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 ...

Read more »