My Shakespeare Highlights

I have to start with Hamlet. Until 1988 I had never seen the play, nor knew any detail of the plot. So I watched the story unfold in my seat in the Phoenix Theatre instead of reading the play at school. And I have to say it was an amazing experience, being such a wonderful thriller as well as great writing. And we had Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet. The director was Derek Jacobi.

In 1993, Branagh again played Hamlet, this time directed by Adrian Noble for the RSC at The Barbican. It was probably a better performance, but I guess nothing could surpass the first time you see this play.

When I heard that the RSC in Stratford were to perform all the history plays in sequence during 2000, I joined as member so I would get priority booking. It was fortunate that I did as the first in the sequence, Richard II, was staged at their tiny studio The Other Place. Just a hundred or so of us watched in the January an amazing cast as such close quarters, especially if like me you were in the second row so the actors were in touching distance. So onto the summer and Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, a terrific modern staging of Henry V at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

But the highlight was yet to come with Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3 all in a day. That was the 30th December 2000 at the Swan Theatre in Stratford, a day to remember. How the cast managed to perform all three plays in a day is beyond me. But the time just flew by. I was unable to get tickets for the limited run in Stratford for Richard III, but I managed to get a ticket for their run at The Young Vic in London. And it was nice to see yet another different theatre.

In 2003, Michael came with me to see The Tempest with Derek Jacobi as Prospero at The Old Vic. He was wonderful in the part, but the real highlight came at the end.


The final words of the play are when Prospero addresses the audience. This soliloquy must be the finest Shakespeare wrote, and Derek Jacobi said the words with such clarity and emotion. It was the best thing I have heard on the stage, and it is the actor who made it so.