Proms Extra: Shakespeare – Actors and Acting
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 23 August 2016
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Michael Pennington is a leading Shakespeare actor who co-founded the English Shakespeare Company with director Michael Bogdanov and has performed at theatres across the world. He is the author of several books about Shakespeare’s plays - the most recent of which is King Lear in Brooklyn. He also performs a solo Shakespeare show Sweet William. He is interviewed by Dr Sarah Dillon from the University of Cambridge and one of the BBC and AHRC’s New Generation Thinkers. Part of a series of discussions in which leading figures explore the way Shakespeare has depicted their profession in his plays.
Producer: Torquil MacLeod
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right? |
| 0:23.3 | It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music |
| 0:27.0 | when it's out of ice cream. |
| 0:28.8 | Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:43.9 | All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. |
| 0:51.2 | They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts. |
| 0:56.8 | So declares melancholy acris in Shakespeare's comedy as you like it. |
| 1:02.5 | Now you might think here that Jekwis is merely comparing the world to the stage, but I think something far more radical is going on here. I think that for Shakespeare, the world was the stage. |
| 1:09.0 | Playwriting and acting were his universe. It's no surprise that his theatre was called the stage. Playwriting and acting were his universe. |
| 1:12.2 | It's no surprise that his theatre was called The Globe. |
| 1:16.2 | As part of Radio 3's series of proms extra events, |
| 1:19.9 | examining the various professions Shakespeare portrayed in his plays, |
| 1:23.9 | this evening we are getting straight to the heart of things |
| 1:26.9 | and discussing Shakespeare's |
| 1:28.5 | representation of the profession he surely knew best, actors and the art of acting. |
| 1:35.2 | And who better to serve as our guide than a man who has indeed played many parts? |
| 1:40.9 | An actor who has in fact spent over 20,000 hours of his life playing Shakespeare on |
| 1:49.6 | stage, and that doesn't include rehearsals. He's an actor, director, co-founder of the English |
| 1:56.6 | Shakespeare Company, and author most recently of the wonderful King Lear in Brooklyn. |
| 2:01.5 | Please give a very warm welcome to my guest, Michael Pennington. |
| 2:13.6 | Michael, you very kindly delivered for me, Jayquist's words from As You Like It at the start. |
| 2:19.7 | I was wondering, are there any other moments in Shakespeare's plays where theatrical imagery occurs? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.