0:00:11 > 0:00:14What country, friends, is this?
0:00:14 > 0:00:19That simple sentence is from one of my favourite Shakespearean plays.
0:00:19 > 0:00:21What country, friends, is this?
0:00:22 > 0:00:25It is spoken by Viola at the beginning of Twelfth Night
0:00:25 > 0:00:28as she finds herself washed up on a foreign shore.
0:00:28 > 0:00:32For me, this place speaks to all our hopes and dreams,
0:00:32 > 0:00:36the chance to start again, the prospect of a whole new world.
0:00:38 > 0:00:40Like all of Shakespeare's happiest comedies,
0:00:40 > 0:00:44in Twelfth Night we witness new life, new laughs
0:00:44 > 0:00:46and, eventually, new love.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52And, at the centre of this play, and driving the plots of all
0:00:52 > 0:00:57of Shakespeare's comedies are his extraordinary comic heroines.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00Most radiant, exquisite and unmatchable beauty.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03In the strangely dark comedy of Twelfth Night,
0:01:03 > 0:01:05there's the cross-dressing Viola.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07That question's out of my part.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09One of the things that makes Shakespeare
0:01:09 > 0:01:14an amazing dramatist, I think, is his sympathy for female characters.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16I pray you, tell me if this be the lady of the house,
0:01:16 > 0:01:17for I never saw her.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20He creates these fascinating, mischievous, interesting,
0:01:20 > 0:01:22funny female characters.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26There is no-one like them in dramatic history, really.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30- Are you a comedian? - No, my profound heart.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34And yet by the very fangs of malice I swear, I am not that I play.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37One of the things that's fabulous about Shakespeare is the way
0:01:37 > 0:01:40he understands the psychology of women,
0:01:40 > 0:01:42or maybe creates the psychology of women.
0:01:42 > 0:01:46And few women in any drama can match the heroine of Shakespeare's
0:01:46 > 0:01:49sweetest and most romantic comedy, Rosalind in As You Like It.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52What said he? How looked he? Wherein went he? What makes him here?
0:01:52 > 0:01:55Did he ask for me? Where remains he? How parted he with thee?
0:01:55 > 0:01:59And when shalt thou see him again? Answer me in one word!
0:01:59 > 0:02:00LAUGHTER
0:02:00 > 0:02:04The sheer sophistication, the verve, the dramatic
0:02:04 > 0:02:09and verbal range of Shakespeare's female parts is quite unprecedented.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12There's no doubt Shakespeare loved strong women.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16- That brings me out of tune! - Do you not know I am a woman?
0:02:16 > 0:02:18When I think, I must speak!
0:02:18 > 0:02:20LAUGHTER
0:02:20 > 0:02:24In this film, I want to explore how Shakespeare's comedies
0:02:24 > 0:02:29still have the power to entertain, enthral and move us,
0:02:29 > 0:02:31just like they did 400 years ago.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36Historically, people have paid more attention
0:02:36 > 0:02:40to Shakespeare's tragedies and history plays than his comedies.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42But that's a huge mistake.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45In terms of thinking about what it is to be human,
0:02:45 > 0:02:49what it is to live in society and what it's like to live in
0:02:49 > 0:02:54personal relationships, men and women together, families, the comedies are
0:02:54 > 0:02:57the place where Shakespeare really works that out in a profound way.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05Shakespeare has been part of my life ever since I can remember.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08Generations of my family have fallen in love
0:03:08 > 0:03:10with Shakespeare's dramatic poetry
0:03:10 > 0:03:13and have played some of his most famous roles.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22Here at the Old Vic, one of the oldest theatres in London,
0:03:22 > 0:03:24from 1818.
0:03:25 > 0:03:30I have always found it incredibly exciting to be in theatres,
0:03:30 > 0:03:33whether they're empty or filled or watching a performance.
0:03:33 > 0:03:37The last performance I saw here of Shakespeare's was Twelfth Night.
0:03:37 > 0:03:43It was here in 1937 that my grandfather, Sir Michael Redgrave,
0:03:43 > 0:03:45was doing a production of Hamlet,
0:03:45 > 0:03:47with Sir Laurence Olivier playing Hamlet
0:03:47 > 0:03:50and my grandfather playing Laertes.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53At the curtain call, Laurence Olivier stopped
0:03:53 > 0:03:56and said to the audience,
0:03:56 > 0:04:00"Tonight, a great actress is born. Laertes has a daughter."
0:04:00 > 0:04:03And that was the night my mother, Vanessa, was born.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06And it was announced on this stage.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12Dear Celia, I show more mirth than I am mistress of.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16My mother, Vanessa Redgrave, was just 24
0:04:16 > 0:04:18and starting out on her acting career
0:04:18 > 0:04:23when she played Rosalind in As You Like It in 1961.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26What think you of falling in love?
0:04:26 > 0:04:30Marry, I prithee, do, to make sport withal.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33So, Mum, what was your first experience of Shakespeare?
0:04:33 > 0:04:37- Was it reading it or performing it? - Reading.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40I found, looking along the bookshelf, because I learned to read
0:04:40 > 0:04:42when I was four, when I was around seven
0:04:42 > 0:04:46I found something called The Merchant Of Venice.
0:04:46 > 0:04:52"That sounds exciting!" I opened it and read it from start to finish.
0:04:52 > 0:04:57I became enthralled with the story of this merchant,
0:04:57 > 0:05:01and Portia and Shylock.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05I was really caught by Portia's great speech.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08"The quality of mercy is not strained,
0:05:08 > 0:05:12"it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.
0:05:12 > 0:05:14"It is twice blest."
0:05:14 > 0:05:16Because that, to my imagination,
0:05:16 > 0:05:18sounded like what should happen in life.
0:05:18 > 0:05:23And I'd got a nanny who somewhat punished me.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25And I felt the quality of mercy was missing!
0:05:25 > 0:05:27THEY LAUGH
0:05:30 > 0:05:35Given my family, maybe it's not surprising I ended up acting.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38But in Shakespeare's case, there was nothing in his background
0:05:38 > 0:05:41to prepare him for life in the theatre.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44Born in the rural town of Stratford,
0:05:44 > 0:05:48he first tried to make a living running his father's glove business.
0:05:48 > 0:05:50By the tender age of 18,
0:05:50 > 0:05:54he was already married to an older woman, Anne Hathaway.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58It was a shotgun wedding. She was three months pregnant.
0:05:58 > 0:06:00The interesting thing is, of course,
0:06:00 > 0:06:03that she was the right age to be married, at 26.
0:06:03 > 0:06:10He was the one who was all wrong. He was 18. But he was Shakespeare.
0:06:10 > 0:06:16He wasn't an ordinary man. He was an extraordinary man.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18And I tend to think it does him more credit
0:06:18 > 0:06:23to think that he was attracted to an extraordinary woman.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28Extraordinary woman or not, it seemed a very ordinary start
0:06:28 > 0:06:32for the man who would become the most famous playwright in history.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35Two years after the birth of their daughter, Susanna,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39the Shakespeares had twins who were baptised in Stratford Church
0:06:39 > 0:06:42on February 2nd 1585.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46The children were named Hamnet and Judith Shakespeare.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49Not long after this,
0:06:49 > 0:06:53Shakespeare more or less disappears from the records in his hometown.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57It's these lost years that sometimes raise questions
0:06:57 > 0:06:59about the true authorship of the plays.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02But any investigation of that question
0:07:02 > 0:07:05is still a celebration of the work.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09There is a big gap. We don't know what he was doing.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13But he clearly gained a great deal of theatrical experience.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17This is, again, one of the reasons why I think people are talking
0:07:17 > 0:07:20a lot of nonsense when they suggest the plays
0:07:20 > 0:07:22were written by an aristocrat,
0:07:22 > 0:07:24without any experience in the theatre.
0:07:24 > 0:07:25The plays are the work of somebody
0:07:25 > 0:07:29who was totally steeped in professional theatre.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33He couldn't earn a living in Stratford.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36Stratford was a town of 2,000 people.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39Most towns of 2,000 people can't support a poet.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42So I figure that she said to him,
0:07:42 > 0:07:45"Well, I can't bear to see you like this.
0:07:45 > 0:07:50"There's no future for you here. Go to London."
0:07:50 > 0:07:51And that's what he did.
0:07:51 > 0:07:53The next we actually know of him
0:07:53 > 0:07:57is that he was working as an actor in late 16th-century London,
0:07:57 > 0:08:01so he had left his wife and his three children behind him.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04I mean, what's special about Shakespeare is the poetry.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08To expect him to be a nice bloke, I think, might be pushing it.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12'Is not your name, sir, called Antipholus?
0:08:12 > 0:08:15'And is not that your bondman, Dromio?'
0:08:15 > 0:08:19Certainly, almost as soon as he starts his new career,
0:08:19 > 0:08:22Shakespeare seems to demonstrate a precocious skill.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27One of his very first plays is The Comedy Of Errors.
0:08:27 > 0:08:32This is someone who has a consummate sense of theatre
0:08:32 > 0:08:35and theatrical value from the moment he starts writing.
0:08:35 > 0:08:41The structure of an early play like Comedy Of Errors is phenomenal.
0:08:41 > 0:08:48It's a farce and nobody puts a foot wrong in terms of coming and going,
0:08:48 > 0:08:51as the plot is always the wrong person on stage at the wrong time.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54To be able to do that as, technically,
0:08:54 > 0:08:56apprentice work is astonishing.
0:08:57 > 0:08:59And while Shakespeare's family
0:08:59 > 0:09:02and his new twins might have been out of sight,
0:09:02 > 0:09:05they certainly don't appear to be out of mind,
0:09:05 > 0:09:08as twins are the central comic device of this play.
0:09:08 > 0:09:10LAUGHTER
0:09:12 > 0:09:15I see...two husbands!
0:09:15 > 0:09:17LAUGHTER
0:09:17 > 0:09:22There are occasional twins elsewhere in the drama of the period,
0:09:22 > 0:09:24inherited from the classical tradition.
0:09:24 > 0:09:29But no other writer is as interested in twins as Shakespeare is.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32And that must, at some level, be because he had twins himself.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35Which of you two did dine with me today?
0:09:35 > 0:09:38LAUGHTER
0:09:38 > 0:09:40I, gentle mistress.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43And are not you my husband?
0:09:43 > 0:09:44No.
0:09:44 > 0:09:48Shakespeare uses that as the basis for his early comedy,
0:09:48 > 0:09:51The Comedy Of Errors.
0:09:51 > 0:09:52But, in a typical Shakespearean way,
0:09:52 > 0:09:56he decides it's not enough to have one pair of twins, he has two.
0:09:56 > 0:10:00So we get the Antipholus brothers and they each have a slave,
0:10:00 > 0:10:01called Dromio.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04And they, too, are identical twins.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08Immediately, the potential for comedy, for farce,
0:10:08 > 0:10:11for mistaken identity, is doubled.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15Methinks you are my glass, and not my brother.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18I see by you I am a sweet-faced youth.
0:10:18 > 0:10:22Shakespeare was immediately recognised as a playwright of skill.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24And, when he returned to the subject of twins
0:10:24 > 0:10:28some six or seven years later in Twelfth Night,
0:10:28 > 0:10:31it seems that his family were even more on his mind.
0:10:31 > 0:10:36The twins in this play, like his own, are a boy and a girl,
0:10:36 > 0:10:37Viola and Sebastian.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44But there was a tragic dimension to the presence of twins in this play.
0:10:44 > 0:10:49In 1596, one of Shakespeare's twins, his son, Hamnet,
0:10:49 > 0:10:51died at the age of 11.
0:10:53 > 0:10:58We know so little about that relationship with his son.
0:10:58 > 0:11:00But it was such a huge thing to have a son.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03The son was the vouchsafe of immortality.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07The son, the heir, that keeps the name going.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10To have lost your only son, it was an enormous thing for Shakespeare.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16Shakespeare's plays are never directly autobiographical
0:11:16 > 0:11:20but all writers draw on their own experience and feeling.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25It can't be a coincidence that Twelfth Night,
0:11:25 > 0:11:27this bitter-sweet comedy,
0:11:27 > 0:11:32in which the idea of the loss of a brother is so central,
0:11:32 > 0:11:35it can't be a coincidence that that is written
0:11:35 > 0:11:41only a few years after the death of Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet,
0:11:41 > 0:11:43who was one of a pair of twins.
0:11:43 > 0:11:50Viola is a girl twin who believes that her brother is lost.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53And that loss is central to the mood of the play.
0:11:53 > 0:11:55What country, friends, is this?
0:11:57 > 0:12:00This is Illyria, lady.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04And what should I do in Illyria?
0:12:05 > 0:12:08My brother, he is...
0:12:09 > 0:12:11..in Elysium.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16The overlap between comedies and tragedies is palpable.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18Death hangs over comedies frequently,
0:12:18 > 0:12:21just as much as it concludes tragedies.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24Alone in a foreign land,
0:12:24 > 0:12:27her brother and protector apparently drowned.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31Viola, to preserve her safety, chooses to disguise herself
0:12:31 > 0:12:34as a man and seek employment with the local Duke,
0:12:34 > 0:12:37the Governor of Illyria, Orsino.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40"Conceal me what I am and be my aid,
0:12:40 > 0:12:45"For such disguise as haply shall become the form of my intent.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47"I'll serve this duke."
0:12:47 > 0:12:50I shall present me as a boy to him.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54At the start of Twelfth Night, you have Viola dressing up,
0:12:54 > 0:12:58not just as a boy, but as her brother.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00You don't need to read Freud to know where that is coming from.
0:13:00 > 0:13:04Freud says classic first stage of mourning is you want to
0:13:04 > 0:13:07incorporate the lost person into yourself.
0:13:07 > 0:13:08She does that in terms of costume.
0:13:08 > 0:13:12- Who saw Cesario, hm? - On your attendance, my lord, here.
0:13:14 > 0:13:19Taking the name Cesario, Viola succeeds in gaining employment
0:13:19 > 0:13:20with the duke.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24In several of the comedies, a basic motif is the idea
0:13:24 > 0:13:27that when you go on a journey to a new environment,
0:13:27 > 0:13:30a dangerous environment, disguise is often necessary.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34Disguise becomes a form of liberation.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36You can sort of discover yourself through disguise.
0:13:36 > 0:13:40But, whatever the self discoveries, much of the comedy
0:13:40 > 0:13:44comes from the problems the disguised character encounters.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47Viola, disguised as a man,
0:13:47 > 0:13:50almost immediately falls in love with the duke.
0:13:50 > 0:13:51But she just can't show it,
0:13:51 > 0:13:53even when the duke questions her
0:13:53 > 0:13:56about the person Cesario has fallen for.
0:13:56 > 0:13:57Young though thou art,
0:13:57 > 0:14:01thine eye hath stay'd upon some favour that it loves.
0:14:01 > 0:14:03Hath it not, boy?
0:14:03 > 0:14:08- A little, by your favour. - What kind of woman is't?
0:14:09 > 0:14:13- Of your complexion. - She is not worth thee, then.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16The duke has no idea that this boy is a girl.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18And, just to complicate matters further,
0:14:18 > 0:14:21he is already in love with another woman.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24One of Shakespeare's great themes,
0:14:24 > 0:14:26the idea of falling in love with the wrong person or the idea of
0:14:26 > 0:14:30falling in love with the person who's fallen in love with somebody else.
0:14:30 > 0:14:32It can be dangerous, because, A, it can be really exposing.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36But, B, it can land you in all sorts of strange situations.
0:14:36 > 0:14:38And tying them all and making them
0:14:38 > 0:14:41resolve is partly what makes these plays so fascinating to watch.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47The mask that she puts on allows Viola,
0:14:47 > 0:14:50even though she's dressed as Cesario,
0:14:50 > 0:14:53to lose her self-consciousness a little bit.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56At the replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London,
0:14:56 > 0:14:59actors are rehearsing the scene in which Viola,
0:14:59 > 0:15:04dressed as the boy Cesario, talks to Orsino about love.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08The question is whether being disguised as a man
0:15:08 > 0:15:11actually liberates her to talk about her feelings in a way
0:15:11 > 0:15:14she couldn't, if Orsino knew she was a woman.
0:15:14 > 0:15:16She's got the physical mask on her.
0:15:16 > 0:15:22So maybe she doesn't have to do anything emotionally or mentally to block how she's actually feeling.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25Is it the fact that here's a man who is pontificating
0:15:25 > 0:15:28about the pain that he's in, all that kind of stuff?
0:15:28 > 0:15:30Is that what it is?
0:15:30 > 0:15:32I thought I'd come in on the pain of love.
0:15:32 > 0:15:34I thought that was a good cue!
0:15:34 > 0:15:35See? Perfect.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38I've come to sit in on rehearsals.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41So, where were you in the scene? I'm really excited!
0:15:41 > 0:15:43Young though thou art,
0:15:43 > 0:15:47thine eye hath stay'd upon some favour that it loves.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51- Hath it not, boy? - A little, by your favour.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55- What kind of woman is't? - Of your complexion.
0:15:58 > 0:16:00She is not worth thee, then.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03What years, i' faith?
0:16:03 > 0:16:05About your years, my lord.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11Too old, by heaven!
0:16:11 > 0:16:13It's a very direct response.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16"What kind of woman is it?" "Of your complexion."
0:16:16 > 0:16:18It's kind of, "Oh, OK."
0:16:18 > 0:16:22Just a second, with the whole subject of dressing up
0:16:22 > 0:16:27and opposite sexes, men playing women, women playing men etc.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29What does any of this mean?
0:16:29 > 0:16:35Just talking and watching, it suddenly occurred to me that I think the general message
0:16:35 > 0:16:42is that age, gender, etc, none of it matters.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45That's what's so useful about the disguise.
0:16:45 > 0:16:51Because we get to love each other best just from one essence to another.
0:16:51 > 0:16:56Whatever might happen in this scene, whether this person's a boy
0:16:56 > 0:17:00or this person is a girl, as you say, it's sort of irrelevant.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03She pricks his pomposity.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06Then it goes another layer, doesn't it?
0:17:06 > 0:17:11It's not only the deception of disguises but our deceptions of ourselves.
0:17:11 > 0:17:16Because then the person that he does end up falling in love with is next to him
0:17:16 > 0:17:19and is none of the things that he thinks he loves.
0:17:19 > 0:17:27And that is why it's all so clever because the story surprises everyone, including themselves.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30So now, still oblivious to his servant's feelings,
0:17:30 > 0:17:36Orsino instructs Cesario to woo the woman he loves, Olivia, on his behalf.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40Get thee to yond same sovereign cruelty...
0:17:40 > 0:17:45Stand at her doors and tell them, there thy fixed foot shall grow till thou have audience.
0:17:46 > 0:17:52The idea of female characters dressing up as young men may have been a comic device
0:17:52 > 0:17:54but it had practical advantages.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00In Shakespeare's time, women did not play professional roles.
0:18:00 > 0:18:05Professional actresses weren't known until 50 or 60 years after Shakespeare died.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08So female parts were always played by men.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11Do what women do when they put lipstick on. They go...
0:18:11 > 0:18:13- What, that?- Yes.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16You've got boys playing the part of girls.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20If you can have a boy playing the part of a girl who then dresses up as a boy,
0:18:20 > 0:18:22it becomes kind of easier for your boy actors.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27It allows you to make a series of jokes about gender,
0:18:27 > 0:18:30cross-dressing, boys playing girls.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33The tradition of boys playing the parts of girls
0:18:33 > 0:18:37continues to this day at Dulwich College in south London.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40It's a school which was founded by one of Shakespeare's contemporaries
0:18:40 > 0:18:46and which may well have trained boy actors for the early 17th-century stage.
0:18:48 > 0:18:53Today, they are also trying out the scene in which Orsino commands Viola, as Cesario,
0:18:53 > 0:18:58to visit Olivia and use his charms to win her over to Orsnio's love.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03Cesario, address thy gait unto her.
0:19:03 > 0:19:05She never will admit me.
0:19:05 > 0:19:11Shakespeare and the audience always know that Cesario is really Viola,
0:19:11 > 0:19:13that the boy is really a girl.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18But Shakespeare and the audience also know that Viola
0:19:18 > 0:19:21is really a boy actor, that the girl is really a boy.
0:19:21 > 0:19:26So there's a lot of language to do with impersonating the voice of the other gender.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30Thy small pipe is as the maiden's organ, shrill and sound.
0:19:32 > 0:19:37There is a real fascination with the beautiful, androgynous teenager
0:19:37 > 0:19:40that both men and women fall in love with.
0:19:40 > 0:19:45The honourable lady of the house, which is she?
0:19:45 > 0:19:50Viola, dressed as the young man Cesario, then has to visit Olivia on the duke's behalf.
0:19:51 > 0:19:55This will turn out to be a crucial scene in the unfolding narrative.
0:19:56 > 0:20:01Perhaps the closest we get to this gender-bending tradition today
0:20:01 > 0:20:07is when the whole cross-dressing device is turned on its head in a traditional pantomime.
0:20:07 > 0:20:09Oh, look at me.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13Here, the Prince Charming, the hero, is always played by a girl
0:20:13 > 0:20:18and as with Shakespeare's audience, the device has a frisson of sexual ambiguity.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22Anyway, I don't suppose the Prince would look twice at me.
0:20:22 > 0:20:27I bet he's a toffee-nosed, stuck-up, chinless wonder.
0:20:27 > 0:20:28LAUGHTER
0:20:28 > 0:20:31Well, actually, he's not like that at all.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34- And how do you know? - How do I know? That's a laugh.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37I know because I AM the Prince.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39AUDIENCE: Ooh!
0:20:39 > 0:20:42People react very differently to a girl playing a boy
0:20:42 > 0:20:45than they do a girl playing a girl
0:20:45 > 0:20:47in that you can almost get away with more as a boy.
0:20:47 > 0:20:49You can get away with being cheekier,
0:20:49 > 0:20:52you can get away with a bit of a sort of a swagger.
0:20:52 > 0:20:56I think it's more freeing. You can definitely do more with it.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00And it does unnerve me slightly that as the run goes on,
0:21:00 > 0:21:03there are an increasing number of dads in the front row.
0:21:03 > 0:21:05- Or men with no kids! - Men of a certain age.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09Yeah, who don't have children with them. That's it. Exactly.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11Sort of thinking... Or one child between three men.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14You're sort of thinking, not quite sure how that happened.
0:21:14 > 0:21:15APPLAUSE
0:21:15 > 0:21:19Of course, men still do play female roles even in the 21st-century
0:21:19 > 0:21:24but it's largely used for comic effect emphasising the ludicrous nature of the pretence.
0:21:26 > 0:21:28NORTHERN ACCENT: To be not to be.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32My horse, my horse, a kingdom for a horse.
0:21:34 > 0:21:36Fan-dabby-dozy...
0:21:36 > 0:21:41Even now, men who impersonate women have endless theatrical opportunity.
0:21:43 > 0:21:44Why? Because I'm worth it...
0:21:44 > 0:21:46AUDIENCE LAUGHS
0:21:46 > 0:21:48..you knobhead.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50Why do people think they're so funny?
0:21:50 > 0:21:53And women apparently think they're funny too.
0:21:53 > 0:21:54I don't find them funny.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56I actually think if they were in blackface,
0:21:56 > 0:21:58there'd be hell to pay.
0:21:58 > 0:22:00But they're in MY face so it's OK?!
0:22:02 > 0:22:06In Shakespeare's time, it seems that the audiences were quite capable of enjoying the jokes
0:22:06 > 0:22:12but also of taking the cross-dressed love story seriously at the same time.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18Viola is deeply conflicted. In love with the Duke herself,
0:22:18 > 0:22:22she's now supposed to persuade Olivia to accept his suit.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25The honourable lady of the house, which is she?
0:22:25 > 0:22:28Speak to me, I shall answer for her, your will.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32Most radiant, exquisite and unmatchable beauty,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35I pray you tell me if this be the lady of the house for I never saw her.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38I would be loath to cast away my speech for besides
0:22:38 > 0:22:42that it is excellently well penned, I have taken great pains to con it.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44Viola's in a very interesting situation
0:22:44 > 0:22:48because she is in some ways quite unfree.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50Whence came you, sir?
0:22:50 > 0:22:54I can say little more than I have studied and that question's out of my part.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57She is trapped in her disguise. She falls in love with Orsino
0:22:57 > 0:22:59and doesn't feel that she can declare her love
0:22:59 > 0:23:03because she's supposed to be disguised as a man, as Cesario.
0:23:03 > 0:23:04Are you a comedian?
0:23:04 > 0:23:09No, my profound heart and yet by the very fangs of malice
0:23:09 > 0:23:11I swear I am not that I play.
0:23:11 > 0:23:13Are you the lady of the house?
0:23:13 > 0:23:16If I do not usurp myself, I am.
0:23:16 > 0:23:17Olivia is also trapped.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20Shakespeare even does this so beautifully,
0:23:20 > 0:23:23to make the two women analogous to one another.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26Each has a brother. Olivia's brother has died.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30She is mourning him so she's trapped in this memorial moment.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33Good madam, let me see your face.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36Have you any permission from your Lord to negotiate with my face?
0:23:36 > 0:23:41And the surprising arrival of Viola dressed as Cesario somehow frees Olivia.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43You're now out of your text
0:23:43 > 0:23:47but we shall draw the curtain and show you the picture.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49She draws the curtain, shows her face
0:23:49 > 0:23:52and this is, in a way, the reawakening of Olivia.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55Now she herself is vulnerable.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58Now she herself is willing to learn to love.
0:23:58 > 0:24:03Look you, sir, such a one I was this present, 'tis not well done?
0:24:03 > 0:24:06Excellently done, if God did all.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08'Tis in grain, sir. 'Twill endure wind and weather.
0:24:08 > 0:24:13There's so much about proving love and the challenges of love,
0:24:13 > 0:24:16rather than a straightforward narrative.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20- How does he love me? - With adorations, fertile tears.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24With groans that thunder love, with sighs of fire.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27Your Lord does know my mind, I cannot love him.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30It's as though the characters are constantly challenging each other
0:24:30 > 0:24:33about, "How would you love me?"
0:24:33 > 0:24:36"I will prove to you how I love you."
0:24:36 > 0:24:39Also the woman can only declare her love
0:24:39 > 0:24:43if she's pretending to be someone else.
0:24:43 > 0:24:45True.
0:24:45 > 0:24:51Viola can only declare her love by creating somebody else.
0:24:51 > 0:24:57And when she goes to woo Olivia, Viola, the young man says,
0:24:57 > 0:25:00"Build me a willow cabin at your gate,"
0:25:00 > 0:25:04and that's one of the most beautiful Shakespeare speeches.
0:25:06 > 0:25:12The famous willow cabin speech emerges when Olivia challenges Cesario
0:25:12 > 0:25:17to say just what he would do if he loved her as much as Orsino claims to.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20If I did love you in my master's flame.
0:25:20 > 0:25:22Why, what would you?
0:25:22 > 0:25:26Make me a willow cabin at your gate and call upon my soul within the house.
0:25:26 > 0:25:31Write loyal cantons of contemned love and sing them, loud,
0:25:31 > 0:25:33even in the dead of night.
0:25:33 > 0:25:38Viola is, of course, talking as much about her own love for Orsino
0:25:38 > 0:25:41as she is pretending to talk about his love for Olivia,
0:25:41 > 0:25:44and her sincerity will have comic consequences.
0:25:44 > 0:25:46Olivia.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49Oh, you should not rest
0:25:49 > 0:25:53between the elements of air and earth but you should pity me.
0:25:53 > 0:25:54You might do much.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00And with that, Olivia falls in love with the messenger
0:26:00 > 0:26:02and not the message.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05Cesario, by the roses of the spring,
0:26:05 > 0:26:10by maidhood, honour, truth and everything, I love thee so.
0:26:10 > 0:26:16And just in case all this mistaken identity and misplaced love isn't complicated enough,
0:26:16 > 0:26:22in this play Shakespeare also introduces one of his most famous and popular subplots.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26Shakespeare's imagination was so fertile that he could never resist
0:26:26 > 0:26:29weaving many different elements into each play.
0:26:29 > 0:26:34So there are some examples where what ostensibly seems to be the subplot
0:26:34 > 0:26:37just brought on for comic relief almost takes over the play itself.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40HE SINGS
0:26:40 > 0:26:46In Twelfth Night, the subplot involves a character called Malvolio.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49Malvolio is the pompous steward of Olivia's household.
0:26:51 > 0:26:56Is there no respect of place, persons nor time?
0:26:56 > 0:27:00The rest of the household have a plan to cut him down to size.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02For actors and audiences alike,
0:27:02 > 0:27:06Malvolio is one of the most popular roles in Shakespeare.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09She shall know of it by this hand.
0:27:09 > 0:27:11GIGGLING
0:27:12 > 0:27:16Olivia's steward Malvolio is persuaded that Olivia
0:27:16 > 0:27:17has in fact fallen in love with him.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21Lie thou there.
0:27:21 > 0:27:25Some of the other members of the household write a letter
0:27:25 > 0:27:29that he picks up and thinks it's a love note addressed by Olivia to him.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31What dish o'poison has she dressed him?
0:27:31 > 0:27:33"I may command where I adore..."
0:27:33 > 0:27:36Why, she may command me, I serve her, she is my lady.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40And undergoes this profound and humiliating experience
0:27:40 > 0:27:44of coming out dressed in a special costume that the letter
0:27:44 > 0:27:45has told him to dress in
0:27:45 > 0:27:49and Olivia, of course, is completely bemused.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52- How now, Malvolio? - Sweet lady, ho ho!
0:27:52 > 0:27:55The whole story of Malvolio is supposed to be the subplot,
0:27:55 > 0:27:58the background, the comic relief.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01But the evidence of all the early performances is it's that
0:28:01 > 0:28:03Malvolio is what people remembered.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08The popularity of the Malvolio story helped to make Twelfth Night
0:28:08 > 0:28:12one of the very first Shakespeare plays ever filmed, silently in 1910,
0:28:12 > 0:28:17with the distinguished actor Charles Kent in the role of Malvolio.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22Malvolio almost becomes the star of the play.
0:28:22 > 0:28:26Indeed, when King Charles I bought a copy
0:28:26 > 0:28:29of Shakespeare's collected plays,
0:28:29 > 0:28:34on the contents list, he crossed out some of the titles
0:28:34 > 0:28:37so Twelfth Night, he crossed it out and called it "Malvolio".
0:28:37 > 0:28:41In fact, the joke goes a bit too far for my taste
0:28:41 > 0:28:43and Malvolio is driven almost mad.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48But by the end of the play, all is resolved.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51Viola's brother, Sebastian, appears and Olivia,
0:28:51 > 0:28:55now thinking HE is Cesario, promptly marries him.
0:28:55 > 0:28:57If you mean well, now go with me
0:28:57 > 0:29:00and with this holy man, into the chantry by.
0:29:00 > 0:29:02Viola is revealed to be a woman
0:29:02 > 0:29:07and Orsino, realising his mistake, falls in love with her.
0:29:07 > 0:29:08Do I stand there?
0:29:08 > 0:29:14And the twins, Viola and Sebastian, are movingly reunited.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20The end of Twelfth Night is infallibly moving, infallibly overwhelming,
0:29:20 > 0:29:26but what's overwhelming is the reconciliation of the twins.
0:29:26 > 0:29:30What's overwhelming is the image of the two twins finding each other
0:29:30 > 0:29:33and knowing each other not to be dead.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36And given the recent death of Shakespeare's own son,
0:29:36 > 0:29:40one of his twins, one can only wonder at the emotion
0:29:40 > 0:29:43the playwright invested in this resolution.
0:29:44 > 0:29:48In the work of the imagination, in the play, the story,
0:29:48 > 0:29:51you can have a magical recovery.
0:29:51 > 0:29:53That which is lost can be found.
0:29:53 > 0:29:55You can have a kind of resurrection
0:29:55 > 0:29:59and, of course, this is what happens at the end of Twelfth Night.
0:29:59 > 0:30:01The brother and sister are restored.
0:30:01 > 0:30:05You don't have to be some kind of Freudian psychoanalyst
0:30:05 > 0:30:08to see a real sense of wish fulfilment in Shakespeare
0:30:08 > 0:30:10as he writes that.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18But Shakespeare's comedies haven't survived 400 years
0:30:18 > 0:30:22just because of cross-dressing and mistaken identity.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25They've also lasted because of the strong female roles
0:30:25 > 0:30:28and, of course, the women who eventually played them.
0:30:28 > 0:30:33In 1660, 44 years after Shakespeare's death,
0:30:33 > 0:30:37women were finally allowed to act in public.
0:30:37 > 0:30:40I've come to the National Portrait Gallery in London
0:30:40 > 0:30:44to find out how the first actresses left their mark on the stage.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48This is an extraordinary period in theatre history
0:30:48 > 0:30:52because it was after 1660, with the restoration of Charles II,
0:30:52 > 0:30:55that women were first allowed to perform on stage.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59There was a charter that they should perform all the female roles.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02So the charter came about because of...what?
0:31:02 > 0:31:05Well, there are all sorts of reasons.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08First of all, Charles II loved the theatre
0:31:08 > 0:31:11and the court and the theatre were very close during this period.
0:31:11 > 0:31:16- Right.- But he was also very fond of some budding actresses.
0:31:16 > 0:31:19Perhaps the best-known is Nell Gwyn,
0:31:19 > 0:31:21with whom he had quite a long affair.
0:31:21 > 0:31:22JOELY LAUGHS
0:31:22 > 0:31:25And she bore him two children.
0:31:25 > 0:31:29From the historical records, we know that Nell Gwyn
0:31:29 > 0:31:33was not only bright, she was clever, witty and she was a good actress.
0:31:33 > 0:31:37Samuel Pepys said she was a brilliant comic actress
0:31:37 > 0:31:40and what helped her... if you like, fame,
0:31:40 > 0:31:43what helped her profession was also portraiture.
0:31:43 > 0:31:46It's extraordinary, isn't it?
0:31:46 > 0:31:50This is a wonderful portrait of the actress Dorothea Jordan,
0:31:50 > 0:31:54who was one of the most successful comic actresses of her time
0:31:54 > 0:31:57and she was renowned for her breeches roles,
0:31:57 > 0:31:59for her cross-dress roles
0:31:59 > 0:32:03and, here, she's playing Rosalind in As You Like It
0:32:03 > 0:32:08and of course, Rosalind was one of the biggest and juiciest roles...
0:32:08 > 0:32:11- Still is!- Still is.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15..cross-dress roles in Shakespeare's comic dramas.
0:32:15 > 0:32:20And she was famous for this role. She was loved by audiences.
0:32:20 > 0:32:23Of course, the idea that they were exposing their thighs,
0:32:23 > 0:32:26their ankles and their calves in this way
0:32:26 > 0:32:29generated a huge kind of moral debate...
0:32:29 > 0:32:31Oh, that it was still so easy!
0:32:31 > 0:32:34..about the dissolute, decadent theatre. Exactly.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38But also women's sexuality was on the line
0:32:38 > 0:32:40in a way that men's sexuality wasn't.
0:32:40 > 0:32:44One wonders what Shakespeare would've made of the first actresses
0:32:44 > 0:32:47to play his roles.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50I think Shakespeare regarded women as people,
0:32:50 > 0:32:52which doesn't mean that he was a feminist.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55Shakespeare thought that women were endowed with sexuality
0:32:55 > 0:32:57and that that sexuality was active.
0:32:57 > 0:33:03The women in the comedies are highly sexed...
0:33:03 > 0:33:06physically generous,
0:33:06 > 0:33:09eloquent, active.
0:33:09 > 0:33:11I think, when it comes to certain things,
0:33:11 > 0:33:14Shakespeare thought women were superior to men.
0:33:14 > 0:33:18In their constancy, for one. In their common sense, for another.
0:33:18 > 0:33:22Shakespeare's female characters seem to be older,
0:33:22 > 0:33:27more world-wise and smarter than the boys.
0:33:29 > 0:33:32When I think of strong women in Shakespeare,
0:33:32 > 0:33:35I automatically think of the comedies
0:33:35 > 0:33:38and one play in particular - As You Like It.
0:33:38 > 0:33:42The play is set in the Forest of Arden, on the fringes of Stratford.
0:33:42 > 0:33:44Of all of Shakespeare's plays,
0:33:44 > 0:33:47this is probably the one that is closest to home.
0:33:47 > 0:33:51But what makes this comedy particularly special for me
0:33:51 > 0:33:53is that it's here that Shakespeare gives us
0:33:53 > 0:33:56one of his strongest female roles.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00The feisty, fabulous and beguiling Rosalind.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03The little strength that I have...
0:34:05 > 0:34:07..I would it were with you.
0:34:07 > 0:34:09I think As You Like It is the play
0:34:09 > 0:34:13where Shakespeare is in utterly full command
0:34:13 > 0:34:15of all his comic resources.
0:34:15 > 0:34:20There's almost a kind of musical, operatic quality to it.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23Now Hercules be thy speed, young man!
0:34:23 > 0:34:26As You Like It is, at its heart, a simple love story
0:34:26 > 0:34:30between Rosalind and a young man called Orlando.
0:34:30 > 0:34:34Rosalind's a special character because she leads that play.
0:34:34 > 0:34:38Orlando beats the giant wrestler.
0:34:38 > 0:34:40Oh, excellent young man!
0:34:40 > 0:34:44And in doing, so he meets Rosalind
0:34:44 > 0:34:48and Rosalind falls instantly for him.
0:34:48 > 0:34:50Wear this...
0:34:50 > 0:34:52for me.
0:34:52 > 0:34:56Rosalind was the breakthrough role for my mother
0:34:56 > 0:34:58when the Royal Shakespeare Company production of the play
0:34:58 > 0:35:01was shown on television in 1963.
0:35:01 > 0:35:03It made her a star.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06One out of suits with fortune that could give more
0:35:06 > 0:35:10but that her hand lacks means.
0:35:10 > 0:35:14There's a famous story, isn't there, about you playing Rosalind?
0:35:14 > 0:35:18- What's that? - About during the previews.- Oh, yes.
0:35:18 > 0:35:24- Your director came to you and said, "Vanessa, we've got a problem!"- Yes!
0:35:24 > 0:35:28He said, "Vanessa, if you don't give yourself to this play,
0:35:28 > 0:35:31"you're going to ruin the entire production
0:35:31 > 0:35:33"and everything in it."
0:35:35 > 0:35:38- And...- But did you know what he meant by that?
0:35:38 > 0:35:42Didn't you already feel that you were giving yourself to the play
0:35:42 > 0:35:44in every available way?
0:35:44 > 0:35:46I knew that he had to be right.
0:35:46 > 0:35:47JOELY LAUGHS
0:35:47 > 0:35:50I knew that he had to be right.
0:35:50 > 0:35:56And I suddenly thought, "All right, I'll just go on as you go on
0:35:56 > 0:36:00"when you're going to do a high dive into a swimming pool."
0:36:00 > 0:36:03You abandon all thoughts of controlling,
0:36:03 > 0:36:05of how you're going to be.
0:36:05 > 0:36:07You just give yourself to the water.
0:36:07 > 0:36:12In that sense, I understood it and I guess it happened.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15Oh, how full of briers is this working-day world!
0:36:15 > 0:36:17Come, come.
0:36:17 > 0:36:19Wrestle with thy affections.
0:36:19 > 0:36:24Oh, they take the part of a better wrestler than myself.
0:36:26 > 0:36:28Rosalind is the daughter of a banished duke.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32Her uncle has deposed her father and taken his title.
0:36:32 > 0:36:36Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39And now he intends to banish her.
0:36:39 > 0:36:41Me, uncle?
0:36:41 > 0:36:42You, cousin.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45Within these ten days, if that thou be'st found
0:36:45 > 0:36:49so near our public court as 20 miles, thou diest for it.
0:36:50 > 0:36:51I...
0:36:51 > 0:36:55I do beseech your grace, let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58Thou art thy father's daughter, there's enough!
0:36:58 > 0:37:01So was I when Your Highness took his dukedom,
0:37:01 > 0:37:04so was I when Your Highness banished him.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06She completely lays it on the table.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09You, niece, provide yourself.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12It's really something. I haven't ever seen this before.
0:37:12 > 0:37:15I've seen one clip and they always show the same one
0:37:15 > 0:37:17but I haven't seen any of this.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23Given that Shakespeare was writing for an all-male acting company -
0:37:23 > 0:37:27the female parts were played by the apprentices, the junior actors -
0:37:27 > 0:37:31it's quite astonishing and unprecedented
0:37:31 > 0:37:34that the role of Rosalind is so huge.
0:37:34 > 0:37:36It's by far the biggest role in the play,
0:37:36 > 0:37:37it's one of the very biggest roles
0:37:37 > 0:37:39in the whole of the Shakespearean canon
0:37:39 > 0:37:42and she completely dominates the action of the play.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47Banished from the palace, Rosalind - here played by Helen Mirren -
0:37:47 > 0:37:51must come up with a plan enabling both her and her cousin
0:37:51 > 0:37:53to escape to the forest in safety.
0:37:54 > 0:37:56I wanted to play Rosalind
0:37:56 > 0:37:58because it's a very famous Shakespearean character.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01One of the really great, great female roles.
0:38:01 > 0:38:06Would it not be better, because that I am more than common tall,
0:38:06 > 0:38:11that I should suit me all points like a man?
0:38:11 > 0:38:17Somehow, Shakespeare found a way round this issue with women,
0:38:17 > 0:38:20of putting women into men's clothing
0:38:20 > 0:38:25and therefore giving them this ability to speak in a free way.
0:38:25 > 0:38:26Will you bear with me?
0:38:26 > 0:38:29He found a way to give women a voice.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32It's a great gift to womankind in many ways.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35They're all so smart, Shakespeare's women.
0:38:35 > 0:38:37Well...
0:38:38 > 0:38:41..this is the Forest of Arden.
0:38:41 > 0:38:42Aye.
0:38:42 > 0:38:45So once again, our heroine is dressed as a boy
0:38:45 > 0:38:49and, as usual, Shakespeare makes the most of the sexual innuendos.
0:38:49 > 0:38:52Shakespeare likes dropping little hints.
0:38:52 > 0:38:54When Rosalind cross-dresses as a boy,
0:38:54 > 0:38:57she chooses the name "Ganymede".
0:38:57 > 0:39:01Now Ganymede was the name of the cupbearer of Jupiter
0:39:01 > 0:39:05but in various classical sources, there was a strong suggestion
0:39:05 > 0:39:08that Ganymede didn't only bear Jupiter's cup,
0:39:08 > 0:39:12that he also provided him with some sexual services
0:39:12 > 0:39:18and so the term "Ganymede" became slang for the boy-lover of a man.
0:39:18 > 0:39:23Rosalind's adventures in unconventional love now continue.
0:39:23 > 0:39:27She meets a shepherd, Silvius, and the woman he loves, Phebe.
0:39:27 > 0:39:31Of course, Phebe will fall in love with the young man, Ganymede.
0:39:31 > 0:39:36'Od's my little life, I think she means to tangle my eyes, too!
0:39:36 > 0:39:39No, faith, proud mistress, hope not after it.
0:39:39 > 0:39:43These are the typical comic devices of Shakespearean theatre,
0:39:43 > 0:39:48filmed here, in 1978, on location in a real forest.
0:39:50 > 0:39:5430 years later, the acclaimed theatre director, Thea Sharrock,
0:39:54 > 0:39:56presented the play on the kind of stage
0:39:56 > 0:39:59that was perhaps most suitable, Shakespeare's Globe.
0:40:00 > 0:40:05But as always, it was the character of Rosalind that was centre stage.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09Well, this is the Forest of Arden.
0:40:11 > 0:40:12Aye!
0:40:12 > 0:40:15Therefore, courage, good Aliena.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19I pray you, bear with me, I cannot go no further.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21LAUGHTER
0:40:21 > 0:40:25Rosalind is everything. She is funny, she's witty, she's clever.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27She's quick.
0:40:28 > 0:40:32You know, she's got unbelievable strength.
0:40:32 > 0:40:33She's loyal.
0:40:33 > 0:40:35She's independent.
0:40:35 > 0:40:37She, you know, she...
0:40:37 > 0:40:42She's all of these complex things that all of us are, really.
0:40:42 > 0:40:45But she could run the country at the same time.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48What did he when thou sawest him? What said he? How looked he? Wherein went he? What makes he here?
0:40:48 > 0:40:52Did he ask for me? Where remains he? How parted he with thee? And when shalt thou see him again?
0:40:52 > 0:40:54Answer me in one word!
0:40:54 > 0:40:55LAUGHTER
0:40:55 > 0:40:58She's a lot bigger than most of us are.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01And it is incredible how Shakespeare has managed to put
0:41:01 > 0:41:06all of those characteristics into one person,
0:41:06 > 0:41:09and, of course, the fact it's a lady makes it even more interesting.
0:41:09 > 0:41:10Sway!
0:41:10 > 0:41:13By this stage in the play,
0:41:13 > 0:41:15Orlando has gone to the forest to find Rosalind,
0:41:15 > 0:41:18not knowing, of course, that she is now disguised as a man.
0:41:18 > 0:41:22He's been pinning poems about her on all the trees.
0:41:22 > 0:41:27But he meets the play's most cynical and unromantic character, Jaques.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33Mar no more trees with writing love-songs in their barks.
0:41:33 > 0:41:38I pray you, mar no more of my verses with reading them ill-favouredly.
0:41:38 > 0:41:40- Rosalind is your love's name? - Yes, just.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43I do not like her name.
0:41:43 > 0:41:45LAUGHTER
0:41:45 > 0:41:50In the forest, Rosalind starts discovering these poems on trees.
0:41:50 > 0:41:52Who on earth has written these poems,
0:41:52 > 0:41:55"deifying the name of Rosalind" as she says?
0:41:55 > 0:41:56Orlando?
0:41:56 > 0:42:01Orrrlaaaandoooo!
0:42:01 > 0:42:02SHE SCREAMS
0:42:02 > 0:42:05And instead of just going, "I'm here!
0:42:05 > 0:42:07"It's all going to be all right!"
0:42:07 > 0:42:10Rosalind thinks, "Wait a minute, I'll test him.
0:42:10 > 0:42:14"I'll keep my disguise as Ganymede."
0:42:15 > 0:42:16Do you hear, forester?
0:42:16 > 0:42:18LAUGHTER
0:42:18 > 0:42:21"And I will give him lessons in love."
0:42:21 > 0:42:25There is a man haunts the forest that abuses our young plants
0:42:25 > 0:42:28by carving "Rosalind" in their barks.
0:42:28 > 0:42:32Rosalind's determination to test Orlando's love
0:42:32 > 0:42:37leads to one of Shakespeare's most famous comic scenes,
0:42:37 > 0:42:41in which, still dressed as a boy, she offers to pretend to be a girl
0:42:41 > 0:42:46who will behave so badly, she will cure Orlando of his love.
0:42:48 > 0:42:55I swear to thee, youth, by the white hand of Rosalind, I am that he.
0:42:55 > 0:42:57That unfortunate he.
0:42:57 > 0:42:58I swear to thee, youth,
0:42:58 > 0:43:04by the white hand of Rosalind, I am that he, that unfortunate he.
0:43:04 > 0:43:09I profess curing it by counsel.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12Of course, Rosalind's contention is that she can,
0:43:12 > 0:43:15pretending she's Ganymede, not Rosalind,
0:43:15 > 0:43:18that she can cure Orlando of his love
0:43:18 > 0:43:22because she declares love is merely a madness.
0:43:22 > 0:43:25Have you ever cured any so?
0:43:25 > 0:43:28Yes, one. And in this manner.
0:43:30 > 0:43:34He was to imagine me his love, his mistress,
0:43:34 > 0:43:37and I set him every day to woo me.
0:43:37 > 0:43:41At which time would I, being but a moonish youth,
0:43:41 > 0:43:44grieve, be effeminate, changeable, longing and liking, proud,
0:43:44 > 0:43:47fantastical, apish, shallow, inconstant,
0:43:47 > 0:43:49full of tears, full of smiles,
0:43:49 > 0:43:51for every passion something,
0:43:51 > 0:43:54and for no passion, truly anything.
0:43:54 > 0:43:58As boys and women are, for the most part, cattle of this colour,
0:43:58 > 0:44:02would now like him, now loathe him, now entertain him,
0:44:02 > 0:44:03then forswear him.
0:44:03 > 0:44:08- Now weep for him, then... - Spit at him.
0:44:08 > 0:44:12That I drave my suitor from his mad humour of love to a living
0:44:12 > 0:44:14humour of madness.
0:44:14 > 0:44:17Which was, to forswear the full stream of the world,
0:44:17 > 0:44:21and to live in a nook merely monastic.
0:44:22 > 0:44:24And thus I cured him.
0:44:24 > 0:44:30And this way will I take upon me to wash your liver as clear
0:44:30 > 0:44:36as a sound sheep's heart, that there shall not be one spot of love in't.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41I would not be cured, youth.
0:44:41 > 0:44:43I would cure you.
0:44:43 > 0:44:45That is a wonderful scene.
0:44:45 > 0:44:50It's one of the most wonderful, teasing, merry,
0:44:50 > 0:44:54heartfelt scenes that were ever written for a woman.
0:44:55 > 0:44:56These days, of course,
0:44:56 > 0:45:00we're used to seeing Rosalind being played by an actress.
0:45:00 > 0:45:02But now we've come full circle.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05There have been various all-male revivals of the play.
0:45:05 > 0:45:09The most critically acclaimed was Cheek By Jowl's production in 1991.
0:45:11 > 0:45:14- These burs are in my heart. - Hem them away.
0:45:14 > 0:45:16I would try, if I could cry "hem" and have him.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19Come, come, wrestle with thy affections.
0:45:19 > 0:45:23O, they take the part of a better wrestler than myself!
0:45:23 > 0:45:26- O, a good wish upon you! - Oh, stop there.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31I thought that was quite brilliant. And what a line, what's that?
0:45:31 > 0:45:35I would cry "hem" and have him? That's a sexy line!
0:45:35 > 0:45:38That's a very sexy line.
0:45:38 > 0:45:42What was great about it as well was whenever we went near
0:45:42 > 0:45:45any lines that described, I'm a woman, I must do this, or him
0:45:45 > 0:45:49or that, the audience, it was as if we were all in on the same joke.
0:45:49 > 0:45:51That's what was brilliant about the play.
0:45:51 > 0:45:53Actually, in some ways,
0:45:53 > 0:45:55I think it was the best job I've ever been involved in.
0:45:55 > 0:46:00- Really?- We were young, it was great. And we travelled the world.
0:46:00 > 0:46:06We were 21, and I remember trying to sleep with as many women as I could.
0:46:06 > 0:46:09To get to know them better, Tom?
0:46:09 > 0:46:11Possibly, we talked about Alice bands,
0:46:11 > 0:46:15and "Isn't it difficult sitting in a dress?"
0:46:15 > 0:46:17That was his seduction line!
0:46:17 > 0:46:19When we got to rehearsals,
0:46:19 > 0:46:23didn't we have a while trying to play every woman?
0:46:23 > 0:46:27And it hit me over the weekend, and this was a real turning point for me.
0:46:27 > 0:46:29I thought, no, you're playing this girl.
0:46:29 > 0:46:35She's bookish, and that's when the glasses came in. She's overly tall.
0:46:35 > 0:46:38She feels she's flat-chested, she feels she's got a deep voice.
0:46:38 > 0:46:41I thought to myself, take your own physical presence,
0:46:41 > 0:46:46your own placing in life, and imagine you were a woman with that.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50We worked on the premise that Celia was the gorgeous one,
0:46:50 > 0:46:51she was the one with the power.
0:46:51 > 0:46:55- Her dad was in charge.- I was twinset and pearls. I was the princess.
0:46:55 > 0:46:59I was a dykey Sloane, that's what I was.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02We did a lot of movement with Sue Lefton.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04Was it feminine gestures, was it comportment?
0:47:04 > 0:47:08There was a technical aspect, which was we wanted to do enough
0:47:08 > 0:47:11for the audience to forget that we were men.
0:47:11 > 0:47:15But not so much feminised movement that they were aware
0:47:15 > 0:47:18that we were men because we were doing drag,
0:47:18 > 0:47:20which is a caricature of femininity.
0:47:20 > 0:47:23So we identified something, some neutral zone.
0:47:23 > 0:47:26I think we felt awkward at the beginning and then we discovered
0:47:26 > 0:47:28that we'd transformed ourselves into something,
0:47:28 > 0:47:31it was a great experience, acting experience.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35One of those ones where you discover that you can do something
0:47:35 > 0:47:37that you didn't know you were capable of.
0:47:37 > 0:47:44There is something slightly provocative about the idea of having
0:47:44 > 0:47:49a boy player, who's going to play a woman, but then having that woman
0:47:49 > 0:47:53dress up as a man and in the case of Rosalind,
0:47:53 > 0:47:55then pretend to be a woman.
0:47:55 > 0:48:00Because it subverts the idea, that was very strong
0:48:00 > 0:48:05in the Renaissance, of men and women being different creatures.
0:48:11 > 0:48:15It seems that As You Like It has had a magical effect on actors,
0:48:15 > 0:48:19whether male or female, who have played the roles.
0:48:19 > 0:48:22And also on the audiences who have seen the play.
0:48:22 > 0:48:26It's believed that Shakespeare wrote it in the cold winter of 1599,
0:48:26 > 0:48:29while the company were building their open-air theatre, the Globe,
0:48:29 > 0:48:31on London's Bankside.
0:48:31 > 0:48:34The modern replica now stands near that site.
0:48:39 > 0:48:41Here I am, my first time ever
0:48:41 > 0:48:44on this incredible stage here at the Globe.
0:48:45 > 0:48:49I always feel that there's something very magical about stages,
0:48:49 > 0:48:52they're almost like churches or something.
0:48:52 > 0:48:54They always send shivers up my spine.
0:48:54 > 0:48:57And we're all shivering, because it's snowing!
0:49:00 > 0:49:02It's really stunning, the detail here.
0:49:06 > 0:49:11I always feel that there is an element in theatres of
0:49:11 > 0:49:14some of the energy of the productions
0:49:14 > 0:49:17and the audience that have been here, you feel the history.
0:49:17 > 0:49:21And I think that synthesis of performers
0:49:21 > 0:49:24and audience is what theatre's all about.
0:49:24 > 0:49:29And obviously, especially during Shakespeare's time, 400 years ago...
0:49:29 > 0:49:33Sorry, this is just so beautiful, this swirling snow!
0:49:39 > 0:49:45I think that synergy would have been completely maximised,
0:49:45 > 0:49:49because in those days audiences were so much more vocal.
0:49:49 > 0:49:54People could've been heckling or crying or shouting with joy.
0:49:54 > 0:49:56And I think that would have elevated, you know,
0:49:56 > 0:49:59like a sports arena or gladiators.
0:49:59 > 0:50:00It raised the stakes.
0:50:02 > 0:50:04As part owner of the theatre,
0:50:04 > 0:50:07Shakespeare was a show-business impresario.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10And As You Like It was a hit.
0:50:10 > 0:50:16Now, as then, the Globe theatre seems to magnify the experience.
0:50:16 > 0:50:18How now, Orlando?
0:50:18 > 0:50:23'At its climax, Rosalind proposes a fake marriage ceremony which,
0:50:23 > 0:50:25'much to the audience's delight,
0:50:25 > 0:50:28'is sealed with a kiss for Orlando from a character whom
0:50:28 > 0:50:33'the audience knows is Rosalind but he still thinks is a boy.'
0:50:33 > 0:50:36I take thee, Rosalind, for wife.
0:50:36 > 0:50:42'The love story in As You Like It is the central narrative, isn't it?
0:50:42 > 0:50:45'And the joy of watching two people'
0:50:45 > 0:50:48magnetically fall in love with each other is a complete joy.
0:50:48 > 0:50:52And watching that every night with 1,000 people was a complete delight
0:50:52 > 0:50:54from beginning to end.
0:51:03 > 0:51:07'We know that eventually it will work out.
0:51:07 > 0:51:11'But it's hugely complicated,'
0:51:11 > 0:51:14because Rosalind is dressed as a man,
0:51:14 > 0:51:18Orlando doesn't even realise that it's Rosalind, Rosalind's busy
0:51:18 > 0:51:24wooing him in the guise of Ganymede, pretending to be Rosalind.
0:51:24 > 0:51:26'Meanwhile, Phebe, the shepherdess,'
0:51:26 > 0:51:32has fallen in love with Rosalind, thinking that she's a man.
0:51:32 > 0:51:34And Silvius is in love with Phebe.
0:51:34 > 0:51:39So we've got this ridiculous love quartet that has to be resolved,
0:51:39 > 0:51:42and we know it will be because it's a Shakespeare comedy.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45Down on your knees.
0:51:45 > 0:51:49And thank heaven fasting for a good man's love, for I must tell you,
0:51:49 > 0:51:54friendly, in your ear, sell when you can, you are not for all markets.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59Cry the man mercy, love him.
0:51:59 > 0:52:04But it takes some engineering on Rosalind's part, and she says,
0:52:04 > 0:52:07"You'll all meet me here tomorrow, and then it will be sorted out."
0:52:07 > 0:52:10Tomorrow, meet me altogether.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13I will marry you, if ever I marry a woman,
0:52:13 > 0:52:15and I shall be married tomorrow.
0:52:15 > 0:52:21I will satisfy you, if ever I satisfied man.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24And you shall be married tomorrow.
0:52:24 > 0:52:29I will content you, if what pleases you contents you, and you shall be married tomorrow.
0:52:29 > 0:52:32There are certain moments of convenience,
0:52:32 > 0:52:35but it seems to me the important thing is somehow when people
0:52:35 > 0:52:40come to the Forest of Arden, there is some element of transformation.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46As You Like It will close with four weddings and no funerals,
0:52:46 > 0:52:51but that won't please the play's great voice of cynicism, Jaques.
0:52:51 > 0:52:54He's another one of Shakespeare's relatively small
0:52:54 > 0:52:57but very potent characters.
0:52:57 > 0:53:00There is, sure, another flood toward.
0:53:00 > 0:53:04And these couples are coming to the Ark.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07Jaques at the end of As You Like It is still a satirist.
0:53:07 > 0:53:09He doesn't approve of all these marriages.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13He's got a wonderful acerbic comment about, there must be another
0:53:13 > 0:53:16flood coming cos all these couples are coming towards the Ark.
0:53:16 > 0:53:19He's invited to participate in the dancing at the end.
0:53:19 > 0:53:25For your pleasures, I am for other than for dancing measures.
0:53:25 > 0:53:30And he says, "I am for other than for dancing measures."
0:53:30 > 0:53:31Count me out of this one.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35Jaques! Stay!
0:53:35 > 0:53:38He is at least consistent.
0:53:38 > 0:53:42Jaques is the voice in the play that has constantly sought to belittle
0:53:42 > 0:53:45the joys of love with a healthy dose of a unromantic realism.
0:53:47 > 0:53:55One man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58Jaques' most famous speech, the seven ages of man,
0:53:58 > 0:54:01when you go through those seven ages you get to the end
0:54:01 > 0:54:03and there's a real sense of bitterness and emptiness.
0:54:03 > 0:54:10His big manly voice, turning again towards childish treble,
0:54:10 > 0:54:14pipes and whistles in his sound.
0:54:14 > 0:54:18The last stage, mere oblivion, sans teeth, sans eyes,
0:54:18 > 0:54:23sans everything, a sense that for all the joy of the comedy,
0:54:23 > 0:54:25in the end what you're left with is death,
0:54:25 > 0:54:28what you're left with is a skull.
0:54:28 > 0:54:30We're not so far away from Hamlet after all.
0:54:35 > 0:54:37Sans everything.
0:54:41 > 0:54:43I think Shakespeare believed in love,
0:54:43 > 0:54:47and in making a marriage that's to do with love.
0:54:47 > 0:54:53When actually the idea of marrying for love was quite peculiar.
0:54:53 > 0:54:58Shakespeare almost always talks about marriage
0:54:58 > 0:55:00as love, love matches.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02But he's very, very conscious of the fact
0:55:02 > 0:55:04that love is a tricky thing.
0:55:05 > 0:55:08They can be a bit funny, Shakespeare's endings
0:55:08 > 0:55:10cos sometimes you have a feeling
0:55:10 > 0:55:13that some of these marriages won't last.
0:55:14 > 0:55:16Marriages do fail in Shakespeare.
0:55:18 > 0:55:22Underlying much of what he's doing
0:55:22 > 0:55:25is a determination to treat
0:55:25 > 0:55:31marriage as a taxing and sometimes heroic way of life,
0:55:31 > 0:55:35in which men are more likely to fail than women.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38Because women have what it takes.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41The constancy and the endurance and the patience.
0:55:45 > 0:55:52I personally feel that Shakespeare, in some ways for us, he is a Bible.
0:55:52 > 0:55:55For all actors. He is, isn't he, male and female.
0:55:55 > 0:56:00For us women, they're incredible roles.
0:56:00 > 0:56:06Yes, and if you hope to one day be on a Beethoven level of playing,
0:56:06 > 0:56:09you'd better learn to play Beethoven, and Shakespeare's like Beethoven.
0:56:09 > 0:56:12And actually if you think about it,
0:56:12 > 0:56:16within every Shakespearean heroine role
0:56:16 > 0:56:19are the seeds for any performance of an actress
0:56:19 > 0:56:21that we've ever seen in any role.
0:56:21 > 0:56:26- And different versions of the same woman.- Yes.
0:56:26 > 0:56:31And Shakespeare showed every single side of women,
0:56:31 > 0:56:34that's why the roles are so rich.
0:56:34 > 0:56:39- Yes.- He championed us. - He clearly loved women.
0:56:39 > 0:56:44Do you not know why I'm a woman? When I think I must speak.
0:56:46 > 0:56:51Shakespeare's great comic heroines are comic and they are romantic.
0:56:51 > 0:56:54But there's so much more than that.
0:56:54 > 0:56:56For all their fairy-tale qualities,
0:56:56 > 0:57:01the comedies also retain an edge of doubt and cynicism.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04One of the important things about Shakespeare
0:57:04 > 0:57:07is he's not trying to say anything.
0:57:07 > 0:57:10He's not trying to tell you how to think.
0:57:10 > 0:57:13What he is saying to you is - think.
0:57:25 > 0:57:29Even the greatest theatre is a piece of make-believe.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32A play is called a play for a reason.
0:57:32 > 0:57:34This is the source of their power,
0:57:34 > 0:57:38we enter the theatre like Viola washed up on the shore of Illyria,
0:57:38 > 0:57:42or Rosalind arriving in the forest, ready to pretend.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45Yet we unexpectedly encounter something real.
0:57:45 > 0:57:49At the heart of these plays is a tale that we can all relate to,
0:57:49 > 0:57:52one person trying to love another.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55It's got to be the oldest story of all,
0:57:55 > 0:57:59but it's never been more beautifully told than by Shakespeare.
0:58:14 > 0:58:18Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd