Director Brendan O’Hea walks Dame Judi through every single Shakespeare character in which she has dwelled, through 58 years, six BAFTAs and one Academy Award (although if there were any justice in the world she would have won something for being the best Bond girl ever). I don’t think there is a woman’s role in Shakespeare she hasn’t done.
This book is like digging up treasure for someone like me who has been soooooo privileged to see Judi Dench perform Shakespeare live on stage, first as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon in 1976, and then as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre in London in 1987.
The conversation about Much Ado begins with a revelation.
(O’Hea)The title Much Ado About Nothing–
(Dench) Yes–it means a huge fuss about not very much.
(O’Hea)But the word ‘nothing’ had other means in Shakespeare’s time It was probably pronounced ‘noting’, and ‘noting’ could also mean ‘eavesdropping’ — something which happens a lot throughout this play. ‘Nothing’ was also slang for ‘vagina’.
(Dench) WHAT!
And the conversation continues with insights into play and character that could only be arrived at by someone who has thoroughly inhabited that character. I would say further that only a British actor who learned her craft doing repertory in British theatre can have such an intimate understanding.
Of Cleopatra Dench says
Cleopatra is a mountain. We’ll only get into the foothills, I expect.
Shakespeare’s Cleopatra is not the Cleopatra of my Eye of Isis novels, but Dench and Hopkins’ middle-aged versions of the title roles were preternaturally perceptive. Trust me when I say you have not lived until you’ve seen Judi Dench writhe across a stage in sexual longing for her absent Antony. Wow.
Dench has figured out more about Shakespeare and what his words mean than any putative scholar you can name. Not a book you’ll read cover to cover, but a great leaf-through for fans of both Shakespeare and Dench. Or just, you know, words.
Book Review Monday Chatter Antony and Cleopatra Judi Dench Much Ado About Nothing Shakespeare The Man Who Pays the Rent
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Without doubt the best actress to have come out of England, ever.
Er, uh, um…I loved Diana Rigg, too. But otherwise, agreed.
Thanks for that marvelous clip! Delightfully fun!
Thank you. I’ll get this for my mother. Judi Dench learned in a TV ancestry show she is a Bille, descended from the same Danish line we are. My mother says that explains our flair for theatrics.
[laughing] Cool!