Sir Antony Sher's Birthday Luncheon speech
Receiving the Pragnell Award from Professor Michael Dobbs on Saturday, Sir Antony Sher went on to give the following speech. . .
"I can’t tell you how honoured I feel to be receiving this prize and to be joining that amazing roll call of people who have received it before me. So my thanks.
"Then I have very profound thanks to the RSC for basically giving me a career in classical theatre. I feel very lucky, having been brought up in South Africa where there was very little Shakespeare that I then ended up at the RSC at a time when I was able to be taught and directed by some of the great Shakespeareans working within British theatre – Cicely Berry, John Barton, Terry Hands, Adrian Noble and I have no hesitation in adding my partner Greg Doran to that list since I’m not the only one who thinks he’s quite good at Shakespeare!
"I would just like to share with you two short stories from my 35 years of working with the RSC. The first begins in 1984 when I played Richard III. Now any actor who plays that part is going to get correspondence from the Richard III Society who will hold you personally responsible for perpetrating the lies that they believe Shakespeare wrote about Richard III. So I received this correspondence and it was hostile but we all moved on.
"A few years later I was about to play Disraeli in the film Mrs Brown, which starred Judi Dench as Queen Victoria, and the day before I was due to fly up to Scotland to start filming, Greg said, if you haven’t been to his house, Hughenden Manor in Buckinghamshire, why don’t we just jump in the car and go and see it.
"So we drove up there and it’s a National Trust property – so it was closed! So Greg said – ‘We’ve got nothing to lose. Let’s just knock on doors and throw ourselves at their mercy.’ So we knocked on doors and one was opened by a lady who turned out to be the manager of the property. I said look, you won’t know who I am. I’m an actor and I’m about to play Disraeli. And she stopped me and she said: ‘I know exactly who you are and you should know that I am a member of the Richard III Society!’
Well, clearly all was lost. Then she said ‘I am going to show more charity to you than Shakespeare showed to Richard III, so please come in and I’ll give you a private tour of the house.’
"I can tell you that my estimation of the Richard III Society has gone up considerably since then!
"The second story is more recent and concerns Falstaff. For several years Greg had been planning to do the Henry IV plays. And I guess if you’re going to do those you’ve got to start by casting Falstaff because, I suppose, it’s the trickiest part to cast.
"So for literally for a couple of years he would use me as a sounding block and would say ‘what about so and so for Falstaff?’ and I’d go ‘yeah, yeah, that sounds good.’
"And then a few months later he’d say ‘what about him to play Falstaff?’ and I’d say ‘yeah, yeah, that’s good.’
"There is no subtext to this because I had never dreamed of playing the part and Greg had never dreamed of me playing it.
"Then eventually he had a meeting with Ian McKellen to ask him whether he would come back to the company and he said to Ian ‘what about you playing Falstaff?’
And Ian said no, he couldn’t see himself in the role. And then he said – ‘Why are you looking for Falstaff when you live with him?’ I should make it clear that Ian was not suggesting that I have Falstaffian appetites at home. He was making reference to a performance of mine he’d seen at the National Theatre in which I’d played a very forceful larger than life character.
"So Greg came home from the meeting and told me and I laughed and then Greg said that maybe Ian is right. Why don’t you re-read the plays again and why don’t we have a conversation.
"Well I did end up playing the part and it was one of the most thrilling experiences of my career, one that I would not have missed for the world.
"So I guess the point of the story is that Ian McKellen is not only a very great actor but a very great casting director!"
"My 35 years with the RSC has been an amazing experience. I can’t find a better way of describing it than what the late great RSC actor Alan Howard said. He said: ‘To work on one of the major Shakespeare roles is like standing under a waterfall. So thank you RSC for giving me so many waterfalls to stand under.
"And finally to conclude I would like to ask you all to raise your glasses to this great art form that we are part of – the theatre."
The Herald spoke exclusively to Tony Sher before the luncheon. Read some of that interview here. But full interview in Thursday's Herald.
