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    Year of the Fat Knight: The Falstaff Diaries
    Unavailable
    Year of the Fat Knight: The Falstaff Diaries
    Unavailable
    Year of the Fat Knight: The Falstaff Diaries
    Ebook284 pages2 hours

    Year of the Fat Knight: The Falstaff Diaries

    By Antony Sher

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    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    "

    'Antony Sher's insider journal is a brilliant exploded view of a great actor at work – modest and gifted, self-centred and selfless – a genius capable of transporting us backstage' Craig Raine, The Spectator (Books of the Year)

    Year of the Fat Knight is Antony Sher's account – splendidly supplemented by his own paintings and sketches – of researching, rehearsing and performing one of Shakespeare's best-known and most popular characters, Sir John Falstaff, in the Royal Shakespeare Company's 2014 production of both parts of Henry IV, directed by Gregory Doran.

    Both the production and Sher's Falstaff were acclaimed by critics and audiences – with Sher winning the Critics' Circle Award for Best Shakespearean Performance – and the shows transferred from Stratford to London, and then to New York, where Charles Isherwood in the New York Times described Sher's Falstaff as 'one of the greatest performances I've ever seen'.

    This fascinating book tells us how Sher had initial doubts about playing the part at all, how he sought to reconcile Falstaff's obesity, drunkenness, cowardice and charm, how he wrestled with the fat suit needed to bulk him up, and how he explored the complexities and contradictions of this comic yet often dangerous personality. On the way, he paints a uniquely close-up portrait of the RSC at work.

    Year of the Fat Knight is a terrific read, rich in humour and with a built-in tension as opening night draws relentlessly nearer. It also stands as a celebration of the craft of character acting. It ranks alongside Year of the King – Sher's seminal account of playing Richard III – as a consummate depiction of the creation of a giant Shakespearean role.

    'Antony Sher’s insider journal is a brilliant exploded view of a great actor at work — modest and gifted, self-centred and selfless — a genius capable of transporting us backstage' - Craig Raine Spectator (Books of the Year)

    ‘A fascinating book, whether you love Shakespeare, whether you love theatre, even if you don’t... unfailingly honest... a brilliant portrayal of a character actor’ - Claudia Winkelman BBC Radio 2 Arts Show

    'A brilliantly full-bodied account that mixes the practicalities of a performance with artistic ambitions. You learn as much about Sher himself as you do about Falstaff... far more instructive about acting than any number of how-to guides' - WhatsOnStage

    'A vivid account... Sher has an artist's eye... filled with etacy' - The Times

    'Far from simply a primer on the art of acting... [Sher's] tone is relaxed, intimate, even confidential, open about his personal foibles and relationships... a book about life as well as about acting' - The Spectator

    'One of the most compelling non-fiction books I've read in a long time... chatty, frank, funny and enlightening... anyone wanting to know exactly how a show is created from beginning to end will find it all here... I enjoyed Sher's earlier book, Year of the King, about his journey to create Richard III, but this is even better' - The Stage

    "
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNick Hern Books
    Release dateAug 18, 2016
    ISBN9781780016023
    Unavailable
    Year of the Fat Knight: The Falstaff Diaries
    Author

    Antony Sher

    Born in Cape Town, Antony Sher came to London in 1968, and trained at the Webber Douglas Academy. He is now regarded as one of Britain’s leading actors, as well as a respected author and artist. Much of his career has been with the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he is an Associate Artist. He has played Richard III, Macbeth, Leontes, Prospero, Shylock, Iago and Falstaff, as well as the leading roles in Cyrano de Bergerac, Tamburlaine the Great, The Roman Actor, Tom Stoppard’s Travesties, Peter Flannery’s Singer, Athol Fugard’s Hello and Goodbye, and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. At the National Theatre he played the title roles in Primo (his own adaptation of Primo Levi’s If This is a Man), Pam Gems’s Stanley, Brecht’s Arturo Ui, Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus (a co-production with the Market Theatre, Johannesburg), as well as Astrov in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya and Jacob in Nicholas Wright’s Travelling Light. In the West End, his roles have included Arnold in Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy, Muhammed in Mike Leigh’s Goose-pimples, and Gellburg in Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass. He played Freud in Terry Johnson’s Hysteria at Bath’s Theatre Royal and Hampstead Theatre. Film and television appearances include Mrs Brown, Alive and Kicking, The History Man, Macbeth and J.G. Ballard’s Home. Following his debut as a writer with Year of the King (1985), an account of playing Richard III, he has written four novels – Middlepost, Indoor Boy, Cheap Lives and The Feast – as well as other theatre journals, Woza Shakespeare! (co-written with his partner, the director Greg Doran) and Primo Time. His autobiography Beside Myself was published in 2001. His plays include I.D. (premiered at the Almeida Theatre, 2003) and The Giant (premiered at Hampstead Theatre, 2007). He has published a book of his paintings and drawings, Characters (1989), and held exhibitions of his work at the National Theatre, the London Jewish Cultural Centre, the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield and the Herbert Gallery in Coventry. Among numerous awards, he has won the Olivier Best Actor Award on two occasions (Richard III/Torch Song Trilogy and Stanley), the Evening Standard Best Actor Award (Richard III), and the Evening Standard Peter Sellers Film Award (for Disraeli in Mrs Brown). On Broadway, he won Best Solo Performer in both the Outer Critics’ Circle and Drama Desk Awards for Primo. He has honorary Doctorates of Letters from the universities of Liverpool, Exeter, Warwick, and Cape Town. In 2000 he was knighted for his services to acting and writing.

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    • 4/5
      Sartre said that there’s a God-shaped hole in all of us. Greg fills his with Shakespeare; the other day he said, laughing, ‘I’m not the director of a company, I’m the priest of a religion!’ and me? I have Falstaff inside me now – I can say it confidently at last – and that great, greedy, glorious bastard leaves no room for anything else at all.”In “Year of the Fat Knight - The Falstaff Diaries” by Antony SherReading stuff like this, always awakens my creative streak. Here's a little something for your (and my own) enjoyment I've just written that I think aptly summarises Sher's book:We really do need some protectionFrom the spread of the ‘rising enunciation’Phrases go up? Just at the end?Drives me completely ‘round the bendPlease don’t do it, it’s annoying?So monotonous and cloyingUp-talk gives me indigestionEverything becomes a question!Form a Society of AbatementDon’t Make A Question Out Of A Statement!!!It doesn’t make a lot of sense,And shows a lack of confidenceWho’re the culprits? Not WestphaliansPersonally, I blame South AfricansHow can something so iniquitousBecome so globally ubiquitous?From Durban to Central ParkHangs a giant question mark