(Video)
[Shake-spism]
Giles Terera: Shakespism.
Dan Poole: Shakespism.
GT: Have you had Shakespism? DP: Um ...
GT: Are you suffering from Shakespism now? DP: Many suffer from it in their lives.
GT: Shakespism is ... DP: Um ...
GT: You know when you - DP: It can destroy people.
GT: It's a bit like being constipated.
DP: My mum suffered from Shakespism for many years.
GT: It can be like indigestion, only with Shakespeare.
DP: We've all suffered from it, one of those difficult things to explain -
school, secondary school, university, teachers, kids, adults.
GT: The OED definition is:
"an extreme and irrational, highly infectious aversion
to Shakespeare and his works."
DP: Uh.
GT: On the bus, you pass the theater, it says,
"Shakespeare, Richard III, Shakespeare."
It's that feeling. That feeling you had then.
DP: The problem with Shakespism is it can be contracted.
It's an irrational response.
I can literally pass it on to somebody else.
GT: I first found out that I was suffering from Shakespism when I was about 16.
Our teacher said, "Next term, we're going to be doing Macbeth."
All of a sudden, I just felt really sick.
This went on the whole term.
We started to read the play.
I went to the doctor who said, "You've just got Shakespism."
So then, I felt fine.
DP: Two people in the room - four, you've got four people.
One likes Shakespeare. That's why Shakespism's bad.
It becomes about class ...
GT: Tell people about it, they need to know.
DP: Shakespism's something that we can solve.
Um ...
Shakespism will kill you if you let it, so don't.
GT: You could be 2 years old or 80 years old,
and you could suffer from it.
It's the silent killer.
DP: We can conquer it together.
GT: If I say the word to you now -
Shakespeare -
there that's that, that feeling, that's Shakespism.
[shakespearefilm.com]
(End of video)
(Applause)
GT: Gracias.
(Applause)
Now, first of all, we've got to say that we also didn't fly here,
we didn't take the plane either.
GT and DP: We drove.
GT: At least, we didn't take the plane.
Vale! So gracias, gracias.
(Laughter)
Now, a long time ago, in a country far, far away,
(Laughter)
William Shakespeare got up one morning, young William Shakespeare, 20 years old,
and he decided he wanted to leave his nice quiet home in the countryside,
and he wanted to go to London because he wanted to become an actor.
DP: 400 years later, we did exactly the same thing.
(Laughter)
Now, Shakespeare was a man ...
He was a man that wrote great plays,
unless you choose to believe that, you know,
someone else helped him write, but that's not important to us.
What is important to us is to say he shouldn't be put on a pedestal.
He's not a god.
He is a man that wrote great stories, and I love a good story.
GT: I love a good story. We all do.
DP: We all love a good story:
Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth,
Romeo and Juliet in love, dangerous Macbeth.
And that's where our story started -
with a story.
And I grew up in the north of England in a small mining village.
GT: And I grew up in the south.
DP: And Shakespeare was sort of somewhere over here.
And, when I was younger, I had quite a few issues with Shakespeare.
When I was 11, I was studying Romeo and Juliet,
and I didn't really understand it, you know.
I sort of got, at the end, that the two lovers, they die,
and I got that there was a sword fight,
but the other stuff, I didn't really understand, and I didn't get it.
And I felt that - actually let me explain - if I'd go back.
My English lessons when I was 11 years old
normally started off with me being punched in the face.
I was very bullied by a guy.
Every week, on a Wednesday, he'd punch me in the face.
So we've read the play. This day, we're going to watch the film.
So my teacher says, "Go get it, Dan, go and get the TV,"
so already I'm kind of like, "Well, when's the punch coming?"
So I go into the TV room, get the TV, and bang, straight in the face.
So the first 15 minutes of Romeo and Juliet on film,
I kind of missed, to be honest,
but when we then started watching it,
it felt like this gray outdated film that wasn't really about me.
It was a 1960s or a 1970s BBC version of the film
which had been filmed like a theatrical performance.
So it didn't speak to me.
It was cold, it was stoic, and you know, that's the thing,
it's like, if you're going to do it, don't teach someone Shakespeare that way.
And also, don't ever tell someone that if you're not clever,
you won't understand Shakespeare.
GT: Those are pretty bad ideas, but the reason that we're all here today -
us, you,
and we've come here to this beautiful building,
we've driven all this way -
is because of TED.
Now, the motto of TED is "Ideas Worth Spreading."
"Ideas Worth Spreading."
Now, we think that's great,
but we also think that there's some ideas that are not worth spreading.
(Laughter)
For instance,
when we were about to finish our drama training
to become actors in London,
this big director came into our drama school ...
DP: Gordo!
GT: He was huge.
(Laughter)
to help us with our audition practice.
The idea was we would do our audition speech,
and he would give us advice.
Now, I had just discovered Hamlet, and I loved Hamlet.
I really understood Hamlet. I think I understood Hamlet.
He was young and he was angry and he was missing his father
and he didn't trust anyone around him.
So I did my speech, "To be or not to be,"
and when I finished, the big director stopped me, and he said ...
DP: "OK, OK, I think we should just stop there ... "
GT: Wait, wait, wait there. He was Scottish.
DP: Oh yeah,
(Laughter)
GT: Go ahead.
DP (With Irish brogue): "OK, OK, I think we should stop right there.
Ah, you're never going to play Hamlet. In fact, it's just not your casting."
GT: I'm never going to play Hamlet. He said I'm never going to play Hamlet.
I loved Hamlet, but as I left the room,
I started to think maybe the big director was right,
maybe I shouldn't play Hamlet,
and this little idea started to work its way up my arm
and onto my shoulder and whisper into my ear,
this little worm of an idea, a head worm we call them,
that whispers in your ear and says, "Psst. Psst.
You can't do Shakespeare.
Shakespeare isn't for you. Shakespeare is for someone else.
You can't be Hamlet.
Hamlet isn't black, estúpido."
(Laughter)
DP: What! He's not black?
GT: Eh.
(Applause)
And this director had infected me with his idea.
It was Shakespism at its worst.
And I was listening to this head worm and believing it,
and I knew that if I didn't get rid of this idea immediately,
it was going to work its way into my brain and eat me.
So I remembered something, a line that Hamlet says in the play,
and we thought of this line this summer when we were watching the Olympics,
those incredible athletes in London.
Hamlet does not say, "What a piece of work is a white man."
DP: And he does not say, "What a piece of work is a poor man."
GT: "What a piece of work is a rich man." DP: "What a piece of work is a big man."
GT: "What a piece of work is an old man or a young man."
He says, "What a piece of work is a man.
How noble in reason. How infinite in faculty.
In form and moving, how express and admirable.
DP: In action, how like an angel. In admiration, how like a dog."
GT: Those are ideas worth spreading. Those are ideas worth spreading.
DP: So, school, drama school.
What happens when you leave?
You're down a job if you're lucky,
and some of us were lucky, and some of us did work,
but what's interesting is,
if you never get an opportunity to study Shakespeare
in performance after you've left,
it becomes this thing.
The Shakespism thing becomes a big deal, like an elephant in the room.
Can I do it? Can I not do it? Am I being haunted by -
Does Shakespeare maketh the actor? Does Shakespeare maketh the man?
And, you know, I was in a position
where I wasn't really fortunate to get opportunities.
So, I'm there, going, "Can I do it? Am I good enough?
Should I be speaking Shakespeare? Should I even be here on the stage?
What can I - "
GT: You're fine, you're doing well.
(Laughter)
This is what TED's all about, ideas worth sharing,
DP: (Hoots)
(Laughter)
Without him, I am nothing.
GT: Ah, without him, I'm nothing.
DP: So what do you do?
OK, we decided we need to look at why people are scared,
why people are intimidated and put off by the language.
And the interesting thing is when you live your life,
anything that happens to you emotionally, physically, psychologically
happens to all of Shakespeare's characters.
They've lived it before us. It's there for you.
So,
we decided we'd make a film.
Now, it sounds a really easy thing to say,
and it was actually easy to say,
but the actual fact of making a film is fraught with problems,
like money for a start.
How do you make a film when you've never made a film?
And we decided, actually, we'd just get out there and do it.
And there's a line that Macbeth says to Lady Macbeth.
He says, "And if we fail?"
And she says,
GT: "We fail ... "
(Laughter)
"but screw your courage to the sticking place and we'll not fail."
DP: Well, that's what we needed.
So we screwed our courage to the sticking place, and off we went.
GT: Now, that was Macbeth,
but you could apply that to any single situation that you can think of.
Screw your courage to the sticking place,
and we'll not fail.
Shakespeare is universal.
Ben Johnson, the famous English writer - he was Shakespeare's amigo - said ...
When Shakespeare died, he said,
"Shakespeare was not of an age, but for all time,"
and we'd like to think that Shakespeare was not just for a few people,
but he was for all the world.
Because we've all been young, we've all been in love, right?
Yeah, right?
Sí, sí, sí! We've all been in love.
We've all wanted what someone else had. We've all questioned life.
We've all wanted to murder someone.
DP: What?
(Laughter)
GT: Sí, sí, sí!
We've all wanted to murder someone.
DP: I haven't, actually, wanted to murder anyone.
GT: Oh please!
You're telling me, on all our adventures, you haven't wanted to kill me once?
DP: Oh, oh look, yeah you - yeah, yeah.
GT: One or two.
Muhammad Ali said,
(GT shadow-boxing) Grr, grr, grr.
"I'm the Shakespeare of the boxing world."
And JFK said, "Ask not what your country can do for you."
And Nelson Mandela,
when he was in prison for those 27 years on Robben Island in South Africa,
kept one line of Julius Caesar
as his motto.
You know what that line was?
"Cowards die many times before their deaths.
The valiant never taste of death but once."
Charlie Chaplin - that's true.
(Applause)
GT: Ah, hola.
(Applause)
DP: Hola!
GT: Charlie Chaplin dreamt, he dreamt of playing Hamlet.
Can you imagine what a great film that would be?
You see, the thing is that Shakespeare knew
that an artist is able to illustrate
exactly what it is that you're feeling and thinking.
Cervantes could do it.
Bob Dylan could do it.
Michael Jackson could do it.
And Shakespeare could do it better than anyone else.
And so everyone came to see Shakespeare's plays.
The King and the Queen came to see the plays,
and the thieves and the beggars and the prostitutes came to see his plays,
and everyone in between came to see his plays,
and they're still coming to see his plays.
In New York or in the UK or in Japan, in Paris, in Madrid,
everyone comes to see Shakespeare's plays.
In fact, we were thinking this morning,
"What would Shakespeare think
if he could see us, all of us now, here, this afternoon,
talking about his plays, talking about his life,
talking about his words, his characters, his work?"
We think it would blow his little bald head.
(Laughter)
DP: Bald?
(Laughter)
GT: Sí. Bald, bald. Shakespeare was bald.
DP: He wasn't bald.
GT: He didn't have hair.
DP: No, he had it all here. It's almost, it's just -
GT: No, no, no, this is the bald bit, this is -
Let's move on, let's move on.
Vale!
DP: Anyway, anyway, what we did was we got in our car, we got our camera,
and we traveled the world.
We spent five years, and we've been to nine countries,
and we've been to prisons, we've been to schools,
GT: universities, colleges.
DP: We've spoken to lots of people,
actors from Jude Law to Ewan McGregor to Sir Ian McKellen
to young people who are studying to the person on the street
to the person that fills your car up with gas.
We've spoken to everybody.
And what's fascinating to me, in this five-year journey,
is just one core piece of information
which is ...
well, we can't really tell you right now because our film isn't finished,
but what we can share with you are four key points
which have informed the rest of the film.
GT: The young man that we met in prison -
There's a Shakespeare company that takes Shakespeare into prisons,
and we went with the company,
and we met this young man
who spoke a piece of Shakespeare so beautifully to us,
and we thought it incredible,
but everyone else in the prison was amazed because, up until that moment,
that young man had not spoken one word in five years.
DP: And then we spoke to Ewan McGregor,
who had just finished working on Othello, playing Iago,
and he sat down and candidly spoke to us and told us how difficult he found it,
how very difficult he'd found it,
and the fact that he actually had to go and have hypnotherapy
to deal with his fear.
He was suffering from Shakespism.
GT: There was a woman that we met in Denmark,
and there was a production of Hamlet.
She was going to see this production of Hamlet,
and what she thought was so moving and profound about the play Hamlet
was that Shakespeare had managed - he was an Englishman - and he'd managed
to encapsulate perfectly the Danish spirit and mindset.
DP: We spoke to Mark Rylance.
Mark Rylance is the founding artistic director of the Globe Theatre in London,
and Mark spoke about fear,
and about the idea of Shakespeare being surrounded by fear,
and the issue for us, really, was that, what was spoken about
was this idea that, if you can't teach it well enough,
in a way that doesn't scare people away,
you shouldn't teach it at all.
So from that, we had this wonderful idea,
and we felt like the universal ideals
which we'd spoken about with all these people
belonged somewhere.
Can you just roll the video for us please?
(Video playing while onstage speakers quote lines from Henry V: Act 2 Prologue)
(Dramatic music)
DP: "Now all the youth of England are on fire,
And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies.
Now thrive the armorers, and honor’s thought
Reigns solely in the breast of every man.
They sell the pasture now to buy the horse,
Following the mirror of all Christian kings
With wingèd heels, as English Mercurys.
For now sits Expectation in the air"
GT: "O England, model to thy inward greatness,
Like little body with a mighty heart,
What might’st thou do, that honor would thee do,
Were all thy children kind and natural!"
(Video ends)
Now the interesting thing about this
was when the BBC and all the news reporters
asked those young people why they were doing what they were doing -
"Why are you doing it? Why are you doing it?" -
they all said the same thing,
"Because our voices are not being heard.
All we want is our voices to be heard."
So when people turn around and say to you that you can't feel something
or you shouldn't think something or enjoy something or love something,
whether it's Shakespeare or whether it's anything else,
we think that you should be the ones to decide that.
That's your choice.
DP: And when we went into prisons,
we went in with a guy called Dr. Bruce Wall,
and he does a lot of rehabilitation with young prisoners
and prisoners across the board, across the whole world,
and one thing that he gives them and makes them repeat
is, "We have the tools" - what's the phrase again?
GT: "Give us the tools and we will do the job."
DP: "Give us the tools and we will do the job."
And that for us is everything about it.
If you give the tools to the right people,
you'll have people who understand,
people who connect to the world in a very, very different way.
You know, Shakespeare definitely isn't for everybody.
Of course, we understand that,
but for those who want to find out about him
and know about him, it should be accessible.
He was just a man, after all.
GT: Gracias.
DP and GT: Muchas Gracias.
(Applause)