Year of the King: An Actor's Diary and Sketchbook - Twentieth Anniversary Edition by Antony Sher Page B
Authors: Antony Sher
Tags: Drama, Literature & Fiction, British, Theater, Humor & Entertainment, Biographies & Memoirs, Performing Arts, Shakespeare, British & Irish, Arts & Photography, World Literature, Acting & Auditioning, Arts & Literature, Entertainers, Stagecraft
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light again. We talk about how, after he is crowned,
he could be carried around to this triumphant music. Borne aloft on a
bier, the Henry VI funeral bier, this black lump on a tray, deified.
And we talk about how he might get on rather well with the Princes.
He could mimic his deformity and act an ape (I'm thinking of Brando's
death scene with his grandchild in Godfather) to make them laugh. The
famous insult from young York (`little like an ape ... bear me on your
shoulders') is just part of their rapport; and so we by-pass the famous
moment from the film - the leering turn, shot from the child's point of
view. Only when they are gone does he show his true feelings for them.
Presumably a true psychopath behaves like that. Presumably Nilsen's
victims had no warning; they were sitting there happily drinking and
listening to music, he was smiling and chatting, making them feel pleased
to be there.
As the music thumps about in the car I become very inspired again. It
is more than just a notion that I could play the part. I know that I could
do something special with it.
And yet - the memory of last year in Stratford; one or two performances
a week, endless days and nights to fill in between.
What to do, what to do?
Thursday 8 December
KING'S HEAD PUB, BARBICAN Pete Postlethwaite: eerie wisdom, eyes
like blue boulders.
`I hear you might do Dick the Shit. Be a very brave move, very
dangerous.'
`Really? I think it's type-casting.'
`Exactly. You can play the part standing on your head. But if you could
go past that stage, eschew all that, go beyond, surprise yourself, that would
be very dangerous. Worth travelling up to Stratford to see. Otherwise it'll
just be, "Oh Tony's playing Richard in Stratford, I don't need to go all
the way up there, I can just run it through in my head." It would be like
me playing Iago.'
Friday 9 December
A thank-you card from Charlotte Arnold with this PS: `I have started the
ball rolling re Richard III. Should have news in January about homes and
centres for the disabled that we could visit. Did you mean what you said
about crutches? It's just that I've been thinking they might actually be the
safest way of you playing extreme disability. Can't think of anything else
that would take the strain off you in the same way. It's what they're
designed to do. But were you serious?'
FOYLES Finally buy an Arden edition of Richard III, to read in South
Africa. (And leave behind there perhaps?) The cover is very strange -
hollow eye sockets and gaping mouths, all rather vaginal.
BARBICAN CANTEEN Two of the directors, Adrian Noble and Barry
Kyle, have a little light supper at my table before another planning meeting.
Neither say anything about Stratford or the current situation. Instead
Adrian starts talking about aeroplane crashes and the recent case of a
woman suing one of the airlines for shattering her nerves. The plane had
started to plummet and only at the last moment did the pilot regain control
and yank it back up into the air.
`So there are all these people,' Adrian says, munching at his supper,
`who have felt what those last few minutes are like. That fall. Can you
imagine? And who've lived to remember it.' He always discusses matters
like this with a kind of bright-eyed, yet detached, fascination. Perhaps it's
because he's an undertaker's son.
They go off to their planning meeting and I sit viewing Sunday's flight
in a new light.
Saturday io December
In this morning's Guardian a full-page advertisement for the Free Nelson
Mandela Campaign. Hundreds of signatures, mine among them. Bad
timing. Hope the South Africans don't go through this with a fine tooth
comb, which of course they will. Image of being frog-marched out of the
airport lounge and shot against the nearest wall.
Howard Davies [RSC director] rings. He's doing the Nicks Wright play
now and says there's a terrific part in it for me.
`What's it about?'
`Well, it's set in Cairo
he could be carried around to this triumphant music. Borne aloft on a
bier, the Henry VI funeral bier, this black lump on a tray, deified.
And we talk about how he might get on rather well with the Princes.
He could mimic his deformity and act an ape (I'm thinking of Brando's
death scene with his grandchild in Godfather) to make them laugh. The
famous insult from young York (`little like an ape ... bear me on your
shoulders') is just part of their rapport; and so we by-pass the famous
moment from the film - the leering turn, shot from the child's point of
view. Only when they are gone does he show his true feelings for them.
Presumably a true psychopath behaves like that. Presumably Nilsen's
victims had no warning; they were sitting there happily drinking and
listening to music, he was smiling and chatting, making them feel pleased
to be there.
As the music thumps about in the car I become very inspired again. It
is more than just a notion that I could play the part. I know that I could
do something special with it.
And yet - the memory of last year in Stratford; one or two performances
a week, endless days and nights to fill in between.
What to do, what to do?
Thursday 8 December
KING'S HEAD PUB, BARBICAN Pete Postlethwaite: eerie wisdom, eyes
like blue boulders.
`I hear you might do Dick the Shit. Be a very brave move, very
dangerous.'
`Really? I think it's type-casting.'
`Exactly. You can play the part standing on your head. But if you could
go past that stage, eschew all that, go beyond, surprise yourself, that would
be very dangerous. Worth travelling up to Stratford to see. Otherwise it'll
just be, "Oh Tony's playing Richard in Stratford, I don't need to go all
the way up there, I can just run it through in my head." It would be like
me playing Iago.'
Friday 9 December
A thank-you card from Charlotte Arnold with this PS: `I have started the
ball rolling re Richard III. Should have news in January about homes and
centres for the disabled that we could visit. Did you mean what you said
about crutches? It's just that I've been thinking they might actually be the
safest way of you playing extreme disability. Can't think of anything else
that would take the strain off you in the same way. It's what they're
designed to do. But were you serious?'
FOYLES Finally buy an Arden edition of Richard III, to read in South
Africa. (And leave behind there perhaps?) The cover is very strange -
hollow eye sockets and gaping mouths, all rather vaginal.
BARBICAN CANTEEN Two of the directors, Adrian Noble and Barry
Kyle, have a little light supper at my table before another planning meeting.
Neither say anything about Stratford or the current situation. Instead
Adrian starts talking about aeroplane crashes and the recent case of a
woman suing one of the airlines for shattering her nerves. The plane had
started to plummet and only at the last moment did the pilot regain control
and yank it back up into the air.
`So there are all these people,' Adrian says, munching at his supper,
`who have felt what those last few minutes are like. That fall. Can you
imagine? And who've lived to remember it.' He always discusses matters
like this with a kind of bright-eyed, yet detached, fascination. Perhaps it's
because he's an undertaker's son.
They go off to their planning meeting and I sit viewing Sunday's flight
in a new light.
Saturday io December
In this morning's Guardian a full-page advertisement for the Free Nelson
Mandela Campaign. Hundreds of signatures, mine among them. Bad
timing. Hope the South Africans don't go through this with a fine tooth
comb, which of course they will. Image of being frog-marched out of the
airport lounge and shot against the nearest wall.
Howard Davies [RSC director] rings. He's doing the Nicks Wright play
now and says there's a terrific part in it for me.
`What's it about?'
`Well, it's set in Cairo
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