Princess of France

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Michelle Terry plays the Princess of France

Michelle's theatre credits include Clare in Days of Significance , Perdita in The Winter's Tale , Pilemon in Pericles for the RSC, Mary Warren in The Crucible at the RSC and Celia in As You Like It at the New Theatre. Television work includes Lucy in Extras for BBC Television.

Bulletin 1

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.

Becoming an actress
I have, as far as I can remember, always wanted be an actress. Since I was ten I have wanted to be an actress. I went to a local amateur dramatic society and did LAMDA exams in poetry, prose and spoken verse. I grew up in Western Super Mere, where there are lots of drama festivals, which I took part in. Then I went to National Youth theatre at the age of fourteen. After school I went to Cardiff University to read English, but basically immersed my self in the drama society there. After university I went to RADA for three years and graduated three years ago.

Previous Shakespeare
I have played Celia in As You Like It, in Stoke on Trent at the Old Vic, Newcastle Upon Lyme. It is a beautiful theatre, it’s in the round and perfect for Shakespeare. I played Perdita in The Winter’s Tale last year for the RSC.

Globe Shakespeare
I saw the Mark Rylance Twelfth Night a few years ago. Tim was in it playing Malvolio [Timothy Walker is playing Don Adriano de Armado in Love’s Labour’s Lost]. It was the definitive Shakespeare production. I remember I was at drama school and everyone was: ‘Wow!’ It made sense of how Shakespeare should be done, especially in this space, on this stage. Everything is for the audience, the comedy, the self consciousness of the text, it is all for the audience.

I saw most of last years theatre season here, Antony and Cleopatra, Titus Andronicus, In Extremis. This season I have seen Othello and __In Extremis___ again. It is amazing.

I think, having done promenade theatre and now coming to this space, I can’t imagine Shakespeare done any other way. In the round, or here, or in promenade the audience are active, because they can see each other. There is a heightened awareness and heightened listening, because if at any moment they are not listening someone can go ‘Oi!’ The audience are so much a part of the theatre. When you get halfway through rehearsals you think, now we just need people to see it, because they’ll teach us what’s funny or which bits we need to speak up. We tend to try and spell Shakespeare out, and actually, especially here, you realise when you are watching it, the audience listen so acutely that they get it.

I haven’t done very much Shakespeare, but I was speaking to Anton Lesser and Linda Basset at the RSC who have both done lots of Shakespeare about how the writing is so infinite, and as a young actress you do it and you are always left inadequate. You come off the stage thinking ‘I didn’t quite get it.’ Whereas with lots of other texts that you do, that are not as well written, you know where you need to be to nail it. You never really nail Shakespeare because it is so much bigger and better than you. It is just the way it is going to be, especially in this space, it transcends you and you just have to go with it and play up to it rather than apologising for it. The massive ideas and subjects that Shakespeare tackles are so human. I think that is why his work has lasted so long. Every time I read the ‘To be or not to be speech’ from Hamlet, I think it is the most perfectly put piece of philosophy, it is amazing!

Love’s Labour’s Lost
I didn’t know the play before I was cast. My initial reaction to the play was: ‘what on earth are they talking about?’ It is really intricate and the play is only about people talking. It is about people, linguists who are clever with language, and that’s it! It is about Shakespeare playing with words.

I have read a lot of Shakespeare, but when I was reading Love’s Labour’s Lost, I don’t know what the statistic is but, the amount of words that Shakespeare makes up, its brilliant and quite overwhelming.

I don’t really know what I first thought of the Princess of France. I noted her ability with language and the force of four women that all have this wit and language at their disposal, this weapon, this arsenal of language. As a woman, you don’t tend to get that in much, especially in Shakespeare. They are actually women in their own right; independent and they win all the linguistic battles hands down. Because of their poise and their absolute assurance of who they are, they just fire words at these men who end up babbling, but the power of these women! I know initially they would have been played by men but it was all in the time of Queen Elizabeth. It is a play very specific to his time.

Week one of rehearsals
In week one, we put the script into our own words, making sure we understood what we were saying. The only time we got on our feet was when we had a voice workshop and a jig workshop. We have just been sat round a table and literally trying to decipher what every single word in the play means. There are a lot of speeches where the sense is clear, but actually specifically what are you saying, the big ideas and conceits, that needs to be clear too. It would be easy to let the whole to wash over you and go: ‘Yeah generally I get it, but specifically?’ Especially as the characters have to look so confident about what they are talking about, there is no room for doubt. In this play, they are so conscious when they don’t know what they are talking about. Shakespeare deliberately makes it obvious, that you have to really know what you are talking about when you are meant to.

Jig
There are lots of dances in the play. At the moment I know there’s going to be two dances within the play and I am not sure what happens towards the end. Then there is the jig at the end. The jig rehearsals have been quite nice because the scenes are so bitty, you only tend to see the actors you are in the scenes with, so it is quite nice to have these group session with the whole cast. Sian’s brilliant, but she makes it look so simple. And it is the hardest thing in the world!

Text
I had a text workshop with Giles yesterday. My character speaks mostly in verse, but then deliberately chooses to use prose to cut someone down or shut someone up.

Design
I have seen the sketches of the costume for the Princess, which is very Elizabethan. If they are true to the period then the dresses will have high nicks and ruffs, but I think what they are going to try and do is have open chests so that we look a bit more feminine and a bit more sexy. The women use their sexuality so much to dominate these men. There were no colours on the drawing. I think maybe I am going to be in gold colours and the other girls are in bright colours. I know I will be wearing a wig, because I had my wig cellophane head wrapped around thing! I don’t know what it’s going to look like. I haven’t been told. I think there is going to be a high brow thing.

Set
I have seen the model box. The play talks about the court, but actually most of the action happens outside in the open air. The Princess lives in the tent for the most of the play, and then there is the hunt. So this is the courtly world coming to the natural world. The pillars will be all decorated with these trees and the two back doors will have trees in front, so it looks like when you leave the stage you are going into the forest.

Performing on the Globe stage
On the first day we got to go out and stand on the stage. It is overwhelming when you first stand out there because this is a mythical space. I am quite glad I am playing a Princess, because I will have the status to own the stage. If the world is your domain, the world is your court, you rule it. So somehow I have to find that poise that controls the space.

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Bulletin 2

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.

Week two and three of rehearsals
We’ve finished sitting round the table going through the Shakespeare and putting it into our own words. I have actually now read all of the play, bar the bit after Marcade comes in and says my Dad is dead, putting it back into Shakespeare’s words. We are still sat round a table looking each other in the eye and just saying the words. It has been great because now I know what I am saying. I understand what I am saying. I still have no idea why I am saying or how to say it, but at least I know what is being said.

Towards the middle of this week we were up and blocking the play. By the end of the week we’ll have pretty much blocked most of the play. The blocking is very much a rough guide, but obviously in the Globe, spacing on the stage and proximity to other actors matter more than anywhere else.

Dominic [Dromgoole, the director] blocks quite specifically. There are two gang ways in our set and so we are making sure that the space is balanced. That at any given moment an audience member will be able to see at least one member of the company.

So by the end of the week we will have hopefully blocked the whole of the play. Although it means I am at the stage where I feel a bit lost. It is that middle bit of the process where I am asking: ‘who am I? Who is my character?’ I sort of know her in scenes, but I haven’t got the journey of her character through the play yet.

I know what I am saying and where I am meant to be when I say it, and I know who I am saying it to. But I have to find where her thoughts have come from and she is a difficult character, but all of the characters are quite difficult.

Dance
We have had one dance rehearsal for the hunting scene. We are going to have a primal hunting dance, the boys come on and do a dance and then we [the girls] come on and do a dance. We got the bows and arrows in rehearsals yesterday. We are warrior girls.

In jeans and t-shirts we know what we are doing but when we are in are big dress cages, with bows and arrows and these huge gloves and all the proper equipment! I don’t quite know what we are going to do with the dance!

Voice and text
Charmian [Hoare] is our voice person. We’ve had one group session and I think people are beginning to have individual sessions. Giles [Block] is our text master. I had one workshop with him last week which was amazing. He just reminds you that actually for all your fears and everything else that you add on top of it Shakespeare knows what he’s doing. So you’ve just got to trust him, which is hard to remind yourself when you get lost in vanity issues.

Character
My character is called the Princess of France. She doesn’t have a name. She is pure status. I don’t know if that is a conscious thing, because there is something very princess-y about her. Dominic [Dromgoole] and I have talked about this warmth that she has and that she is very benevolent and mature for her age and understanding. But there is also this barbed side to her. She throws the princess card every now and then, if she needs to. That is what I am finding hard. She’s not consistent. There is a sort of consistency to the other characters. Women in Shakespeare tend to be one thing and you try and colour it, but the Princess is so varied. One minute she’s the queen, and the next minute she’s a little girl. She’s this virgin that doesn’t understand anything about men, but the next minute she’s mischievous and she is human.

She is brilliant to play, but it is hard to access her complexity all at once. I have to remind myself that it’s ok, I have still got three weeks of rehearsals left and then I have still got four months of playing the part. I don’t have to find all the answers now. I am really enjoying myself, but I haven’t quite found the hook yet that you sort of go: ‘Ok that’s my way into her character.’ I haven’t quite got that yet.

I am going to research Queen Elizabeth. We are doing Love’s Labour’s Lost in period dress, and I don’t think an Elizabethan audience would have been able to get away from the fact that the moment a regal woman walks on stage, (despite being played by a boy) there would have been associations with Queen Elizabeth. I think that maybe my way in to the Princess of France. Queen Elizabeth was a virgin queen, which is effectively what the princess of France is; Elizabeth was also very much her father’s daughter, which of course the princess of France is too.

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Bulletin 3

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.

Rehearsals
This week was pretty much the same as the week before, going back to the beginning of the play and re-running the scenes. Some blocking didn’t work and as we’re a week on we know our characters much better and our relationships with people much better. With that knowledge, we’re finding the bits that do work and working on them, and then finding the bits that don’t work and asking why.

Research
I’ve been doing loads of research on Elizabeth I. The more I read about her and the more I find out about that time, I’m convinced that – well there’s no getting away from the fact that the audience, as soon as a princess walks on stage, are going to assume that its Elizabeth - whether you say she’s from France or wherever. So much of the play is her world – her entourage; her female friends; her loyalty to her lords; how inexperienced she was – she was the virgin queen; how inexperienced she was in her sexuality so she would use that to tease men or use her power to play with men – that’s completely what’s happening in that play.

The Princess of France
Because rehearsals have all been so episodic and ‘in the moment’, it’s quite hard to see the journey of my character. I won’t discover it in full until we have run the run the play. Her motivation at the start of the play is very much concerned with business- her Dad is sick and she just wants to get the job done. She comes on business and realises that these boys have forbidden women in the court so immediately she’s suspicious that that won’t happen. She then decides to tease the guys and ultimately to make them break their oath and then get back to her sick father. I think she wants them to break the oath as a test of their integrity because later on she thinks ‘if I’m going to fall in love with you I will need to test your integrity. If you are going to be a vow breaker, and you make oaths to me, then who’s to say that you’re not going to break that promise?!’ So later on it’s a test but initially it is teasing this ridiculous notion that you can’t have women in court to which she reacts – ‘well you knew that I was coming, you knew that my three mates were coming with me so what a stupid time to make that oath!’ There is also all this paper work to prove that this sum of money has been paid – it’s never resolved. Then they have to stay a bit longer than they anticipated. Then of course the guys are falling in love and all that business.

Some of the other characters are maybe easier to define as they all have a kind of individual route through the play and represent an archetype. With characters like Berowne and the Princess you can’t do that – we’re just really human – which is brilliant to play but its hard to create an arc. Its really hard to find because every moment that the Princess is on stage is completely different.

Falling in Love
I fall in love with the King of Navarre. The other three girls are so open about the fact that they love their guys. At the beginning I don’t think she believes in love - and reading about Elizabeth – you have suitors and its so much about money and dowries so you can’t afford to trust it. You’ll probably fall in love with the wrong person. In the next scene they go out hunting to pass the time. She thinks she sees the king, so of course it shows that he’s been on her mind. Then we find out that Berowne has been writing letters and then we all start getting letters. In those scenes, at the moment, we play it quite genuine and a little bit coy. However as she says at the end:

We receiv’d your letters full of love;
Your favours, the ambassadors of love;
And in our maiden council, rated them
At courtship, pleasant jest, and courtesy,
As bombast and as lining to the time.
But more devout than this in our respects
Have we not been; and therefore met your loves
In their own fashion, like a merriment. (Act 5 Scene 2 769-776)

She is saying that we (the women) treated it like you (the men). It was just merriment – a little bit of fun. At the end, in the face of her dad’s death, when reality kicks in then she realises that they do mean it, although she also denies her feeling for Navarre and still plays the power games with him - but that her job because she is a princess.

Language
The play is about language and the weight you give to signs and signifiers. If you say a vow, what does it actually mean? If you say ‘love’ – what does it actually mean? The answers are different for Navarre and different of Rosaline and different for me and everyone else. It’s about how we make promises on the basis of one word, you can be sworn, or forsworn. By adding three letters in front of a word you flip the whole thing on its head. I don’t know what happens in the other scenes because we haven’t been privy to them yet, but certainly in our scenes it is about oaths and vows and promises. It is also about vanity and what it means to talk about your status but what engenders beauty. You can buy beauty from the forester – but what does it mean to be fair? You can praise anyone; you can say ‘I love you’ and praise somebody – but what does actually mean? Take all the words away and you’re left with nothing. That’s what happens at the end when her Dad’s dead – there are no words then – what can you say in the face of that? It’s hard.

Lack of Narrative
I can’t wait to do it in front of the audience. They’re so receptive here. We are such a narrative based society and this play doesn’t really rely on narrative. Somehow we’re going to have to find some sort of arc – or maybe not – maybe that’s the joy of this play – its just random. We’re finding it hilarious – if others will– I have no idea!

As an academic it’s a really fascinating text because of the language. In this play we use new and different verse forms as ammunition against each other – there’s this arsenal you have. Your weapon, and what you have at your disposal, is language. This text is all language.

Trusting the Text: Act 4 Scene 1
The hunt scene is bizarre. I think the way we’re doing the play is very sexual and sensuous and a little bit cheeky and naughty. I remember saying to Dominic [Dromgoole, the director] that its like the TV show ‘The West Wing’ where you watch it and you have no idea what people are talking about, but having watched it for 45 minute you feel so much more intelligent! It’s a joy to hear these people. When you get to grips with the thought that’s all it is these quick thinkers together. But the hunting scene is hard to grasp because so much is going on. I have this philosophical debate about hunting then I go and stalk this deer - but of course her dad’s death is imminent so death is on her mind and the idea of her going to hunt haunts the fact that she’s going to be queen soon. When you’re queen you are going to have to do things that you don’t necessarily want to do but for the sake or glory of the country you have to commit to things you don’t believe in. Its fascinating but how do you perform it all? I still don’t know at the moment.

The interchange with the forester is interesting. We start with a little debate about what it means to be fair:

For: Hereby, upon the edge of yonder coppice;
A stand where you may make the fairest shoot.
Prin: I thank my beauty, I am fair that shoot,
And thereupon thou speak’st the fairest shoot.
For: Pardon me, madam, for I meant not so.
Prin: What, what? First praise me, and again say no?
O short-liv’d pride! Not fair? Alack for woe!

Then I give him money for telling the truth:

Prin: Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow.
Here, good my glass, take this for telling true:
Fair payment for foul words is more than due.
For: Nothing but fair is that which you inherit.
Prin: See, see! My beauty will be saved by merit.
O heresy in fair, fit for theses days!
A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise.

So he is saying ‘see then you are fair’ and I say my beauty will be saved by a merit and can be bought. Then I speak about mercy and killing:

But come, the bow: now mercury goes to kill,
And shooting well is then accounted ill.
Thus will I save my credit in the shoot:
Not wounding, pity would not let me do’t:

I started to think that I should be moving around the stage at this point or at least doing something – should I stay getting dressed up in my hunting gear? but that’s just me as an actor being scared to just stand on stage and say the lines! Shakespeare knew what he was doing, so I just have to stay on stage, say it and trust it. I don’t think that at any point does Shakespeare internalise anything. Even if you’re grappling with yourself, its always active, you’re always working something through but in this speech, I can’t think why anybody on stage would need to hear it. Maybe I am trying to educate them, or am I trying to entertain them – I just don’t know yet.

We’re using the Folio text. There are some things that have been cut. I think once we get more confident with it, it will get quicker. At the moment we’re being very careful with explaining every thought. We’re just going to have to trust it - if you think it - people will get it.

Costume
It’s amazing because it just informs absolutely everything we’ve got in rehearsals. We’re wearing these massive hooped cages that go underneath this bodice and huge dress. We’ve been striding around the stage but of course with this huge cage on you just can’t do half of it! We’re so used to personal space and getting quite close to people with flirting and all those things – and suddenly these cages give an extra metre either side of you. It means you have to negotiate relationships with the other actors and when you do deliberately try and get close –you must push the skirt out of the way. You have to find a way of using the skirts as they are such a huge feature.

Dancing
We had a go at doing the dances with the hooped skirts and they seem to be fine. The hunt dance is a little bit tricky because we’ve got bows and arrows and skirts to think about as well as the steps. I’m really worried that we’re going to take out an audience member's eye with these huge bows! I’m sure it will be fine in the end.

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Bulletin 4

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.

Technical Rehearsals
The show didn’t change much during the tech. A lot of it was getting used to our costumes. I soon realised that the clothing we’d been rehearsing in – like tracksuit bottoms – don’t quite work when you’re strapped into a corset! I was so unused to my costume that I ripped some of the seams of my dress! But as far as the show was concerned, because we’d had such a good mark up in the rehearsal room, not a lot changed. So the tech rehearsals and the dress were alright. It was scary getting out there in front of an audience - but in terms of the play – it did translate well. It was only when the audience came that we started to realise that some things didn’t quite work. There were things that we’d found funny that were not quite translating. There are moments in the script where we thought the plot was very loose but in performance you realise that actually it isn’t as loose as you thought with an audience there to help drive it along. There are other moments when you can really tighten it up and tweak it to make it a bit more accessible and people understand it better. But all that was when the audience came in really.

Costume
I’m getting used to my hooped skirt now but in rehearsal, because there was no dress on top of it to weigh it down, it would kind of swing everywhere. It’s a huge costume but I’m enjoying wearing it now – although I think I’m showing a bit too much bloomer when I lift my skirt up!

The First Performance
The first performance was just pure fear because the space is so unknown – its so exposing and there is no-where to hide. Not many people know this play, so you haven’t got that to rely on, but that’s also brilliant because there’s not four hundred years of pre-conceived ideas about it. Fear was the biggest factor though - fear about ‘will I be heard? Will things work?’ Lots of it is just ego and vanity!

Learning a Lesson
In the previews, I have learnt one of the best lessons of all. Even after three years of training and three years of being in the business – being on the stage is nothing to do with you. It is all about 1500 people saying ‘if you give, we will receive.’ If you try and internalise and try and be a bit ‘TV’, they switch off.

The Audience
I’ve been here to watch shows and I know the policy of listening here is really special but its not until you face it - where you’ve literally got 1500 pairs of hands just kind of carrying you along – that you realise how important the audience is - as long as you’re generous enough with it. It was an amazing night. People are really forgiving on the first night because they know its your first night. They are so willing and lovely. It is only afterwards when you can begin to gauge where the play is at - what really works and what doesn’t - because the subsequent audiences are not so generous.

Understanding the Play
I’ve been amazed at the things younger members of the audience have picked up on. Its amazing how timeless certain things are. The play doesn’t have to be completely understood for them to understand. They really do get it. What’s bizarre on matinee days is that in the yard you’ve got all these kids and the galleries are filled with older people. The audience are so polarised, in terms of who you are playing to. It gives you a different kind of focus – not that you have to change anything - it just makes you aware of the really rude bits! The kids are getting the really physical jokes and the older people are waiting for the intellectual language to come back.

I think even if people don’t understand every part of the language, they’re laughing at people’s display of how they manage language. Things like the rhyme are really nice to listen to. My dad came to see it at the weekend and even though he didn’t understand everything he really got a sense of what the play was about.

Shooting the Deer
The response to this is a little bit different each night. It is not in the text that she shoots the deer, its just talked about. In this production, you actually see me shooting the deer. Its quite sad and people don’t quite know why its there until the end. The audience then suddenly piece everything together and get the meaning: you can hunt and the lover’s can hunt each other, but at the end of the hunt is death. At the end of the play the Princess’s father has died, so by making the act of the hunt clear, it plants a seed to say to the audience that something isn’t quite right.

Making this moment visual to the audience has helped me with the hunting speech. The deer that they bring on stage after I have supposedly shot it is a real stuffed one - so its very realistic! I realise now why the speech is there. I’ve become consumed with the idea that you speak to affect other people, but sometimes the reason you speak is to affect yourself. She is the princess - she has to do a lot of that for herself. By playing it to an audience you realise that they’re listening to it and they’re working it through. The problem I’ve had has been to do with me. You have to trust Shakespeare, he does know what he’s doing. It did seem so random to have this big major piece of philosophy in the middle of the scene but actually it feels fine in performance. Amidst all the hilarity in the play Shakespeare is plotting in the seeds of death, which can seem strange when they happen , yet by the end they all make sense.

Playing for Truth
We've only done a few shows so far and what’s funny is that with each new audience it changes. Some audiences decide, on masse, the kind of audience that they are going to be. The last two nights we’ve had really quiet audiences. They can be quite discerning at the beginning, but completely with us at the end. Its just been such a big lesson. You have to do everything for truth. You have to play it for truth. In this space, you can get pulled into thinking that you just want a laugh and that’s certainly not the Princess’s role and its certainly not the girls role to have the big laugh. Their function is to provide the heart and soul of the play. The women in the play don’t really have any ‘holiday fever’ until the second half so I find the build up quite difficult sometimes, but I just have to trust it – trust that they want to listen and trust Shakespeare and trust the truth of her and the girls – its really hard!

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