I enjoyed every single one of these interviews -- even the ones with actors I'd never heard of before or about roles I haven't seen performed. Each is a treasure house of insight into some of Shakespeare's greatest and most challenging characters.

Definitely recommended for anyone with an interest in Shakespeare in particular or performing arts in general. ( )

The author of this (Julian Curry) may be recognizable to you as Claude Erskine-Brown of Rumpole (remember, on PBS?) He led the various contacts through an analysis of how they interpreted key roles for purposes of a particular production. Each interview walks the actors through key aspects of the production, critical reception, specific quotes from the text and character analysis. Together these provide the reader with a better sense of the performer’s process.

I particularly enjoyed Judy Dench talking about playing Juliet under the direction of Franco Zeffirelli. Listening to her description of what he was trying to do, it seems as if he was using this stage production to prepare for the Olivia Hussey movie version. (Very italian, very natural, very cinematic). He adopts what Dench calls a naturalistic approach, with “a proper life going on”. In terms of interpretation, what I found most interesting was Dench discussion of how Juliet grows up over the course of the play. She’s a fourteen year old girl with just that level of maturity at the beginning of the play, but by the close, she’s become more of a thinking adult.

But who would have thought that consummate professional Derek Jacobi suffered from stage fright over the course of a three year period? The role he discusses in this book is Malvolio in Twelfth Night and he admits it’s a smaller part that he took on just because it was the bare minimum that he felt capable of performing in returning to the stage.

Kevin Spacey talks about Richard II and that’s all about power, so right up the alley of the House of Cards star.

There’s more from Jude Law, Penelope Wilton, Helen Mirren and others. (Note: depending upon what device you use or possibly your geographical situation, you may be able to license individual chapters from this book so that you needn’t pay to read about Brian Cox in Titus Andronicus or Ralph Fiennes in Coriolanus if you choose not to do so. The UK-based publisher is Nick Hern. which may explain why I couldn’t purchase/license those chapters broken apart, using a Kindle in the U.S.) ( )