Macbeth is over now and I loved every moment of doing it. What a great part and I am happy that I was not only able to learn the lines, but was able to retain them at my time of life. Shakespeare is such an extraordinary writer, once you get the words into your head and make them your tool, you have the wonderful characters, he created to work on, they are so completely believable and so recognizable. Macbeth is one of the Shakespeare’s shortest plays and our production was cut to 90 minutes, so it really made an impact….and what an horrific story it is of real wickedness, murder, paranoia and all the uglier, darker aspects of humanity. Not many horror films can beat it. It seems that so much of our modern world tells the same sad story of politics, back stabbing, ambition and the worst of our species.
Macbeth greets his wife after returning from war
Enough of all that, now I can relax a bit and enjoy being back in London, seeing friends and the city again. Next big project looming is REUNION, the script I have optioned to make into a film.
This will not be an easy task, but I am giving my best shot and am cautiously optimistic.
This evening I am going to a party at Buckingham Palace, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Youth Theatre, where I started my career as Portia in JULIUS CAESAR, another political drama of politics, plots and murder, by, who else, Shakespeare. It is being hosted the NYT’s patron HRH Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex. He and I produced the television film of Anne Perry’s Victorian murder mystery book THE CATER STREET HANGMAN, for ITV in the UK. and A&E in the US. We had a good time….HRH and I would ride the train up and down to Yorkshire, where we were filming…he and his two very nice policemen (security) would go standard class, not first and he amused me by telling of the times he would fly in the back end of commercial flights, while the press were all up front looking for him in first class!
My dear old UK computer may have finally died, so am writing this on my Ipad….quite a challenge and I cant find how to do my usual links….but do check out THE CATER STREET HANGMAN…good piece of entertainment..you can find it on YouTube. And the National Youth Theatre is a wonderful organisation, with many ongoing productions. I was with Ian Mcshane, Michael York among other luminaries in that!
All for now friends! Bye bye Macbeth : (r
Richard Stride as Macbeth
Lady urges him on to murder
Well done, Jane …but what’s all this “at my time of life” nonsense ? You have the looks and seem to have the energy of someone much younger … as many have said ‘age is only a number’ 🙂 Hope you enjoy(ed) your party at the palace !
Roger
Thanks for the good thoughts….after all age is only a number!
Don’t know if it was I who misspelled my surname but it’s a good old Suffolk farming name, ‘Blowers’ !
good luck at the palace !!
It looks as if my previous reply has got lost ! It wasn’t very important, just a congratulation regarding the play and a hope you’ll enjoy the party at the palace! The joys of ‘technology’.