Sir Thomas More
Franco Zeffirelli was there too. He was
casting his very Italian MUCH ADO
ABOUT NOTHING and surprisingly hadn't yet found, among the
young bloods in the company, anyone suitable to play the juvenile
lead. Shallow was a daft audition piece - and yet that's how I
came to play Claudio for the second time. I wore even more make-up
than at Coventry but at least, this time, it was expertly applied
- by the director himself, as he faced me sitting on my lap!
Throughout rehearsals, he had given me only one note of any
substance: 'It's to simple, Jan; you enter in and make all the
audience fall right in love with you, caro'. A fat chance of that,
I thought, with Albert Finney, Derek Jacobi and Bob Stephens in
all my scenes, let alone Michael York as a very glamorous
coffee-waiter. Shakespeare's young lovers must first and foremost
be hugely attractive - Franco was right - although his doll-like
make-up did nothing for my face or my confidence. I went right off
Shakespeare and soon left the National to do a string of modern
and new plays elsewhere. I even made a few films. |
A curiosity. At the end of the Nottingham
season, Frank Dunlop (an altogether cosier director than
the giant) cast me as
Sir Thomas More in the Elizabethan play for which Shakespeare
probably wrote just one long speech. This was delightful, as ours
was the first recorded professional production. Assuming that no-one
unearths LOVE'S LABOUR'S WON or HENRY V part 2, I shall forever be
the last actor to create a part by Shakespeare.
Meanwhile, down south, the National Theatre was
well-established and employing every decent young actor in the
country. When Maggie Smith saw me in my first West End play (A
SCENT OF FLOWERS: 1964), she recommended me to Sir Laurence,
who called me for an audition at the Old Vic. For my Shakespeare
piece, I gave him my John Barton imitation: 'Nay, you shall see
mine orchard...' Olivier had played the part famously himself: but
that would have been true, whatever I'd picked.
As Claudio (Coventry, 1962)
As Claudio (Old Vic, 1965)
With Albert Finney (L) as Don Pedro and
Robert Stephens (C) as Benedick
|
