Sir Ben Kingsley Makes Shakespeare Magical

Ben Kingsley

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes was criticised for saying that people needed a “Shakespearean scholarship” to understand his verse. Some of Britain’s leading actors, including Sir Michael Gambon, Mark Rylance and Zoe Wanamaker, also admitted struggling with Shakespeare. However, Sir Ben said: “After leaving the RSC [Royal Shakespeare Company] and before I did Gandhi [in 1982], I had the privilege of visiting schools in America with a group of Shakespearean actors. And instead of bashing their way through the text, we walked into the classroom and we performed scenes in the classroom for them. The pupils were slapping their hands on their foreheads and saying, ‘Wow — that’s what he meant!’ 

“A good actor, a focused actor, can unlock a 400 to 500-year-old text and make it hit you as you’ve never heard it before. A short answer to the question of whether we need to do more to stimulate the interest of children is, ‘Yes please’, but let it be done under the right conditions. 

“Let’s go into schools and say, this is our little group of actors, this is the first scene of Henry IV part II, listen … Honestly, they’ll be jumping out of their seat. It’s magic stuff.”

Reference: Sir Ben Kingsley: Shakespeare’s magic is lost on children if they can’t see his plays.

What Julian Fellowes and these actors have said is the truth: Shakespeare is not an easy read, even for native English speakers, mainly because, I think, he wrote in verse.  We're simply not used to hearing poetry as we try to follow dialogue on stage.

I commented in the Google+ Shakespeare community:

I agree with Sir Ben! What I imagine him and other actors doing in a classroom is this: In the play ("Pyramus and Thisbe") within a play ("A Midsummer Nights Dream"), Nick Bottom is so excited about his little repertory performing, that he gives on-stage direction and running commentary, all the while acting, too. So it isn't just a formal, straight-forward performance, but a highly interactive and engaging show. The audience of Theseus, Hippolyta et al. loved it all!