When one chats to Shakespearean actor Michael Pennington, it’s easy to fall in love
with his dulcet tones, you’d think it was hand crafted to speak the Bard’s work.
And with a voice that can make the phone directory seem fascinating, it’s a good
quality as he takes on the Shakespearean epic King Lear coming to the Royal and Derngate
in Northampton.
He has played numerous roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company in a career spanning
more than 50 years and appeared in the Star Wars film and The Iron Lady.
Michael plays the title role running from Friday 1st to Saturday April 23rd.
He said: “I was reading an article in popular national newspaper and it was a poll
of Shakespeare’s most popular plays and on top came King Lear which surprised me.
“It is quite a tragic play and quite blood thirsty even for Shakespeare as only two
of the characters survive at the end.”
The final night of the play is performed on the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death
and Michael believes despite its age, the material is still relevant to the times
that we live in.
Michael said: “It is about a King who is dividing his kingdom and sharing it with
his three daughters. But it could just as easily be a CEO dividing his company up
or the head of a family dividing up the estate.
“Indeed there is a line in the show which makes you think of Calais and all the immigrants
there.
“It is a timeless piece and there is always some relevance to the time period it
is performed in.”
He also believes that the Bard’s work is starting to see a revival among a whole
new generation.
Michael said: “We get to see a lot of young people coming to see Shakespeare and
in part I think it has come about because of the improved way it is taught in schools.
“They are a lot more interactive now and have the chance to speak it out loud rather
than read it in classroom which is what I was doing.”
It was probably a given that he was going to play King Lear at some point.
Michael said: “ when you reach a certain age, you might be cast as Romeo, and then
you get to the next age and you’ll be asked to play Hamlet and then after that, you
get asked to be King Lear and I have reached that age.
“It is that he could go from writing about ordinary conversation to the most beautiful
poetic dialogue within seconds. There is no other writer that could do that.
Michael has previously played the role in a production in New York and he was instrumental
in aiming to bring a version of King Lear to Northampton.
We spoke to Michael during rehearsals and while it has taken a long time to reach
the stage, Michael is pleased with the end result.
He said: “We are in rehearsals and they are going very well. I am the only cast member
to come over from the New York show but it has been helpful to act as a guide to
give the other cast members.
“We have director Max Webster who is 40 years my junior
But we are absolutely on the same wavelength.
“It is quite a short rehearsal period for the show, it is four and a half weeks and
there is a lot of material but we have got it down to a lean three hours. It doesn’t
matter what you are speaking I don’t think you can make it last that long.”
He is also full of praise for the team at Northampton who are responsible for putting
on the show.
Michael said:”I have performed a solo Shakespeare show about six or seven years ago
and I did come and see the last production The Herbal Bed which was stunning.
It is a wonderful intimate theatre and I can’t wait to make my debut at Northampton.”
He has had a broad and varied theatre career and you might think it was a deliberate
choice. However it seems to happened by accident.
Michael said: “There isn’t a conscious decision to do more theatre work. I was offered
a big film and Hamlet at the same time in 1980 and from that I had to make a decision
and chose to do Hamlet. There are times like that when your preferences as an actor
come out.
“I wish I had more of a film career and it is something I regret but do like performing
live.”
One of the film roles he did take on was the relatively small part of Morff Jerjerrod
in the sixth film of the science fiction saga Star Wars and he is amazed by the response
it has had.
Michael said:”Star Wars, I had a week working on that film. I saw it very recently
and I don’t think I was very good in it. I wish I could have done it better.4”It
was good fun but it wasn’t like working on the film for three months and you build
a relationship with the cast. I came in and did my scenes.
“But I am still astonished by the amount of mail I get from the fans of the show,
especially considering it was such a small part.”
