Portia

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In the Globe Theatre Company's production of Julius Caesar, Portia was played by Toby Cockerell.

About Toby Cockerell

Toby has appeared in productions for Derby Playhouse and the RSC. TV/Film work includes roles in London's Burning, The Knock and The Bill as well as pop promos for Alishas Attic and the Spice Girls. Toby appeared in the Globe's opening season in Henry V and A Chaste Maid in Cheapside.

Click on the numbered links to follow Toby's journey as he creates and plays the character of Portia in the Globe Theatre.

Toby Cockerell - Introduction

The rehearsals take place in rehearsal rooms about 5 minutes walk from the Globe theatre itself. Each rehearsal room is very large and has an outline of the Globe stage marked out in tape on the floor. This helps the actors to prepare for working on the Globe stage. The actors will have very few rehearsals on the Globe stage before production week.

Each day your actor will receive his/her ‘call’ which is the time s/he is expected to report for rehearsal. During the rehearsal period, an actor's day will vary considerably. Your actor may rehearse scenes, attend a class (voice and/or movement) or have a costume fitting with the wardrobe department. A typical day might begin at 10.00am and finish at 6.30pm – sometimes there are also evening calls.

During the rehearsal period (particularly at the beginning) your actor will research his/her character. To help the actors, the assistant director will find relevant books, pictures, etc. and bring these to rehearsal. Extracts from books and pictures are often stuck onto the rehearsal room walls. Actors will also experiment with using props in rehearsal; these will be rough versions of the final prop and will help the actors to build the prop into the scene. Similarly, some form of rehearsal costume will be worn e.g. long skirts for the women, this will help actors to get used to moving, sitting, etc. in their costume. In particular, actors will use the actual shoes they will wear in performance during rehearsal. This is to wear the shoes ‘in’, as they are made using Elizabethan techniques and most pairs have no specified ‘left’ and ‘right’ foot. Many actors also feel that wearing the correct shoes helps them to ‘get into’ character.

The companies have 5 weeks of rehearsal before the technical and dress rehearsals. Generally, the beginning of this period is spent improvising around the text and in development of character; towards the end of these 5 weeks, actors will rehearse scenes in detail and run parts of the play. The exact method of working in rehearsal is established and shaped by the director.

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Toby Cockerell - Character Notes

These comments are the actor's thoughts or ideas about the part as s/he goes through the rehearsal process – they are simply his/her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsal process progresses.

Toby will play Portia, the wife of Brutus, as well as Octavius Caesar, who with Mark Antony leads an army against the conspirators. These roles are clearly very different and will make diverse demands on Toby's acting skills. Both are substantial roles and as rehearsals begin present Toby with an exciting challenge.

At the beginning of the rehearsal process, research plays a very important role in Toby's work – he tries to find out as much as possible about the characters he will play. Toby has been reading historical information regarding Portia and has made several discoveries which he feels will be helpful in his interpretation of the role. He has discovered that at the time the play commences, Portia has only been married to Brutus for a few weeks; she is considerably younger than Brutus. Portia's father, Cato, is Brutus’ uncle (when Portia tries to persuade Brutus to confide in her in Act 2 Scene 1 she tells him that she is "…a woman well reputed, Cato's daughter.") Portia's father fought with Pompey against Caesar in the Civil War, where he committed suicide rather than admit defeat. Brutus, Cassius and Metellus Cimber fought with Cato and were pardoned by Caesar to return to Rome as Senators. This historical knowledge provides insights into Portia's background and can help Toby when he considers what motivates Portia's actions in the play.

One of Toby's favourite methods of research is to create a profile of his character, rather like a CV – he lists his/her title or status, education, and family background or history. Toby also likes to map the character's journey through the play – tracing how his character starts the play, evaluating how each moment effects the way in which s/he behaves. As part of this exercise, Toby would also think about his character at the end of the play and evaluate how s/he has grown or developed. Toby feels that Portia's journey is very clear – she begins the play as a young wife and ends by committing suicide – although this is reported rather than seen on stage. Portia has few scenes, but is central to the scenes in which she appears. Toby finds it useful to think about the scenes which are reported in the play but are not seen on stage – scenes such as Portia's suicide, or the moment in which Brutus revels to Portia the real reason for his behaviour. Ideally, he will improvise these scenes with the other actors in the company. Toby feels that these scenes play a crucial part in the story even though they do not form part of the text. Toby likes to carry the memory of acting these improvised off stage scenes in his head when he is playing the actual scenes that Shakespeare wrote for the play.

Toby feels that telling the story of the play is central to an actor's interpretation or understanding of a play or role. Most of the work in the first week of rehearsal has centred around ways of telling the story of the play to the audience. During the first week of rehearsal, the company also focused on how the actors and characters in the play relate to each other. Like Toby, each actor will have an idea of his/her own character's journey – but through rehearsal they must explore how these ideas fit together.

At this early stage in the rehearsal process, Toby is careful not to play scenes using knowledge that he would only have later in the play. It is essential to remember that the moment he is playing is happening to his character for the first time and that s/he has no idea how the situation will develop.

At this stage in rehearsal, Toby finds it useful to improvise each scene of the play without looking at the text - this can even be reduced to a condensed improvisation of each act. Often the director asks the actors to read a scene and then improvise that scene, remembering it in as much detail as possible.

At the moment, Toby has been working on Portia's scenes: he has yet to rehearse as Octavius because the company have only reached the half way point of the play and Octavius does not appear until Act 4. Toby has made a list of everything Portia says about herself and everything that other characters say about Portia. This helps him to gain a greater insight into her character and her relationship with the other characters in the play. These insights will inform all of the decisions that Toby makes as an actor about his portrayal of Portia.

Toby came to the role thinking that Portia was a ‘proper’ and moralistic character. Since starting rehearsals, however, he has started to review this notion, primarily because of Portia's knowledge of the plot to assassinate Caesar. If Brutus were to gain power, Portia would become the ruler's wife – the most powerful woman in Rome – she could be driven in her actions by personal ambition. At this early stage, Toby can not decide how active Portia is in this situation. At the moment he feels she is not the driving force but supports her husband. Toby feels that in her second scene Portia is ‘beside herself’ because of the possible consequences of Brutus’ actions, but wants her husband to emerge victorious. He believes that Portia wanted Brutus to tell her his secrets but when he does finds she cannot deal with this knowledge.

Portia's death is pivotal to the final act of the play. The news of her death is given at the end of Act 4 – a long while after her last appearance – and is the first of the suicides which end the play. Toby is still grappling with the notion of suicide as it was understood by the Romans – he feels it is a difficult concept to understand as a modern actor and to communicate to an audience. For the Romans suicide was a noble action, a way of maintaining honour in the face of defeat. This is an issue which Toby will explore in greater detail as the rehearsal period progresses.

At the moment, Toby is concentrating on trying to tell the story of his scenes as truthfully as possible. Nothing at this point in the rehearsal process is fixed – anything can change in the coming weeks.

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Toby Cockerell - Activities

These activities are based on the notes above. They are suggestions only; please feel free to devise your own. Please select the activities which are relevant to your group. You can send students’ work and suggestions from any of these activities to GlobeLink and we will be delighted to forward them to Toby.

The activities have been devised assuming the students know the story of the play. For more detailed work on Toby's characters, it may be useful for students to look closely at Act 2 Scene 1, Act 2 Scene 3 (Portia) and Act 4 Scene 1, Act 5 Scene 1 and Act 5 Scene 5 (Octavius Caesar).

Portia's CV

Toby likes to create a profile for his character in which he lists his/her title, education and family history – a little like a CV.

Write a CV for Portia. Start by using Toby's headings, then add some of your own. You could look for information in the text, then use some of your own ideas to create a distinctive picture of Portia. Send the CVs to Toby (you could also prepare a CV for Octavius Caesar)

What is said about Portia?

At the beginning of the rehearsal period Toby reads through the play and lists:

a) everything that is said about his character
b) everything that character says about him/her self

Choose either Portia or Octavius Caesar and make these two lists. What do you find out about the character by doing this? Send your lists and observations to Toby so he can compare them with his own.

What happens off stage?

Toby likes to have a clear idea of the events which are referred to in the play, but which happen off stage. In order to do this, he will improvise these moments or events with the other actors.

In small groups improvise either the moment when Brutus tells Portia of the conspiracy or the moments which lead up to Portia's suicide. How does the improvisation help you to understand Portia's character? You could script extracts from your improvisation and send it to Toby or maybe record a section on audio or videotape.

Rehearsal Calls

Look at the copy of the call sheet for the first week of rehearsal. Work out what Toby would be doing on each day.

Either write a day or days in the life of your actor OR choose one scene Toby has worked on during the week and try out ways of playing it for yourselves.

Portia the First Lady

One of Toby's main discoveries in the first week of rehearsal was that Portia may be driven by her desire for power. If Brutus becomes ruler she will become the most powerful woman in Rome – the Shakespearean equivalent of Cherie Blair or Hillary Clinton.

What do you think of Toby's idea? Do you think this would be a good way for him to play Portia? Find evidence in the text to back up your view and send your thoughts to Toby. You could also write instructions to Toby indicating how he could communicate Portia's desire for power to the audience.

Telling the story

Toby's biggest challenge at this stage in rehearsal is to ensure he tells the story of the play in a way which will communicate with the audience. One way the company work to do this is to read a scene and then improvise that scene, remembering it in as much detail as possible.

Working in small groups, try this exercise for yourself. How does it help you to focus on the story of that scene?

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