Shakespeare’s humanity, McKellen’s humility
Print Edition
IF all the world’s a stage, the center of it belonged to celebrated Shakespearean actor Ian McKellen last weekend in Shanghai.
In his first visit to China, the veteran thespian, 77, was in town to kick off a retrospective called “Shakespeare on Film” at the 2016 Shanghai International Film and TV Festival. The film tribute honored the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death.
At the festival’s opening ceremony, McKellen recited the famous lines from “As You Like It” — “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and entrances …”
That was followed by Shanghai stage actor Jiao Huang’s recital from “Hamlet” in Chinese.
On Sunday, the actor gave what was called a “smart talk” to an audience of 900 people, most of them college age, who braved a storm to get to the British Council-sponsored event. The next day, he appeared at a media conference.
Among younger people, McKellen is probably best known for his role as Gandalf in “The Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy. The only “Gandalf moment” in the two-hour, one-man show occurred when the veteran thespian referred to the final exams most of his audience had just completed.
If you don’t study hard, he said, invoking Gandalf’s most famous line, “you shall not pass.”
The comment drew enthusiastic and sustained applause.
McKellen has won every major theatrical award in the United Kingdom for portrayals that include Macbeth, Richard III and King Lear. The purpose of his Saturday talk was to acquaint Chinese audiences with the world of the Bard.
With only a chair as a stage prop, he recounted highlights of Shakespeare’s life, times and works. He recited favorite monologues to highlight points in the talk.
0n Monday, he told the media, “People think Shakespeare is difficult. Yes, it is difficult — to read — because we shouldn’t read Shakespeare. We should hear Shakespeare and we should watch Shakespeare.”
McKellen has recently worked with Jonathan Bate, Oxford professor of English literature, to create an educational Shakespeare app for students, trying to demystify what is difficult language for young, modern audiences.
The project, which is planned to cover all 37 plays written by Shakespeare, begins with “The Tempest.” The apps will also include commentary, notes, historical timelines, context and character explanations.
Professional Shakespearean actors, including McKellen, will give voice to the famous dialogues.
The actor shared his thoughts on his profession at the Shanghai events where he appeared.
At the media conference, he was wearing a T-shirt with his white suit. It said: “I am me.”
“I decided what costume to wear today, didn’t I?” McKellan said. “It’s making a statement and I am acting a part. You don’t have to have a play or a stage to observe theater. Just walk out in the street and look; everyone’s acting.”
His love of Shakespeare runs deep.
“I’m not a person of religion, but if I had to have a god, it would be Shakespeare,” he told the media. “He seems to have understood us all, understood that we fall in love and we fall out of love, we get jealous, we get angry, we get ambitious, we get cruel. But he never judges us. Actors enjoy being in his plays because of this humanity and because it is expressed in a matchless language.”
Live theater, he said, is the “most exciting form of communication for actors,” but film has the power to bring stories to life for different audiences.
The festival tribute to the Bard began with the 1995 film production of “Richard III,” a film McKellen produced and undertook the title role.
He said the play’s message is timeless.
“It says as much about power, mistakes, corruption, love, things going wrong, things going right, as any report in today’s newspapers,” he said.
McKellen played the tourist on promotional legs of his China trip. He was photographed in the Forbidden City in Beijing, he was spotted on subways, in bars and at a meeting of organizers of Shanghai Pride. He whimsically left his “profile” at Shanghai’s famous matchmaking corner in People’s Park. It read: 77 years, Cambridge University, house in London, still active.”
A renowned activist in LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual) rights, McKellen told Shanghai Daily that he once sought to initiate a film production of Marlowe’s “Edward II,” about a gay king of England. “No one was interested,” he said.
He said two directors rejected projects where he would play Antonio in “The Merchant of Venice” because he wanted the role to explain Antonio’s unexplained depression as unrequited love for Bassanio — an interpretation that has gained currency only in more recent times.
McKellen admitted that he still finds it difficult to learn the lines in Shakespeare.
“He is very demanding and that’s why I love doing Shakespeare,” he said. “A frequent message in Shakespeare is: Don’t believe in the spirits outside, don’t believe in authority. Believe in your heart.”
He added, “It’s a shame people who don’t speak English might find it hard to understand what Shakespeare is all about. And yet, I would say that some of my most enduring Shakespeare experiences have no words involved. When I saw Rudolph (Nureyev) and Margo (Fonteyn) dance in ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ they had the essence of the story without any of the words. And sometimes you can see a film not in English based on Shakespeare and that too approaches the heart of his humanity.”
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