > 0:54:00A most unusual vigilance does not attend my taking.
0:54:00 > 0:54:01It's Shakespeare. Yeah, I know
0:54:01 > 0:54:04It doesn't have to be feared. It doesn't have to be feared.
0:54:04 > 0:54:08And if we can teach everybody somehow that it's something
0:54:08 > 0:54:13that really you don't have to.. you don't have to be frightened of,
0:54:13 > 0:54:15that it's something to kind of glory in.
0:54:15 > 0:54:18For now sits Expectation in the air.
0:54:18 > 0:54:22And hides a sword from hilts unto point.
0:54:22 > 0:54:24Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27And could of men distinguish, her election.
0:54:27 > 0:54:30She hath sealed thee for herself.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33And with this horrible object from low farms.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36Poor pelting villagers, sheepcotes, and mills.
0:54:36 > 0:54:38Sometime with lunatic bans,
0:54:38 > 0:54:41sometime with prayers, enforce their charity!
0:54:41 > 0:54:42I'm in absolute awe of Shakespeare.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45I haven't known anybody who, at the end of their career, said,
0:54:45 > 0:54:48"Well, what a waste of time all that Shakespeare was."
0:54:48 > 0:54:51Let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp.
0:54:51 > 0:54:54Do we connect? Are we moved with the thing we've seen?
0:54:54 > 0:54:56With presented nakedness out-face.
0:54:56 > 0:54:58The winds and persecutions of the sky.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02The second property of your excellent sherry
0:55:02 > 0:55:04is the warming of the blood,
0:55:04 > 0:55:09which before cold and settled left the liver pale and white.
0:55:09 > 0:55:13I got my arse kicked by the critics and by Shakespeare and myself.
0:55:13 > 0:55:16It's a pool... you jump in the deep end.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19Good verse beautifully used
0:55:19 > 0:55:21can affect the metabolism of the listener.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24To be or not to be...
0:55:24 > 0:55:27Just don't be scared of it, you know. This is a gift.
0:55:27 > 0:55:29This is some of the greatest writing ever.
0:55:29 > 0:55:33Be iconoclastic, Shakespeare won't mind. He's going to survive.
0:55:33 > 0:55:36Shakespeare isn't some distant god, he was a guy.
0:55:36 > 0:55:39Do not think I flatter. For what advancement may I hope from thee.
0:55:39 > 0:55:41When I am dying, it will be...
0:55:41 > 0:55:45I'll think, "Oh, I'll really miss that, how beautiful it is."
0:55:45 > 0:55:48Follow the words, they're like the most perfect map, you know
0:55:48 > 0:55:52It empowers you somehow. Speak it out loud, shout it.
0:55:52 > 0:55:54Make it your own, for your generation.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57It doesn't disappoint in its kind of genius stakes.
0:55:57 > 0:56:00It just shows you everything that we are.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03It's not all about making money or being a star,
0:56:03 > 0:56:05it's about expressing yourself
0:56:05 > 0:56:10He knows the human heart so well, whether it be male or female.
0:56:10 > 0:56:16He speaks to every man and every woman at every age in every time.
0:56:16 > 0:56:19I will wear her in my heart's core.
0:56:19 > 0:56:23Ay, in my heart of heart, as I do thee.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28And I thee. Thank you. Thank you.
0:56:28 > 0:56:31Poor pelting villagers, sheepcotes, and mills.
0:56:31 > 0:56:36Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers. Enforce their charity.
0:56:42 > 0:56:44All good things must come to an end, my friend.
0:56:44 > 0:56:47All good things definitely must come to an end.
0:56:47 > 0:56:49It's been a long, long, long road.
0:56:52 > 0:56:56Speak to me. 'Someone asked us once what we were doing all this for
0:56:56 > 0:56:59'all this time and effort and struggle.
0:56:59 > 0:57:04'But it was never really about us.' ALL: Muse of Fire!
0:57:04 > 0:57:07'It was about the people we met The people who were generous enough
0:57:07 > 0:57:11'to share a little bit of their time with us and tell us their stories.
0:57:11 > 0:57:15'People we met in castles in Denmark. Small towns in America
0:57:15 > 0:57:16'The streets of London.
0:57:16 > 0:57:20'And how one young man born in a little town in England
0:57:20 > 0:57:21'400 years ago...'
0:57:21 > 0:57:25That's Shakespeare's house. '..made all those stories possible.'
0:57:25 > 0:57:27If they do nothing, 'tis a venial slip.
0:57:27 > 0:57:29But if I give my wife a handkerchief...
0:57:29 > 0:57:33Two loves have I, of comfort and despair.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36Which like two spirits do suggest me still...
0:57:36 > 0:57:39'He must have been an incredible person, William Shakespeare,
0:57:39 > 0:57:42'to tell those stories with such honesty and truth.
0:57:42 > 0:57:46'Stories of jealousy, ambition, love and weakness...
0:57:46 > 0:57:49'..fathers, mothers and friendship.
0:57:49 > 0:57:52'So meeting Shakespeare might be a little bit scary...
0:57:52 > 0:57:56'But so is life...and there's only one way to do both.
0:57:56 > 0:57:59'Take a deep breath... And go for it.' APPLAUSE
0:57:59 > 0:58:01Anything that happens to you
0:58:01 > 0:58:03happens to all of Shakespeare's characters.
0:58:03 > 0:58:05They've lived it before us.
0:58:05 > 0:58:06It's there for you.
0:58:06 > 0:58:10And there's a line that Macbeth says to Lady Macbeth,
0:58:10 > 0:58:13he says, "And if we fail?"
0:58:14 > 0:58:16And she says...
0:58:16 > 0:58:18"We fail.
0:58:18 > 0:58:24"But screw your courage to the sticking place and we'll not fail."
0:58:28 > 0:58:30How lucky we are, aren't we?
0:58:30 > 0:58:32He was an Englishman.
0:58:50 > 0:58:53Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd