John Barton (2) (1928–2018)

Truly remarkable. A very wordy read from one of my theatre idols. This is a very challenging piece, both in performance and on the page. It's best to find (his sadly-out-of-print) "The Greeks", which retells the traditional stories. These stories are like the fragments that don't get told. But what poetry, and what insight! Bliss.
(This volume was published by the company which premiered the plays, but this is very much Barton's script, going to press (as it states) before opening night. Barton fell out with the director, his friend and collaborator for 50 years Peter Hall, over the latter's major edits and directorial approaches. So it's safe to say that Barton's script here doesn't reflect what audiences saw on Hall's stage, and that's probably reasonable, given the length among other things.)… (meer)

A marvelous book, although in truth primarily a transcription of a far more vital television series.

John Barton was, along with his theatrical partner Peter Hall, one of the foremost forces in defining how the mid-to-late 20th century understood and interpreted Shakespeare on the stage. Barton and Hall's development of the Royal Shakespeare Company set a new pace, a new vision, a new bar for actors to climb in their pursuit of understanding of the Bard. Alongside radical directors like Peter Brook and the dense political reworkings of Michael Bogdanov, Barton and Hall gave us the modern view of Shakespeare on the stage, through their landmark productions and their work with almost all of the great actors of my grandparents' generation. (Indeed, their work was so profound that many people these days take it to be "the" way of doing Shakespeare, forgetting both that previous generations' performance styles would be quite odd to our eyes, and that the current generation's desire to revitalise and decolonise Shakespeare on the page and on the stage is an equally valid approach.)

In 1979, Barton and some of his RSC actors staged two hourlong television specials examining the way actors approach Shakespeare. In 1982, ITV took this to another level by commissioning a full series. If you have any interest in this subject whatsoever, Playing Shakespeare is well worth seeking out. In a seemingly casual format, surrounded by eager students in the round, Barton sits in his tan-coloured cardigan and engages with a host of RSC actors, every one of them impressive. Household names abound (Dench, Stewart, Suchet, Kingsley, McKellen, Ashcroft) as well as luminaries of the stage, from Richard Pasco and the endlessly wondrous Jane Lapotaire to Michael Williams and the retired-too-soon Mike Gwilym.

Each episode tackles a concept, such as speaking the verse, bringing out the contradictions in the text, or character interpretation, as when David Suchet and Patrick Stewart (both of whom had played Shylock in a Barton production) spend an entire episode examining the key scenes in The Merchant of Venice. Most memorable is an episode devoted entirely to a single short scene from Twelfth Night, with the actors and Barton walking us through a rehearsal. Barton and co actually filmed a huge amount of material that didn't make it to air. The book consists of transcriptions of each episode (edited for clarity and form) as well as three chapters of "new" material from the unaired segments. (A weighty discussion between Barton and McKellen on performing contemporary Shakespeare seems an especial loss to the series.)

Although it aired before I was born, Playing Shakespeare conjures up a rich nostalgia in me. For an era when a mainstream television network felt it worthy to screen a series of Shakespearean acting insights for a non-specialist audience. When arts programming had a place in the schedule, and (some) members of the public felt it worthwhile to reach outside of their sphere for a moment of cultural enlightenment. It's also just a thoroughly charming and engaging series, and I highly recommend viewing it.

But as insights into the performance of Shakespeare, the book is also still valid forty years on.… (meer)