Ian McKellen Discusses "Waiting for Godot"

that's rather I decide to set it all in a ruined theater there's obviously been some funny something dreadful has happened and when it when when Beckett was if you know this story but during the Second World War he was Irish she's living in France and he wrote this play first in French this is a translation and during the war he used to work for the resistance against the occupying forces of the Germans and we'd be sent on assignment and one of those the Sun this was to go with a somebody else in the underground movement to go and go into the forest and wait and AHA they're ready for a message to come we're never going to come from be dangerous to know people's names and if the message didn't come back the next time and the next until finally one day God of God of course in French God who wouldn't mean God French French for goddess Jersey and I've got a relatively well-known Borden renaming the best was that there was a famous cyclist the two of the false people are waiting waiting for the more to combine there some reports in what's your first name oh god oh isn't God I think what she says he's a farmer [Music] god that's well here's another thing I've thought this up and the French for will it was soul sau early so water the planters of soul on the verge don't have anywhere to sleep didn't have any income they're eating vegetables and this farm has got a nice hayloft and a job and food and my farm is usually quite good but what are they waiting for I mean I said the players been so popular over there is because Becket was the first person to realize that an awful lot of life is about waiting you were probably all waiting to come tonight examinations waiting to go to college waiting to meet the right person my age waiting for death waiting what we're doing is we just passing time getting through I think that's the I think that's what he's latched on to that's what's original god there's just a bit of hope well I would be fair to say that I don't think helping to could have written no-man's land if Beckett hadn't written waiting for God I mean I know that's why God is a good play to know about because subsequently old dramatist song lover stuck with the fact that this play exists and they've got to it's about old age another play by old age or one man's got dementia memory loss gets very confused but you know people will tell you than this pairs of obscure play that characters aren't real existential is a word you've probably discussed all this for us playing it is up there absolutely real people and the first thing that happens is this is all very very real is to keep going off to have a pee yes it is and the memory loss everything else I think it's oh absolutely roots relative getting through the day I don't follow any one method I try and work out the direction that just what the play requires but I've never studied the theory of acting and every book I read about acting I agree with the same thing really often by people who are not very good actors themselves so you're probably asking the wrong people but I take the couch into myself yes and of course he has to use what I've got available I'm stuck with being the height I am much I make myself look smaller in it you start with the voice I've got yes it's going to be my experiences and my what did this the instrument or the other character uses that the character uses and I suppose you know when it's working when you stop talking about him so you're talking about this theme of very based and real experiences and I was curious what your interpretation of how the characters of lucky and Pozzo which they come on and produce a very surreal experience with how they fit into this ice in their another double act generally double actives to two comics who work together Laurel and Hardy in the middle of the second act Beckett suddenly puts an asterisk you'll notice that all the actors were bowler hats remember that you suddenly remember school I must tell the actors it's a sign of being comic down a lot sound lucky I think there another double act then they do this trick with the rope and we'll do this trick to the speech and speaking and they come in and they take over our space until you can't stand it and go over things oh I'd rather like to join this acting of quite fun chicken I think they live up in the attic in this theater that's an intermission they come on under there another act not so blind lucky dumb and tomorrow night they'll be doing well tomorrow we're doing the rope trick again I swear I think of it I mean where'd they come from well there other sir but they are like Gandhi did they're survivors who's in charge of who he was on the end of whose rope I think that's worth thank you both and that changes that dynamic they haven't dropped from happening they're into food oh it's a dreadful world they're all living it and we ought we all have two actors think of that that's the landscape beyond outside this stage it's skeletons we talk about them Apple Inc's they rustle like leaves don't look at them I can't help looking like being in northern France after the First World War when there's nothing but dead bodies or in this country after the Civil War Gettysburg they were planes taking place in a graveyard the use the poor guys have survived I probably muttered all the waters but stairs in the opposite direction unlike all the characters I play that's the sort of starting point but even if it's written disturbed Iago unless of course the character hates himself worse the characters are the more they seem to like themselves painting the neck

Channel: StagingShakespeare

Views: 78,085

Rating: 4.9142499 out of 5

Keywords: Ian McKellen (Activist), Waiting For Godot (Play), discusses, discussion, explains, Samuel Beckett (Author), becket

Id: 72xsqNSN10w

Length: 11min 37sec (697 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 10 2014