Richard II Q&A Session
by Isis

Cast Members Present:
Kevin Spacey                   Richard II
Genevieve O'Reilly           Queen Isabel (Richard's wife)
Ben Miles                         Henry Bolingbroke
Peter Eyre                        Duke of York
Susan Tracy                     Duchess of York

Session conducted by Arts editor of the Daily Telegraph

October 11, 2005

The theatre was approximately two-thirds full for the session, which was good for 5p.m on a Tuesday evening. Kevin was in good form, very relaxed.  He was first asked why he had chosen R II as his first venture in England into Shakespearean acting.  He replied that initially he hadn't been very confident about his ability to do Shakespeare, so decided to do a relatively unknown play first. He was asked how he went learning his part - he said he spent most of his off time in Australia learning just the lines.  When he returned to start rehearsals he knew four acts, then started on the character.  

He said doing TPS each night after rehearsals for R II was like going to a party! He was very complimentary about his fellow actors, thanking them for their support; he admitted to feeling a little insecure initially because they have all done a lot of Shakespeare already, but he said that every day they all made sure he was ok and are still very encouraging.  He said he's proud to be a member of the company. He now feels more confident about Shakespeare and will definitely do more, but he wouldn't give any titles because it would be in the papers that he had announced his future plans and nothing has been decided yet. 

An audience member asked him if he and the director had considered reversing the genders of the characters of the play, but as Kevin rightly said; 'there's a very good theatre just down the block that does that much better than we would!' ( He refers to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre). Another audience member asked about the theory that Richard is supposed to be gay.  Kevin said that he and the director felt that the play is very ambiguous about this and so they didn't want to make it bigger than it is.

Unsurprisingly, all of the audience's questions were directed at KS.  He was asked how he develops a character, does he take aspects from other characters he's played? His reply was that during rehearsals he works a lot with the director and other actors to put the character together, then, when he is actually performing he will use what has happened in his day and add it to that night's performance.  He said that whether he is in a good mood or not that energy goes into the performance - he doesn't believe you can be a good actor unless you have the courage to put your entire self into the performance. The use of the word 'courage' concerned a man in the audience, who said he didn't appreciate the word being used in this instance - did Mr. Spacey not consider firemen or ambulance drivers courageous? (The audience was not impressed with this man!) 

Kevin was upset by this question - not a surprise - and said he was not denigrating these people or any one else, but he did believe it took guts to stand up in front of hundreds of strangers every night, spill your heart out to them and hope they have a good time! The session ended after this, it lasted almost a hour and could have gone on much longer, but obviously they had to prepare for the performance.  I spoke with Kevin at the stage door later about the Q&A, he said it had been good fun and he will do more in the future.

October 12, 2005

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