Shakespeare should be seen but not read, says McKellen

READING Shakespeare is a waste of time, and people should instead celebrate our greatest playwright by watching him at the theatre, according to Sir Ian McKellen.

In an intervention that is likely to win him new fans among GCSE students, but is unlikely to please the arts establishment, Sir Ian said that forcing people to read the works of the Bard served only to reinforce a misplaced notion that his plays were there to be studied, rather than enjoyed.

The actor, who has played roles such as Macbeth, Richard III and Lear to acclaim, said: “I don’t think people should bother to read Shakespeare. They should see him in the theatre. Reading just reduces him to an examination subject.”

Sir Ian is starring alongside Sir Anthony Hopkins in a new BBC adaptation of Ronald Harwood’s play The

Dresser. He made the comments during an interview with Radio Times, in which he argued with his co-star over the merits of Shakespeare.

In a discussion about how to succeed in the acting world, Sir Anthony said: “Living in the land of Mickey Mouse, I’m asked to do a bit of teaching in acting schools, and some of them want to do Shakespeare, and the first thing I say to them is, ‘You must read’.”

When Sir Ian demurred at his suggestion, the Welsh actor, who starred as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the

Lambs, insisted again: “Read Shakespeare. Read Chekhov, read Homer or philosophy or anything you can get your hands on, because acting isn’t all about red carpets and the Kardashians. It’s about getting a knowledge of civilisation, a knowledge of how humans think, feel and behave.”

The Dresser, which airs on BBC Two this Saturday, is set during the Second World War, and stars Hopkins, 77, as a character known as Sir, a veteran actor playing King Lear, and McKellen, 76, as his devoted dresser, Norman.

It is the first time the septuagenarians have starred alongside each other, and the first time Sir Anthony has performed on stage since 1986, when he played Lear at the National.

It appears that the experience of treading the boards in the television role may have softened the actor’s stance on not returning to the theatre, as he said that the onset of the years had left him better equipped to reprise the role of Lear.

Sir Anthony said: “Thirty years ago I was nowhere near, but now I really do understand the man. There’s a harshness in him – and there’s a lot of that in me; something in me that was part of my father and my grandfather.

“They were tough, rough-around-the-edges men, and there’s something thuggish about Lear.

“I’d passionately like to do the play again, here – and this time I’d play him like Mike Tyson.”