Book Note (Well, Short Story Note, Really): "Gertrude Talks Back"

Atwood, Margaret. "Gertrude Talks Back." In Good Bones and Simple Murders. Rockland, Massachusettes: Wheeler, 1994.

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I recently came across several references to Margaret Atwood's very short short story "Gertrude Talks Back." I was able to track it down in a collection of mostly similarly short short stories, and I enjoyed it immensely. 

The setting seems to be, generally, during the closet scene—Hamlet's "Leave wringing of your hands" (III.iv.33) is delightful recalled in Gertrude's line "I am not wringing my hands. I'm drying my nails."

According to Bardfilm's Fair Use Policy, I'm not providing it in its entirety, but I'm giving you the first page of two. I'm pretty confident that you'll want to find the rest and finish it on your own. You won't want to leave these thoughts unfinished.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the opening of "Gertrude Talks Back."

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Cracking the Shakespeare Code: A Norwegian Shakespeare Conspiracy

Cracking the Shakespeare Code. Dir. Jørgen Friberg. Perf. Petter Amundsen, Robert Crumpton, and Stanley Wells. 2017. DVD. Synergetic, 2018.

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Although I don't remember precisely, I think I bought this because it was the exact price I needed to use up my Shakespeare budget for the year. Also, I had hopes that it wouldn't be just another documentary-style propaganda piece for another anti-Stratfordian conspiracy theory. After all, it had Sir Stanley Wells!

Eventually, I gave it a try. And it interested me at first in having much higher production values than the usual fare in this genre does. And then it interested me because our narrator / presenter / guide presents himself as skeptical of the skeptical. Finally, it interested me because it seemed to be about a Baconian theory of authorship, which seemed quaint.

And then it got very odd. And odder. And then it seemed to leave the oddness scale behind.

Here's a rough summary. We start with the idea that there are codes in Shakespeare's works and Shakespeare's gravestone and the Shakespeare monument. And those codes point toward Francis Bacon. 

And then we learn about the Holy Grail to which all those codes are pointing: The manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays (in this theory, the plays were written by Shakespeare, the man from Stratford, but they were written at the instigation of Francis Bacon and Henry Neville), which are preserved in mercury somewhere on the planet Earth.

I mention the planet Earth because we have to leave it for the next step. We have to go to the constellation Cygnus (a.k.a. "The Swan") and see where it's pointing on Earth—that will be the location of the Shakespeare manuscripts stored in mercury by Francis Bacon. That turns out to be Oak Island, Nova Scotia.

Did I mention that the Rosicrucians are behind all of this?

Finally, we learn that the Shakespeare manuscripts aren't the only Holy Grail hidden on Oak Island. The Ark of the Covenant is also there. Together with a powerful and historical menorah—possibly the very one involved in the miracle of Hanukkah. And maybe the Holy Grail is there, too—I admit to letting my attention wander a bit at that point.

The documentary (I'm debating whether to put that in air quotes are not) astounded me by how outrageous its claims became. They build somewhat eccentrically but also gradually so that, if you give each step the benefit of the doubt, you hardly notice when you cross over into the utterly outlandish.

I tried to excerpt a brief clip, but I was unable to do the film justice with just a little bit. Here, then, are some key points in the presentation.

I wish that Sir Stanley had been given more screen time. He could have provided much to rectify the extreme leaps in logic that guide the conspiracy to its ultimately ridiculous conclusions.

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Links: The Film at IMDB.

Click below to purchase the film from amazon.com
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Book Note: The Collected Poems: 1956–1998 by Zbigniew Herbert

Herbert, Zbigniew. The Collected Poems: 1956–1998. Translated and Edited by Alissa Valles. Additional translations by Czeslaw Milosz and Peter Dale Scott. New York: Ecco, 2007.

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I don't often have the time to go through a complete volume of poetry—much less a collected works—but I took the time for Zbigniew Herbert.

He repays reading (and re-reading). 

With Bardfilm's eye, I spotted some of the Shakespeare in these works by the master Polish poet.

In "Journey to Kraków," we're presented with a convincing portrait of a conversation on a train—a conversation that breaks off at the most interesting part!

That's a very intriguing slice of life—and I'm very fond of the author of Hamlet being called "a foreign writer." And even the sudden intrusion of the tunnel makes poetic and literary sense.

The other Shakespeare-related poem is "Elegy of Fortinbras," which I found highly reminiscent of C. P. Cavafy's "King Claudius" (for which, q.v.).

I shall let that one speak for itself, but I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

When you next get a chance, try some Zbigniew Herbert. Even saying his name will bring poetry into your life: Zbigniew, Zbigniew, Zbigniew.

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A Fragment of the St. Crispin's Day Speech in an Episode of Phineas and Ferb

“The Lizard Whisperer.” By Sherm Cohen and Chong Suk Lee. Perf. Vincent Martella, Ashley Tisdale, and Thomas Brodie-Sangster. Dir. Zac Moncrief. Phineas and Ferb. Season 2, episode 27. Disney Channel. 6 March 2010.

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An alert student has informed me that there's considerable Shakespeare to be found in Phineas and Ferb. I've missed this animated show entirely, but I'm always glad to search through something interesting to find the Shakespeare therein.

In this episode, a chameleon has been unexpectedly magnified to many times its usual size. The kids are trying to track it down, and one of them suggests giving up. We then get a response that draws from Winston Churchill and Shakespeare's Henry V: 

The crowd is, as per usual, rallied by the stirring words of King Henry V. But I like the unexpected turn that the show takes when they all simply give up immediately.

If you know of any more Shakespeare in Phineas and Ferb, point us toward it, please!

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Links: The Episode at IMDB.

Click below to purchase a plush duckbilled platypus from amazon.com

(I've been unable to track down a way to purchase the DVDs of the regular-season episodes)

and to support Bardfilm as you do so.

Book Note: Equivocation: A Play by Bill Cain

Cain, Bill. Equivocation. Dramatists Play Service, 2014.

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Bill Cain's Equivocation was recommended as a play about the Gunpowder Plot that had some connection to Macbeth. I dutifully requested it through Inter-Library Loan, and, after it had spent the requisite amount of time on my shelf, I read it.

Beyond the information that it connected to Macbeth, I had no idea what to expect. What I found delighted and thrilled me. I thought I was just going to dip into it, but I stayed exactly where I was until the last page—and even longer as I tried to digest what I had just experienced.

The play drops us right down in 1606 at a meeting between Shag (the name given to Shakespeare in this play—short for "Shagspeare," one contemporary spelling of the name) and Sir Robert Cecil, the Secretary of State (essentially, the Prime Minister avant la lettre) under Elizabeth the First and James the First.

Cecil is asking—make that demanding—that Shag write a play about the Gunpowder Plot (it's eventually titled The True History of the Powder Plot).

The rest of the play is about that endeavor and Shag's skepticism about the official version of events. We get glimpses of that play in rehearsal, but King Lear is also about to be performed . . . and Shakespeare is simultaneously composing Macbeth.

With your permission, I'll drop you right into the play's first scene:

That's a masterful opening—and, as you can tell, it just keeps going. We segue immediately into a rehearsal of the storm scene in King Lear where the actors try to make sense out of the chaos of one of Shakespeare's most difficult plays. Richard Burbage, playing Lear, says, "Look, I know it's a difficult scene. I'm made; he's half-mad; you're pretending to be mad and he's a fool. It might be the most difficulty scene he's ever written. But if we could get through is comedies-don't-have-to-be-funny period, we can get through whatever this is" (15).

I don't want to provide spoilers for the rest of the play, but there are insightful scenes about the purpose of playing, the value of community, the potential difficulty of fathers and daughters communicating (Judith Shakespeare is a persistent presence throughout), the nature of religious belief, what politics is and does, and why James the First will always love a play with witches in it. And I'll add that the play is quite brutal at times, enacting the torture and execution of some of the Gunpowder Plotters.

And it has quite a number of references to earlier plays by Shakespeare—and foreshadowing of the late plays as well.

Bill Cain's Equivocation is a powerful and compelling play. Please let us all know if you learn of a production. I, for one, will drop everything to see it staged.

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Click below to purchase the play from amazon.com
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Shakespeare in FoxTrot's Big Dweeb Energy

Amend, Bill. Big Dweeb Energy. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel, 2024.

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We've reached the end of our FoxTrot Fridays—for now. We've come to the last published volume of FoxTrot, but Bill Amend has (and we're all most grateful for it) kept on writing and drawing and working Shakespeare in from time to time (and Bardfilm in particular is most grateful for it).

Two of the comics in Big Dweeb Energy are tangentially connected to Shakespeare; one comic is titularly tied to the Bard.

First, then, we have Paige complaining about having to read over seventy pages of a book by the next day. Depending on the Shakespeare play she's been assigned (for it must be—almost certainly is—a Shakespeare play) and the edition, she could be being asked to read nearly the entire play (ShakespeareGeek's "My Own Personal Shakespeare" edition of Macbeth would get her almost through Act II; page 75 of the first Arden edition of Macbeth is just thirteen pages shy of the end of the play). If that's the case, perhaps her complaint is somewhat justified.

Andy Fox has her own perspective on the assignment:

Andy definitely has a point—who could stop thirteen pages shy of the end of Macbeth?

Paige may not realize it, but all her study of Shakespeare has paid off in manifold ways. In the next comic, we see that she has learned valuable things about acting (if not about iambic pentameter), and that knowledge comes in handy:

The last comic takes us to Peter and what he's learned about physical comedy from all his study of Shakespeare. And the comic takes its title from a Shakespeare play to boot!

We've come a long way from the first Shakespeare references in FoxTrot—the use of Hamlet and King Lear back in 1989 (for which). And it's been a valuable and amusing journey that is not yet at its end.

Many thanks to Bill Amend for over thirty years of entertainment and enlightenment. We all encourage you to keep up the wonderful work!

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The Brain (of Pinky and the Brain) Reveals that he has Directed Shakespeare

"Yes, Always." By Peter Hastings. Perf. Maurice LaMarche, Rob Paulsen, and Harry Andronis. Dir. David Marshall. Animaniacs. Season 1, episode 52. Fox. 11 February 1994. DVD. Studio Distribution Services, 2018. 

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Every now and then, a Shakespearean deep cut is just the ticket.

"Yes, Always" is a very odd episode of Pinky and the Brain that was broadcast before the characters had their own spin-off show. In it, we are invited to see the Brain recording some dialogue for a series of commercials.  In the course of the work, we learn that the Brain has had experience directing others in Shakespeare.

All that is very meta, which is one of the things I love most about the show.  But, as is so often the case with Pinky and the Brain (cf. their take on Hamlet, for example), there's another layer.

The biggest inside joke is that the script is derived from outtakes from some Findus Frozen Foods commercials that Orson Welles did late in life. You can find a good (though somewhat profanity-strewn) account of this here. 

Here at Bardfilm, we're generally more interested in the Shakespeare in any given material. But we also greatly admire Pinky and the Brain (and we need very little excuse to watch it). Enjoy, then, a portion of "Yes, Always" with its allusion to the Brain's directorial history.

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Links: The Episode at IMDB.

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Book Note: William Shakespeare: Complete Works—The Royal Shakespeare Company Edition

Shakespeare, William. William Shakespeare: Complete Works. [The RSC Shakespeare.] 2nd edition. Ed. Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen. New York: The Modern Library, 2022.

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At some point, I'd like to do a "Book Note" post on each of the complete Shakespeares I have.  But that time hasn't arrived yet—though I do have a post on the New Cambridge complete works (for which, q.v.).

But I do want to talk about the Royal Shakespeare Company complete Shakespeare, mainly because it provides something other complete works lack: Devoted attention to historic performance of the plays.

By that, I don't mean the survey provided in every Arden single edition. In this volume, we learn what the RSC has done with key lines and scenes throughout its history.

First, true to much modern acting practice, the RSC complete works uses the First Folio as its starting point.  Here's what the General Introduction has to say about that (on page 51): 

Second, the preface notes that the first edition provided a distinction between stage directions specifically given in the First Folio and those that can be deduced from the text—something of an innovation in that edition. About this, the preface says "The idea was to allow readers to construct an imaginary performance in their head" (13).  But this second edition has "replaced these platonic performances with a hundred actual ones" (13).

Third, let me provide Act III, scene i of Hamlet (and the "Key Facts" section on that play) by way of example. For this play, three productions (P for production) are referenced: P1 = 2008 with Gregory Doran as director (the Stewart / Tennant Hamlet), P2 = The 2013 Hamlet directed by David Farr, P3 = Simon Godwin's 2016 production.

And that's just a sample of the richness that can be gleaned by considering how past directors and actors have staged the text.

The Royal Shakespeare Company edition of Shakespeare's complete works is ideal for the scholar who is interested in performance, for the actor or director who wants to explore the imaginative range of past productions, and for the student who gravitates more toward practical explanation than scholarly footnotes. 

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FoxTrot Friday on a Sunday?

Amend, Bill. "Comparative Studies." FoxTrot.com. Posted December 1, 2024. https://foxtrot.com/2024/12/01/comparative-studies/.

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Here at Bardfilm, we try to keep our finger on the pulse of Bill Amend's FoxTrot.

And our finger is particularly sensitive when it comes to Shakespeare in FoxTrot.

Ah, whom are we kidding?

I just like to read the Sunday FoxTrots online; I also take almost any opportunity to talk about Shakespeare.

In today's strip, Andy is grilling Paige about her homework. "Where's the Shakespeare?" I hear you ask. Well, it's in the English paper that Paige has only just begun, naturally!

I'm inferring that the paper is on Shakespeare because of the longstanding tradition of the Fox kids' educational expectations. From personal experience, I'm inferring that the two sentences Paige has "written" for her essay are "Is this a dagger I see before me, the handle toward my hand?" and "Come, let me clutch thee."

[Paige has unwisely chosen to begin her essay with a quotation rather than seizing that important opening for herself with her own words.]

These Shakespearean layers add much to the humor of today's FoxTrot comic. Here at Bardfilm, we look forward to even more. Keep the Shakespeare allusions and quotations and references coming, Mr. Amend!

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Links: The Comic at Foxtrot.com.

Shakespeare in Grosse Pointe Blank

Grosse Pointe Blank. Dir. George Armitage. Perf. John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Mitchell Ryan, and Dan Akyroyd. 1997. DVD. Hollywood Pictures Home Entertainment, n.d.

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I first saw Grosse Pointe Blank in a small theatre in a small town in Maine. The top floor was the cinema; the bowling alley was on the ground floor.

The film is about a hit man who goes back to his hometown for his tenth high school reunion and tries to re-ignite a relationship with an old flame.

Despite its having an all-star cast and critical and popular acclaim, I didn't like it. It has an interesting premise . . . once you get past the idea that the writers seem to have been thinking "How can we make a high school comedy with actors who are clearly no longer in high school? I mean, they got away with it in The Breakfast Club, but that technique strains credulity a bit too much." But it didn't go anywhere interesting with the premise.

Many people have recommended that I re-watch it. "You must have been in a bad mood when you saw it." "The noise of bowling downstairs must have distracted you."  "I can't believe you don't love this film!"

And I think I gave in at one point and watched it again, but I didn't like it any better. But then someone played the ace up their sleeve: "Didn't you like the Shakespeare in the film?"

Well, that did it, and I re-watched it. Note: You can probably get me to watch just about any stick if you proffer Shakespeare as a carrot.

But I still didn't like it much, and now I'm a bit resentful that there wasn't more Shakespeare. I was thinking I might have missed an entire Shakespearean subplot.

No such luck. There's not even enough to make extracting a video clip worthwhile. But here are some stills with all the Shakespeare in Grosse Pointe Blank. First, a modern paraphrase of a couple lines from a song in The Merchant of Venice delivered by the old flame during one of her radio broadcasts:

That, naturally, is a play on the song Portia has the singers sing before Bassanio makes his choice: "Tell me, where is fancy bred, / Or in the heart or in the head?" (III.ii.63–64). And the message is, I suppose, what Bassanio says: "So may the outward shows be least themselves" (III.ii.73). Perhaps her old flame, who stood her up on prom night, has some interior goodness. And, from the audience perspective, perhaps this hit man has a heart of gold.

The only other Shakespeare in the film is a flippant quote from the woman's father:

For those of you keeping score, that's from Hamlet (II.ii.303–04, slightly misquoted). Perhaps it, too, points toward the awesome nature of the human spirit, even if it be hidden in a quintessence of dust.

To sum it all up, I haven't changed my mind. But I had not noticed the Shakespeare before, so I'm glad of that.

And the film has a terrific soundtrack—we can't gainsay that.

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Links: The Film at IMDB.

Click below to purchase the film from amazon.com
(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).

All the Devils Are Here at the Guthrie

Page, Patrick. All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain. Perf. Patrick Page. Dir. Simon Godwin. Guthrie Theatre. Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2024.

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All the Devils are Here is part theatre history, part lecture, part Shakespearean acting, and all great.

I first heard about the show when it opened in New York City, and I didn't think I'd ever get a chance to see it.

But I'm very glad I did.

Patrick Page takes us chronologically through nine Shakespeare villains, providing context (including villains written by Shakespeare's contemporaries), backstory (including some speculative but reasonable elements), and enacted scenes (including playing multiple roles in a given selection).

The program provides a "Villain Scorecard" with somewhat tongue-in-cheek commentary about each of the villains Page covers. I'm providing that as the best overview of the contents of the show:

The show is well worth seeing. It's both educational and entertaining, and the choices and the acting are top-notch.

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Links: Tickets at the Guthrie.

Shakespeare in FoxTrot's Deliciously FoxTrot

Amend, Bill. Deliciously FoxTrot. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel, 2021.

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I hardly need to admit that I've occasionally needed to stretch things quite a bit, to make dubiously-warranted assumptions, and to fill in gaps that might not have needed filling in an attempt to find tangential or downright hidden Shakespeare references in FoxTrot books for FoxTrot Fridays. 

I don't need to admit it because you've noticed.

But I trust that the humor of FoxTrot's Bill Amend has entertained even the most skeptical of Bardfilm's readers.

But today, we have Deliciously FoxTrot, a collection that comes through with two very strong Shakespeare-related comics.

In the first, we see how Jason has gathered school supplies suitable for each of his subjects—including his English class: 

In the second, we have Paige subliminally taking on the characteristics of Lady Macbeth:

That second one is made all the better by the title (the collections of Sunday comics have that extra place for an extra joke).

As always, I'm eager to see what our next FoxTrot Friday will have.  But this time, I'm saddened by the knowledge that we're getting close to the end of the published books.

Please keep producing such masterful work, Bill Amend!  And don't forget the Shakespeare angle.

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Shakespeare on Fantasy Island

“The Tallowed Image / Room and Bard.” By Alan Brennert. Perf. Ricardo Montalban, Hervé Villechaize, Lloyd Bochner, Audrey Landers, and Robert Reed. Dir. Carl Kugel. Fantasy Island. Season 6, episode 12. NETWORK. 29 January 1983. 

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I've known for a good while that there was an episode of Fantasy Island that featured (at least in part) William Shakespeare. For a little while, I have known that Shakespeare was played by Robert Reed of Brady Bunch fame. But, for some reason, DVD releases of Fantasy Island have been few and far between—only the first three seasons have been released, and Shakespeare doesn't show up until Season 6! That's one reason I had to fantasize about a Fantasy Island / Tempest crossover (for which, q.v.). 

But I knew that it wouldn't be long before it came my way (how it came my way is another matter), and I've enjoyed the Shakespeare half of the episode (for anyone who wants to know, the other story is about wax museums and Victorian London—with a horror flavor).

In the plot, famed actress Angela Markham arrives on Fantasy Island wanting to meet Shakespeare—but not to commit random acts of bardolotry or to learn what life was like in Shakespeare's day. She simply wants to act for him and to receive affirmation that she is a good actress.

Due to some fantastical mishap, Shakespeare ends up on Fantasy Island instead of Angela Markham showing up in Elizabethan England (the show doesn't trouble too much with the details, so neither shall I). Angela persuades Shakespeare to write a scene for her to act so that she can show her acting chops. Unfortunately, Shakespeare is suffering from writer's block. And he's being pursued by a man from his own time who thinks that Shakespeare is after his wife (which he sort of has been but also sort of hasn't). And the man has the support of Queen Elizabeth, who will not shed many tears if Shakespeare is killed.

But we soon come to realize precisely where Shakespeare is in his career: This is early Shakespeare, with many of his best plays yet to be written (we can suspend our disbelief when we're told that Angela is going to be at the Globe theatre, which means that he's already written everything up to 1599 at least, including Much Ado About Nothing, which is a phrase that this Shakespeare has either never heard before or never considered). If Shakespeare dies on Fantasy Island (or, I suppose, anywhere else) at the hand of the jealous husband, we'll never get Hamlet (among others).

Here's a brief edit of the episode for your entertainment, amusement, and edification:

I'm impressed at how well Tattoo knows his Shakespeare—including recognizing a Congreve quote (or paraphrase) as non-Shakespearean.

Among the other interesting things are the insights into Shakespeare's writing process and the strange temporal shift that enables a speech from a yet-unwritten (from Shakespeare's point of view) play to be delivered and then made the foundation of The Pedlar of Venice.

I'm always looking for rare Shakespeare-related things (including these items in "The Holy Grail of Shakespeare and Film" post and its comments)—so let me know if you've been able to track down anything!

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Links: The Episode at IMDB.

Click below to purchase season one of the show from amazon.com
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Book Note: Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent

Dench, Judith, and Brendan O'Hea. Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2024.

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The key to enjoying Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent to its fullest is to align your expectations with the book. You won't find an autobiography of Judi Dench here. You also won't find uniformly deep Shakespearean analysis. And don't expect a straightforward memoir.

Do approach the book recognizing that it's a somewhat rambling collection of hundreds of anecdotes, thoughts, memories, commentary, and other bits, most of them quite fascinating. Imagine that you've been invited to tea with Brendan O'Hea and Dame Judi (but you've been cautioned not to interrupt)—you'll have a grand old time listening to the wide-ranging conversation.

I highly recommend that you read this book—or, possibly better yet, listen to the audiobook version. The reader who provides the Judi Dench sections isn't exactly doing an impression, but she certainly performs her sections in the style of Dame Judi. 

Either way, the book is great for dipping into and gleaning some wisdom or insight into plays and characters that you may or may not have thought about before. Whether you know the characters and plays or not, you'll find rewarding nuggets.

I can't give you the entirety of the book, but I can give you a sample of Dame Judi's thoughts on one of her earliest roles: that of Ophelia. The parts in italics are Brendan O'Hea's; those in roman type are Judi Dench's.

It goes on from there and includes her thoughts on Gertrude. As you can see, it's not altogether focused, but it doesn't suffer at all if you're not expecting it to be.

As a final sample, I thought we would all benefit from "Dame Judi's Advice to the Players":

Grab a copy today and start gleaning!

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