Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A classic book on acting and life, 16 Jul 2009
Like Anthony Sher's Year of the King, Simon Callow's Being an Actor and Michael Simkin's What's My Motivation? - this is an absolute gem of a book about the life of an actor, and life in general.
Nick Asbury was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company when they set out on the, frankly, ludicrous task of performing all eight of Shakespeare's history plays with the same company of actors. His blogs throughout the process form the spine of the book but it is so much more than simply a book about acting or about those show's in particular.
Nick writes with passion, honesty, humour and, above all, heart about the much maligned business of 'shouting in the evenings' and the resulting book is an absolute joy to read. Cutting through the luvvy nonsense and egos and guff, Nick recounts the amazing and unique experience the company went through with fabulous clarity and joy.
A book for anyone interested in acting, theatre, Shakespeare and life. Can't recommend it highly enough.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastically nostalgic, 11 Nov 2009
I had the great honour of seeing the history cycle while it was on at Stratford and loved it. If I could have spared the money I would definitely have seen the entire sequence over four days. Sadly, it was not to be. Reading these blog entries took me back to just how utterly skilled, well crafted and entirely absorbing this dramatic epic was and how very lucky I was to have been privileged to see it.
I didn't read Asbury's blog when it was posted on the RSC site, so I don't feel cheated that there isn't much here beyond that except an introduction and epilogue which tie everything together. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it as a record far better than a programme to anyone who was there or wished they had been there, or anyone interested in the sheer graft of staging eight consecutive plays of such length.
Amazing stuff.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Playing the Histories, 22 Jul 2009
In 1965 the BBC televised The Wars of the Roses, a previous epic cycle of Shakespeare's history plays at the RSC, and the English Shakespeare Company's cycle of the late 1980s was also recorded (using the same title). This time, disgracefully, no TV channel or film company saw fit to record this extraordinary event for broadcast and for posterity. So congratulations should go to Oberon Books for publishing Nick Asbury's wonderfully vivid blog of his participation in the plays as at least one record of an event which Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph described as "so many extraordinary words, so much outstanding acting, such an epic vision from the greatest writer the world has ever known, and, four centuries on, from the company that dedicates itself to his work".
Nick Asbury is a born diarist and chronicles his experience passionately, wittily and at times very movingly, especially when relating events in his and other company members' personal lives to the themes Shakespeare explored himself. There is much humour too - among many unforgettable hilarious episodes, one of my favourites is when Lex Shrapnel, a terrifically fiery Hotspur who is supposed to hurl his gauntlet aggressively at Aumerle (Jimmy Tucker) in Richard II, in one performance let go too soon, resulting in the glove sailing in the wrong direction across the stage, reducing Nick to corpsing uncontrollably with the others just about holding on until they got off stage!
The book contains a long newly written introduction by Nick covering the events leading up to the point at which the blog starts, and also includes a number of responses to the blog which show the impact this theatrical experience had on many of the members of its audience. A nice selection of the production photos by Ellie Kurttz are in the book too, as well as some taken by two of Nick's fellow actors - the last photo is proof positive that the ghost of Richard II could play table tennis!
For anyone who, like me, saw and loved the Histories, buy the book and rejoice in the memories it will bring back. For anyone who didn't see them, buy it and get a vibrant flavour of what you missed and a memorable account of the trials, tribulations and ultimate triumph of living through and "playing" in the Histories.
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