Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent

by Judi Dench, Brendan O'Hea

Discover the work of the greatest writer in the English language as you've never encountered it before by ordering internationally renowned actor Dame Judi Dench's SHAKESPEARE: The Man Who Pays The Rent—a witty, insightful journey through the plays and tales of our beloved Shakespeare.

Taking a curtain call with a live snake in her wig...

Cavorting naked through the Warwickshire countryside painted green...

Acting opposite a child with a pumpkin on his head...

These are just a few of the things Dame Judi Dench has done in the name of Shakespeare.

For the very first time, Judi opens up about every Shakespearean role she has played throughout her seven-decade career, from Lady Macbeth and Titania to Ophelia and Cleopatra. In a series of intimate conversations with actor & director Brendan O'Hea, she guides us through Shakespeare's plays with incisive clarity, revealing the secrets of her rehearsal process and inviting us to share in her triumphs, disasters, and backstage shenanigans.

Interspersed with vignettes on audiences, critics, company spirit and rehearsal room etiquette, she serves up priceless revelations on everything from the craft of speaking in verse to her personal interpretations of some of Shakespeare's most famous scenes, all brightened by her mischievous sense of humour, striking level of honesty and a peppering of hilarious anecdotes, many of which have remained under lock and key until now.

Instructive and witty, provocative and inspiring, this is ultimately Judi's love letter to Shakespeare, or rather, The Man Who Pays The Rent.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Shakespeare, Audiobook, Biography, Biography Memoir, Theatre

400 pages, Hardcover

First published October 26, 2023

Reviews

[Barbara]

4.5 stars

This book started as a series of interviews between actor/director Brendan O'Hea and Dame Judi Dench, about the many Shakespeare parts Dench has played. O'Hea's plan was to donate the tapes to the archives department at Shakespeare's Globe.


Brendan O'Hea and Dame Judi Dench

O'Hea's chats with Dench were so entertaining that he decided to condense them into a book. I had access to both the written book and the audiobook (which is delightful)!

Dame Judi Dench, born in 1934, is considered one of Britain's greatest actresses. Dench's talent and versatility led to appearances on stage, in films, and on television, but she's most revered for her roles in Shakespeare's plays.


Dame Judi Dench

The plays discussed, and Judi's roles, are: Macbeth (Lady Macbeth); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Titania, Hermia, First Fairy); Twelfth Night (Viola, Maria); The Merchant of Venice (Portia); Hamlet (Ophelia, Gertrude); Coriolanus (Volumnia); As You Like It (Phebe); Measure For Measure (Isabella); Much Ado About Nothing (Beatrice); King Lear (Regan, Cordelia, Goneril); The Comedy of Errors (Adriana); Richard II (Queen Isabel); Antony and Cleopatra (Cleopatra); Cymbeline (Imogen); All's Well That Ends Well (Countess of Roussillon); Henry V (Katherine, Hostess); The Merry Wives of Windsor (Mistress Quickly, Anne Page); Richard III (Duchess of York); The Winter's Tale (Hermione, Perdita, Paulina, Time); and Romeo and Juliet (Juliet). Quite a resume!!


Judi Dench (as Volumnia) and Kenneth Branagh (as Coriolanus) in Shakespeare's Coriolanus


Judi Dench (as Cleopatra) and Anthony Hopkins (as Mark Antony) in Shakespeare's Cleopatra


Judi Dench (as Mistress Quickly) in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor

Interspersed with discussions about specific plays are miscellaneous chapters, including: Stratford-Upon-Avon; Play; Company; Fireside Ramblings; Rose Theatre; Failure; Rehearsal; Critics; Shakespeare's Language; Audience; Changing Times; Future of Shakespeare; and Advice. In addition the audiobook concludes with a fun 'off the cuff' talk between O'Hea and Dench.


Dame Judi Dench chatting with Brendan O'Hea

Though I've seen some Shakespeare productions, I'll admit I looked up synopses of the plays being discussed, to familiarize myself with the plots and characters. Thus the book was a twofer for me - Judi Dench's memoir and a bit of a primer on Shakespeare.

Prompted by O'Hea, Dench discusses the plays' plots, language, staging, costumes, cast, directors, relevance, mishaps, and more, and Judi is knowledgeable, fun, introspective, philosophical, practical, honest....all kinds of good things.

Dench also gives us a glimpse of her personal life, with anecdotes about her parents; her husband Michael (Mikey) Williams, her daughter Finty, and people she's met and worked with during her long career.

I'll give examples of the chitchat, to provide a feel for the book.

Macbeth

Speaking about Lady Macbeth, Dench opines: "Macbeth needs a push, and with the help of the spirits his wife is the one to do it. She is the spur that pricks him on....She's not interested [in being the Queen]....She does it for him....towards what she believes to be his due."


Judi Dench (as Lady Macbeth) and Ian McKellan (as Macbeth) in Shakespeare's Macbeth

On a light note, thinking about doing the play in Africa, and acting outside in the heat, Judi recalls, "I remember seeing vultures sitting in the trees and I said to the actors, 'For God's sake, twitch when you're dead, they're waiting to eat us."

Stratford-Upon-Avon

Asked about Stratford-Upon-Avon, Dench observes, "In all the memories I have, that's where my heart is. It's where I feel centered. So much of what Shakespeare talks about in his plays can be referenced to the countryside around Stratford....We (Judi and her husband Michael) lived there for ten years and Fint (Judi's daughter Finty) grew up there. And Michael is buried in the grounds of the little church."


Stratford-Upon-Avon


Judi Dench, her husband Michael, and their daughter Finty

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Thinking about the play, Dench says, "Titania and Oberon are so randy. They're at it like knives. You never see that in productions, do you? All the fairies should be humping each other throughout." LOL


Judi Dench (as Titania) in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream


Fairies in Shakespeae's A Midsummer Night's Dream

Company

Dench loves being in a production company. Speaking about the Old Vic, Judi says, "It was thrilling being able to have a walk-on part in one production, play a character in another, understudy in something else. I loved being a cog in this great big community."


Judi Dench (as Ophelia) and John Neville (as Hamlet) in Shakespeare's Hamlet (at the Old Vic)


The Royal Shakespeare Company

Much Ado About Nothing

Talking about the Bard, Dench observes "There's something for everybody in Shakespeare. Everything you have felt or are yet to feel is all there in his plays: oppression, ambition, loneliness, remorse, [jealousy, love] everything."

For instance, in Much Ado About Nothing, the character Beatrice doesn't want to get married. Dench observes, "She's down on her knees every night praying it'll never happen. Who needs a man? Who wants to be accountable to a 'clod of wayward marl'? After the passion of the wooing and the solemnity of the wedding, it's all downhill. She has such a bleak view of matrimony."


Judi Dench (as Beatrice) and John Barton (as Benedick) in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

King Lear

Dench has been in King Lear three times, at the Old Vic, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and on the radio. She remembers, "John Gielgud was Lear in the radio version and we were recording it to celebrate his ninetieth birthday." When asked if Gielgud was good as King Lear, Judi says, "I've no idea. With radio, you only ever tend to record your own scenes....and I never heard the full production when it was aired. But I adored him so much, he could have played Bo Peep and I would have thought it was superlative."


John Gielgud (as King Lear) in Shakespeare's King Lear


Judi Dench (as Regan) in Shakespeare's King Lear

The Comedy of Errors

A scene in this play reminds Dench of an incident in her own life. She observes, "[My husband] Mikey and I had some friends over for lunch at our house. He took a few of them down the pub for a drink, while the rest of us stayed home and cooked. I told Mikey to be back by two and when they didn't turn up on time we locked the doors and started eating. They did eventually appear....and we took absolutely no notice. They had to get a ladder and climb in through the bedroom window."


Judi Dench and her husband Michael Williams

Critics

Talking about critics, Dench notes, "Caryl Brahms never liked anything I did. She was vitriolic, and clearly allergic to me....[she] always had the knife in me - never once gave me a good notice."


Caryl Brahms

Judi goes on, "In the early days I used to read every word of my reviews, but I don't have any truck with them any more....If you read something negative, you start worrying and get self-conscious...And a positive review can bring its own problems....The audience comes with very high expectations and you're under pressure to live up to them."

Richard III

In Richard III, Dench plays Richard's mother, the Duchess of York. Asked how she got the part, Judi says, "I was at the Hay Festival being interviewed by Richard Eyre. Ben Cumberbatch was sitting in the front row and when it came to the audience asking questions, he put up his hand and said, 'Will you play my mother in Richard III?' And I said, 'Oh yeah, I expect so.'....so the way to get me to do something is to shout it out in front of a big crowd!"


Judi Dench being interviewed by Richard Eyre


Benedict Cumberbatch (as Richard III) and Judi Dench (as the Duchess of York) in Shakespeare's Richard III

In the play, Richard murders his way to the throne, and Dench (as his mother) demonstrates her horror in the following speech:

O ill-dispersing wind of misery.

O my accursed womb, the bed of death.

A cockatrice hast though hatched to the world,

Whose unavoided eye is murderous.

Dench observes, "You don't half tell a story in that speech. It's four lines of enormous information - and extreme alarm."


Judi Dench (as the Duchess of York) in Shakespeare's Richard III

Future of Shakespeare

Dench believes Shakespeare will always be relevant. She says "Shakespeare's words will continue to exist because he's part of our everyday language. How often do we unwittingly quote him?" 'As good luck would have it; what's done is done; fair play; eaten me out of house and home', and more.

Judi hopes people will still be performing Shakespeare's plays in fifty years. She says, "What we need are teachers, directors, and actors to ignite the pilot light....Shakespeare is an international language, a beacon for humanity, and a bridge across cultures."


Congolese Macbeth


Chinese production of King Lear

*****

I learned a good bit about Shakespeare's plays, as well as Judi Dench's career, from this book. You don't need to be a Shakespeare expert, or even a Shakespeare fan to enjoy the narrative because O'Hea and Dench are interesting and fun in and of themselves. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley, Brendan O'Hea, Judi Dench, and St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for copies of the book.

You can follow my reviews at http://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com/

[Cindy Rollins · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have ever asked “Why read Shakespeare?” This is the book for you.

Judi Dench unequivocally gets Shakespeare, gets language, gets acting, and definitely gets poetry especially iambic pentameter.

I loved hearing her experiences acting in sooo many of the plays. I loved even more her constant quoting of lines and poems.

She is a bit salty.

Interestingly, Barbara Flynn narrates/plays the role of Judi in most of the book. She is simply remarkable. It is seamless between the real Judi and Barbara’s narrations. This isn’t a straight reading but a re-enactment of the conversations.

This is a must-read for lovers of Shakespeare or even for those who don’t get it.
There is also much here for those who love language and like to talk about how it works. Judi has all the respect for the words! The play is the thing!

I hope to get the Kindle version to collect quotes. There are many I want to remember.

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second Read
I have recently listened to the audiobook and it is amazing how much more it offers --- much like the difference between reading a play and seeing it performed.

First Read
The basics: This book is the result of many interviews with Dame Judi Dench over a period of four years. Dench discusses her approach to portraying a wide variety of the women in Shakespeare’s plays. Dench has been winning awards since the Sixties when BAFTA named her “the most promising newcomer.” Now that she approaches 90, she still has the drive to perform and, as recently as 2022, was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Belfast.

I was not able to acquire (at what I deemed a reasonable investment) the audio version. So, I waded into the hardbound edition when my number came up on our local library’s waitlist.

This book contains discussions of about 20 plays and about 30 characters. In one play, Dench has played four of the characters at different times.

The first up is Lady Macbeth. Dench notes in the opening scene where Lady Macbeth is reading a letter from her husband that: “What’s important is that you establish the couple’s passion for each other (at the very start)…”
Second Read
I enthusiastically agree with those who advocate the audio book. The extra dimension to the dialogue is fantastic...just like the contrast between reading a play and seeing it performed. There is a great amount of nuance in the way questions are posed and answered.

Many of you know how much Dench's sight has been a challenge for her. What is astounding is that she can remember word-for-word plays in which she hasn't portrayed any character in over half a century! Not only does she remember her lines but those of the other characters as well. What a delight (and an education)!

First Read
And how many of us would have noticed this? “And after ‘Shall sun that morrow see’ there should be a pause because it’s not a full iambic pentameter, which means you’re allowed some kind of reaction. Peter Hall taught me that and it opened a huge door for me.”

There are plenty of great anecdotes. In one from Macbeth, Dench tells of a time when the actor playing one of the witches was unable to perform and “A woman from the British Council offered to step in, said she new the lines. But when it cam to the spell around the cauldron – ‘Eye of new and toe of frog,/Wool of bat and tongue of dog’ – she forgot the words and said, Wool of bat and two pork chops.’”

Every play (and every role) isn’t a complete delight for her. The Merchant of Venice is an interesting example. “It’s just an ugly play. But then look at the time when it was written. Maybe that’s what the audience wanted. Such a cruel society – bear-baiting, cock-fighting, public executions. And they didn’t always want people to die when they hung them. Sometimes they would bring them down from the gallows BEFORE they were dead, eviscerate them, and then take out their beating hearts. And those same audiences came to see these plays. You don’t have to dig too deep to see the bear-baiting in Shakespeare. Look at the treatment of Malvolio, Lear, Shylock. God, Merchant is such a tricky play to do. Especially post-Holocaust.
---Do you think the play should be banned?
Not at all. You stand there, say the lines and let the audience make up their own minds. They’ll be divided. Some will feel very sorry for Shylock and some will think he’s got his comeuppance. But that’s for them to decide. Our job as actors is to tell the story and fill in as much of the characters’ intentions as we possibly can. But there has to be room for the audience to ask questions….And also, our job as actors is never to judge the characters. Because then the audience are denied the chance to interpret the play themselves…”

I can imagine the many things that an actor might treasure in this book, but it also works well for just a member of the audience to fine tune oneself to the performance. I have kept my 40 volumes of The Yale Shakespeare close for over 50 years, but this would be a delightful addition to them.

I decided to add an additional quote from the book:
Q: Do you ever feel diminished by Shakespeare's words?
"Never diminished but occasionally overwhelmed. I can sometimes hear something I know very well and go completely to pieces. And that may be to do with having the echo of somebody saying it in my head. Or the memory of a part I've played, or a production I've seen. Or just the sheer music of it."

[Antigone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dame Judi Dench takes to the sofa for a few precious minutes to discuss the plays.

We are fortunate that her parts were many and her wisdom seasoned by decades on the boards, acting alongside some of the most esteemed theatrical figures of her own and subsequent generations. She has gone well beyond the need to pronounce or proselytize on The Bard or The Method. Here are merely her thoughts and feelings as they relate to the emotional realities of the characters and what was required of her to play them.

On Ophelia:

Well, you don't have to show the audience she doesn't have a mother in an overt way, because that's not what the scene is about - you just have to fill in the gaps in your head so that you understand the family history. I always got the sense that the mother died a long time ago and her absence is felt in the fact Ophelia's so close to her brother and father. The advice that you imagine her mother might give - about the birds and the bees and how to conduct and protect yourself - is left to Laertes and Polonius. There's a really strong bond between the three of them, which makes it all the more heartbreaking when you see the family fragment at the end.

You need not know the plays. She is interviewed by friend and fellow actor Brendan O'Hea who does a magnificent job of walking each tale through its twists so that you may follow the important beats. He, too, has played a few roles and his familiarity lends a lovely, steadying hand to their discussions.

On Viola:

Where does she get her disguise from? Or the money to pay the Captain? Or do you not worry about that? Is literalism unhelpful?

I think with Shakespeare it is - certainly that much literalism. Yes, if you want to justify it to yourself you can say she held on to her brother's trunk of clothes to keep herself afloat, and had some money sewn into her dress, but I don't think you have to go there. There are certain things in Shakespeare you just have to take on trust, or you disappear down a rabbit hole.

Amidst all the mounted drama, moments are reserved for backstage remembrance - the most amusing for me coming with the story of taking Macbeth to an outdoor performance in West Africa:

It was very taxing playing outside in the heat, though. I remember seeing vultures sitting in the trees and I said to the actors, 'For God's sake, twitch when you're dead, they're waiting to eat us.'

The book is a pleasure and recommended to anyone with an interest in watching Shakespeare, or reading Shakespeare, or playing Shakespeare, or simply to those of us who yearn to sit back in a comfy old sofa and pretend in the prettiest corner of our minds that, as far as Dame Judi Dench is concerned, she is in actuality, just for a second, there.

[Heidi (can’t retire soon enough) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sublime conversation between actress and actor who are also personal friends. Sadly, Dame Dench didn’t narrate her own side of the conversation (although there were delightful snippets of her conversation and the prologue is worth a listen as she is quite the pistol!), the actress who played Dench wasn’t just a great reader, I forgot (every time) that I wasn’t listening to a live conversation… it was fairly amazing.

I felt like I was having tea (or maybe a cocktail) with two old friends talking about their favorite subject, but I also felt like I was in the front row of an extraordinary master class on both Shakespeare as well as Dench’s acting style (although she is so reticent to speak of herself— she’d rather let someone else tell you how she did— no matter the role).

As a theater lover, I’ve seen my share of Shakespeare (having lived in CT while in high school…we made several treks to Yale Rep to see Shakespeare) and I’ve never minded reading it in class, but I can’t say I’ve ever chosen to read it for fun (or literary edification). After listening to this book (and having read two other books where Shakespeare plays an indirect or direct role in the story line), I’ve got several Olivier movies cued up and I’m toying with revisiting some of the plays that I’ve not seen or read.

It was a book that could have gone on for another 8-10 hours and I wouldn’t have complained. Dench’s marvelous memory ran the gamut from her costumes, wigs, and mishaps to early career ups and downs (and there were plenty of both), as well as a peek into how she balanced her love for the Bard (having grown up in his backyard) and her family. Although I wouldn’t say she “spilled the tea” on some of her previous stage co-stars, Dench did have some terrific anecdotes for a wide range of actors, many of whom are legendary.

I left mesmerized by the women in Shakespeare’s plays after these two friends finished analyzing, laughing and arguing their way through each and every Shakespeare character that Dench has portrayed in her long career. The power of women in the bard’s plays is quite breathtaking when you begin listing them, one after another, whether the plays were tragedies or comedies. And the wealth of phrasing, plot devices, and stock characters created by Shakespeare and still seen in modern theatre and film today is….

Quite astounding… just like Dame Judi Dench.

(Reviewed 4/28/25)

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simon and I listened to the audiobook together. It's a collaboration between Judi Dench and Brendan O'Hea. They are long time friends and spent many hours talking together to create this marvelous book. I loved hearing Judi's views on all the roles she has played and her love of Shakespeare truly shines through.

One of my favorite parts was when Judi reminisces on spending an evening with Billy Connolly - she is enjoying his company so much she doesn't want to miss a minute - they are laughing and having a jolly time - it is getting later and later - then, she ponders on just how much sleep she really needs!

She also shares about how mischievous Kenneth Branagh is!

Favorite quotes:

Judi learned that she doesn't like directing when she directed Much Ado About Nothing. In fact, she much "prefers acting in the show and being part of it, dressing up and mucking about backstage."

Brendan: "Sinead Cusack once said, 'Acting is the shy person's revenge on the world.'"

Judi: "Absolutely true, I couldn't agree more, what a brilliant thing to say. Much easier for a shy person to walk out on stage pretending to be someone else, than to enter a room full of people at a party as themselves."

Brendan: "Why do you love Shakespeare so much? Why would you fight to have him kept in the school curriculum and performed in theatres?

Judi: "Shakespeare is an international language, a beacon for humanity, and a bridge across cultures. His writing encompasses the minutiae of everyday life. When you come to do the plays you often recognize something that you've never been able to articulate, he's able to express what it is to be human in the most concise way."

Brendan: "Someone once said that a rhyme is the sound of two words kissing."

Finally, this quote is from the podcast, which is a bonus on the audiobook at the very end. Brendan explains that this book is a "biography by stealth as well. It appears to be a book that's about Shakespeare," however, it is also about their friendship, which began in 1984.

[Alisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was invited to read this by the publisher, my first thoughts were reluctant. Yes, I've enjoyed many of Judi Dench's performances on screen, but I'm by no means a lover of Shakespeare. Would it be an inaccessible read for me? Well, it turned out to be a marvelous, marvelous read, and I'm glad I took a chance on it.
The entire book is a series of back-and-forth conversations with Judi Dench. Each of her Shakespearean performances gets an in-depth analysis by her and her interviewer, interspersed with her thoughts and anecdotes about audiences, rehearsals, and other matters of theatre. Her voice and manner are so unmistakable that you can practically hear her speaking every word. Her love for the stage and her deep understanding of her characters completely brought me along for the ride as an enthusiastic reader (even though I thought I wouldn't be!).
The highest praise I can give this book is that it actually stirred in me a faint desire to read a bit more Shakespeare — something I certainly didn't expect at the outset. Judi's love for the language was contagious.

Content note: She drops in a few f-words along the way, which are always startling, but they sort of quickly fade away into the background during the reading experience. Still, this read might not be suitable for all.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for this digital review copy.

[Lizzy Brannan · Rating 5 out of 5]

CALLING ALL SHAKESPEARE LOVERS AND THOSE WHO WANT TO BE! I know. Shakespeare can certainly be intimidating. I was there. However, once one begins to understand the brilliantly nuanced writing of Shakespeare and the timeless plot lines, a need for more surfaces. Having studied at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre personally, I was completely swept up in this magnificent interview between Judi Dench and Brendan O'Hea as they reminisced their countless productions of Shakespeare's plays. What a beautiful tribute to his works, productions, relevancy, and language!!!

"Shakespeare: the Man who Pays the Rent" is an interview with Judi Dench and Brendan O'Hea as the interviewer. There are 39 chapters with each devoted to a particular play and Judi's experiences with it. Some chapters cover rehearsals, failures, ramblings, critics, language, advice, and the future of Shakespeare.
Incredible quotes from Judi Dench:
-"Shakespeare will always be relevant because he reflects the times we are living in."
-"Shakespeare's words will continue to exist because he is part of our everyday language. How often do we unwittingly quote him? 'As luck would have it', 'what's done is done', 'fair play', 'eaten me out of house and home' are just some of the phrases which Shakespeare coined. As are the words: 'majestic', 'assassination', 'rant', 'suspicious', obscene', 'lonely'...... oh so many - he invented over seventeen hundred of them".
-"There's something for everybody in Shakespeare. Everything you have felt or are yet to feel is all in there in his plays:oppression, ambition, loneliness, remorse, everything."
-"And his iambic pentameter - the rhythm of it is so to do with...the rhythm of life, the beating of your heart."
-"Shakespeare is an international language, a beacon for humanity, and a bridge across cultures. His writing encompasses the minutiae of everyday life".
- "Verse is there to support you, and if you go with the rhythm and trust it, it's like surfing a wave."

I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE THE AUDIO VERSION OF THIS BOOK. It is THE WAY to experience it - to truly understand HER experiences. I was smitten with it! It brought Shakespeare back to life for me. Walking through the memories of Judi Dench refreshed all of my own memories with Shakespeare and I adored the candor of both both of these iconic actors.

Many thanks to MacMillan Audio, Judi Dench, Brandon O'Hea, and NetGalley for this audio ARC in exchange for my elated review.

[Bruce Katz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything that follows comes down to this: Reading the book is like spending an afternoon with the incredible Judi Dench!

"The Man Who Pays the Rent" -- that's how Dame Judi and her late husband, Michael Williams, referred to Shakespeare when they were in the Royal Shakespeare Company back in the 70s. The book is an insightful, hysterically funny, ribald, and at times even acerbic distillation of interviews/conversations between Dench and friend and fellow actor Brendan O'Hea, almost all centering around Shakespeare. It's organized mostly by plays and the roles she played in them, with occasional side trips to more general matters. Along the way, we are regaled with anecdotes, recollections, observations about the theater and acting and actors and audiences (including, at one performance, Dench's own dad). About getting bad reviews, and working with actors who are inebriated while on-stage or have a breakdown in the middle of a performance. Or partake of champagne and lobster between scenes. About how while WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE might be a Literary Giant in the public mind, he was every bit a flesh and blood creature of the stage, which is precisely how Dame Judi has approached his work over the decades. What's happening on the stage, she says, really doesn't have a lot to do with what scholars and critics think, as in this exchange from their discussion of "Measure for Measure":

O'Hea: I suppose I'm thinking of themes and mirroring, and if I was writing an essay --

Dench: Which you're not, you're acting, trying to bring a part to life. You can't act a theme.

The point comes through again and again in the book, that on the stage the plays are not lifeless intellectual artifacts but works to be performed and roles to be inhabited, embodied, instilled with presence and back stories the audience will never know about but which are absolutely necessary to add dimension to the characters.

Since I can't begin to capture the many, many pleasures of the book (nor would I want to deprive the reader of the joy of encountering them), I will share a few of my favorite parts. Feel completely free to stop reading here if you like.

At a 1987 performance of a play called "Entertaining Strangers," as she made her entrance through the audience, she saw Howard Davies, a director with whom she'd worked before. As she passed his seat, she gave him a hastily written note "... saying, ‘I suppose a fuck’s out of the question,’ and as I walked by, I dropped it in his lap. But when I glanced over during the scene, I saw that it wasn’t Howard at all, but a much older gentleman who looked very alarmed."

Perhaps her least favorite of Shakespeare's plays is "The Merchant of fucking Venice," as she puts it. She finds the play loathsome, and all the characters in it equally so. There's not a redeeming feature in any of them. Playing Portia, she says, is a challenge, and not only because the character is problematic but because it's so bloody familiar: And that’s when the audience crack open their scripts–[conducting] all together now: ‘The quality of mercy is not strained…’ Oh God, it’s a bummer of a speech to do because everybody knows it. I can see it’s extraordinary, but it’s like the song ‘White Christmas’–you never want to hear it again. It’s so hard when everyone’s mouthing it along with you.

Coincidentally, it was in a performance of "Merchant" that her delivery of some of Portia's less known lines -- "I speak too long... to stay you from election" -- inadvertently came out of her mouth as "To stay you from erection," drawing a rather different response from the company than the Board likely intended. (In a similar mode, she muses about why Hamlet's Queen Gertrude -- whom she played -- was so unhappy with her husband as to be untroubled by his assassination and so eager to bed his brother. Maybe he had gout, she suggests, or "couldn't get it up.")

Some of the best passages in the book come from her comments about playing Cleopatra. Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, who is in everyone's mind "tall, imperious, and statuesque," while Judi Dench is all of 5 foot one. She warned the director, Peter Hall, that "he'd hired a menopausal munchkin but he just laughed."

I don't want to share too much about this part of the book. Dench's Cleopatra was played opposite by Anthony Hopkins as Mark Antony. What a show that must have been! She talks at some length about how flawed the two characters are ("enter two shits," is how director Hall put it in remarks to the company.) She riffs on Cleopatra's violent reaction upon learning that Mark Antony has remarried: She blames herself for falling in love with Antony. And then -- oh God, it's so feminine -- she wants to know everything about the other woman. What kind of bird is she? She’s got long legs, has she? And blonde? Of course. And very thin, I bet. Oh yeah? Fuck her. Cleopatra can’t compete.

I want to go on and share more. Like the thing with the snake as Dench-Cleopatra's corpse is being borne off-stage by four soldiers. Or how she broke a rib in Juliet's suicide scene but had to lie "lifeless" on the stage even though she was in horrible pain. Or how she tries to get inside the heads of her characters, as in this from her remarks about "Measure for Measure": "Angelo’s full of riddles. Isabella must be thinking: What the fuck is he on about? or however a nun would think that thought."

I'll stop even though I really don't want to. If you enjoy Shakespeare, or theater in general, or adore (as I do) Judi Dench, you will love this book. It's that simple. You'll find yourself chuckling and wanting to share passages with someone.

NOTE: As I write this, the audio version hasn't yet been released. I don't know how much Dench herself narrates. Her vision has been severely impaired in recent years, however, which would of course make it difficult, if not impossible, to read the "script".

My most sincere thanks to St. Martin's Press and Edelweis+ for providing a digital ARC in return for an honest review.

[Katerina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Взгляд на Шекспира изнутри, причем взгляд въедливый, субъективный, очень самоуверенный, взгляд женщины, которая уже играла Шекспира, когда ваши мама и папа еще не родились, и в своем почтенном возрасте может позволить себе быть откровенной и даже не слишком вежливой. “Nothing” is a euphemism for “vagina”? Don’t be ridiculous!

[Suzannah Rowntree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly the best time I've had between the covers of a book all year? Celebrity memoirs are a bit outside my wheelhouse, but this is a legendary Shakespearean actress recording the lessons of a lifetime spent playing 28 different roles across 20 different plays by one of the world's greatest dramatists, and I inhaled the whole thing inside 48 hours. The fact that we get hilarious anecdotes about people ranging from John Gielgud and Franco Zeffirelli to Kenneth Branagh and Benedict Cumberbatch is a fun bonus. (We also get to see Dame Judi Dench respond with shock and withering disdain to being informed that the "nothing" in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING refers to ladies' privates. It's an absolute hoot).

I was intrigued by this book because I love Shakespeare and have spent a lot of time thinking about his plays in a professional capacity as an author, and I wanted to hear what Dench could teach me about the characters and their motivations. I got that in spades, of course, but I got more than that too. I learned an awful lot about how to speak his language (I've been reciting poetry wrong my entire life). I enjoyed Dench's supremely down-to-earth acting philosophy and her insistence on remaining true to the characters and the play in the face of fanciful speculations about characters' motivations or attractions. I found inspiration, not just for stories I plan to tell in the future, but for re-evaluating my relationship as a story-teller to my audience (what I wouldn't give to have the same kind of instant audience feedback that a theatre actor does! Or maybe I don't have a skin thick enough for that).

One of the most interesting things in this book is the very clear and uncompromising line Dench draws between the job of performing the play as it stands and the job of critiquing it. There are plays and characters she dislikes (especially THE MERCHANT OF VENICE) for the attitudes the characters display, but even in these plays she insists on doing the job and letting the audience make up its own mind. The audience, she says, must be allowed to interpret the play themselves, or they're just being fed the answers and sent away with nothing to do. I thought that this was extremely good sense. (Being a Shakespearean actor requires a certain amount of media literacy, after all). As an author, I'd never want to write something with the sort of unchallenged prejudices you see in MERCHANT, but I do also very much always hope that when I do have characters behaving badly the audience doesn't need a honking great neon "YIKES" sign to light up.

Absolutely delightful and seriously thought-provoking and insightful. I borrowed this from the library, but I absolutely want to buy my own copy because I can see myself returning to this book multiple times in the future.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an absolute treat!! I adore Judi Dench and was so excited to read this memoir! I listened to the audio version and it was great.

It’s done in a very relaxed, conversational interview with Brendan O’Hea asking the questions and Judi answering. The questioning is about Judi’s lifelong love of Shakespeare and her experiences. Barbara Flynn narrates most of Judi’s part with Judi jumping in for some magnificent Shakespeare from memory.

I loved learning about Judi’s childhood, her theatre shenanigans and thrills! So much behind the scenes that I would have never known about without this gem of a book!

Judi is such a special person and I especially loved the additional audio at the end where she and Brendan reminisce, as old friends do!

5 golden ⭐️’s, all the way!!!

Many thanks to Macmillian Audio for the ARC via NetGalley.

[Vicky Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Shakespeare is an international language, a beacon for humanity, and a bridge across cultures. His writing encompasses the minutiae of everyday life."

Whether reading the plays of Shakespeare, or watching them performed on stage; you are not likely to find as compelling a view as that provided from the eyes of a lady who has performed multiple roles in over half of the Bard's plays. Over a seventy year career, she has been on stage in so many iconic roles. And, hearing her talk about the people she worked with and the roles themselves is a pleasure unmatched.

The book is a memoir of her roles. The entire format is in the shape of the interview with Brendan. Interspersed in between the different roles are brief pieces about her take on rehearsals and the world of the stage actor, the people she knew, Shakespeare's use of words, and the future of Shakespeare's plays. At times they argue back and forth about perceptions of the roles. It never fails to be entertaining. But, in the process, you see these beloved characters in ways you've never seen them before... from the inside by someone who has worn them.

I found myself looking up a few more British expressions than I was familiar with. I started with the hardback from the public library, but quickly added the Audible format because I wanted to follow along. That was probably the best plan, since the hardback has all the drawings from the Dame's notebooks, as well as two photographs from beginning and end of her stage and screen career. But, the Audible includes a special 45 minute bonus segment at the end titled "Dame Judy Dench and Brendan O'Hea in Conversation." This is well worth hearing, as is the rest of the book.

I have had almost no sleep since I ended up reading until I finished this at four in the morning. But, it was definitely too good to stop, even with leaving the review to write until now. I am glad I have the Audible for enjoying this again in future, but regrettably the hardback goes back to the library.

[Moonkiszt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took my time with this one! It is too delicious not to. . . .I spent my mornings listening and re-reading (I both read and listened - to have Judi Dench's voice and that sweet giggle start my day was a joy and delight!).

The interview process between Judi and Brendan O'Hea (a director and actor also) covers a wide range of acting and Shakespeare work topics:

[Work of W Shakespeare
**Topic - Judi's Take On It]

Macbeth
**Stratford-Upon-Avon
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
**Play
Twelfth Night
The Merchant of Venice
**Company
Hamlet
Coriolanus
**Fireside Ramblings
As You Like it
Measure for Measure
**Rose Theatre
Much Ado About Nothing
King Lear
**Failure
The Comedy of Errors
**Rehearsal
Richard II
Antony and Cleopatra
Cymbeline
**Critics
All’s Well That Ends Well
**Shakespeare’s Language
Henry V
The Merry Wives of Windsor
**Audience
Richard III
**Changing Times
The Winter’s Tale
**Future of Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
**Advice

Mind you, these are not analyses or summaries of the above listed plays. They are the subjects of Dame Dench's reminiscences of her years of experience on and off stage / film working with notables and not-so-notables - all part of her life and days working within William Shakespeare's oeuvre and worldview. IF there were more than 5 stars, I'd be granting ALL The Stars for the pleasure this read gave me in both its formats. The audio also provides a rousing amusement in the form of outtakes from the interviews.

Hurray and Huzzah for Dame Judi Dench's latest book Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent !

*A sincere thank you to Judi Dench, Brendan O'Hea, St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and independently review.* 52:21

[Zander]

Dench has an abundance of wisdom and is a master of the anecdote. If you have any slight interest in Shakespeare, or have wondered what the fuss is about, this book is a must read (dare i say, it is an even better audiobook). An absolute treat.

Excerpt:

Is it true that when Trevor was asked if the Macbeths were the Nixons...
He said, "No, they're the Kennedys." They're the golden couple. They adore each other. And she'll do anything for him. If he wants to be king then it'll come to pass. 'You are glamis, you are Cawdor, and we know what's been promised next. You're going to be the effing King, darling.'

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Judi Dench and Brandon O'Hea for this truly illuminating and highly original memoir of life in the theater. Dame Dench has a prodigious memory, can recall in many cases the Shakespearean roles she has embodied over the past seven decades. But more than that, her deep understanding of and reverence for Shakespeare, his poetry, his insights, his contributions to the English language, are all inspiring. She discusses the characters' motivations and inner lives, incorporating them into flesh and blood women and not just dusty facsimiles. It gave me a better understanding of Shakespeare and an appreciation of his work. Even to the rhythm of iambic pentameter and even how some works deliberately would shift between text and poetry to establish a character. Also how every emotion in human experience is delineated and timeless. Loved this even more than I thought I would.

[🌶 peppersocks 🧦 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reflections and lessons learned/the content of this book made me feel…
“They make you look at things differently… there has never been a writer that has understood so much…”

It was only a few hours into this title that I realised that I needed to own the audio adventure - the joy and reflection - a passion for the stage and a love for the works… a luxurious read allowing everyone in on the multiple stories. It might not suit the studying school kids, as York notes this is not, and you have to want the interest, but it was hard not to be taken into the story told through multiple friendships

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

enjoyed this book in parts but wasn't that I had originally thought this book would be

[Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating read. Proper review will follow soon.

[Rach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three things to acknowledge up front:

1. I am beyond grateful this book even exists. I can’t believe there’s an audience for this book beyond me. Whoever else is giving this book 5 stars, call me immediately, we are now best friends.

2. Dame Judi Dench does not narrate the audiobook. In the foreword, biographer and interviewer Brendan O’Hea makes an off-handed remark about Dench’s failing eyesight. A small amount of critical thinking applied then can lead you to understand why she’s not the narrator. But Dench starts most chapters by reciting lines of Shakespeare that she has memorized, and it is breath-taking. Additionally, the narrator for Dench, Barbara Flynn, knocks it out of the park. She PLAYS Dench, which perhaps shouldn’t be surprising. She’s got a wicked laugh and I could have listened to her forever.

3. Does Macmillan Drew know he’s got a little fanclub of weirdo girls at Harper who live and die for the audiobooks he approves for us on NetGalley? I hope he does.

This is 9 hours of Judi Dench talking about Shakespeare. It is not an academic study, but a play-by-play conversation about the roles she’s played, how she played them, how she’d play them now, memories from the shows, and what they meant to her. She defends certain interpretations (“should this character be played jealous? Angry?” “Is this scene serious, or a lark?”) and offers insights.

This is, from the bottom of my heart, all I’ve ever wanted. All I’ve ever wanted was to listen to an expert on Shakespeare talk about the different ways you can stage and interpret and play different characters and plays. Does Ophelia really lose her mind? What happened between Benedick and Beatrice? Is Isabella’s fate in Measure for Measure satisfactory or tragic? Dench is insightful and razor-sharp. Occasionally O’Hea will push back on her, and more often than not she doubles down, argues him into submission! But I loved the dialogue between the two, which is imbued with love and friendship.

If you’re looking for tea, you’re not really going to get it. She name drops a few famous friends — Kenneth Branagh, obviously, but also Ian McKellen, Daniel-Day Lewis, Maggie Smith, and adorably, ‘Benny’ Cumberbatch — but she treats them like exactly that: friends. They played parts opposite her. She has a few funny stories, and a few poignant ones.

This was so good I cried when we reached the epilogue, because I could have listened to this forever. What a treasure: both this book, and Judi Dench.

“Shakespeare belongs to everybody, and we must allow who we are as individuals to color our interpretation of his words. Everybody’s upbringing and life experiences are different, and that needs celebrating, and bringing to the plays. You’ve got to find out what his words mean for you.”

Thanks be to NetGalley for existing, for Macmillan and Macmillan Drew for the gift of this audiobook, and to Billy Shakes.

Popsugar 2024: a book published in a year that ends with '24'

[Louise Bath · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a few things from this book - mainly rude ones!

* "Shog off!", a phrase used by Corporal Nym in Henry V, is the equivalent of our "Sod off"/"Bugger off," etc.

* "Coun", a word used by Princess Katherine, again in Henry V, is suspected to mean "cunt". In the English lesson scene when she says "De foot *et* de coun," 'foot' can be pronounced as 'foutre', which was French for 'fuck': "It's certainly implied in the script," says Judi Dench innocently.

This is a fascinating book both in terms of Dench's knowledge of Shakespeare's plays and her memories of appearing in them. She paints vivid pictures of productions over the past 65-70 years, and of the actors, directors, and producers with whom she's worked. It's not only an interesting read, but has also made me want to go and read/re-read several of the plays she discusses.

Recommended - it's not just for theatre or Shakespeare buffs.

[Jax · Rating 3 out of 5]

Through an interview format, Judi Dench describes the many characters she embodied for the Royal Shakespeare Company over decades of her illustrious career. Far from being dry for the non-Shakespeareans out there, it reads like a conversation between friends who share the same passion for theater. Dench imbues this book with her trademark personality while sharing her thoughts about the plays and characters she portrayed. She also shares stories about the theater, life of an actor, the people with whom she worked, and, most endearing, stories of childhood.

Thank you to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free copy of, Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent, by Judi Dench; Brendan O'Hea, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This is a great book for fans of Shakespeare and or Judi Dench. I have not read a whole lot of Shakespeare at all, but Im a fan of Judi Dench. This is an interesting book. Judi Dench tells you all about the plays by Shakespeare.

[Dominika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well. I so completely loved this.

...

"Everything you have felt or are yet to feel is all there in his plays."

[Grace Gerardot · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Everything you have felt or are yet to feel is all in there in his plays. / His writing has the capacity to make us feel less alone.”

What do I even say about this book? All the things I want to say are too lengthy for a review written covertly between homework assignments (the book was read in a similar fashion). It took me forever to finish this, not because it dragged on, quite the opposite. It was so light and readable I just lived in it for awhile, never did I think of reading straight through linearly. Judi Denchs love of theatre and abiding joy in it is infectious, just as she revels in the tradition and glory of the theatre so does the reader and guess what! You never want to leave. Seeing Shakespeare as something brought alive, played out, acted lends a whole other understanding of Shakespeares works. Her comments, stories and observations spill over from Shakespeare into life and I think this is the true reason why it captures his spirit so well.

As an 8 year old enchanted by Shakespeare I wanted to breathe the words of Midsummer Nights Dream as I walked, they were alive. And so is this book. By taking Shakespeare out of the stuffy academic sphere and putting him in the light of living, moving, actionable theatre Shakespeare is understood as literature so alive that I doubt even the most burnt out highschool student could be immune to its magic. Miss Dench creates an atmosphere—curse words, baudy comments and all. I always insisted that no book with obscenities be kept in my library but that book has unfortunately thrown the rule out the window. Like life this book just IS, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

I don’t yet know everything this book means to me, like Shakespeare I know it’ll keep coming to mind in at different moments in life and weave itself into my identity, but right now i do know that it’s made me perfectly, incandescently happy. Cheers to every book, play, poem or song rescued from the ivory tower and now glowing in the hearts of readers. And thank you to Judi Dench who by her unconditional love of the bard, has now woven herself into his ever unfolding story too. ❤️

[Christina Baehr · Rating 5 out of 5]

By the end of this series of interviews, I felt like I’d made a personal friend, been reminded of everything I loved about my days in community theatre, and refreshed my passion for layered, vibrant storytelling in any and every medium. I also loved how much Dench is aware of the last 100 years or more of theatre—the bit where she claimed she’d have fallen in love with Henry Irving if they’d been alive at the same time had me in stitches. I also admired how Dench was so no nonsense about being truthful about the text and presenting it dynamically and simply. There’s a simplicity but not simplisticness—or childlikeness without immaturity—about the way she approaches the plays that feels very timeless. I also appreciated that she is open about regrets. I feel like it’s a healthy thing as an artist to be able to say, “I could do that better if I had another chance, but oh well.”

If you love Shakespeare, you probably can’t do much better than to sit for hours in the company of this kind, mischievous woman who has spent years and years studying his art in the most natural and practical way.

(PSA: Apparently the audiobook version has a lot of the swears edited out, so if the very salty British theatre language is something you want to avoid, maybe go for that.)

[Literary Redhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

This magnificent book gives great insight into actress Dame Judi Dench, one of my all time favorites, as she is interviewed about the Shakespearean roles she has played over the years. We learn not only about her, but also about the many plays themselves. In fact, I gained more insight into the Bard's work by reading this than by attending any class on his plays. A gem!

[Melisende · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brendan O'Hea interviews Dame Judi Dench who reflects on her connection to the Bard through her time on stage and film, undertaking roles from Shakespeare's plays. A fun read that is not an analysis of the plays, but a noted actor's reflections, documented in a series of interviews conducted over a period of four years.

For lovers of the Bard and fans of Judi!

[Daniel Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant interviews turned into a book!! Long before Judi Dench was M, she played the Shakespeare theater. She has a photographic memory and shares unique insights. And she is entertaining as well. Recommended for anyone interested in Shakespeare.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Words cannot express how wonderful the audio to this book is! I greatly enjoyed it and highly recommend!