“All the world’s a stage,” from the wintry pastorale As You Like It, tops many lists of best-loved speeches in the Shakespeare canon. It’s spoken by Jaques, a cranky courtier from the entourage of Duke Senior, living in banishment in the Forest of Arden. As a commentator rather than a player in the main action, he displays intellect, gravitas, and the irony of one who has seen it all. In a new production at the Theatre Royal Bath, directed by Ralph Fiennes and running through September 6, the aquiline Dame Harriet Walter, 74, takes the part and receives star billing.
Not that the down-to-earth stage royal visualizes her name spelled out in lights. “Above all, I am an ensemble player,” she told me recently, between rehearsals. “I’m interested in the sum of the parts, exceeding the individual contributions to that sum.” Walter’s book Other People’s Shoes: Thoughts on Acting (1999)—top-notch insights wrapped around a sort of crypto-autobiography—lets us in on what it takes to realize that ideal.
