Exit, Pursued By A Bear

PLEASE SIGN A PETITION FOR making a record of the play Don Juan in Soho starring David Tennant! 

HELP US TO SEE THIS PLAY! 

PLEASE SHARE THIS POST! 

I know most of his fans are respectful to him, and I shouldn’t have to remind people about this type of stuff, but just in case. Please be courteous to David Tennant when he is out and about New York for his Richard II cycle. I know most of you going or who live in New York are excited to see his play or even just excited that he is town again, but think before you bombard him and ask for autographs and photos, especially within the first week of performances. David just lost his father, so also bare that in mind too. I do love seeing people meeting and greeting with him and seeing their photos with him, that’s wonderful, but ask before taking any with him, and if he declines your request then move on. It’s not his obligation to do anything for you, and if anything you invaded his personal private time; he’s a human being and needs sometime to himself celebrity or not. But David Tennant is really nice to his fans, so knowing him he would probably go ahead take a picture with you and give you an autograph, but remember to thank him for his time and apologize for bothering him. Oh and please don’t take paparazzi style photos of him, it’s one thing to ask and get a photo with him, than  just to taking a sneaky photo of him out and about; I mean you wouldn’t want that happening to you, so why do it to him? Other than that I really hope everyone who is seeing him in the play within the next few weeks or so, has a wonderful time, and I am not saying don’t meet him, please do if he is doing a stage door or something like that because he is really amazing to meet in person.  So I am probably preaching to the choir, but like I said this is just a friendly reminder…anyway if you do read this then….

For taking the time to do so, and I do love you all, and like I said have a fantastic time seeing him perform in Richard II.

PHOTO OF THE DAY - 9th February 2016: 

PHOTOS: David Tennant At The Richard II After Show Talk

Photographer Julia Raskova has very kindly shared with us her images of David Tennant taking part in a post show chat after Richard II at the Barbican last month.

Julia, is a professional photographer from Russia and you can find out more about her work on Facebook, Instagram and VK.

PHOTOS: David Tennant At The Barbican Stage Door 

Photographer Julia Raskova has very kindly shared with us her images of David Tennant signing autographs for fans at the stage door of The Barbican in London last month.

my fave parts of today’s king and country talk:

david tennant spoke about how significant richard’s relationship with aumerle is, in that it’s the only time this king - who has, through his belief in the divine right of kings, isolated himself in his superiority - truly connects with another person on a human and meaningful level.

he said that the scene with aumerle at flint castle, where they have their kiss and moments of tenderness, ‘gives Richard the strength to surrender,’ and ‘gives Richard a reason to surrender.’

he went on to explain that the way in which he surrenders, in the deposition scene, is one where he ‘owns everyone in the room’ and finally realises his own capacity for taking control, even in this moment of surrendering the crown. 

the strength he exhibits in his finest moment, the point at which we feel most sympathetic towards him, derives fundamentally from that flint castle smooch with his boyfriend, basically. :)

when discussing the poignancy of the scene with the queen in which she and richard say goodbye, david mentioned how perplexed he was by it initially, because ‘he spends the whole play ignoring his wife’ and then they have this moving moment. so they circled round and round in rehearsals trying to work out how to pitch that. he said that he feels really sorry for both the actresses who have played the queen, because for the whole play he ‘gives them nothing to work with’ - he humorously recounted scenes in which she attempts to help him in some way and richard blatantly ignores her - and yet she is so loyal to him, and the actresses playing her have some poignant lines to deliver on the basis of not very much loving from richard, who is, according to david, much more interested in, ahem, going off with bushy, bagot and greene, in… all manner of ways, ‘possibly all at the same time’ ;)) god bless david tennant for not skirting around his interpretation of richard’s sexuality

when asked how much he researched historically speaking vs how much he stuck to shakespeare’s version of richard, david said something like, ‘as with any drama in which you are telling the story of something that actually happened, you have to respect history enough to at least do a bit of research, but you also have to respect the script enough to focus on that, as an actor.’ Clearly there are elements of richard’s life which shakespeare chooses to omit or change up, such as the queen being an adult in the play (in real life she was just a child when married off to richard) but when researching the real richard, david became obsessed with the notion of richard becoming a king as a boy, and the psychology of that, so that was a huge influence on how he portrays him. essentially, ‘you just take the useful stuff and discard the rest,’ where historical facts are concerned.

overall, it was a very interesting and entertaining talk and they covered all the stuff i was curious about re: the production and shakespeare’s approach to writing history plays/tragic histories in general, which was great.

shout-out to the other actor in the talk lol, jonathan slinger, who was very smart and funny and who didn’t break eye contact with me the entire time he was speaking lmao, i felt like i was in a seminar and found i kept nodding to show my approval at what he was saying 

what i also loved was, because jonathan had also played richard II some years ago, they compared their productions as they answered questions; it’s fascinating to hear where they were similar in their approach and where they differed, esp when it resulted in them being like, ‘hmm well i agree with what david’s saying, but also maybe you could argue….[insert different view here]’ lol. i like that they acknowledge there can be different interpretations about certain aspects

one funny moment early on was when david went to justify his opinion about something with a line from the text, and forgot the line; he remembered it quickly enough, and proceeded to speedily reel off a few lines and then bowed his head and said ‘thank you!’ to applause, but it was so funny to see his initial distress, and he said, ‘i said these lines literally 12 hours ago why can’t i remember??’ This funny bit was compounded by jonathan subsequently quoting some lines from the play in one of his answers, to which david reacted: ‘how do you remember that? you did it years ago! i couldn’t have done that,’ or words to that effect.

DT and Jonathan Slinger were the lucky actors who got to entertain us with their knowledge of the play and the experiences of performing Richard II … for those of you who don’t know (and I was certainly one of them) Jonathan performed RII for the RSC in the early 2000s when they did a run of the 8 history plays … or in other words he was Dickie before DT was

It was really fascinating to learn all these interesting tidbits about RII as a person and the period when Shakespeare wrote the play … and also the differences between the two productions but how similarly they both understood the character and the mindset of RII throughout the play … there was a mediator, who was an Oxford Professor in Shakespeare, asked the questions for most of the session which was great … but when they turned to the audience I think all three of them were extremely surprised about how knowledgeable and detailed the questions about the play were … I think by the end DT and Jonathan were both hoping for a simple “what’s your favourite scene” question

What do all these pictures have in common, we here you ask?

With the release of the latest James Bond movie Spectre we thought we would throwback to when some famous Bond actors and directors worked here, at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Enjoy!

Judi Dench in the RSC’s All’s Well That Ends Well (2003) directed by Gregory Doran.  Judi Dench played the role of M in the bond films for many years including: Golden Eye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale. Photo credit: © RSC

Timothy Dalton in Romeo & Juliet (1973). From left to right: Benvolio (Peter Machin), Page to Benvolio (John Abbott), Romeo (Timothy Dalton), Balthasar (Nickolas Grace), Mercutio (Bernard Lloyd), Abram (Lloyd McGuire).

Timothy Dalton played the role of James Bond and appeared in The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill. Photo by Reg Wilson. © RSC

Colin Salmon in The Indian Boy (2006) at the RSC, directed by Rebecca Gatward. 

Colin Salmon played the role of Charles Robinson and appeared in Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day. 

Photo by Ellie Kurttz. © RSC

The Tempest (1993) directed by Sam Mendes. Ariel played by Simon Russell Beale. Prospero played by Alec McCowern. 

Sam Mendes directed Skyfall and Spectre.

Photo by Reg Wilson. © RSC

John Hodgkinson in the Love’s Labour’s Lost (2014) directed by Christopher Luscombe in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. 

John Hodgkinson played the role of Silva’s Isolation Guard in Skyfall.

Photo by Manuel Harlan. © RSC

Joseph Milson in King John (2006) at the RSC directed by Josie Rourke. This image shows, Richard McCabe (King John) and Joseph Millson (Philip The Bastard).

Joseph Milson played the role of Carter in Casino Royale.

Photo by Stuart Hemley. © RSC

This image shows Claudio (Ralph Fiennes) and Don Pedro (David Lyon, Prince of Aragon) in Much Ado About Nothing (1988).

Ralph Fiennes played the role of Lieutenant Colonel Gareth Mallory (also known as ‘M’) in Spectre and Skyfall.