I bought this book a couple of years ago in Ashland while attending the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and it has taken this long to come to the top of my pile.
This is an unusual book. It’s not exactly a memoir, although it certainly recounts some of Dench’s memories. It is rather a series of interviews with her friend, director Brendan O’Hea. O’Hea explains in the Introduction that it was intended as a series of interviews with Dench about Shakespeare roles for the archives of Shakespeare’s Globe. He had no idea they might be of general interest until friends made comments and expressed curiosity.
The book is divided by play, more or less in chronological order of her career except when she repeated a role or took on a different part in the same play. The interviews discuss the plays in depth but only from the point of view of the role, so that entire plot points are not covered if they didn’t involve that character.
Dench shows her love of Shakespeare clearly in this book. Anyone who loves Shakespeare or is interested in acting will get a lot from it. And Dench’s personality shows through strongly, particularly her sense of humor. She also mentions the names of many of the actors and directors she worked with and tells a lot of stories.
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I’m in the middle of this one at the moment and enjoying it – she’s got such a good sense of humour and a million anecdotes!
Yes, she does!
I almost never read non-fiction, but I think I’m going to get myself a copy of this one. Thanks.
It is quite enjoyable.