Year of the King: An Actor's Diary and Sketchbook - Twentieth Anniversary Edition (31 page)

Lunchtime. I find Black Mac standing on the balcony overlooking the
river, in fearsome mood. As someone passes us, he mutters, `Thick as a
Gurkha's foreskin, him.' And someone else is cursed from behind with a
deadly `Kipper!'

`Why Kipper, ,Mac

`Two faces and no guts, mate.'

Apparently the cause of this dark mood is the news that he might not
be allowed to dress me. He's not normally a `Mark One' dresser and his
promotion is being opposed in certain quarters. `Won't happen, mate,' he
says looking mournfully into the Avon, `won't happen till the Good Lord
lays down his crook and fucks his flock.'

I tell him that the official explanation they've given me is that his daytime
army job will prevent him being available for the crucial days of the
technical and dress rehearsals. This is news to him and fills him with
renewed determination: `Righto mate. If that's their game, leave it to me.
You want me, Animil, and I'm gonna be there!'

The afternoon is spent wandering around the darkening Conference
Hall hammering in those `hath's and `thee's while thumping a rubber ball
around, in the same way that I used to study for exams at school. Merchant
is distantly on the tannoy. The applause at the end sends a tingle of
excitement up my spine.

I think Richard is coming together. The major problem at the moment
is a commonplace one - the effort of learning. It's the same when you
approach any new skill or technique, from a dance step to driving a car.
The effort of learning stops you, at first, from doing it well.

As for the crutches, Bill was right. They are easier to work with after a
further week's practice. I have mustered my courage: I am going to use
them.

Tonight was the first time I couldn't get to sleep for excitement, rather
than fear.

Richard's army has grown. Paul Gregory, Brian Parr and Hepburn
Graham have been press-ganged. My troops now number seven. We
might win Bosworth at this rate.

RUN-THROUGH OF ACTS FOUR AND FIVE I shout far too much
and give myself nowhere to go. Jim says afterwards, `I feared for your
voice and I mustn't.' Chris Ravenscroft (Richmond) has a beautiful
spiritual quality. He fulfils perfectly the function of this character, in Bill's
words, `a breath of fresh air after hours of murder, mayhem and misery'.

At the end of the run Bill makes a very inspiring impromptu speech
about Shakespeare. He's kneeling on the floor, his eyes very bright.

`The verse, breathing through you via the character to us, is in itself
thrilling. It is seventy-five per cent of what this Company is about. It is
our instrument and our challenge. It would be so easy if we were Russians
and could have the verse roughly translated and then dazzle with images.
We've got to dazzle with Shakespeare's language.'

The crutches that I will use in the show have arrived - magnificently
sculpted in iron to look like twisted wood, vaguely Arthur Rackham. The
new weight is a shock. Light gestures become heavy, my speed around
the room is halved. They are sent back for a re-think. I fear they will be
unusable.

Heavy rain; a bad day. We do runs of the Queen Margaret scene and Act
Two. All dreadful again. One long monotonous note of hysteria.

Ciss says afterwards, `People have less emotions than actors think they
have. For much of the time we hide our emotions, we haven't time for
emotions. Our brains work so much faster than our emotions.'

Anyway all our emoting can't be right: these characters are tougher
than that, they've been through decades of Civil War.

SONNET C L A s s A full Company workshop like this is a mirror - we can
see ourselves, what this year's Company looks like, and the reflection
today is not yet a flattering one. There's an air of cynicism and competitiveness, or else a lack of interest. One or two of the younger actors actually
sit with their backs to Ciss, ignoring the class completely. Are they crazy?
We're being paid for the privilege of being taught by her.

We get into a long and difficult discussion about the official R S C policy
towards verse-speaking. Both Ciss and Bill refuse to be drawn. Bill says,
`It's like the English Constitution - there isn't one.'

At lunch Frances Tomelty asks Ciss why, in these group sessions, she
doesn't just tell people to shut up and stop farting around.

Ciss goes very quiet, very focused. One of those really long pauses
when you think you've offended her terribly. At last she says, `Sorry
darling, I'm just trying to think it through ... I think, what it is ... is
that people must find their own way. Reach their own conclusions.' The
essence of good teaching.

Down at the other end of the canteen, Harold Innocent is still demanding a definition of verse-speaking policy.

Pat Routledge says, `There isn't one. Be told! We find our own way.
It's an adventure.'

Harold: `It's an adventure to jump in the river, but one might drown.'

Pat: `If you start to drown my love, you will be thrown the prettiest
waterwings the R S C can afford.'

They do tend to fence like this, these two, each giving as good as they
get.

Pat: `Mister Innocent, you need taking down a peg or two.'

Harold: `No I don't. I like it up here.'

QUEEN ELIZABETH SCENE Another bad rehearsal. It's one of those
days. We had really cracked this scene the last time we did it, but now
Frances heads off in strange new directions.

Bill says, `With every scene there are dozens of choices of how to play
it. Unless we select one and stick to it until proven wrong, we will just
flounder in chaos.'

The scene is extremely tricky for Queen Elizabeth. She has, apparently,
to be won over by this man who's murdered her children, her brothers
and, indirectly, her husband. She wouldn't even remain in the same room
as him! Frances believes the answer is to become possessed by the devil.
Which is why, today, it's like something out of Hammer Horror. I believe it's more chilling if the characters remain human. (I've bought the Sutcliffe
book and am reading it at every possible opportunity.)

QUEEN MARGARET SCENE All morning spent on this. Unravelling,
disciplining, simplifying and, best of all, cutting - immediately makes it
easier to play.

One of the problems had been that the climax seems to be the confrontation between Margaret and Richard. Yet after this, Shakespeare has her
cursing the others again. Most of this stuff gets cut. Pat loses a lot but
takes it well and with good humour.

As he's racing against time with the morning schedule, Bill says to her,
`Let's just try to get to your exit Pat, get you off.'

She says, `Yes please. I can imagine someone in the front row saying,
"Dear oh dear, I thought she'd never go." '

She needn't worry. Her Margaret will be striking and original.

RUN-THROUGH OF ACT ONE Still the most difficult Act for me. And
the thought of having to do that opening speech in front of the Company
for the first time ... oh God. Just before we start, I feel the fear, like a
raging distant storm. I turn my back on it.

` "Now is the winter ..." '

The run is thrilling. So many things fall into place for me. Richard's
soliloquies and asides, which have seemed both bland and embarrassing
in solus sessions, are actually enjoyable to do now. An audience at last -
people to tell the story to. Get some encouraging laughs from the assembled cast and at other times the silences are palpable. (Contrary to
popular belief in the profession, I feel that rehearsal laughs can be a useful
guideline.)

Afterwards, Frances is very encouraging and Blessed does his wonderful
machine-gun support: `Bravo, 'kin marvellous, very exciting, very original,
going to be sensational, 'kin terrific . . .' One or two other people pat my
shoulder, compliment me on clarity and above all, speed.

If nothing else, mine will be the fastest Richard ever.

A R D E N HOTEL BAR Notes from Bill. He says, `You can get some idea
from today of the size of the part. That was only Act One. You have four
to go. You will have to pace yourself very carefully. I would say from
today's run you are still doing far too much, showing us too much too
soon.'

Mal says, `What was great about today's run is that you were serving
the text and not doing a big number on it.'

The evening ends with Mal and me imploring Bill to cut more, and
Bill staring glassily into the middle distance.

But we are in with a chance.

A new confidence. It has become clear that Richard needs a basic
neutrality, so that he can slip into his various acts without arousing disbelief
from the other characters. Richard the actor is most important now, or
more accurately, Richard the psychopath (the Sutcliffe book is proving
invaluable).

My only secret worry is the mysterious problem with lines. In the flow
of yesterday's run, they were mostly there. Or, at any rate, I could keep
going on the rhythm of the verse, substituting synonyms when the actual
words didn't spring to mind - Gielgud has said this is one of the pleasures
of playing Shakespeare; nobody understands what you're saying so you
can make it up when you forget - but today I'm drying and fluffing all
over the place. For the first time I understand why older actors become
so neurotic about their failing powers of memory. Each time I have to
take a prompt it feels like a tiny humiliation.

RUN -THROUGH O F ACT THREE Again it is thrilling. Much laughter.
But when it comes to the Baynard's Castle scene - which, comically,
should be the high spot - the laughter stops dead. I'm confused about
this. On the one hand, it's all right if the scene isn't funny - after all, the
Crown of England is at stake. On the other hand, the laughter up until
this point came out of Richard's outrageous manipulations - in which
case, this scene should be a scream.

QUEEN ELIZABETH SCENE Scholars have puzzled over the outcome
of this scene for centuries. Elizabeth doesn't actually consent to the
marriage between Richard and her daughter. All she says is, `Write to me
very shortly, and you shall understand from me her mind.' This could be
played as `yes', `no' or `maybe'. Bill is very keen that it should be `Yes,
absolutely!'

Why does he have to write, when it's her answer he requires? What does
she want him to write anyway? Does she want a postcard from Bosworth?

Bill says, `She's just being very feminine. In one's youth one was always
being plagued by women who wouldn't phone you until you'd phoned
them.'

Frances's feminist hackles rise: `How could you have been plagued by
women who didn't phone?' The other women in the rehearsal room lean
forward, Alison Sutcliffe, AS M Bridgette McManagan. Bill just blushes
and grins sheepishly. Alert over. There is no sport here: he is the gentlest
of men.

This leads to an interesting discussion about Richard's sexuality;
Frances feels that this is what could win Elizabeth over in the end. Bill
and I both feel Richard is probably asexual - can't or doesn't do it. Frances
says to me, `Well, watching you in the runs, Richard is very animal, which,
I'm afraid, is rather sexy.' The old refrain -'How many severely deformed
people are regarded as sex symbols?' Bill says, `It's all right as long as we
can always see that he uses sex as just another weapon. One mustn't think
that intercourse with this man would be champagne and Bolero. It would
be the most savage, violent experience.'

We do the scene and Frances plays it beautifully again, the undisciplined
chaos of the other day gone. Her need for Richard becomes rather moving.
As Frances says, Elizabeth has lost everything, at least Richard represents
a life-force, an energy, however twisted.

CONFERENCE HALL Another Saturday afternoon in here, the light
fading, rain on the skylights, Henry Von the tannoy. Jim takes me through
the whole part, carefully listing each dry and fluff so that I can entrap
them at last.