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Exit Pursued by a Badger: An Actor's Journey Through History with Shakespeare
We are engaged in performing four shows by night and restaging four different shows by day. And restaging all the understudy work as well. This is a lot of work. And my mind has turned to slush.
Nick Asbury was in the ensemble from the Royal Shakespeare Company who, over the course of two and a half years, performed eight history plays by Shakespeare in repertory, beginning with the overthrow of Richard II and ending with the death of Richard III: a sequence of productions both critically acclaimed and watched by over 250,000 people. To keep a record of his involvement in this extraordinary and ambitious project, Nick wrote a Blog which was posted on the RSC website. This in turn became a massive success, regularly notching up 6,000 hits a week from avid followers around the world. Through Nick's engaging, observant, often hilarious words, we experience the camaraderie of actors, the terror of forgetting lines, technical difficulties, money problems, finding strange things in the bath, thirty-three broadsword fights and, and, of course, the ever-present threat of being assaulted by demented badgers after a performance.
Nominated as one of 'Six Inspiring Biographies or Memoirs Every Actor Should Read' by Drama Bookshop New York, this really is a must have book for all actors and theatre fans.
Nick Asbury was in the ensemble from the Royal Shakespeare Company who, over the course of two and a half years, performed eight history plays by Shakespeare in repertory, beginning with the overthrow of Richard II and ending with the death of Richard III: a sequence of productions both critically acclaimed and watched by over 250,000 people. To keep a record of his involvement in this extraordinary and ambitious project, Nick wrote a Blog which was posted on the RSC website. This in turn became a massive success, regularly notching up 6,000 hits a week from avid followers around the world. Through Nick's engaging, observant, often hilarious words, we experience the camaraderie of actors, the terror of forgetting lines, technical difficulties, money problems, finding strange things in the bath, thirty-three broadsword fights and, and, of course, the ever-present threat of being assaulted by demented badgers after a performance.
Nominated as one of 'Six Inspiring Biographies or Memoirs Every Actor Should Read' by Drama Bookshop New York, this really is a must have book for all actors and theatre fans.
192 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 24, 2011
If you are an actor, you will love this book.
If you love Shakespeare, you will love this book.
If you saw the RSC Histories cycle, you will love this book.
If you don't fall into any of the above groups, but enjoy a clever sense of humour, excellent storytelling, memoirs, bravery, riding a bicycle, pints, the heartbreaking beauty of a fleeting moment, or any combination of these things, you will also love this book. It's a glorious thing.
If you love Shakespeare, you will love this book.
If you saw the RSC Histories cycle, you will love this book.
If you don't fall into any of the above groups, but enjoy a clever sense of humour, excellent storytelling, memoirs, bravery, riding a bicycle, pints, the heartbreaking beauty of a fleeting moment, or any combination of these things, you will also love this book. It's a glorious thing.
May 2, 2019
I loved this, it really opened my eyes to the level of hard work involved putting on a production like this. It helped that I love Shakespeare's history plays and I would have paid a Kings' random to see the octology. Well worth a read if you love theatre, particularly Shakespeare
June 17, 2013
I should open this review by saying that I'm about to give a decidedly mixed reaction to "Exit Pursued by a Badger", so I want readers to be aware that this is based solely on what I thought the book was, and shouldn't be seen as a negative response to Nick Asbury or his insights here.
Had I been aware of Asbury's blog in 2007, I would have been one of its most voracious readers. I'm a performer with a strong interest in Elizabethan texts, and to experience a working environment like that of the RSC Histories cycle would be a dream come true. Reading this book is full of warm moments of recognition and empathy, and interesting little factoids. The best elements are those with a feeling of specificity. Whereas a bog-standard actor's biography might gloss over the more "informative" parts of a tech rehearsal, Asbury gives us a cute scene of actors stuck below trapdoors for hours on end, gradually devolving into schoolchildren after lights out. It's neat.
At the same time, I can't help but being disappointed that this book is - very literally - a blog printed in book form. We are deprived of real insights into the two-dozen actors involved in the project, nor do we get interviews or words from the dedicated crew and creative team. We don't get to explore in gritty detail what it's like to audition for the RSC, to work with them as a company. We also don't get - more disappointingly - much insight into character creation, work with the text, and interaction during rehearsal. Again, I realise that isn't the point of the book, but I feel as if what the RSC has published should have stayed in blog form.
Ultimately, the Histories cycle was a unique experience, and I am saddened to find that I won't really learn much that is new. Indeed, as a performer, there was very little insight or surprises in it for me, even if Asbury's prose was consistently entertaining. On the other hand, though, I'm not sure a neophyte would take all that much away from the books either - while the language is not overly technical, the brevity of each post brings with it a sort of "insiders" feel about the experience. Play names, characters, and general atmospheres are conveyed in broad strokes which would probably not interest a lot of non-theatre people.
In short, I'm not completely sure who this book is aimed at. I certainly would have liked to get much more insight into an incredible experience. And, conversely, I would still like to praise Asbury for what he DID capture: that feeling of passion and dedication that we give to our craft; the clearly-written, wryly phrased anecdotes about cast members drying or occasionally losing their nerve. While the book was not what I wanted it to be, I was still enthralled by the halfway point, and happy to be on a journey with actors doing their job because they love it. That much, at least, is a blessing.
Had I been aware of Asbury's blog in 2007, I would have been one of its most voracious readers. I'm a performer with a strong interest in Elizabethan texts, and to experience a working environment like that of the RSC Histories cycle would be a dream come true. Reading this book is full of warm moments of recognition and empathy, and interesting little factoids. The best elements are those with a feeling of specificity. Whereas a bog-standard actor's biography might gloss over the more "informative" parts of a tech rehearsal, Asbury gives us a cute scene of actors stuck below trapdoors for hours on end, gradually devolving into schoolchildren after lights out. It's neat.
At the same time, I can't help but being disappointed that this book is - very literally - a blog printed in book form. We are deprived of real insights into the two-dozen actors involved in the project, nor do we get interviews or words from the dedicated crew and creative team. We don't get to explore in gritty detail what it's like to audition for the RSC, to work with them as a company. We also don't get - more disappointingly - much insight into character creation, work with the text, and interaction during rehearsal. Again, I realise that isn't the point of the book, but I feel as if what the RSC has published should have stayed in blog form.
Ultimately, the Histories cycle was a unique experience, and I am saddened to find that I won't really learn much that is new. Indeed, as a performer, there was very little insight or surprises in it for me, even if Asbury's prose was consistently entertaining. On the other hand, though, I'm not sure a neophyte would take all that much away from the books either - while the language is not overly technical, the brevity of each post brings with it a sort of "insiders" feel about the experience. Play names, characters, and general atmospheres are conveyed in broad strokes which would probably not interest a lot of non-theatre people.
In short, I'm not completely sure who this book is aimed at. I certainly would have liked to get much more insight into an incredible experience. And, conversely, I would still like to praise Asbury for what he DID capture: that feeling of passion and dedication that we give to our craft; the clearly-written, wryly phrased anecdotes about cast members drying or occasionally losing their nerve. While the book was not what I wanted it to be, I was still enthralled by the halfway point, and happy to be on a journey with actors doing their job because they love it. That much, at least, is a blessing.
February 12, 2013
I bought this for a friend's birthday and just had to 'check it worked' by reading it first!
It was interesting, but not exactly a thrilling read, and I got terribly bored by Asbury's constant banging on about drinking.
It was interesting, but not exactly a thrilling read, and I got terribly bored by Asbury's constant banging on about drinking.
October 16, 2018
5 stars! I loved this book from beginning to end. As a former drama student it was fantastic to read about the whole process and for the incredible job of performing the 8 History plays all together. Reading through, it put me right in there amongst it all and made me wish that I could have been a part of it. I also found I was reading it at the same pace as the author wrote it. Nick was lucky enough to be one of the actors in this ensemble and he writes about the hard work that went into the whole process. It was, at the time, a series of blogs for the RSC pages and is all reproduced here over the 2 and a half years that it took to do this. If you are into drama or are interested in Shakespeare or the process of acting or putting together a stage production,then this is the book for you.Recommend.
February 22, 2013
Given to me by a good friend, this book is made for anyone who is I , or just happens to love, theatre. I have to admit, I'm not as familiar as I'd like to be with Shakespeare's histories, so sometimes it was difficult to keep track, but the writing is super engaging and the process fascinating. And if the point is to make me wish I had seen this feat of theatre, then mission accomplished.
September 10, 2010
I adored this. A fascinating insight into the life of an actor working within an ensemble. I am thoroughly kicking myself for not seeing the histories run!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews