Buckingham

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About Amanda Harrish

Amanda most recently appeared in the West End in The Constant Wife by Somerset Maughan. This is her first season at Shakespeare's Globe. Amanda has played, amongst other roles, Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Regan in King Lear, Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew, Emelia in Two Noble Kinsmen and Desdemona in Othello. She has worked extensively with the RSC, Cheek by Jowl Theatre Company and Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Television appearances include Jeeves and Wooster, A Touch of Frost and Oliver Twist.

Character Notes 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.

At the moment, I see Buckingham as a Michael Portillo/Peter Mandelson figure. He's a consummate politician; intelligent, sophisticated, smooth talking and looking for power. At present, I don't think he wants the throne himself; he wants the glory and the privileges of power without the pressures of kingship. This is one of the reasons he gets on so well with Richard. They're just as ambitious as each other, but Buckingham sees himself as a kingmaker, not as a king. At the beginning of the play, we see relatively little of him. I think this is partially because he hates the Woodvilles; Queen Elizabeth and her family. We've been doing a lot of historical research into the play, finding out who our characters actually were (as far as we know), and what actually happened to them. I've discovered that Buckingham's father died when he was very young, and his guardianship, (the right to be his legal guardian), was bought by Edward IV who then arranged for him to marry Elizabeth's younger sister. By the time the play starts, he has been hampered by, or at least he feels that he has been hampered by the Woodvilles for many years. When Edward dies, Buckingham sees in Richard his chance to use the political skills he's developed and become a major player at court.

Kathryn [Hunter, Richard III] and I have started to think about the relationship between Richard and Buckingham, and we've come to the conclusion that they're very like-minded. At the beginning of the second week of rehearsals, we did an improvisation in which we started to explore how far Buckingham would go in supporting Richard. This initially seemed relatively straightforward, but Barry [Kyle, Master of Play] then told us that we could only use one word; "OK". That made it slightly harder! Still, we were able to use different props from the rehearsal room and we managed to keep the improvisation going for 40 minutes. Kathryn kept asking me to do different things, (still just using the one word), but in many different ways; first she'd threaten me, then she'd ask me nicely and so on, trying to make me break and say no, but I didn't. Buckingham will do almost anything for Richard; it's only when he's asked to approve of killing the princes that he wavers in his loyalty. Doing that improvisation was really useful as we began to realise that, although Richard is always in charge, he and Buckingham have great fun together. Several times in Act 3, they are essentially play-acting a situation, for instance in iii.5 when they pretend that they're under attack in order to win the mayor's support. Earlier in that scene, Buckingham talks about how good he is at acting:

Tut, I can counterfeit the deep tragedian,
Speak and look back, and pry on every side,
Tremble and start wagging of a straw,
Intending deep suspicion: ghastly looks
Are at my service, like enforced smiles;
And both are ready in their offices,
At any time, to grace my stratagems. (ll. 5-11)

Sure enough, a little later they both get to act, pretending to the mayor that they're under attack:

BUCKINGHAM
Lord Mayor,

RICHARD
Look to the drawbridge there!

BUCKINGHAM
Hark! a drum.

RICHARD
Catesby, o'erlook the walls.

BUCKINGHAM
Lord mayor, the reason we have sent -

RICHARD
Look back, defend thee, here are enemies. (ll.14-19)

Their acting is horribly over the top; although they're playing a dangerous game, they're having a whale of a time. Whenever I think about the relationship between Richard and Buckingham, the comparison I keep making is with Romeo and Juliet; they don't have a physical relationship, but theirs is, in many ways, a marriage of like minds. In iii.7, when Buckingham is begging Richard before the citizens to take the throne, we already know that Richard will be on the balcony above the stage, and at the moment I'm quite tempted to climb up to him at some point during that scene… It's only when Richard decides to kill the princes that there has to be a divorce between them.

We're in the third week of rehearsals now. During the first week, we had a read through and did a lot of games and exercises to help the company get to know each other. From the second week onwards, we started to really focus on the text of the play. Sometimes we sit and talk through a scene, other times we'll get up and try acting it out, and sometimes we'll put our scripts down and improvise the scene. This last method is often very useful at this stage in rehearsals. Essentially, what we're doing is running the scene but putting each line into our own words. Sometimes, it can be very intimidating to try and explore a scene straight away using Shakespeare's language; it's so complex that actors don't have time to think about anything other than the words. By improvising the scene using our own words within the structure of the play script (i.e. you can only speak when your character speaks in Shakespeare's version of the scene) it's much easier to relax and think about the objectives behind each line (why our characters say what they do) and how/why our characters might move on-stage at different moments during the scene.

When actors play a character of a different gender to themselves, they often say that this difference doesn't affect how they approach creating that character. In many ways, this is true; one of the worst things I could do in rehearsals would be to try and 'act like a man'. Instead, I am focusing on my character's intentions and objectives. Having said that, I am beginning to find that Buckingham's gender is affecting the way I move in character, however I have decided that this is because the world of the play is, essentially, a man's world. At court, it is predominantly the men who have influence and who move in the highest circles of power. Throughout the play, Buckingham is looking to fulfil his ambitions and advance his own position at court, but it is because of his gender, (together with his high social status), that he is able to do this. If he were a woman, he would not be able to fulfil his intentions and objectives in this way and as a result, the fact that I am playing a man is having an effect on the way I move in character. If I were playing a female character, my movements would be far less confident and assured.

This is the first time I have been a member of an all-female company, and before rehearsals started, I was very curious whether the fact that it is all-female would make a difference to the rehearsal process. As it happened, as soon as rehearsals started I forgot all about it; it's only during the last few days, when we've had some time off, that it's crossed my mind again. This is one of the best companies I've worked with; there's no messing around, everybody's very focused on what they're doing. There's an amazingly open atmosphere in rehearsals; even if we're not appearing in a scene, we're welcome to sit in rehearsals and watch other members of the company at work. This is fantastic, as we are all aware of what is happening to the production as a whole; it's a very collaborative process.

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Character Notes 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.

Last week, we did a lot of work as a chorus, both in terms of singing and in terms of movement. We as a company will be singing a lot of unaccompanied music during the production, some of it medieval Corsican music, I think. It has a distinctly Eastern sound; those who are singing the top parts get to try some yodelling (or something like it) over the top of the melody. It will sound fantastic. Our movement work at the moment is concentrating on the theme of war; what does war involve, what does war mean to us, and so on, and we will begin to use this work to create the Battle of Bosworth at the end of the play. We experimented with creating tableaux (freeze-frames) of moments that are born out of war; people fighting, people grieving, and then we started to explore physical reactions to different elements of war. For example, we did a group improvisation where we were placed in the path of a huge tidal wave coming straight towards us. It was really interesting to see how people's physicality suddenly changed when they imagined this situation, how the sudden shock affected their movements, making them broader and yet quicker at the same time. All of these moments and tableaux are going into what Barry [Kyle, Master of Play] is calling our production ‘scrapbook’. We don’t know how many of them will actually be used in the final production, but they will provide us with lots of ideas when we come to create the final version of the battle scene on the stage.

This week, we’re getting back to the actual text, so most of the company can be found walking around the building muttering lines to themselves. We haven’t been told that we have to learn our lines by a given time, but it's reached that stage in rehearsals when it's simply not helpful to still be ‘on book.’ I find that, at this stage, I need to have the lines in my head so that I can start to play with them, to try scenes in a range of different ways. at exactly I called each person at any particular moment. At the moment, I will often come in to work early and go to the Musicians’ Balcony above the stage to work on my lines and get used to saying them in the Globe space. I think it's important for actors to learn their lines at their own pace during rehearsals. Some actors like to learn their lines before rehearsals start, but I think this is dangerous because it's only in rehearsals that you really find out why your character says what they do. I find that once you know this, it's much easier to learn your lines. It's so easy, when you’re using a script, to ignore smaller or seemingly less important lines. As Buckingham, I call many characters many things, e.g. ‘Gracious Prince’ or ‘Mighty Prince’ or ‘Gracious Duke’, and I was finding it very difficult to remember what I called different characters at particular moments; I kept getting greetings mixed up. This changed as soon as I’d decided why I was saying each line; was I trying to flatter them, to insult them, to threaten them? As soon as I knew the answer to that question for each moment in the play, I suddenly didn’t have any difficulty remembering the exact line every time.

We will be performing Richard III for several months, and actors often talk of how a production will develop throughout such a long run. This is absolutely true, but at the same time, I see the production that we (the company) take into the theatre for our first performance as being, in many ways, a finished product. Over the summer, it will develop into another finished product, perhaps something totally different, but at the moment, it is important for us not to think that we’ve got months and months to work on things we’re finding difficult.

I went to a costume fitting the other day, which was very exciting. I wanted Buckingham's costume to be as simple as possible, and Jenny [Tiramani, Master of Clothing and Properties] was in total agreement. He's not particularly flashy or showy; he only stands out when he wants to. For this reason, my costume will be mainly black, with a little silver braiding; a total contrast to the Woodvilles, whose costumes will be much more extravagant. There is nothing bling about Buckingham.

We’ve also been spending some time on-stage with Glynn [MacDonald, Master of Movement] and Stewart [Pearce, Master of Voice]. To work with two people who know the space so well is fantastic, as we have been able to merge our instincts about how to use the space with their experience, giving us a totally new and much better way of approaching each scene. I’ve worked in a similar theatre before; my first theatre job was a touring production of Pericles with a company called Cheek by Jowl. During the tour, we took the production to a beautiful sixteenth century theatre in Spain which is fairly similar to the Globe; it's open air, so whenever I had a line that mentioned the moon, I could point at the night sky and there it was, and the audience were very close to the stage. I do like having the audience so close to the stage, in fact, the first time I worked with Barry [Kyle] was for the opening production at the Swan Theatre in Stratford Upon Avon, where, again, the audience are right around the edge of the acting space. The Globe is going to be very different though, I think, because so many of the audience are standing up. This will create a different atmosphere to any other theatre I’ve worked in, more of a mob mentality, I think, and I intend to play it to the full. In the citizens’ scene (act 3 scene 7), I’m hoping the audience will get involved, whether cheering or booing Richard. We’re going to be using the entire theatre; Richard will be on the balcony, I’ll be on the stage, and the Mayor will be in with the groundlings, so we’ll really be encouraging the audience to react to what's going on in the play. I just hope I can control them if they start to heckle!

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Character Notes 3

There will be two jigs in the production. One will take place at the beginning of the play, before Richard's first speech, and the second at the end. I think the first jig will be a very effective way to start the play as it is very joyous; it will suggest an atmosphere of happiness; after all, the wars are over, Edward is on the throne, and everything is generally good. Then Richard comes on and, by his first speech, shows us that it isn’t so. I think this instant reversal of mood will be very unsettling; the perfect way to start this play. In contrast, the second jig is lighter, as if to say ‘it's just a play’, and will hopefully send the audience out on a high. Many of us are not natural dancers, and we’ve been finding learning all the complicated dance steps a real challenge! When we started jig rehearsals in the first week of rehearsals, Linda Bassett [Queen Margaret] and I gave each step a name, so one particular sequence would be called a ‘step-hop-funny hop’ (the last step is when you hop on the spot, but as you do, you put your left leg in front of and across your right leg. I think.). Now we’re getting closer to the performances no-one is giggling any more, but the names have stuck, so in each dance rehearsal you hear people muttering them quite seriously as they try to remember the steps.

I’ve made a major decision about Buckingham this week. It suddenly occurred to me that it would be very easy to play him as being as evil and devious as Richard himself, but he's not. I’m starting to see him now as a good man who has deviated from the path he started on. At the beginning of the play, he's on the political sidelines but, I suspect, fancies himself as a smooth-talking politician. He soon finds himself as Richard's lawyer, advocate and PA all in one, with all the attention and power he ever wanted. However, I don’t think power was his primary motivation. He wants to avoid another Wars of the Roses, and thinks that, with a child on the throne, another war is inevitable. His objective is to get a grown man on the throne and therefore provide greater security for the country. However, he gets seduced into taking action for personal gain. Despite his hatred of the Woodvilles, I don’t think he wants Hastings dead, however, he realises that Hastings must die if Richard, and therefore the country’s, security is to be assured. But, when he agrees to Hastings’ death, Richard promises him the Earldom of Hereford and other ‘moveables’ and Buckingham accepts; he sells his soul. His primary mistake, like Lady Anne, is to trust Richard.

I’ve mentioned before that Richard and Buckingham have a close relationship, and when this breaks down, I believe that Buckingham is heartbroken, as per Margaret's curse. He realises that he's made the wrong choice and has to side with Richmond, but gets caught. The last time we see him is in Act 5 scene 1, with what I call the execution speech. This is partly self-chastisement, I think; he knows how stupid he's been and he's ashamed. He cannot talk directly to God, hence calling Him ‘That high All-seer’, but he realises he is getting what he deserves. My discovery about Buckingham is that he's a tragic character. He is a good man gone wrong and comes to realise his fault in v.1. I will be spending the next few weeks working this realisation into other scenes in the play, seeing how this discovery can affect how I’m working on the rest of the production. The execution speech is a great contrast to the citizens’ scene (iii.7); in the earlier scene, I will actively try and use the audience, but in v.1, I intend to play the scene very reflectively. When we were rehearsing it the other day, Barry [Kyle, Master of Play] asked me to try saying it as I looked out the window at the world going by; the sense of stillness and self mockery in that speech suddenly leapt out of the speech. There is a sense of stillness in that scene which will hopefully translate well onto the Globe stage, even in the midst of so many people. The very first line of that scene, “Will not King Richard let me speak with him?” could hint at some kind of relationship between Buckingham and Richard, and when Buckingham is told ‘no’, I think it's a devastating moment. Before, I thought of Buckingham as devious, a man who realises what Richard is doing and goes along with it. Now, my major discovery is that he's a tragic character; he starts with one intention, but gets sidetracked. It's more interesting to play the character in this way; the character's journey is more convincing; Buckingham starts as a man who deeply wants to make Richard king, but get sucked in and begins to enjoy himself. Therefore, in that final scene, he realises what an idiot he's been and therefore is resigned to his fate. Now I’ve made this decision about ‘tragic’ Buckingham, I need to go back to the rest of the play, not just the last scene, and see how it affects the work we’ve done so far.

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Character Notes 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.

We’re starting to run individual acts at the moment. We ran Act 1 yesterday, and we’re about to run Act 2 this afternoon. It's very encouraging – everything is falling into place and fitting together.

Doing a run before an ‘audience’, the whole company, was fantastic, especially for III.vii, the scene where Buckingham ‘appeals’ to Richard to take the crown in front of the Mayor and citizens. It's a fantastically funny scene, with Buckingham and Richard overacting terribly, and Kathryn [Hunter, Richard] standing in-between two ‘monks’ dressed as a monk herself. It's been getting sillier and sillier throughout rehearsals, so we felt we had to go a little bit further and just do the scene once as outright farce. Buckingham suggests in this scene that King Edward was in fact illegitimate, not born to his father's wife. He describes how Edward’s, (and Richard’s) father;

…first was he contract to Lady Lucy –
[Richard’s] mother lives a witness to his vow –
And afterward by substitute betrothed
To Bona, sister to the King of France. (III.vii.178-181)

When we did the scene this time, I really stressed the word “Bona” and delivered that line straight to the audience. No-one in that room had ever heard me stress the line in that way, and everyone burst out laughing at the innuendo. We won’t do that again; it's too much, but it was good just to try it once how we all knew it shouldn’t be done and get it out of our systems.

We are going to be using the audience as the citizens in III.vii, and I will be directly addressing them as such. We want to involve the audience as much as possible, as, of course, does Buckingham, but there's a very fine line between encouraging them and losing control of the situation. If I encourage them to go too far, I won’t be able to regain their attention and persuade them to listen.

There is the question of whether Buckingham and Richard are in fact comedic characters, or whether what happens is made funnier by the fact that we are two women playing two men. I was discussing this with Barry [Kyle, Master of Play], who suggested that some of the humour is there in the play, seeing two men playing the political game so coldly and viciously; that in itself is funny to watch. On top of this, you have the fact that Kathryn and I are two women, which adds another layer to the scene, I think.

My main concern at the moment is that there seems to be something missing between Buckingham and Richard, a sort of missing ‘x-factor’, if you like. We have already discovered their camaraderie, their shared sense of fun at what they are doing, but there is something else that is missing. This is especially the case at the ends of certain scenes. There are three or four scenes when Buckingham and Richard are left alone on stage at the end, and we’ve decided that there has to be something more to show in those moments. We’ve already explored the extent to which Richard needs Buckingham, but we’re just starting to explore how much Buckingham needs Richard. Buckingham has been put into the position he is in solely by Richard's patronage; perhaps I need to show more eagerness to please Richard. In the end, I’m not worried – it will quickly emerge in performance, but it's something I’m pondering at the moment.

The other aspect of the production that has changed recently is the Battle of Bosworth. We’ve been working on an extended sequence involving movement, tableaux and pieces exploring different elements of war. I’ve been having great fun appearing as one of the bloody ghosts at the end of the battle (not the ghost of Buckingham, just another ghost), but the question is whether the whole sequence is just too long. I think we’ll have to cut it before we open the production. I hope the ghosts stay.

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Character Notes 5

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.

The first night was a really interesting experience. Some of the company compared it to a rock concert, walking out onto a stage and being able to see every one of a huge audience. First night audiences are usually full of friends and family, either of company members or of the theatre, and they are always very supportive. I had mixed feelings after the performance; on the one hand it was nice to perform to an audience in that space, on the other, I was suddenly aware of how much work needed to be done before the production was complete. I enjoyed playing in the Globe space. As a space, it's not that different to other theatres I’ve played where you can see your audience relatively well. But, at the Globe, the space has a unique effect on the play; one suddenly understands why we’ve staged and interpreted scenes in certain ways because that's how it will work best in that atmosphere. As an actor, you can and should communicate with your audience, wherever you’re performing. The unique challenge for an actor in the Globe is to keep your own focus. There is so much going on in the audience that you have to really concentrate to keep focused on what is happening on-stage, especially because, without lighting, our focus is vital for guiding the audience through the story of the play.

All scenes are changing slightly now that we have an audience to play to. For example, in III.vii, we’ve been exploring how much fun Richard and Buckingham are having in the process of trying to get Richard on the throne. What we have to remember at the same time is just how high the stakes are for them. They need to get Richard on the throne; who knows what could happen to them if they fail. I think we’ve found the right balance now between these two poles, and it has a great effect on an audience. We’re actively using the audience as the citizens of London, and we can use the text of the play to encourage them to respond. At the beginning of the scene, I tell Richard that the citizens:

… spake not a word,
But, like dumb statues or breathing stones,
Stared on each other, and looked deadly pale. (III.vii.24-26)

When I say this, I look at them, just to make sure they understand their role, and so when I’m asking them to shout for Richard later in the scene, they’re more than willing. In a way, we trick them into shouting for Richard; they cry out “Yes, we want Richard to be king,” and cheer when he accepts the crown. It's only in the interval when they realise what they’ve done!

Because we do encourage the audience to respond, there is a danger that they might go too far and respond too much. In fact, that happened the other day, when two audience members wouldn’t stop shouting and cheering at everything. We had to win the audience back, so I directed my line “No, so God help me, they spake not a word” (III.vii.24) directly to them, making it a direct command. The rest of the audience laughed and clapped, which stopped them from doing anything more. Usually, audiences are fine and behave themselves.

I mentioned a while ago that I thought Buckingham was a tragic character, that he was corrupted by Richard. Now, I’m not so sure; he's a bit more ambitious than I thought he was and he's quite happy to build this relationship with Richard and work with him. That's the difference; he's happy to do what he does. I originally thought that Buckingham didn’t intend for the princes to be killed, that by asking Richard for “some little breath, some pause… Before [he] positively speak[s]” (IV.ii.24-25), and then coming back and demanding “Th’earldom of Hereford and the movables / Which [Richard had] promised…” (IV.ii.89-90), he was testing Richard, trying to get what he felt was his before refusing to kill the princes. Now, I think it's much more straightforward; he's simply looking to get paid for what he's done before he does anything else, and once he's paid, he’ll get on with whatever he's asked to do. This has had a great effect on the scene where Buckingham is executed (V.i), because suddenly, he's much more frightened. He realises that he's been ‘playing’ too much;

That high All-seer which [he] dallied with
Hath turned [his] feigned prayer on my head (V.i.20-21)

He is now afraid of death, that he might go to hell; the scene is much more poignant.

I mentioned before that we were changing and cutting bits from our Battle of Bosworth sequence. What happened was that we took what we had worked out in the rehearsal room onto the stage, with the company in full costume, and suddenly, it didn’t work. Physical work, tableaux, highly stylised movements such as a ‘tidal wave’ effect that worked so well in the rehearsal room all became unusable when we were all on the Globe stage in costume; their theatricality was lost. The combination of space and costumes meant this work lost its impact, and we’ve had to prune it. Another problem was helmets; dressing women in men's costumes looks fine; no-one has had any problems in believing us to be the characters we’re playing, but this all changed when we put helmets on. Suddenly, we looked like we were little girls dressing up as men; the helmets are so large that they dwarf us. I think you need to be about 6’5’’ to wear one convincingly. As a result, our ‘battle’, rather than looking strong, looked a little weak. What we have now looks much more convincing and works well.

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Character Notes 6

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.

Richard III is now up and running, which is great, and we’ve started rehearsals for The Taming of the Shrew, where I play Tranio. I played Kate in a production of Shrew with the RSC many years ago, so I’m really pleased to be playing a character in the sub plot this time round. I remember standing in the wings getting changed in-between scenes and wondering what was happening on-stage, what all the laughs were for. Now, I’m finding out! It's funny, even though I’ve been in the play before, I feel as though I only really know half of it. As an actor, your knowledge of a play is often determined by your involvement in it; the only person with a true overview is the director! For this reason, I often rename plays according to my character; Richard III has become The Tragedy of Buckingham, and I’m considering what to call Shrew at the moment. I think it might become Tranio's Big Adventure.

Basically, Tranio is servant to Lucentio and swaps places with his master in order to help him woo Bianca. I think Tranio absolutely loves pretending to be of a higher status than he really is. He's very well educated; I think he understands philosophy and the arts far better than Lucentio, and as a result he thinks he knows how a gentleman should behave. In Act I scene ii, he confronts Hortensio and Gremio, asking that

… if [they] be gentlemen,
Do me this right – hear me with patience.’ (i.2.235-236)

At the moment, I’m really stressing the ‘if’; Tranio believes himself to be a far better gentleman than they are, despite the fact that he's technically only a servant. At the moment, I’m reading Thomas Dekker's The Gull's Hornbook (a contemporary satire of Jacobean society) to find out how the upper classes could have been viewed by their social inferiors. As a result, I think Tranio-as-Lucentio will be very over-the-top, almost foppish, but we’ll see what happens. Tranio is a well-loved servant and is very bright; he's read Lucentio's books and knows them a lot better than Lucentio does. But, at the same time, I think he really likes a good time; he tells Lucentio that, although study is a good thing, pleasure is also important:

Let's be no stoics nor no stocks, I pray,
Or so devote to Aristotle's checks
As Ovid be an outcast quite abjured. (I.i.31-33)

Of course, Lucentio then goes and falls head over heels for Bianca, and because Tranio loves his master, he wants to help him and agrees to take his place. As a result, he has to help Lucentio, dressed as a schoolmaster, to woo Bianca. In fact, I wonder if Tranio doesn’t have a soft spot for Bianca himself, but maybe we’ll get to that later on in rehearsals.

At the beginning of the play, the difference in status between Lucentio and Tranio is rather blurred; their relationship is maybe a bit too friendly to be a typical of a gentleman and his servant. However, when the power and position that Tranio gains through pretending to be Lucentio is taken away from him, he learns his proper place; in the end, the play suggests, you have to remember your status and position. In a way, I think it's rather sad…

Having said that, he very quickly gets caught in a situation he can’t control; in order to beat Gremio to become Baptista's favourite suitor for his daughter (Bianca), Tranio has to promise more money and lands than Gremio can offer:

If I may have your daughter to my wife,
I’ll leave her houses three or four as good
Within rich Pisa walls, as any one
Old Signor Gremio has in Padua,
Besides two thousand ducats by the year
Of fruitful land, all which shall be her jointure. (II.i.358-363)

To back himself up, he has to find a ‘father’ for his Lucentio, and terrifies a passer-by into pretending he's his father, which causes problems when the real Lucentio's father shows up. But he gets forgiven in the end, because he's a good servant.

We’ve been doing some work with Marcello Magni, who acted here in 1998 and who is an expert in physical theatre. He's been introducing us to some of the basic theories and movements behind commedia del arte, an Italian style of physical comedy. This has just served to heighten our movements; commedia is based upon character archetypes such as the fool and the lover, which are extremes. If a commedia character is in love, they’re really in love, if they’re hungry, they’re really hungry, and so on. These archetypes can affect how you move; your movements become far more pronounced. The production won’t be a commedia del arte production of the Taming of the Shrew, but we will be incorporating little bits of this work into what we do on stage.

Richard III is continuing to develop. We are all getting used to our characters and relaxing into those roles, which means we are finding out more about them. I have discovered that Buckingham really can feel quite sidelined at the beginning of the play; no-one in that theatre pays any attention to him at all until he is taken on by Richard, and then later he's addressing the crowd; it's a huge transformation.

We have also been getting used to our costumes. Initially, they do feel a little restrictive because they are so different to what we wear today, and so we’ve had to get used to them so that we can move and react naturally in them on stage. Much of the evidence that we have for what people wore 400 years ago, especially those of high status, comes from portraiture. These portraits give us a huge amount of information about what people wore; what their clothes were made of, how they were decorated etc. However, there is also a theory that portraiture show us how people stood and how they moved in these clothes. For example, it was suggested to me once that I shouldn’t cross my arms, because people didn’t, but I’m not sure I agree. You wouldn’t cross your arms if you were having your portrait painted, but does this mean that you wouldn’t in everyday life? I think we should explore how we can use these fantastic costumes and wear them as naturally as possible.

I’m really enjoying the run so far, it's throwing up so many different challenges. You have to constantly keep on your toes and be aware of what's happening in the theatre; if it's about to rain, and you have a line where you mention the ‘dark clouds’, you have to suspect an audience will react. Similarly, there are some things you can’t predict, such as pigeons. Meredith [MacNeill, Lady Anne] was on stage at the end of the play as Princess Elizabeth when a pigeon fluttered in, sat on top of her wig and stayed there. We all burst out laughing!

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