"I found myself unable to talk about anything but tight white
trousers and black leather boots! I couldn't stop myself."
- Director Judi Dench
When I direct I suppose I want to pass on what I learned about speaking "the verse" from Peter Hall, Trevor Nunn and John Barton. I've found, too, that a surprising number of younger actors have to be told that if you're not speaking, whether the scene is in verse or in prose, the battery inside you has to go on working ... a lot of actors 'go soft' when they're not doing anything on stage. Young actors, nowadays, have a wonderful range of skills: they can sing and play musical instruments and dance. They often have to learn to project, to reach the back of the theatre with their voice.
When I directed 'Much Ado About Nothing' in 1988, the choice had a lot more to do with the persuasive powers of Kenneth Branagh than my own ambitions: the play, the cast and the job were all chosen for me. ... I was rehearsing with Peter Hall for 'Antony and Cleopatra' and he said, "You must do it -- go ahead and have a go at it." With 'Much Ado' I knew I wanted the Hero and Claudio plot to be REAL and SHOCKING. I knew that with Samantha Bond and Kenneth Branagh -- the Beatrice and Benedick part -- couldn't be the "last summer" affair that I had played with Donald Sinden.
I do think that, when you direct, it's wrong to go into work on a play with a strong concept that you have to impose on the actors. Actors are wonderfully inventive. When I directed 'Much Ado' I knew that I wanted the play to be set in Italy and that there should have been a war the men were coming back from ... and Jenny Tiramani's designs gave this. The rest came from the actors, creating a sense of place and mood and letting everyone in the audience feel it. I don't know what plays "mean" ... I just what them to be alive and to mean lots of things to lots of people.
On the first morning of rehearsals for 'Much Ado,' -- when I knew that I ought to tell the cast how I was going to approach the play -- I found that I was unable to talk about anything but tight white trousers and black leather boots! I couldn't stop myself. ... I wanted the men's world and the women's -- which is also the household's -- to be quite distinct. I had a chart of who was in which scene and what happened, at what time of day. I have to have that for everything because I'm an inverterate list-maker.
It's hard for me to tell what I think about the production. When I direct, I can only tell from watching and listening ... the way you would with a painting: seeing that some things should be darker, some lighter. It's like stepping back from the painting and saying "that needs to be brought out much more to emphasize that" -- exactly the same process. In my 'Much Ado' there was a sound in the air, to create an atmosphere of mystery when the veiled woman appeared. This wasn't planned from the beginning ... at some point in the rehearsals I suddenly knew I wanted it.
When I did 'Romeo and Juliet' in Regent's Park [in 1993] I wanted to cry at the very end. At the beginning there was a sound ... like a sword being taken out of it's sheath ... in slow motion ... a harsh, silver, metallic sound. I wanted to arrest the audience's attention ... as well as suggesting something to do with the state of the city. I wanted the play to end with ALL the characters ill at ease ... a lot of blame attached to everyone -- and not much forgiveness. I wanted something like the first sound -- but this time with terrible crying in it ... though [I feel] I couldn't get it right.
Thanks to Mike Kennedy for sending me this article.