"Many of us decline into our dotage. Actors slip into their anecdotage. Two of the best programmes in the rather arid TV Christmas schedules featured Judi Dench touchingly reminiscing about her love of Shakespeare. The great dame is also one of the glittering ensemble in The Twelfth Night Reunion, a one-off event conceived and hosted by Gyles Brandreth and recorded at the Orange Tree in Richmond, London, a year ago, where a group of actors share their memories of the play."
"The format is simple. Each actor is invited to describe his or her first encounter with the play and their experience of being in it. Simon Callow vividly recalls the melancholy magic of John Barton's legendary 1969 RSC production. When cast as the drunken Sir Toby in a later National Theatre production, Callow reveals that he discovered that the character was basically my father."
Veteran actors gather for The Twelfth Night Reunion, recorded at the Orange Tree in Richmond and hosted by Gyles Brandreth. The programme invites each actor to describe their first encounter with Twelfth Night and their experience performing it. Simon Callow recalls the melancholy magic of John Barton's 1969 RSC production and describes discovering that Sir Toby resembled his father. Judi Dench recounts Donald Sinden's comic business with a sundial and a fob watch in the garden scene. Stephen Fry praises the play's flawless structure and Mark Rylance's skill as Olivia, and says the imprisoned-Malvolio scene was impossible to learn.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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