#Rethinking2020: Shakespeare in Performance — Part One
As we close out both 2019 and the 2010s, each of our writers has chosen to present a retrospective of the last decade of Shakespeare. Other than looking back at the past ten years and forwards to the next ten, they’ve each chosen their own focus and format.
In this two-part review of a decade in Shakespeare, I will identity ten standout performances in the playwright’s work, both on stage and screen. This first part surveys five outstanding actors from 2010–15. I have chosen to include both categories in an attempt to reflect the convergence of these two media through the advent of live broadcasts and because, as a Shakespearean scholar and fan, theatre, film and television have all be equally influential on my 10s Shakespearience. My only proviso is that the performance must have taken place in a full-length production or screen adaptation of a play, therefore disqualifying isolated monologues or single scene performances, such as those in the Shakespeare Lives short film collection (2016). This is in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of how individual performances have been notable for memorable and significant reasons as part of an extended piece of work.
Kate Fleetwood as Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, directed by Rupert Goold (BBC Four, 2010)
Rupert Goold’s screen adaptation of his own celebrated 2007 stage production is one of my personal Shakespearean highlights of the past decade. It combined a visceral, horror-driven aesthetic with an exciting, political concept and, above all, note-perfect performances. None were better than Kate Fleetwood’s icy Lady Macbeth who brought both menace and seduction to the role. Her chemistry with Patrick Stewart’s older-than-usual Macbeth, steely glare and domestic attire all gave the appearance of a woman frustrated by her station in life and awaiting the call to something more primal and satisfying. Her deliverance of ‘unsex me here’ hinted at the character’s bestial quality and I have seldom seen a Lady Macbeth as connected to the idea of witchcraft than Fleetwood. This was a performance which combined the actor’s classic chops with a searing modernity that delivered a powerful woman subsumed by ineffectual men and who inspired real terror in her opening sections with her husband. This made her mental collapse and subsequent fear of Macbeth all the more tragic and heart-breaking. I had the pleasure of subsequently seeing Fleetwood onstage as Medea and Goneril and there can be few other actors who can deliver sympathetic, maternal villains as completely as she.
Ben Whishaw as Richard II in The Hollow Crown: Richard II, directed by Rupert Goold (BBC Two, 2013)
In part two of a Rupert Goold double-bill, I had to include Ben Whishaw’s BAFTA-winning turn as Shakespeare’s conceited monarch in the first — and best — part of The Hollow Crown series. In interviews about their approach to the character, Goold and Whishaw both spoke about resonances with modern-day celebrity and, in particular, Michael Jackson. Although this was only explicitly visible in the appearance of a monkey by Whishaw’s side — which offered a clear visual quotation of Jackson’s chimpanzee companion, Bubbles. The actor delivered a truly postmodern performance as Richard. While the film was couched in a sense of historical realism, the parallels to toxic celebrity notions of self-absorption, mollycoddling entourages and absolute belief in personal legend delivered something that all the Hollow Crown episodes which followed failed to capture: the portrait of a monarch which spoke to the contemporary moment. In a decade which yielded other high profile Richards — such as David Tennant and Simon Russell Beale — none were as brittle, taught, capricious and sympathetic as Whishaw’s softly-spoken, God-like king.
Adrian Lester as Othello in Othello at the National Theatre, London, directed by Nicholas Hytner (2013)
Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear’s duet as Othello and Iago in Nicholas Hytner’s breath-taking production of Othello was so a closely fought battle that the actors shared the honour of Best Actor at the 2013 Olivier Awards. However, I’m limiting myself to one actor per production in this list and, as impressive as Kinnear’s take on Shakespeare’s great Machiavel as a pre-Brexit racist geezer was, the show belonged to Lester. I recall being particularly impressed by the actor’s delivery of the line ‘arise black vengeance’ which felt like a true invocation to something deep within the character’s psyche and, whilst the actor delivered an at time swashbuckling performance in the heroic mould, his Othello cut a haunted figure throughout, especially in his final scene with Desdemona. Although Hytner’s production was memorable for its shifting set and special effects in the relatively early days of the live theatre broadcast, no effect was more special than this moving, cathartic performance from an actor operating at the top of his game and which channelled the knowledge he’d gained from previously playing the great Ira Aldrige in Red Velvet. Finally, I had the pleasure of seeing Lester discuss his performance the RSC as part of the 2016 celebrations and have never seen an actor discuss the difference between film and stage performances quite so eloquently. Truly, this was the performance that cemented Lester’s status as one of his generation’s finest Shakespearean actors.
Pippa Nixon as Rosalind in As You Like It at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, directed by Maria Aberg (2013)
Maria Aberg’s joyous As You Like It was my personal favourite RSC production of the past decade and, at its centre, was the incomparable Pippa Nixon. Occasionally, an actor delivers a performance so firmly in line with your notion of what their character represents that it becomes difficult to dislodge that particular iteration from your mind forever more and Nixon’s Rosalind was one of these rare examples. Her combination of wide-eyed innocence at the beginning of the play and knowing cheek as she became Ganymede, gaining understanding of her pastoral surroundings, was a wonder to behold. She was a true ringleader, bouncing off the charming Alex Waldmann as Orlando and the hilarious Joanna Horton as Cecilia — who deserves an honourable mention on this list for her heart-breaking turn as Helena in the concurrent run of All’s Well That Ends Well. This was a golden early-2010s moment for the RSC, when the ensemble nitted perfectly together, plays spoke to each other in repertory and, above them all, Nixon shone as a gender-neutral, empowered, rock’n’roll Rosalind.
Romola Garai as Isabella in Measure for Measure at the Young Vic, London, directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins (2015)
In a list of most arresting Shakespearean openings this decade, the image of Romola Garai wading through a sea of sex dolls in Joe Hill-Gibbin’s uncompromising Measure for Measure would rank highly. In a similar way to Nixon’s Rosalind, Garai drove the production with her verve and exemplified its very best qualities. Hill-Gibbins certainly did not shy away from the darkest aspects of this so-called problem play and allowed actors to give full vent to the seething lust which lurks in its lecherous corners. What a remarkable feat it was then to see Garai maintain her sense of dignity throughout the production, thus reflecting the true horror at the heart of the play. Garai became an Alice-esque figure, journeying through this turbulent anti-Wonderland utterly devoid of escape and sympathy and delivered the perfect example of an actor serving as a pivot for character actors to give full vent to an array of chaotic histrionics. There a few Shakespearean roles that have resonated with the developing feminist dialogue of the 2010s as acutely as Isabella, in Garai’s brittle, haunted performance, the play found its perfect vessel.
Tune in next week for five performances from 2016–19 and be sure, in the meantime, to check out Ben’s retrospective on Shakespeare on film and Gemma’s reflection on the process of reclamation in Shakespearean performance during the 2010s.
