By
Dale White
Shakespeare
Newsletter
Spring 1983
Derek Jacobi, the 44-year-old Englishman whose televised portrayal of
Hamlet may be the most widely viewed Hamlet ever performed, rushed into a
poster-splashed office a floor above the swan-speckled Avon and tourist-stiped
streets of Stradford.
Though Americans recognize the slender
blond’s finely-boned chin and nose, ironic grin, arching brows and penetrating
eyes from his roles in I, Claudius
(PBS), Inside the Third Reich (ABC), The
Suicide (Broadway), The Odessa Files and
Day of the Jackal (films), the British
primarily acknowledge Jacobi as a classical actor with a stage record putting
him with such greats as Laurence Olivier, Anthony Hopkins and Frank Benson.
Twenty
minutes before rehearsals for that evening’s performance of The
Tempest, (one of three plays in which Jacobi was appearing for the Royal
Shakespeare Theatre), and obviously torn between present time and thoughts of
Prospero—he sat on the edge of a desk chair, sipped tea and rapidly chatted
about his favorite roles. His
youthful appearance may make an avid Shakespeare lover doubtful about his
ability to convey Prospero’s aura.
“I think
Prospero is Shakespeare’s farewell to the theatre because of the epilogue,”
Jacobi admitted while making his preparation for the role.
Of the three
roles I’m doing now Prospero is the one I’m less prepared for.
It is this image of Prospero as the long-bearded, grand
patriarch-magician and a idea that one can only play him when one reaches his
mid-50s or 60s. Miranda is supposed
to be only 15. So, there’s no
reason Prospero couldn’t be around 40. My
Prospero is younger. I haven’t
seen many Prosperos but I try to connect him with his daughter, who is his
motivation for the actions he takes. He
is aware of his own mortality and has a very black outlook.”
Jacobi said
his approach to Prospero did not include any research of Shakespeare’s later
years, that actors can become overburdened by such research.
“Actors
must trust their instinct toward the language, the words.
If you’ve not got that instinct, the research will be no help. One should jump at any role, play as many roles—regardless
of age. This is true for any actor.
Let’s lay the reverential ghost that the critics have built aside, and
put the blood back into Shakespeare. Shakespeare wasn’t written to be studied
and pawed over. Forget the false
starts and exclamation marks and go at it as your own man.”
The
self-proclaimed inventor of stage fright detailed his process for preparing to
enter stage left as Prospero within the following two hours.
“I’ve
been preparing psychologically since lunchtime.
We’ve only just opened Tempest. There’s only been eight performances. So, it’s still virgin territory.
With Much Ado, there’s been
62, and with Peer Gynt, 20.
So, with them there are little islands of rest.
With Tempest, there’s still a ‘please let’s get through it.’
Before doing scenes on-stage with Miranda, I’ll go through my lines in
my dressing room, I’ll do the scenes in my head during make-up at 6 (p.m.) and
at 7:30 I hope I’m not too nervous and that I haven’t fainted with terror.
Prospero is a very lonely part. In
the first scene he has 40 minutes of chat.
Then he virtually disappears for an hour.
But there’s some very involved verse and a big obstacle to get over in
that first 40 minutes. That’s a
killer.”
“By
far,” Hamlet remains his favorite Shakespearean role.
“I was
lucky enough to do Hamlet at 17. Actually,
it was a week before my 19th birthday.
There have been many great Hamlets but nobody has been able to crack the
role. It’s silly when critics say
‘this’ is the definitive Hamlet. The ideal has never been. I only knew what
felt like Hamlet in me. There are
so many aspects of the character. I
become the character instead of Hamlet becoming me.”
His numerous
experiences “becoming” the young Dane become an asset when he secured the
part in the Time-Life/BBC production.
“Hamlet
was easier than Richard II because I’d done it on-stage. In these BBC films,
you don’t do anything in sequence and there’s no real feeling of the journey
or the craft of the play except in the run-through before.
In Richard II I had to stop
after one line, go to another set because it had a staircase, and then a
half-hour later, finish the speech.”
Despite any
technical difficulties, Jacobi considers the stage and film efforts of the Royal
Shakespeare Company to be “of uppermost importance.
Shakespeare is still amazingly popular in this country and a great deal
of that popularity is due to this company.
The fact that we can do the entire canon for television is useful. These BBC productions are meant as records of the plays for
university libraries. This
company’s contribution to Shakespeare and theatre in general has been huge.”
Jacobi
firmly believes that Shakespeare should be the starting ground for any serious
thespian. “It’s an easier route
to go from classical to modern. Classical
is a finely-tuned instrument. You
must worry with voice, movement, style. If
you play Hamlet, you must have vocal technique that will sustain three to four
hours. And the audience will be
looking at you the whole time—not at just what the camera shows.
Although filmwork is a question of paring down, you can’t suddenly
acquire vocal techniques. And you
most certainly can’t jump from something like Neil Simon to Lear.”
In an age
when unemployment for actors may surpass that for any other profession, Jacobi
recommends that only persons with a certain conviction should attempt to edge
their way onto the stage.
“If
you’ve got a crush on the theatre or a great desire, be wary.
You have to need to be an
actor. If it’s just a desire, a
want, a love—that’s not enough. You
have to need.”
And, Jacobi,
added, that need should be coupled
with courage.
“I find
relaxing very difficult. I hadn’t
done any theatre for two years before I returned this season for Much
Ado. Theatre requires nerve.
The camera doesn’t compare to the nerve required for theatre.
The longer I stayed away, the more difficult it would be to put my foot
on that stage. [Dale White of
Gainesville, Florida, is a correspondent, reporter, and feature writer on a wide
variety of subject. He interviewed
Mr. Jacobi on Aug. 16, 1982.]