بازیگری شکسپیر (کتاب‌های آپلاوز)

from The London Sunday Telegraph: Acting Shakespeare Is Extraordinary. The Tone Of The Voice Is Unmistakably Sir John's, The Atmosphere Congenial. We're In The Company Of Our Greatest Actor, Who Holds In His Hands The Last Links Of A Chain Of Tradition Leading To Shakespeare Himself ... This Book Is Crucial For Anyone Who Believes That Shakespeare On The Stage Should Be Shakespeare At His Greatest ... Gielgud Is By Turns, Wise, Witty And Wicked, But Unfailingly Modest. publishers Weekly now 88, The Distinguished British Actor Here Offers Random Notes On The Works Of His Country's Most Famous Dramatist, Whose Plays He Has Been Performing For More Than 70 Years. Gielgud Is Particularly Well Known For His Interpretations Of Richard Ii, Hamlet, King Lear, Benedick In Much Ado About Nothing, Cassius In Julius Caesar And Prospers In The Tempest (and In The Peter Greenaway Film Prospero's Books), All Of Which He Discusses In A Light, Unpretentious Style. His Rambling Prose Tends Toward Anecdotes And Flashes Of Intriguing Insight-- Lear Should Be Witty And Sly As Well As Wicked And Mad--rather Than Sustained Discussion Of The Roles' Deeper Meanings. Miller, Coauthor With Gielgud Of An Actor In His Time, Provides An Introduction Tracing The History Of Gielgud's Shakespearean Productions And Appendices Reprinting Contemporary Reviews, Cast Lists And Notes On King Lear By Famed Director Harley Granville-barker. This Blatant Padding Doubles The Book's Length To A Still-meager 192 Pages But Adds Little Substance. Nevertheless, The Book Is A Pleasant Diversion For Ardent Theater Lovers Looking For Lightweight Reading. (oct.) "In his two seasons at London's Old Vic Theatre from 1929 to 1931 John Gielgud established himself in the forefront of Shakespearean actors, and in the six decades since then he has scaled the heights of most of the great parts, from Romeo, Richard II and Hamlet, to Macbeth, Lear and Prospero. American theatregoers acclaimed his 1936 Hamlet, which broke all previous records for the run of the play on Broadway, ironically exceeded only by his own production with Richard Burton in the title-role in 1964. In the Fifties and Sixties he toured his solo Shakespeare recital Ages of Man in more than sixty cities in Canada and the United States and recorded it for television; in 1959 he brought his original Stratford-on-Avon production of Much Ado About Nothing to Boston and New York, where he bade farewell to his brilliant Benedick." "His Shakespearean films have been some of the most successful, notably his Cassius in Julius Caesar with Marlon Brando and James Mason, King Henry IV in Orson Welles's Chimes at Midnight and his most recent - Prospero's Books, directed by Peter Greenaway, in which he at last achieved his long-held ambition to bring The Tempest to the screen." "In this book Sir John brings together a lifetime's experience of Shakespeare, as both actor and director, and illuminates the work and the man with his characteristic humor and intuitive perception of the challenges and rewards offered by these great verse-dramas. He draws vivid pictures of many fellow-actors and directors, and with the help of evocative and lavish illustrations weaves a brilliant theatrical tapestry of the twentieth century."--Jacket