From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited.

I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folcher director.

You might recognize Patrick Page from films like Spirited or shows like The Gilded Age,

or from his Broadway role as Hades in Hadesown, for which he was nominated for a Tony.

Why do we build the war, my children, my children, why do we build the war?

But Page is also an accomplished Shakespearean.

He's played many of the major roles on stages around the country.

He also has a long-standing relationship with the Shakespeare Theater Company here in Washington, D.C.,

where he's played Prospero, Macbeth, Coriolanus, and Iago, for which he won the Helen Hayes Award.

The more already changes with my poison.

Dangerous conceits are in their nature's poisons,

which is the first of scarce found to distaste,

but with a little act upon the blood burn like the mines of sulfur.

No puppy, nor mandraghera, nor all drowsy syrups in the world

shall ever medicine thee to that.

Sweet sleep which thou outst yesterday.

During COVID-19 lockdown, Page performed a streaming one-man show, All the Devils Are Here,

in which he traces the development of Shakespeare's villain characters throughout the plays.

And now, Paige is playing King Lear in a modern dress production directed by Simon Godwin.

Peter Marks, theater critic for The Washington Post, called it, quote,

one of the best versions of the tragedy I've ever seen, maybe even the best.

Here's Patrick Page in conversation with Barbara Bogave.

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