- Title: Young at heart: England's Royal Shakespeare Company redefines age
- Date: 29th June 2023
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR, OMAR ELERIAN, SAYING: ''To have somebody like Geraldine James performing Rosalind, which is one of the most extraordinary roles in all of the canon, is, is a gift because you see all the experience and craft, of this phenomenal actor being put to the service to a role and words that in more kind of traditional casting, we wouldn't be able to
- Embargoed: 13th July 2023 12:49
- Keywords: As You Like It Geraldine James Shakespeare ageism
- Location: STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, ENGLAND, UK
- City: STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, ENGLAND, UK
- Country: UK
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Theatre
- Reuters ID: LVA004227023062023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Celebrated British actor Geraldine James thought it was a joke when she was asked to take the lead in the Royal Shakespeare Company's latest production of "As You Like It", a comedy of young love.
A quick chat with Omar Elerian, the production's relatively youthful Italian-born director, and James, 72, was "completely sold" on why he wanted a cast dominated by actors aged over 70, she told Reuters.
Playing at the Royal Shakespeare Company's home in Stratford, central England, until Aug. 5, the production is in step with a trend for experimental casting - last year Britain's Ian McKellan, now 84, played the student prince Hamlet. It also advances the anti-ageist cause dear to the hearts of many actors.
But Elerian, 44, says it was primarily about drawing on the experiences of his veteran cast and their enhanced power to draw out Shakespeare's meaning.
"I thought that... people who had ...come of age during the sixties and the seventies... (it) might be really interesting to have their take...on a play that is all about love and freedom and subversion of rules," he said.
James' experience ranges from performing in Richard Attenborough’s 1980s film "Gandhi" to Netflix series "Anne with an E", as well as previous Shakespearean roles.
To have her playing Rosalind "is a gift," Elerian says. She brings her craft "to a role and words that in more kind of traditional casting, we wouldn't be able to hear".
Elerian, who sets "As You Like It" in a rehearsal room, where the actors reminisce about a show from their distant youth, wants to play with the audiences's perception of age.
''What the hell is young love? It's love is in it? ... Young is a state of mind ..not something that is biological,'' he said.
Only four of the 16-strong cast are under 70, allowing for a generational interplay that Elerian says is too rare in a society in which age is often "tolerated rather than embraced".
Sentiments echoed by James, who says thinks while she has never been short of acting roles, ''ageism definitely exists.....to actually experience becoming invisible simply because you are older is an extraordinary experience.''
James says she hopes the production will inspire other daring casting, including giving more women the fascinating parts Shakespeare wrote for old men, such as Lear and Prospero - as well as allowing more older actors to play roles written for younger people.
''I hope that by seeing a play like this, people will go - 'those people are mostly over 70. And they're playing energy, they're playing attractive, they're playing wit, they're playing comedy. They look okay... And maybe that'll shift and people will will ask older people to play younger parts again. I really hope they do.''
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