WHEN he was preparing a Shakespeare play—always with love and awe,though it might be for the 20th time—Peter corridor would mutter it to himself in Elizabethan. It sounded like a cross between Devon and Belfast, but it revealed the colours and made the words wittier. American, or he thought,might be just the accent for it. But in his decades as the dominant figure in British theatre, his most celebrated hire from Hollywood was a disaster: the venerable (respected because of age, distinguished) Charles Laughton, or as Lear,stressing every word that was capitalised in the First Folio, to ludicrous effect.
Authenticity in Shakespeare was not one of his causes. Too much had changed, or would change. In 200 years the plays would probably need translating. And theatre itself was so ephemeral,like any living thing. A group of people combined for a spell to place on performances that were never the same twice, a bubble that had to burst as soon as they left the stage.
The job of a director was therefore highly risky. Though he...
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Source: economist.com