Read Year of the King: An Actor's Diary and Sketchbook - Twentieth Anniversary Edition for Free Online Page B

same thing at all.'
    `Oh come on - Hamlet?'
    `Not at all. Hamlet tends to stand there while things happen round him,
to him. Richard is doing, doing all the time, making everything happen.'
    `All right, let's say I have a play out. What then?'
    `A Robert Holman play. To be written specially for you. In Slot Five.
At The Other Place.'
    I decline immediately. In the past I have not enjoyed having plays written
for me. The process is nerve-racking and seems to cramp everyone's style.
`Also,' I say, `I joined the R S C to do Shakespeare, not new plays. I've
spent my whole career doing new plays ...' The old refrain, growing
feebler by the day.
    Ron thinks for a moment, then, `I'm wearing two hats now. One as
RSC director, the other as the producer of this Maydays series. If that
works out, we'll need every minute after Richard opens. We can film it up
in the Midlands if necessary. If that works out -'
    `If, Ron. It's an "if", not a reality. It can't enter into this discussion.'
    He thinks again. `Tony, we are setting up a season to introduce
the actors we believe are going to be the next generation of leading
Shakespearian players. You must be there. Your Richard must be in that
line-up.'
    Not a lot I can say to that. Feel I'm losing ground all the time.
    We leave the restaurant and Ron climbs into his car. `Well, I'll go back
and report,' he says cheerfully. `Don't worry. It'll work out. Just keep
reading Richard.'
    `I'm resisting that actually. I haven't read it at all yet. Don't want to get
all excited if -'
    `Get excited, get excited!' He grins and drives off.
    Back at home I look at this morning's self-portrait again. It's better than
I thought. And it does have some of the oddity of that original moment.
This is a familiar syndrome. There is a stage with every drawing or
painting when it looks banal and clumsy. It's worth pushing through that,
working through the cliche to find out what made it a cliche in the first
place.
    And the lips don't look even remotely like Laurence Olivier's.

Wednesday 3o November
    All morning spent wrestling with myself: should I go and buy a new copy
of the play and read it properly? The Liverpool Everyman copy is useless
for anything other than dipping into. But buying a new copy is a kind of
commitment. It means I'm definitely going to do it. Am I not definitely
going to do it? I truthfully believe I could still forego it at this stage (and
must if negotiations continue as non-productively as they have been so
far) without it hurting too much.
    Nevertheless ...
CANONBURY BOOKSHOP
    `Do you keep plays?'
    `We do. What are you looking for?'
    `Shakespeare.'
    `But of course. Which one?'
    Speaking the title aloud, particularly to a stranger, seems like a further
commitment. I play for time. `You do keep the Arden editions, do you? It
must be the Arden edition.'
    `Ah. No. We only keep Penguins. They take up less room.'
    `Oh.)
    I stand staring at the row of Penguins, Richard III pulsating ever so
slightly among the Histories.
    'Moving on from Moliere to Shakespeare?' asks the bookseller suddenly.
    'Ye-e-es!' I laugh too loud, startled that he's recognised me.
    `We could order an Arden. But I expect you need it immediately?'
    `Uhm. Yesss ...'
    `Which play is it?'
    `Oh look, not to worry, thank you.'
    I hurry from the shop. Reprieved.
Thursday i December
    RUDLAND & STUBBS FISH RESTAURANT Yellow light, wooden
panelling, sawdust on the floor. After Maydays, dinner with Shrap, Ali
Steadman and the director Mike Leigh.
    The head waiter tells us that after Richard Gere ate here a few nights ago
many of the waitresses, and some of the waiters, made a bee-line for his
chair - which has since disappeared.
    Mike is just back from Belfast where he's been researching for his latest
film. He looks tired and grey. `Northern Ireland bears as much relation to life here as ancient Tibet.' We all get worked up about the recent attack
on a church, where the congregation were mowed down