I’d give it 10 stars if I could.
I cannot imagine that reading Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent on the page, could in any way match the joy I felt listening to the audio book with Dame Judi Dench and Brendan O’Hea discussing Shakespeare’s plays, Dench’s roles, her remembrances, beautiful recitations and the cheeky observations that made me laugh out loud.
Culled from 120 hours of recording, many of which were done during Covid, Dame Judi shares it all, from her love of the theater to her favorite actors, the acting companies she loved, her favorite roles, costumes, etc.
“All I ever wanted to do was play Shakespeare, nothing else. It was a kind of zenith for me and Shakespeare at the Vic…that was beyond my wildest dreams,” she said in Chapter 10.
She talks about the continuity and almost sacredness that these words, these plays have, all these years later. O’Hea has her talk about a celebration she attended at Windsor Castle with the king and queen. In the Waterloo Chamber, on display was the second folio that Charles I had with him coming up to his execution, and in the margin names of characters from the play were written. It was Twelfth Night.
Of Shakespeare, after all these years, she still seems in awe that he covers in the plays every single emotion that could happen to anyone in life…love, jealousy, anger, envy, resentment, fear.
Dench also offers a tip for actors, from her performances of Ophelia after the death of her father in Hamlet. “That thing, less is more should be written up in letters 15 feet high.”
Now I have long been a Judi Dench fan and had read her 2011 autobiography, And Furthermore. Listening to to her tribute to Shakespeare has made me adore her even more.
It was an absolute treat to listen to and so I I highly recommend the audiobook of Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent to anyone who is a fan of Judi Dench, of theater, and of course the great bard himself, William Shakespeare.
I received the advance reader copy of Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent audio book from Macmillan Audio, courtesy of NetGalley, and highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Judi Dench, of theater, and of course the great bard himself, William Shakespeare.
I cannot imagine that reading Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent on the page, could in any way match the joy I felt listening to the audio book with Dame Judi Dench and Brendan O’Hea discussing Shakespeare’s plays, Dench’s roles, her remembrances, beautiful recitations and the cheeky observations that made me laugh out loud.
Culled from 120 hours of recording, many of which were done during Covid, Dame Judi shares it all, from her love of the theater to her favorite actors, the acting companies she loved, her favorite roles, costumes, etc.
“All I ever wanted to do was play Shakespeare, nothing else. It was a kind of zenith for me and Shakespeare at the Vic…that was beyond my wildest dreams,” she said in Chapter 10.
She talks about the continuity and almost sacredness that these words, these plays have, all these years later. O’Hea has her talk about a celebration she attended at Windsor Castle with the king and queen. In the Waterloo Chamber, on display was the second folio that Charles I had with him coming up to his execution, and in the margin names of characters from the play were written. It was Twelfth Night.
Of Shakespeare, after all these years, she still seems in awe that he covers in the plays every single emotion that could happen to anyone in life…love, jealousy, anger, envy, resentment, fear.
Dench also offers a tip for actors, from her performances of Ophelia after the death of her father in Hamlet. “That thing, less is more should be written up in letters 15 feet high.”
Now I have long been a Judi Dench fan and had read her 2011 autobiography, And Furthermore. Listening to to her tribute to Shakespeare has made me adore her even more.
It was an absolute treat to listen to and so I I highly recommend the audiobook of Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent to anyone who is a fan of Judi Dench, of theater, and of course the great bard himself, William Shakespeare.
I received the advance reader copy of Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent audio book from Macmillan Audio, courtesy of NetGalley, and highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Judi Dench, of theater, and of course the great bard himself, William Shakespeare.
