Shakespeare On Stage

Thirteen leading actors take us behind the scenes, each recreating in detail a memorable performance in one of Shakespeare's major roles.*

Brian Cox on

Titus Andronicus in Deborah Warner's visceral RSC production

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Judi Dench on being directed by Franco Zeffirelli as a twenty-three-year-old

Juliet

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Ralph Fiennes on Shakespeare's least sympathetic hero

Coriolanus

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Rebecca Hall on

Rosalind in

As You Like It, directed by her father, Sir Peter

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Derek Jacobi on his hilariously poker-backed

Malvolio for Michael Grandage

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Jude Law on his

Hamlet, a palpable hit in the West End and on Broadway

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Adrian Lester on a modern-dress

Henry V at the National, during the invasion of Iraq

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Ian McKellen on his

Macbeth, opposite Judi Dench in Trevor Nunn's RSC production

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Helen Mirren on a role she was born for, and has played three times:

Cleopatra

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Tim Pigott-Smith on

Leontes in Peter Hall's Restoration

Winter's Tale at the National

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Kevin Spacey on his high-tech, modern-dress

Richard II

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Patrick Stewart on

Prospero in Rupert Goold's arctic

Tempest for the RSC

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Penelope Wilton on

Isabella in Jonathan Miller's 'chamber'

Measure for MeasureThe actors discuss their characters, working through the play scene by scene, with refreshing candour and in forensic detail. The result is a masterclass on playing each role, invaluable for other actors and directors, as well as students of Shakespeare – and fascinating for audiences of the plays.Together, the interviews give one of the most comprehensive pictures yet of these characters in performance, and of the choices that these great actors have made in bringing them thrillingly to life. 'These passages of times remembered contribute vividly to the sense of a teemingly creative period when Shakespeare seemed to have been rediscovered.' Trevor Nunn, from his Foreword