0:00:30 > 0:00:31Here we go!
0:00:31 > 0:00:34For the great firework!
0:00:40 > 0:00:43People ask me,
0:00:43 > 0:00:45"Do the English people want
0:00:45 > 0:00:47"a national theatre?"
0:00:47 > 0:00:49Well, of course, they don't.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51They never want anything.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53They've got a British Museum,
0:00:53 > 0:00:55but they never wanted one.
0:00:55 > 0:00:57They've got a National Gallery,
0:00:57 > 0:00:59but they never wanted it.
0:00:59 > 0:01:00But now that they've got it,
0:01:00 > 0:01:06now that it stands there as a mysterious phenomenon
0:01:06 > 0:01:10that came to them in some type of fashion, they quite approve of it.
0:01:14 > 0:01:15It wasn't until 1963
0:01:15 > 0:01:18that the long-held dream of a national theatre of Great Britain
0:01:18 > 0:01:20became a reality.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25Its first home was the borrowed stage of the Old Vic theatre
0:01:25 > 0:01:28in London, which had been putting on legendary productions
0:01:28 > 0:01:30of Shakespeare since the 1930s.
0:01:34 > 0:01:36At the helm of the newly-formed National Theatre
0:01:36 > 0:01:42was Laurence Olivier, the greatest actor of his time.
0:01:42 > 0:01:46Forming a company, helping it along, serving it, leading it -
0:01:46 > 0:01:49that's the most exciting thing I think a man can do.
0:01:49 > 0:01:53'If there was going to be a national theatre, Olivier would have to be
0:01:53 > 0:01:54running it.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58He represented the theatre
0:01:58 > 0:01:59in a symbolic way.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02APPLAUSE
0:02:04 > 0:02:09Your Royal Highness, lords, ladies and gentlemen,
0:02:09 > 0:02:12this is a joyous occasion.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16The National Theatre is to be something
0:02:16 > 0:02:20which the Old Vic is dedicated to,
0:02:20 > 0:02:25'with Laurence, who is a passionate lover of the theatre.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29'A fine actor, Laurence has got that feeling that
0:02:29 > 0:02:33'we are doing something for our country, something to make
0:02:33 > 0:02:36'our country more aware of itself.'
0:02:36 > 0:02:37As Shakespeare is,
0:02:37 > 0:02:40kind of, the spine of British playwriting,
0:02:40 > 0:02:43Olivier, during that period, was the spine
0:02:43 > 0:02:47of British acting. Everybody wanted to work at the National.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50And it was at the Old Vic, which, itself, had this extraordinary
0:02:50 > 0:02:51history.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55It was an actors' theatre,
0:02:55 > 0:02:59in that it was run by the greatest actor we had.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04It was not an inevitability
0:03:04 > 0:03:07that it would get off the ground, by any means. Once it was
0:03:07 > 0:03:10off the ground, it was not inevitable that it would survive.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14That it survived, that it succeeded in the most extraordinary fashion,
0:03:14 > 0:03:16that was all due to Olivier.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19Olivier was able to bring the directors and the writers
0:03:19 > 0:03:21and, above all, the actors.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26Olivier himself directed the opening production of Hamlet in 1963,
0:03:26 > 0:03:28starring Peter O'Toole.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33Laurence said, "When you start the National Theatre after 300 years
0:03:33 > 0:03:36"of talking about it and you open with Hamlet,
0:03:36 > 0:03:38"you just put on your strongest suit of armour
0:03:38 > 0:03:40"and expect everybody to take aim
0:03:40 > 0:03:45"at you", which, of course, I think they did.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50The following year, Olivier's own sell-out performance as Othello
0:03:50 > 0:03:52was a huge critical success.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56And Peter Schaffer's The Royal Hunt of the Sun
0:03:56 > 0:03:57heralded the National's commitment
0:03:57 > 0:04:00to new plays by contemporary writers,
0:04:00 > 0:04:01including Harold Pinter,
0:04:01 > 0:04:07Tom Stoppard, David Hare and Alan Bennett.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13The Old Vic was always meant to be a temporary home, until a new theatre
0:04:13 > 0:04:17could be built on the south bank of the Thames.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21Olivier, constantly had to defend its cost and its severe modernist
0:04:21 > 0:04:22design.
0:04:23 > 0:04:24Would you argue for it to be
0:04:24 > 0:04:27given priority, for example, over hospitals and schools?
0:04:27 > 0:04:31I don't think anything should be given priority over hospitals
0:04:31 > 0:04:34or schools or houses, but would point out that, in Germany,
0:04:34 > 0:04:37it would be given priority over all those three things.
0:04:37 > 0:04:43The new building housed not one, but three, separate theatres.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45It still looks like a fortress, until you get inside.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50The grandeur of the Olivier is one thing.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53The Lyttelton is not unlike the West End,
0:04:53 > 0:04:57cos of the feeling in the theatre and the proscenium arch.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59And then, the Cottesloe is like off Broadway,
0:04:59 > 0:05:01so what you have got
0:05:01 > 0:05:04is off Broadway, Broadway and the Metropole and Opera,
0:05:04 > 0:05:05all in one building.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12In 1976, the new theatre finally opened
0:05:12 > 0:05:16and Laurence Olivier took to the stage that bears his name
0:05:16 > 0:05:18for the first, and last, time.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24By now, he'd been succeeded as director by Peter Hall,
0:05:24 > 0:05:26founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company,
0:05:26 > 0:05:29the National's main rival.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32Peter took over the National Theatre at a difficult time,
0:05:32 > 0:05:35at a time when there was a lot of political opposition to the very idea
0:05:35 > 0:05:38of it. He had to be enormously
0:05:38 > 0:05:41persuasive. He had to face that political opposition down
0:05:41 > 0:05:44and he also had fights with
0:05:44 > 0:05:48the building, which was late being delivered, the unions,
0:05:48 > 0:05:52the backstage unions.
0:05:52 > 0:05:57So, Peter had to face all that and he was directing plays at the same time.
0:05:57 > 0:05:58It's only in retrospect
0:05:58 > 0:06:03that one can say it was OK. Damn nearly wasn't.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09Peter Hall was the second of five directors
0:06:09 > 0:06:11who have run the National Theatre.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14He was succeeded by Richard Eyre.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18Well, it's wonderful to sit in the director's office
0:06:18 > 0:06:21and be able to look down river to the Houses of Parliament
0:06:21 > 0:06:26and also poke your head round the corner and see St Paul's.
0:06:26 > 0:06:31So, it's impossible, I think, to be in that office and not feel
0:06:31 > 0:06:39that you have a responsibility to reflect the feeling of a nation.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44That is what the theatre exists to do.
0:06:46 > 0:06:47Richard Eyre was
0:06:47 > 0:06:51followed by the celebrated director, Trevor Nunn.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53I had a wonderful time,
0:06:53 > 0:06:57mainly because I found myself working with
0:06:57 > 0:07:00such an extraordinary number of wonderful people.
0:07:00 > 0:07:02The level of expertise
0:07:02 > 0:07:07and of sheer excellence, in all departments, was very rare
0:07:07 > 0:07:10and instantly recognisable.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14You can choose to go to a theatre
0:07:14 > 0:07:17where it just does one play or you can go to the National,
0:07:17 > 0:07:21where you can see a constantly-changing repertoire,
0:07:21 > 0:07:25all under one roof and in a way you can afford.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31The first time I walked through the stage door of the National Theatre,
0:07:31 > 0:07:34my life changed. I would meet people at the stage door
0:07:34 > 0:07:38all the time and they'd go, "I've never been here before.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40"Has this been here long?" Do you know what I mean?
0:07:40 > 0:07:41And here we are -
0:07:41 > 0:07:4250 years. 50 years.
0:07:58 > 0:07:59MAN WAILS
0:07:59 > 0:08:02Speak! Or go no further!
0:08:03 > 0:08:06I am my father's spirit.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10Doomed for a certain term...
0:08:12 > 0:08:13..to walk the night.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19In our contemporary, essentially-rational,
0:08:19 > 0:08:21highly-politicised world,
0:08:21 > 0:08:24what would it be like
0:08:24 > 0:08:25if somebody's ghost pitched up?
0:08:27 > 0:08:30It would be utterly terrifying, completely unprecedented
0:08:30 > 0:08:32and nobody would know what to do.
0:08:32 > 0:08:37Well, actually, Shakespeare goes to a great deal of trouble
0:08:37 > 0:08:40to make the appearance of this ghost exactly that.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45'This ghost is unprecedented, in the lives of all the characters
0:08:45 > 0:08:50'onstage and they react to the ghost as I think we would react
0:08:50 > 0:08:51'if we saw a ghost.'
0:08:51 > 0:08:56In other words, in Elsinore, or London, 1601 -
0:08:56 > 0:08:59take your pick - ghosts do not appear.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06Hamlet is, in many ways, the foundation stone
0:09:06 > 0:09:07of the English theatre.
0:09:07 > 0:09:09What else?
0:09:09 > 0:09:11It was first performed not a mile
0:09:11 > 0:09:14from where I am currently sitting,
0:09:14 > 0:09:16at The Globe, in 1601.
0:09:17 > 0:09:18Remember me...
0:09:18 > 0:09:22It's been in the repertoire for 400 years.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25..in this distracted goal.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30- Remember thee...- Every great actor has played Hamlet.
0:09:30 > 0:09:31From the table of my memory
0:09:31 > 0:09:34I'll wipe away all trivial fond records that youth
0:09:34 > 0:09:35And observation copied there.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38And thy commandment all alone shall live
0:09:38 > 0:09:40Within the book and volume of my brain
0:09:40 > 0:09:42Unmixed with baser matter.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49What a piece of wood is a man. How noble in reason.
0:09:49 > 0:09:54How in faculty, in form, in moving. How express...
0:09:54 > 0:09:56And now I'll do it!
0:09:59 > 0:10:00Until he goes to heaven.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04The one thing we can't get is what the audience in 1601 got,
0:10:04 > 0:10:08which was it must have seen its own world on the stage.
0:10:08 > 0:10:13We can only be voyeurs of a play like Hamlet.
0:10:13 > 0:10:18We don't live within a totalitarian dictatorship, which operates
0:10:18 > 0:10:22through a security system based on constant surveillance.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25Shakespeare's audience was living in that world.
0:10:25 > 0:10:27That's how Elizabeth I exerted power.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35I've come at it with the idea that Elsinore itself
0:10:35 > 0:10:38is a totally contemporary dictatorship
0:10:38 > 0:10:40with a highly-developed surveillance operation -
0:10:40 > 0:10:42everybody spies on everybody else.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are brought in to spy on Hamlet,
0:10:45 > 0:10:46Polonius spies on Laertes.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49Everybody's watching everybody else.
0:10:49 > 0:10:54- Nobody is honest with everybody else.- I will come by and by!
0:10:54 > 0:10:57The major strokes of the production are in creating that world
0:10:57 > 0:11:00with the security guards, which is incredibly detailed
0:11:00 > 0:11:02and followed through.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04There will always be people there watching,
0:11:04 > 0:11:07menacing shadows in the background.
0:11:07 > 0:11:08Not allowing people
0:11:08 > 0:11:11to live their lives, except under pressure.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18No-one trusts anybody else. No-one says what they mean.
0:11:18 > 0:11:20That is especially clear in this production
0:11:20 > 0:11:24because of all the cameras and the agents monitoring everything.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28Ophelia, in her first scene, she is reading a book.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31When her dad comes in, she hides the book.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34You get the idea that everything is monitored,
0:11:34 > 0:11:37what they are allowed to read, what they are allowed to listen to.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41I think it's familiar to a lot of people around the world.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45METAL CLANGS
0:11:45 > 0:11:49Originally, we were looking at potential modern parallels,
0:11:49 > 0:11:51somewhere where, through murky politics,
0:11:51 > 0:11:54leadership can still pass through family lines.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56METAL CLANGS
0:11:56 > 0:12:01A world in which people don't have a sense of their own freedom or
0:12:01 > 0:12:05a sense of the individual being more important than the state.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10MUSIC DROWNS SPEECH
0:12:10 > 0:12:15Murder and surveillance, as a wing of state policy...
0:12:16 > 0:12:19..you don't have to go far east to find those.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21MUSIC DROWNS SPEECH
0:12:23 > 0:12:26There are such dictatorships in Europe where you can imagine
0:12:26 > 0:12:30the presidency passing from one brother to another.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32There is plenty to draw upon there.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.
0:12:38 > 0:12:45I think the memorable Hamlets emerge in response not just to the play
0:12:45 > 0:12:48but to the place in time they are happening in.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53Rory's dismay is a very 21st-century dismay.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56It is a dismay based on a highly-developed
0:12:56 > 0:12:58ironic intelligence.
0:12:58 > 0:13:05But it is also based on a super sensitivity to the impossibility
0:13:05 > 0:13:09in this spied upon, surveyed,
0:13:09 > 0:13:11utterly un-private world.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13Here is somewhere our audience will know what
0:13:13 > 0:13:15we're talking about.
0:13:15 > 0:13:16Bloody, bawdy villain!
0:13:16 > 0:13:18Is it possible any more,
0:13:18 > 0:13:22surveilled, picked apart pulled this way and that
0:13:22 > 0:13:24as we are, to act truthfully?
0:13:32 > 0:13:34HELICOPTERS WHIR
0:13:38 > 0:13:41What's really important, it seems to me,
0:13:41 > 0:13:45is that the Army is central to this play.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49It's something I know that we'll want to explore -
0:13:49 > 0:13:52what a life spent fighting, what a life spent devoted to violence
0:13:52 > 0:13:57has done to the men who are at the centre of the play
0:13:57 > 0:14:00and to the women who find themselves caught up in the drama.
0:14:00 > 0:14:05Jonathan, who arrived late, who I hope will be able
0:14:05 > 0:14:08to talk to us at some point, was until recently
0:14:08 > 0:14:11a pretty high-ranking general in the British Army.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14I gave them advice on how to dress, how to wear their berets,
0:14:14 > 0:14:16how to wear their clothing.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18All of them took that on board and you can see them,
0:14:18 > 0:14:20they all look proper soldiers.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24There is one exception to that and that is Rory himself with Iago.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27No matter how many times I told him about wearing his beret
0:14:27 > 0:14:31slightly tilted forward or flat but certainly not tilted backwards
0:14:31 > 0:14:33and do something about the knot at the back
0:14:33 > 0:14:35because it's dangling down, he wouldn't.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39His trousers were scruffy. They run down over his boots.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43I kept saying, "You should alter that." Then I stopped saying that
0:14:43 > 0:14:46because actually that is the way he is portraying the character.
0:14:48 > 0:14:52Jonathan Shaw has been extremely interesting about
0:14:52 > 0:14:54the military context of the play.
0:14:54 > 0:14:56One of things he insists on,
0:14:56 > 0:15:00is how important trust is between men in the Army.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03It is quite clear that the reason Iago is able to do
0:15:03 > 0:15:07what he does with Othello, is because Othello trusts him
0:15:07 > 0:15:12more completely than maybe two men in civilian life would trust each other.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14It's a given in the Army. You have to.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19Let command and to obey in me
0:15:19 > 0:15:21Shall be remorse what bloody business ever.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24Come here.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26Military life is based on
0:15:26 > 0:15:30loyalty and a code of honour amongst soldiers.
0:15:32 > 0:15:37And it's from that that Iago is able to get away with what he does
0:15:37 > 0:15:42that no-one would question another soldier's loyalty to his colleague.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45Now art thou my lieutenant.
0:15:45 > 0:15:51Their bond of friendship and mutual trust goes back years.
0:15:51 > 0:15:56That is why Iago feels betrayed because he believes that
0:15:56 > 0:16:00seniority, length of service should be what determines promotion.
0:16:03 > 0:16:08His standing in the structures of military life was pretty low,
0:16:08 > 0:16:13although he had a closeness with Othello, who was at the very top.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17When passed over for promotion and having his nose rubbed in
0:16:17 > 0:16:22his mediocrity, it's that trigger that snaps him into
0:16:22 > 0:16:23doing something about it.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32Good evening. After a weekend of doubt and uncertainty,
0:16:32 > 0:16:35Mr Heath has handed in his resignation to the Queen.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39# We've got five years
0:16:39 > 0:16:42# Stuck on my eyes
0:16:42 > 0:16:44# Five years
0:16:44 > 0:16:47# What a surprise
0:16:47 > 0:16:48# Five years... #
0:16:48 > 0:16:52I wanted to look at the Houses of Parliament under the most strain
0:16:52 > 0:16:55it's ever been under in the history of modern Britain.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59That was absolutely the Parliament of 1974-79.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02It was a government with not enough people to pass its laws,
0:17:02 > 0:17:07it was a country in absolute turmoil economically, socially, politically.
0:17:07 > 0:17:09# Five years... #
0:17:09 > 0:17:13For me, politics was never something that was alienating or strange.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16I think if you're going to lock people in a room for two hours
0:17:16 > 0:17:19and talk to them, then it has to be important.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22I feel like you've got to leave having talked about stuff
0:17:22 > 0:17:25and having engaged with things that are important.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28Political issues do that.
0:17:28 > 0:17:30THEY SHOUT
0:17:30 > 0:17:33The default position of younger writers is that maybe
0:17:33 > 0:17:37we don't have the right or the tools to write these big political plays
0:17:37 > 0:17:41and that we should just write small plays about our own staff.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44I've never believed that is true.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47I don't know if any of you lot have read a newspaper this week
0:17:47 > 0:17:50but apparently we, the Labour Party, are now in power.
0:17:50 > 0:17:53CHEERING
0:17:53 > 0:17:54One big problem.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57It's a mathematical problem and one we definitely have to balance.
0:17:59 > 0:18:05301, us, Tories, 297. Then we have the odds and sods.
0:18:06 > 0:18:11Excellent. Great. Yeah, that's good. Just a little. Yeah.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13The play is focused on the two whips' offices.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16The Government whips' office and the Opposition whips' office.
0:18:16 > 0:18:18They are the unsung heroes
0:18:18 > 0:18:21of parliamentary procedure - they make it happen.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24There's only three in it.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27Block some of their big stuff and call a confidence vote.
0:18:27 > 0:18:28How do we block them?
0:18:28 > 0:18:31Our lot will be bored and demoralised.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34It's going to take all we've got to keep them coming in for votes
0:18:34 > 0:18:35all the time.
0:18:35 > 0:18:37The other side seemed to have successfully seduced
0:18:37 > 0:18:39the odds and sods.
0:18:39 > 0:18:40I wanted to forget Downing Street,
0:18:40 > 0:18:42to forget Whitehall,
0:18:42 > 0:18:44forget anywhere where the decisions were made
0:18:44 > 0:18:46and look at the engine room.
0:18:46 > 0:18:48When you have a hung Parliament,
0:18:48 > 0:18:53when you don't have enough members to pass your laws.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56Suddenly everything becomes focused on the Whips' office.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00They're the guys who literally have to get that law onto the statute
0:19:00 > 0:19:05books and so the whips become the most important people in politics.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11When I came into Parliament at the end of the '80s, it was
0:19:11 > 0:19:16very similar to the play and in particular, the Whips' Office
0:19:16 > 0:19:22was a whole world on its own, a kind of independent barony.
0:19:22 > 0:19:27Parliament is like a theatre and the Whips' Office
0:19:27 > 0:19:31was almost like a theatre within a theatre.
0:19:31 > 0:19:34Try to act like honourable members of the House
0:19:34 > 0:19:36and not football hooligans!
0:19:36 > 0:19:37The political culture
0:19:37 > 0:19:42when I first came into Parliament was very masculine, very male.
0:19:42 > 0:19:48People were much less concerned about how they looked,
0:19:48 > 0:19:53because of course, Parliament wasn't televised in those days.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56There was a hard-drinking political culture
0:19:56 > 0:19:59and it was the opposite of politically correct.
0:19:59 > 0:20:04- Just don't feel you have to tone it down.- Sod that! Bird in the office - we'll be cranking it up!
0:20:04 > 0:20:08Do you like football?
0:20:08 > 0:20:13# The love that asks no questions
0:20:13 > 0:20:18# The love that stands the test of time. #
0:20:18 > 0:20:20I didn't know a huge amount about the 1970s.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24I was born in 1982, so I wasn't alive.
0:20:24 > 0:20:28I really loved going and speaking to Members of Parliament at the time,
0:20:28 > 0:20:30diving into archives, papers -
0:20:30 > 0:20:35thousands and thousands of books and um, just speaking to people that were around at the time.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38For me, that's the fun part of doing a political play.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42Tories, we need a little bit more reaction to the vote.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45This is a crucial loss for the Government, isn't it?
0:20:45 > 0:20:47What's wonderful is that every time we came up with
0:20:47 > 0:20:50a sort of dramatic problem that we found hard to solve, you know,
0:20:50 > 0:20:52just a bit of research
0:20:52 > 0:20:55and look at history would provide a really entertaining answer,
0:20:55 > 0:20:59because the reality is just far more interesting that anything
0:20:59 > 0:21:01anyone could make up.
0:21:01 > 0:21:03# Time takes a cigarette. #
0:21:03 > 0:21:06Well, I'm afraid we now think he must be dead.
0:21:08 > 0:21:10For example, John Stonehouse,
0:21:10 > 0:21:14when the Government's just about got enough of a majority to start
0:21:14 > 0:21:17passing laws, he fakes his own death
0:21:17 > 0:21:22and throws himself allegedly into a sea off Miami beach.
0:21:22 > 0:21:27MUSIC: 'Rock 'n' Roll Suicide' by DAVID BOWIE
0:21:32 > 0:21:35And then you have stories like Jeremy Thorpe,
0:21:35 > 0:21:38the leader of the Liberal Party, who was accused of attempted murder,
0:21:38 > 0:21:43cleared of all charges, it has to be said but he was accused of murdering his male lover.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46I look at it and go, "God, how am I going to fit that into this?
0:21:46 > 0:21:48That's one story of 25."
0:21:48 > 0:21:53CLAMOURING
0:21:53 > 0:21:56We are now in session.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23Sorry to interrupt. I'd like to do the Croft. Thank you.
0:22:30 > 0:22:36INAUDIBLE
0:22:37 > 0:22:42- You know one of those devices that holds the chest open?- What...yeah.
0:22:42 > 0:22:47- What they called? - Chest spreader.- Chest...?- Spreader.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51- Chest spreader. OK.- A set of those. - Yeah, one of those from 1816, please.
0:22:55 > 0:23:00What is extraordinary about working on it is that you realise it's timeless -
0:23:00 > 0:23:02it will be here a long time after we're all gone
0:23:02 > 0:23:05because it swims into focus, depending on different issues,
0:23:05 > 0:23:09either in a very specific way like genetics or cloning,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12or in a very, very general way, really, about, you know,
0:23:12 > 0:23:15what man is capable of and what are the repercussions of that.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19There's little time to explain. The simple fact is, I built a man.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26- You did what?- I built a man and succeeded in animating him.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29- You mean bringing him to life?- Yes! Yes, bringing him to life. My...
0:23:29 > 0:23:31My creature. I brought him to life.
0:23:40 > 0:23:44I think Mary Shelley was writing - almost without appreciating it -
0:23:44 > 0:23:46a sort of creation myth for the science age.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49In many cultures, there are creation myths,
0:23:49 > 0:23:51but they always involve a deity, a cosmic power.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55Something sets the spark of life in motion and we humans come to life.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58But for the first time, Mary Shelley comes up with a creation myth
0:23:58 > 0:24:01which doesn't involve a deity, doesn't involve a cosmic power,
0:24:01 > 0:24:04it involves solely the skills of humankind.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06And that's why I think it stays with us now,
0:24:06 > 0:24:10because God doesn't play a very big part in our rationalisation
0:24:10 > 0:24:13about the world we live in and what we're going to do with it
0:24:13 > 0:24:17and the extent to which we're destroying it as we patently are.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21Mary Shelley's a very literate, highly educated
0:24:21 > 0:24:25young 18-19-year-old woman when she comes to it and the book is stuffed
0:24:25 > 0:24:29full of ideas which seem to me to remain very pertinent to us now.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33How does it feel to be in love?
0:24:33 > 0:24:38It...it...it...feels like all the life is...
0:24:38 > 0:24:42bubbling up inside me and spinning from my mouth.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46It feels like my lungs are on fire and my heart is a hammer!
0:24:46 > 0:24:50It feels like I can do anything in the world!
0:24:51 > 0:24:54The most important thing about the production, hopefully,
0:24:54 > 0:24:56is that it gives the creature a voice
0:24:56 > 0:24:58and I think a lot of people coming to it won't know the novel
0:24:58 > 0:25:01but they will know the movies, which robs him of his voice, really.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05The movies just waded in there and robbed him of his voice
0:25:05 > 0:25:08straightaway and yet that is the most extraordinary thing
0:25:08 > 0:25:13and so Nick's approach was to begin with the point of view of the creature.
0:25:13 > 0:25:18Arms flickering around, a bit of legs and then finding...
0:25:18 > 0:25:22What we've tried to do is begin with a being fresh from birth
0:25:22 > 0:25:23with no language.
0:25:23 > 0:25:28We see him acquire language, we see him acquire intellect and then
0:25:28 > 0:25:31by the end of the play, we allow him a very high level of articulacy
0:25:31 > 0:25:35and that was...really was one of the reasons that we wanted to do it,
0:25:35 > 0:25:39was because we'd never seen this creature given a voice,
0:25:39 > 0:25:42both to justify himself and to question his creator and say,
0:25:42 > 0:25:44"Why did you do this?"
0:25:45 > 0:25:48You abandoned me.
0:25:51 > 0:25:56- It speaks.- Yes. Frankenstein.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59- It speaks!- You know my name.
0:25:59 > 0:26:04That's the fantastic thing about this story is the relationship
0:26:04 > 0:26:08between father and son, master and slave, creature and creator.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15What's fascinating is seeing something come alive
0:26:15 > 0:26:21that's in a 30-year-old form and have to re-educate itself.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23I looked at stroke victims in recovery,
0:26:23 > 0:26:26I looked at people who'd had severe injuries both in wars or car
0:26:26 > 0:26:30crashes trying to re-educate their limbs and their bodies
0:26:30 > 0:26:33and when you see that happening, the amount of vulnerability.
0:26:34 > 0:26:36It gets tired. Yes. It gets tired.
0:26:36 > 0:26:41It's a very endearing thing to watch evolve. You really care for him.
0:26:42 > 0:26:48- You know, there's a lot of my two-year-old in the way...- Yes. Buster's been a big influence.
0:26:48 > 0:26:50..you know, that the creature...
0:26:50 > 0:26:52You know, it's...
0:26:52 > 0:26:56It's a blank canvas as a body but the brain works extremely fast.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59It's a fully grown brain so it's absorbing everything super quick.
0:26:59 > 0:27:01All the learning comes really quickly.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04- It's alive.- It's alive.- It's alive!
0:27:04 > 0:27:09Frankenstein eventually became the archetype of the mad scientist
0:27:09 > 0:27:12and what happens when science overreaches itself
0:27:12 > 0:27:16but what's interesting in the story of Frankenstein is that this
0:27:16 > 0:27:21becomes applied to the idea of creating people.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23And in some ways, that's something that could be
0:27:23 > 0:27:26seen as the ultimate unnatural act and it raises all sorts
0:27:26 > 0:27:30of quite specific questions about the status of the created
0:27:30 > 0:27:35being - whether or not, for example, Frankenstein's creature has a soul
0:27:35 > 0:27:36and what that means.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42God doesn't really figure in Frankenstein.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45The human creates life
0:27:45 > 0:27:47and I think that's one of the reasons why it has
0:27:47 > 0:27:50so much relevance for us now, because we look at the world
0:27:50 > 0:27:54and we see what we've done to it, and we're worried and that's
0:27:54 > 0:27:58very much the position that Victor Frankenstein, the scientist, is in.