Acting Shakespeare

Sir Ian McKellen's one-man show about acting in the Bard's works, which he devised in 1977 and presented on Broadway in 1984, won a Drama Desk Award and a Tony nomination. This is the DVD debut of a 1981 PBS-aired performance taped before a responsive studio audience. On a bare stage the actor offers recollections, often witty and sometimes quite moving, about his exposure to theater as a child, his studies at Cambridge with the likes of Derek Jacobi, Trevor Nunn, David Frost, and Peter Cook, and his years with the finest British companies. McKellen offers amusing anecdotes about famous Shakespeareans of the past (at one point illustrating David Garrick's florid performance style and changes to the text) and critics such as Samuel Pepys, whose caustic remarks McKellen quotes with relish. But Acting Shakespeare mostly consists of his performing excerpts from the plays (and one of the sonnets), sometimes taking on double and triple roles (including “female” parts), adding hints on how to approach the characters and deal with the verse, as well as historical observations about the author's life and 16th-century theatrical practices. While the production qualities are understandably subpar, given the age of the original videotaping, this is still a marvelous introduction from one of the greatest actors of his generation that will surely whet the appetite of any newcomer to the plays. A bonus booklet contains a playbill and a new essay by McKellen. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (F. Swietek)