Interview: David Tennant And Greg Doran Talk About Their Working Relationship, Richard II And The Threat To The Arts

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh57M_srFag3BZyjrcFG1dm01NlvCGBd-17taTyvRBeKoNeN-u3U3G-GhBfe8Hwk2xNFMzD1m-SfkKxUuLxxUJnAo2CuFqtE3Jdp-o04T4HARlQt1EJaR7t7M8RfLqY_6_k9YXmIo3g98s/s1600/David-Greg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh57M_srFag3BZyjrcFG1dm01NlvCGBd-17taTyvRBeKoNeN-u3U3G-GhBfe8Hwk2xNFMzD1m-SfkKxUuLxxUJnAo2CuFqtE3Jdp-o04T4HARlQt1EJaR7t7M8RfLqY_6_k9YXmIo3g98s/s640/David-Greg.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A few days before the opening of their latest production, David Tennant and Greg Doran have been interviewed by the Independent about their theatrical collaborations. At the moment they are in the closing stages of rehearsals for the new Royal Shakespeare Company staging of <i>Richard II </i>which will make its debut on Thursday 10th October at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Read some highlights from the interview below:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On their reasons for wanting to perform Richard II:</span></b><br /><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Greg: "It’s a great lyric tragedy. On one level it’s a play about regime change, where people who think they have a God-given right to power attempt to cling on to that power beyond its sell-by date, so it has a great resonance [with current world events]. It’s all delivered in the most beautiful poetry [ever] written."</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David: " I saw [it] at drama school [and] was completely transported by it and by Derek Jacobi’s performance. It’s a play I have always loved… Because it’s quite unknowable. There are no heroes and villains in it, just people trying their best and not managing to get on with their lives. These people happen to be ruling a country, which makes their shortcomings all the more grossly played out. I love the greyness of the moral lines."</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On one another's working styles:</span></b><br /><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Greg: "David has a natural facility with the language. The lines don’t sound like 400-year-old lines."</span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David: "[Greg has] a very good way of being genuinely collaborative and yet at the same time always being the captain of the ship."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>On the read through of Richard II:</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David: “I was a very good Duchess of York.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David on theatre vs. television:</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David: "Theatre still feels like the day job to me. I just think that this is what I do and sometimes I go off and do bits of filming as well."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On further arts funding cuts by the government:</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David: “I think we have to be very careful, because the arts are interconnected. There are some areas which need help in terms of national funding, but they, in turn, are connected on many levels to our film industry and our television industry. They all work as a piece. If you cut any bit of it you’re going to start starving the whole.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On Greg's appointment to Artistic Director of the RSC by a panel that included David:</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David: “I declared that I might have some sort of conflict of interest.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Greg: “I thought, “Oh dear, I should have talked to David beforehand”, because he looked at me with this wan smile.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/this-happy-breed-david-tennant-and-greg-doran-discuss-their-shakespeare-partnership-8858752.html"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Read the full interview at the Independent website</b></span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The interview will also be published in the print edition of the Sunday Independent tomorrow.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Richard II</i> opens in <st1:place w:st="on">Stratford-upon-Avon</st1:place> on 10th October 2013 and will run until 16th November 2013. It will then transfer to the Barbican Theatre in <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city> from December 9th 2013 until 25th January 2014. The production is directed by Gregory Doran and stars David Tennant as King Richard and Nigel Lindsay as Bolingbroke.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The play will be filmed and streamed live into <st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region> cinemas on Wednesday 13th November, and then into cinemas in locations worldwide in broadcasts running until February 2014. <a href="http://onscreen.rsc.org.uk/richard-ii/default.aspx"><span style="color: blue;">Find out more on the RSC Onscreen site</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.david-tennant.com/2009/id194.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Keep up to date with all the Richard II news on our website</span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><br /></o:p></div>

David Tennant Gregory Doran interview Richard II Royal Shakespeare Company Theatre Interview: David Tennant And Greg Doran Talk About Their Working Relationship, Richard II And The Threat To The Arts

A few days before the opening of their latest production, David Tennant and Greg Doran have been interviewed by the Independent about their ...

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PODCAST: David Tennant And Gregory Doran Talk To Mark Lawson On Front Row

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh520fh6B5Jqg9zNkrD9RqoZbdNlVsVWzAoWfHN_vvbTwVU3HMh4_yrbjKxnh8uzKreebyEGDQVT6dMbp2h3cyrwYBj90lLQftFjUZBU_73UESP_wNXSyUuT_yTMbPyjhnhqtf2hafADko/s1600/WoS2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh520fh6B5Jqg9zNkrD9RqoZbdNlVsVWzAoWfHN_vvbTwVU3HMh4_yrbjKxnh8uzKreebyEGDQVT6dMbp2h3cyrwYBj90lLQftFjUZBU_73UESP_wNXSyUuT_yTMbPyjhnhqtf2hafADko/s1600/WoS2.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mark Lawson's interview with David Tennant and Gregory Doran about the preparations for the Royal Shakespeare Company production of <i>Richard II </i>is now available as a podcast. The interview was broadcast yesterday on <i>Front Row </i>on BBC Radio 4 and is the first feature on the programme.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/frontrow"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Download the podcast from the Front Row Daily page on the BBC website</b></span></a><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Richard II </i>starring David Tennant and directed by Gregory Doran opens at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, <st1:place w:st="on">Stratford-upon-Avon</st1:place>on 10th October 2013 and will run until 16th November 2013. It will then transfer to the Barbican Theatre in <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city>from December 9th 2013 until 25th January 2014. Both the Stratford-upon-Avon and <st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place> runs are currently sold out.</span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The production will be filmed and streamed live from the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre into cinemas around the <st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region> on Wednesday 13th November, and subsequently into <st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region> schools and to cinemas worldwide in screenings running until February 2014.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://news.david-tennant.com/2009/id194.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Find out more about Richard II starring David Tennant here</span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>

BBC Radio 4 David Tennant Front Row Gregory Doran interview Richard II PODCAST: David Tennant And Gregory Doran Talk To Mark Lawson On Front Row

Mark Lawson's interview with David Tennant and Gregory Doran about the preparations for the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Rich...

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INTERVIEW: David Tennant And Gregory Doran Talk Richard II On Front Row

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZufASB0rcRKgMl5fqfXS-DiFsueJZOuk5lzqh28PniYRGAxyiBx32Wv89bzF4QUZsv2jXggzeJX32jzjfN7HcC0fJiCsMjIXVwlg9f4bbM7dsbRtey-BNVNNGh5wxzHm4pMHEraXA7ak/s1600/FrontRow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZufASB0rcRKgMl5fqfXS-DiFsueJZOuk5lzqh28PniYRGAxyiBx32Wv89bzF4QUZsv2jXggzeJX32jzjfN7HcC0fJiCsMjIXVwlg9f4bbM7dsbRtey-BNVNNGh5wxzHm4pMHEraXA7ak/s1600/FrontRow.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David Tennant and Gregory Doran were interviewed by Mark Lawson on BBC Radio 4’s arts show Front Row this evening about their preparations for the new Royal Shakespeare Company production of <i>Richard II</i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mark Lawson mentioned that he had read that David turns up to rehearsals having learned all of his lines and one all of the work. In that case what else does he have left to do?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“I wish that were true,” responded David “I suppose the sooner you know the lines the better I think because it allows you to play with it which, particularly with classical texts, it’s about wrestling them into your own kind of soul, really. It’s about finding away that those words feel they come from you. It’s partly through repetition, partly through investigation and partly through experimentation in the rehearsal room.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Greg added, “We take the text around the table and nobody speaks their own lines for however long it is and we put it into our own words. And somebody will say something which will explain a line in a way I’d never thought of it before. And it also means that people kind of invest in the production because their contribution is a collective understanding of the whole play.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mark Lawson had watched a rehearsal of Act 3 Scene 2, where Richard loses his power and was intrigued by mention of improvisation and how that had helped the development process</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David explained, “We just ran through the scene without staging it where we used what we could find in the rehearsal room to physicalise what we were talking about – other company members, chairs and prop swords, whatever else that felt appropriate within the moment – again just a way of unlocking the words really.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Greg reminded David that at one moment he had built himself a defensive ring of plastic chairs</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“With two weeks to go before we go on stage,” joked David, “That’s how I’d like to spend my life.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mark moved on to the political context of the play and how much David believed it still relates to modern politics, especially as he had recently played a cabinet minister in <i>The Politician’s Husband.</i> Does King Richard act in ways that modern politicians still do? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Yes,” agreed David, “And he thinks he’s entirely justified and right to do the things that he does because he’s been put there by God – for God, read the electorate -  absolutely, he believes he has the ultimate power and should never be challenged and I think that’s some thing we can all recognise from the politics of today.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mark mentioned new that audiences were coming to the <st1:place w:st="on">West End</st1:place> because they had seen many of the stars, like David and now David Walliams, in other shows such as <i>Doctor Who </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David replied, “That’s almost not for me to say. It’s not something I set out to proselytise about, if that happens, then great. Certainly with <i>Hamlet</i> there was a lot of talk before we opened the show that there would be people in some way spoiling it. It’s this weird differentiation between High Art and Low Art and the two should never mix; the assumption within that being that <i>Doctor Who</i> is Low Art which I refute, highly. That never happened. It never happened in <i>Hamlet</i> once. In <i>Much Ado About Nothing</i> it was often quite uproarious which was led by the play. It wasn’t like I popped out of a blue door and Catherine Tate came on with a sonic screwdriver and the house roared. If people want to come and see you in something because they’re interested in your career because they’ve seen you in something else, then fine. We’re all whores!”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Greg agreed, “The audiences that came in for <i>Hamlet</i>, there was a sense that they would be rustling their sweet papers when David was off the stage but that never happened so that must be evidence of that.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“<i>Doctor Who</i> fans tend to be rather intelligent, so you don’t have any worry about <i>Doctor Who</i> fans spoiling and audience,” added David</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mark moved on to the live broadcast  and whether it would be tackled as screen acting or stage acting. In acting terms will David just do it as a stage performance?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“I’ve never done it and I guess you do,” said David “I’ll be honest, I’m not without some nervousness of it. I think you just have to …it’s worth a go…”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well, there’s an audience in there,” explained Greg. “What I don’t want it to be is a second hand experience of ‘If only I was sitting in that theatre’ that wouldn’t be a first hand experience. Back at the Barbican we filmed the production we were doing of <i>A Winter’s Tale</i> and you had to solve the problem of how the camera was going in for a close up on an actor who was still trying to hit the back of the Barbican Theatre, and that’s a conundrum in a way. The trick is not to put backlight, because that’s the only thing that makes you see all the spit!”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A clip of rehearsals revealed that David will be using an English accent to play King Richard. Mark commented on the accent and ease with which David switched between his stage voice and natural accent.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“I suppose I’ve done it quite a lot, it’s just part of the game I guess. And it’s not an accent I particularly have to reach for, I suppose because I have used it a lot.” David admitted. “Maybe if I was doing South African or something I’d be slightly more worried about it. “</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Greg was asked about how he balances the dual role of director of the play and artistic director of the RSC.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He explained, “I had a bit of time to adjust to being artistic director by myself, but what I’ve got is a fantastic team. Every day there is something that has to be dealt with, but as long as you can teach yourself to focus when you’re there, it seems to work so far.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finally Mark asked David an apparently easy question – would he be in the second series of <i>Broadchurch</i>?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David flailed a bit and avoided a straight answer. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“You’d think it was easy, but I have no idea. You’d need to ask Chris Chibnall. He’s writing it as we speak.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But was he available? “Um...I..I..I ..I will see what I can do. The first series I very much enjoyed so I’d like to be involved in series two”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mark also asked if, with him being one of the few with the knowledge of the outcome he had been banned from going and placing a bet at the bookies on the series killer.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“No we weren’t, nobody said that. I thought of it, and I had friends who strong-armed me,” laughed David. “I think the idea that it might get traced back to you would play so badly that I think you realise that you have to be quite careful.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Richard II</i> will open at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, <st1:place w:st="on">Stratford-upon-Avon</st1:place> on 10th October 2013 and will run until 16th November 2013. It will then transfer to the Barbican Theatre in <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city> from December 9th 2013 until 25th January 2014. The cast includes David Tennant, Emma Hamilton, Nigel Lindsay, Michael Pennington, Jane Lapotaire and Oliver Ford Davies and it is directed by Gregory Doran. Both the Stratford-upon-Avon and <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city> runs are now sold out.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The production will be filmed and streamed live from the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre into cinemas around the <st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region> on Wednesday 13th November, and subsequently into <st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region> schools and to cinemas worldwide in screenings running until February 2014.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://news.david-tennant.com/2009/id194.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Find out more about Richard II starring David Tennant on our website</span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tonight's edition of <i>Front Row</i> will shortly be available as a podcast - <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4"><span style="color: blue;">click here for details</span></a></span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>

BBC Radio 4 David Tennant Gregory Doran interview Richard II Royal Shakespeare Company INTERVIEW: David Tennant And Gregory Doran Talk Richard II On Front Row

David Tennant and Gregory Doran were interviewed by Mark Lawson on BBC Radio 4’s arts show Front Row this evening about their preparations f...

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