Globe Education Online

This is the fourth bulletin from Philip (Duke Senior), where he discusses his changing interpretation of the character, staging the play and voice work.

Changing interpretation of the character

My interpretation has really changed since my initial impression of Duke Senior. When we first looked at the play, I got very concrete images out of the words about trees and stones and brooks, in contrast to what he has left behind, which is the envious where things are fake. So to begin with, I went down a route of feeling “very Tarzan”, the sort of character who doesn’t feel the cold on a freezing day and keeps telling you it’s fantastic, or who gets up at five in the morning and goes swimming, a kind of scout leader with the map and compass and the hiking boots who is always ahead of you, walking down the track! After all this rampaging around, I started to think that this was alright for the Duke, but in the end I didn’t think it was true. Amiens says that Duke Senior has talked in “so quiet and so sweet a style” [2.1.20], and in order to make that match the outdoorsy Duke, that line was played as a joke. But then there was the big change. I woke up one morning in May, stepped outside and breathed in; it felt like summer was starting, the blossoms were on the trees, and, since I don’t live in London, I couldn’t hear anything apart from birds. I remember thinking, “Ah yes, this is very much Arden”. I had a bit of a light-bulb moment that maybe this was Duke Senior’s take on life in the forest, and so I offered that up to the director [Thea Sharrock] who told me to go with it. So that has been a big change; Duke Senior has gone from Scout leader to Zen Master! I think he is trying to disappear, rather than trying to stamp his personality on the forest. Instead of trying to tame the wild, he is letting his wild side out. He is more like water, rather than rock; when he is challenged by Orlando, he just deflects his aggression and lets it flow round him, saying, “Your gentleness shall force / More than your force move us to gentleness” [2.7.103-4]. The Duke’s attitude to Orlando is that either he can kill seven people for nothing, or he can help out. He is peaceful, because he’s seen the other option in his brother, who is a nightmare, putting people in chains and beating people up and that’s just not his way. But mercifully at the end, his brother sees the light as well so there is a happy ending.

Voice work

I’ve worked at the Globe before, so I haven’t been called in to work with the voice coach this time. That doesn’t mean I don’t need help with voice, but I do my own breathing exercises every day anyway: rib exercises and breathing to try to get the maximum amount of lung power. Interestingly, I don’t do that just for volume, but for force or impact, so you can actually speak quite quietly but make it carry. I’ve found this particularly important with the Duke, he has rejected the court and its “painted pomp” (2.1.3) as he calls it. He has walked away and there is much in what he says that suggests he fancies this change; it’s hard but he is embracing it. I think he’s trying to disappear in the forest; he’s not going to leave litter everywhere, he’s trying to tread lightly, “leave no footprint” in eco-terms. He’s trying to just “be at one” with the forest, so I’d like to see how gently he can talk and still be heard. At the moment, that voice work is my current obsession, although I can’t test it until next week. People can hear me in the rehearsal room and the director is letting me go with it, but next week I may find I’ve got to crank it up or find another way to do it.

Preparing for the Globe stage

I am really looking forward to rehearsing onstage next week because we’ve been in the rehearsal rooms for four or five weeks now. There comes a point when you just have to keep imagining what the theatre is like – it’s just not the same as the room with walls. You need to get an idea of the space and the height, having people behind you and to the left and right of you. In rehearsals, Thea doesn’t always sit in the same place; she is getting a view from different angles to get an idea of how it might play out on the stage. The director likes you to try something and then maybe try something else; she’s obviously got a very clear idea of where it’s going. You don’t feel very fixed apart from certain geographical points on the stage and in the theatre. There are key moments in scenes that have to be as visible and audible as possible, so we’re working towards getting the focus in the right place at the right time. Acoustically and geographically we’ll find out a lot next week. I can’t wait!

These comments are the actor's thoughts and ideas about the part as s / he goes through the rehearsal process – they are simply his / her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsals progresses.

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