Curry Julian - Rebecca Hall on Rosalind: taken from Shakespeare on stage: thirteen leading actors on thirteen key roles by Julian Curry

Rebecca Hall

on

Rosalind

Taken from

Thirteen Leading Actors on Thirteen Key Roles

by Julian Curry

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Rebecca Hall

on

Rosalind

As You Like It (15991600)

The Peter Hall Company

Opened at the Theatre Royal, Bath

on 13 August 2003

Directed by Peter Hall

Designed by John Gunter

With Rebecca Callard as Celia, Joseph Millson as Orlando, Michael Siberry as Touchstone, Eric Sykes as Adam and Sir Oliver Martext, and Philip Voss as Jaques

A s You Like It divides critics. A work of great literary value, say some. Lacking artistry, a mere crowd-pleaser, say others. Nonetheless, it remains very popular. On the surface the play is a simple pastoral romantic comedy with little of the darkness of Shakespeares other mature comedies, and a happy ending is never in doubt. But at a deeper level it touches on a host of subjects such as love, nature, ageing and death. The comedys genius lies not in its paper-thin plot but in its characters. Jaques prides himself on his abilty to suck melancholy out of a song as a weasel sucks eggs [2.5]. His sardonic commentary and Touchstones restless bawdy innuendo are balanced against Rosalind, whose generosity of spirit, complexity of emotion and subtlety of thought make her one of Shakespeares most fully realised and beguiling characters. Rosalind blends front-foot energy with vulnerability; she dominates all around her, then proceeds to faint at the sight of Orlandos blood.

Gender reversal is central to the play. Rosalind disguises herself as the boy Ganymede, whose name, taken from one of Joves lovers, carries homoerotic overtones. Orlando enjoys acting out his romance with Ganymede, almost as if the beautiful boy who looks strangely like the woman he loves is even more appealing than the woman herself. As You Like It lampoons the conventions of courtly love. Characters lament their sufferings in love, but their anguish is skin deep. I to live and die her slave, writes Orlando, but his verses are mocked by Rosalind as a tedious homily of love [3.2]. She asserts that men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love. But whereas Touchstone and Jaques merely focus on romantic folly, Rosalind champions love so long as it is grounded in the real world. She knows that Men are April when they woo, December when they wed [4.1].

My own experience of acting in As You Like It is limited to a cough-and-a-spit at Stratford in 1968, when a weird thing happened. (Old Actors Anecdote coming up) One midweek matinee Im one of a bunch of lads making up the numbers onstage, listening to the First Forest Lord describe the death of a stag. Its late in the season and advanced boredom has set in; weve heard this stuff many times before. Must be about 2.45, I think to myself. If I was to nip across the road to The Duck I could get in a quick pint before closing time Hmmm, tempting Yes, to hell with it, thats what Ill do right now! Im about to sneak off the stage and over to the pub, when I realise that I am the actor Im listening to. I am playing the First Forest Lord. Ive become disembodied, and am listening to myself delivering the stags death speech on autopilot.

Rebecca Hall was twenty-seven when we met, by some years the youngest contributor to this book. She was already well on the way to a highly successful career, having started six years earlier with an award-winning debut in Shaws Mrs Warrens Profession. She had arrived with a bang. Her Rosalind followed immediately afterwards, and created waves on both sides of the Atlantic. It was easy to understand why she had dropped out of Cambridge in mid-degree, from sheer impatience to get cracking as an actress. I interviewed her in the summer of 2009 at the matchbox flat in central London where she was staying, during her run at the Old Vic Theatre playing Hermione in The Winters Tale and Varya in The Cherry Orchard for Sam Mendes Bridge Project.

Julian Curry: You played Rosalind in Bath in 2003. And soon afterwards in New York and California. And youd have been what?

Rebecca Hall: Twenty-one, just. I turned twenty-one the day before we started rehearsals.

An excellent age to play Rosalind.

Yeah, it felt like a good age.

It was your professional debut in Shakespeare?

Yes, it was. Before that Id just done Shaws Mrs Warrens Profession and The Fight for Barbara, which is a very rarely performed D.H. Lawrence play. So it was my third professional production.

The director was not a debutant though, was he?

No, not at all. Long-standing.

He was your dad, Sir Peter Hall.

Yeah.

How was it, being directed by him?

Well, wed figured out how to work together by that point, in Mrs Warrens Profession, which he also directed. That was much more about how wed collaborate, would it be okay, or would it ruin my career chances? By the time we got to As You Like It those things had stopped being a concern because wed already established a strong working relationship, with a sort of ease. He started talking about As You Like It towards the end of Mrs Warrens Profession, saying I should do it. He was quite passionate about it, because hed never done the play before. Ever since he knew I wanted to be an actor, and thought I was talented, he was always making noises about it, saying Youd be a really good Rosalind, you must do it one day.

Can you remember why he thought youd be a good Rosalind?

Probably because Im more than common tall [1.3]!

There were lots of wonderful things written about your performance, but it doesnt sound like the sunniest Rosalind. Downcast was a word used.

I dont know whether she was downcast

Somebody else said brings out a profound sadness in the character as if her inability to declare her love was a source of spiritual frustration.

Yes, I think thats probably accurate. It was clear to me from the first reading that this is not someone who is easy with love. I dont think anyone really is, and thats ultimately what Shakespeares doing. Hes writing a play about many different aspects of love. Falling in love is a dangerous business, with all sorts of possibilities of rejection. The backdrop to Rosalinds story is that shes brought up in a horrible court with her evil uncle, her fathers been banished, shes alienated, shes got no parental guidance. I think shes very fragile and vulnerable, and desperately wants to love, is open to it. For people with those defence mechanisms and problems, I think when they do fall in love it can be all the more beautiful and joyful because of the hardship that comes with it.

Did you know the play well beforehand?

No. Id never seen it, and I didnt know it. I didnt study it at Cambridge for some reason, and I didnt study it at school, therefore I was completely fresh to it.

So you had no preconceptions.

No, none at all, and I was happy about that. I deliberately didnt look at any books or hear about other peoples opinions, to keep it as fresh as possible.

How did you prepare?

Text, text, text, and then in the rehearsal room. I started with the text, allowed it to resonate with me and worked out what I thought it all meant, unpicked it. All the choices were made from there.