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My Shakespeare: A Director’s Journey through the First Folio
This book charts the personal and professional journey of Greg Doran, Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 2012 until 2022 and "one of the great Shakespearians of his generation" ( Sunday Times ).
During his illustrious career, Doran has directed or produced all of the plays within Shakespeare's First Folio -- a milestone reached in the same year that the world celebrates the 400th anniversary of its original publication.
Each chapter looks at a different play, considering the choices made and weaving in both autobiographical detail and background on the RSC, as well as giving insights into key collaborations, including those with actors such as Judi Dench, David Tennant, Harriet Walter, Patrick Stewart, Simon Russell Beale, Paterson Joseph and Doran's husband, the late Antony Sher, as well as seminal practitioners such as Cicely Berry, John Barton and Terry Hands. The book also includes 16 striking pages with stills from some of the RSC plays.
Through Doran's account of this extraordinary journey, we see how Henry VIII , initially regarded as a poisoned chalice, became his lucky break; how the tragedy of 9/11 unfolded during a matinee of King John and how the language of the play went some way in helping to articulate the unfathomable; how a RSC supporter bequeathed their skull to the company to be used as Yorick in Hamlet ; how meeting Nelson Mandela inspired the production of Julius Caesar ; how Falstaff was introduced to China for the very first time; and how arachnophobia informed the production of Macbeth .
This book uniquely captures the excitement, energy, surprises, joys and agonies of working on these greatest of plays; sheds new light on these plays through Doran's own research and discoveries made in the rehearsal room; and gives unprecedented access into the craft, life and loves of this exceptional director.
During his illustrious career, Doran has directed or produced all of the plays within Shakespeare's First Folio -- a milestone reached in the same year that the world celebrates the 400th anniversary of its original publication.
Each chapter looks at a different play, considering the choices made and weaving in both autobiographical detail and background on the RSC, as well as giving insights into key collaborations, including those with actors such as Judi Dench, David Tennant, Harriet Walter, Patrick Stewart, Simon Russell Beale, Paterson Joseph and Doran's husband, the late Antony Sher, as well as seminal practitioners such as Cicely Berry, John Barton and Terry Hands. The book also includes 16 striking pages with stills from some of the RSC plays.
Through Doran's account of this extraordinary journey, we see how Henry VIII , initially regarded as a poisoned chalice, became his lucky break; how the tragedy of 9/11 unfolded during a matinee of King John and how the language of the play went some way in helping to articulate the unfathomable; how a RSC supporter bequeathed their skull to the company to be used as Yorick in Hamlet ; how meeting Nelson Mandela inspired the production of Julius Caesar ; how Falstaff was introduced to China for the very first time; and how arachnophobia informed the production of Macbeth .
This book uniquely captures the excitement, energy, surprises, joys and agonies of working on these greatest of plays; sheds new light on these plays through Doran's own research and discoveries made in the rehearsal room; and gives unprecedented access into the craft, life and loves of this exceptional director.
376 pages, Hardcover
First published April 20, 2023
22 people are currently reading
162 people want to read
About the author
Greg Doran
5 books7 followersSir Gregory Doran (born 24 November 1958) is an English director known for his Shakespearean work. The Sunday Times called him 'one of the great Shakespearians of his generation'.
Doran was artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), succeeding Michael Boyd in September 2012. Since April 2022 he is director emeritus at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
His notable productions include a production of Macbeth starring Antony Sher, which was filmed for Channel 4 in 2001, as well as Hamlet in 2008, starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart.
Doran was artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), succeeding Michael Boyd in September 2012. Since April 2022 he is director emeritus at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
His notable productions include a production of Macbeth starring Antony Sher, which was filmed for Channel 4 in 2001, as well as Hamlet in 2008, starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart.
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June 17, 2025Fascinating account of Greg Doran's career as a director told through accounts of his Shakespeares. There's so much good stuff here on acting and verse speaking and staging and interpretation, and it leaves you gutted for all the performances you didn't see (I'm still pissed off I missed the Arthur Hughes Richard III). Also a poignant personal memoir, especially when he touches on his lifelong love, Antony Sher. An excellent theatre book to sit next to Year of the King.
January 6, 2024
Simply outstanding. So good I had to slow myself down and ration the pages.
A complex book. It's Doran's account of directing every play in Shakespeare's first folio. So it's the story of how each production developed until it was ready to be staged. At the same time it's a study of each play. And it's also a personal history and memoir.
What leapt off the page for me first was his close understanding of the moment-by-moment shifts of mood and meaning and the interplay of characters as scenes develop. But that's driven by the closest of understanding - the sort that will never happen in reading, nor as a theatre-goer. It comes from grappling line by line, word by word with the text and drawing out its implications. There are some astonishing insights here, from the sonnet that begins Romeo and Juliet ('Two houses, both alike in dignity') to Richard III's lengthy plea to his would-be mother-in-law. Just wonderful.
It's also a personal memoir of his career, starting as a stage-struck Preston schoolboy and culminating in his time as Artistic Director at the RSC. Which of course also draws heavily on his 35 year relationship with and marriage to Anthony Sher. Sher's final illness and death are unbearably poignant - largely because Doran sets the story going but then says no more until it's all over.
A complex book. It's Doran's account of directing every play in Shakespeare's first folio. So it's the story of how each production developed until it was ready to be staged. At the same time it's a study of each play. And it's also a personal history and memoir.
What leapt off the page for me first was his close understanding of the moment-by-moment shifts of mood and meaning and the interplay of characters as scenes develop. But that's driven by the closest of understanding - the sort that will never happen in reading, nor as a theatre-goer. It comes from grappling line by line, word by word with the text and drawing out its implications. There are some astonishing insights here, from the sonnet that begins Romeo and Juliet ('Two houses, both alike in dignity') to Richard III's lengthy plea to his would-be mother-in-law. Just wonderful.
It's also a personal memoir of his career, starting as a stage-struck Preston schoolboy and culminating in his time as Artistic Director at the RSC. Which of course also draws heavily on his 35 year relationship with and marriage to Anthony Sher. Sher's final illness and death are unbearably poignant - largely because Doran sets the story going but then says no more until it's all over.
September 15, 2024
You can read the book in one of two ways. You can read it as a brilliant masterclass of how to Shakespeare. How to read it, act it, direct it, live it. And you will walk away having learned a million new things from one of the most inventive Shakespeare directors of the last century.
Or you can read it as a journal. Deeply personal, sometimes funny, endlessly uplifting, ultimately heart breaking.
Whichever way you read it, one thing is undeniable. Greg Doran loves Shakespeare. And after reading this book, so will you.
Or you can read it as a journal. Deeply personal, sometimes funny, endlessly uplifting, ultimately heart breaking.
Whichever way you read it, one thing is undeniable. Greg Doran loves Shakespeare. And after reading this book, so will you.
October 5, 2023
I can’t say enough good things about My Shakespeare: A Director’s Journey through the First Folio by Greg Doran. I’ve been privileged to view a handful of Director Doran’s performances via RSC’s Live from Stratfor-upon-Avon series, and have a few others on DVD. Each chapter of the book is devoted to one of the plays in the First Folio. Doran spells out in detail how he and his collaborators arrived at the interpretations that are presented on the stage. So, for me, this volume now becomes essential reading before watching those DVDs again (which I usually do while following along with a text). And as a bonus, Doran includes an appendix listing which of the various plays were taped by various organizations (like the BBC, Channel 4, RSC, etc). This will be a great help in tracking down the videos that I don’t yet own. Also, My Shakespeare blends bits of Doran’s personal life into the chronology of his directorial career. Most significantly, Doran provides glimpses of his relationship with his partner, Tony Sher, as Tony is stricken with cancer and then succumbs. Doran spread Tony’s ashes into the Avon River at Stratford. Sher, it goes without saying, was one of the finest Shakespearean actors of all time. And Greg Doran is one of the finest Shakespearean directors of all time. My Shakespeare is a journey into the mind of this national treasure.
May 18, 2023
This book is a joy for any lover of Shakespeare and the theatre. Greg Doran’s enthusiasm and creativity shine through his accounts of his productions, over the years, of every play in the First Folio. His examinations of Shakespeare’s language and his exercises for the actors are fascinating, as are his production ideas and the way he links each play to current events. There’s a galaxy of theatrical talent on display and details of some riveting performances.
January 9, 2024
rly interesting stuff - the last three chapters are devastatingly sad and doran writes in such a fantastic way that you can’t help but feel his pain.
May 17, 2023
I loved this book. Greg Doran takes us through each of the Shakespeare plays he has directed, mostly with the RSC. What is remarkable is the way he does so. Some chapters (but not very many) are simply an engaging summary of an approach to a production (for example his account of ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ musical which I thought sounded brilliant but which received terrible reviews). Many have some brilliant insights into the verse, how it should be spoken, its meaning and interpretation. Some fascinatingly cover the politics at the RSC at a particular time, particularly around Adrian Noble’s resignation and the rethinking of the ‘theatre village’ project and the building of the new RST at Stratford. Doran applied for the Artistic Director role at the time Noble quit didn’t get it (it went to Michael Boyd - Doran was successful when Boyd resigned and his tenure, which has just ended, has been visionary and innovative whilst very much informed by and maintaining the tradition of the RSC) but seemed at the time and not just in retrospect to be genuinely philosophical about it. Some are just overwhelmingly moving. For example his chapter on rehearsing ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ when his mother was dying. And of course the chapters on trying to rehearse the Henry VI plays in lockdown after his partner Anthony Sher was diagnosed with cancer are wrenching.
Doran can write and this whole book teaches one something on every page. With a geeky hat on I want to pay tribute to ideas he had which didn’t make it to the stage: for example, tantalising that he started rehearsals for ‘The Winter’s Tale’ with Sher doubling Leontes and Autocylus but with Sher’s agreement abandoned the idea. Or mashing up ‘Sir Thomas More’ with ‘Henry VIII’). Then the ones that did: e.g a double bill of ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ and ‘The Tamer Tamed’, staging ‘Venus and Adonis’ (as a puppet show!) and the Jacobean and Gunpowder seasons. Than the small details. The clever John Bartonesque insertion of the well known passage from ‘The Famous Victories of Henry V’ where Hal strikes the Lord Chief Justice into his production of ‘Henry IV Part 1’. Doran mentions Barton as a mentor and the thoughtfulness of his approach and his attention to detail to the sources and verse shows him to be a more than worthy successor. I loved Doran’s description of his excitement at opening a package he was sent after Barton’s death of the scripts Barton had used for his four productions of ‘Troilus and Cressida’ while Doran was rehearsing the same play (the first 50/50 gender balanced production by the RSC).
I could go on. A brilliant book.
Doran can write and this whole book teaches one something on every page. With a geeky hat on I want to pay tribute to ideas he had which didn’t make it to the stage: for example, tantalising that he started rehearsals for ‘The Winter’s Tale’ with Sher doubling Leontes and Autocylus but with Sher’s agreement abandoned the idea. Or mashing up ‘Sir Thomas More’ with ‘Henry VIII’). Then the ones that did: e.g a double bill of ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ and ‘The Tamer Tamed’, staging ‘Venus and Adonis’ (as a puppet show!) and the Jacobean and Gunpowder seasons. Than the small details. The clever John Bartonesque insertion of the well known passage from ‘The Famous Victories of Henry V’ where Hal strikes the Lord Chief Justice into his production of ‘Henry IV Part 1’. Doran mentions Barton as a mentor and the thoughtfulness of his approach and his attention to detail to the sources and verse shows him to be a more than worthy successor. I loved Doran’s description of his excitement at opening a package he was sent after Barton’s death of the scripts Barton had used for his four productions of ‘Troilus and Cressida’ while Doran was rehearsing the same play (the first 50/50 gender balanced production by the RSC).
I could go on. A brilliant book.
January 16, 2026
This book is a must for anyone interested in Shakespeare. Greg Doran was Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre for ten years from 2012 to 2022 and was part of the company for thirty five years. Each chapter is one of the thirty six plays, most of which Greg has directed. He seems to have kept meticulous records including a comprehensive diary. He takes us through the rehearsal process for every play he has directed with considerable analysis of the text, references to the actors and how it was received. As an example, the following is my note on The Tempest.
Greg begins this chapter with "At Uni I became obsessed with the elusive and largely forgotten conventions of the court masque". This follows a long description of his imagining one in 1605. A year later in 1606, The Tempest was performed to celebrate the wedding of the king's daughter Elizabeth. It was one William Strachey who chronicled the above. In 2014, Greg is at a digital presentation by Intel where he was bowled over by the images it produced. This led him to re-imagine the play as never before. Along with Andy Serkis and his team at Imaginarium, Greg goes full pelt on this modern staging of the the play he loves so much. Simon Russell Beale is to play Prospero and Greg introduces the rest of the cast. He takes us through the plot, but it's when the "technical period on stage" takes place that the magic starts. And what magic. Setting up twenty seven projectors was not easy. "But in the end we pulled off the impossible." Greg gives a name check for all the technical people involved in putting on the visuals. The critics were actually divided on the technical aspects, but not on Simon Russell Beal's superlative performance.
All my notes on all the other plays are on my blog.
Greg begins this chapter with "At Uni I became obsessed with the elusive and largely forgotten conventions of the court masque". This follows a long description of his imagining one in 1605. A year later in 1606, The Tempest was performed to celebrate the wedding of the king's daughter Elizabeth. It was one William Strachey who chronicled the above. In 2014, Greg is at a digital presentation by Intel where he was bowled over by the images it produced. This led him to re-imagine the play as never before. Along with Andy Serkis and his team at Imaginarium, Greg goes full pelt on this modern staging of the the play he loves so much. Simon Russell Beale is to play Prospero and Greg introduces the rest of the cast. He takes us through the plot, but it's when the "technical period on stage" takes place that the magic starts. And what magic. Setting up twenty seven projectors was not easy. "But in the end we pulled off the impossible." Greg gives a name check for all the technical people involved in putting on the visuals. The critics were actually divided on the technical aspects, but not on Simon Russell Beal's superlative performance.
All my notes on all the other plays are on my blog.
March 28, 2024
There is not an audio edition for this book yet listed here on Goodreads but I did listen to this one first and then I bought it and spent a few hours perusing the real thing and enjoying the photos. This book is so rich and so wonderful. I do suggest partaking of the audio version if you can as Mr. Doran reads it himself and he has a marvelous voice. I have sat at the feet of Greg Doran and heard him offer some of his insights into Shakespeare and how to direct a show written by The Bard and I can tell you that he is as dynamic a man as you will ever hope to meet. I felt every moment of his story so deeply but I am not feeling the need to offer quotes on this review. I think that would be quite impossible given the material and how much Shakespeare is quoted throughout the book. If you love Shakespeare or have any interest in the behind-the-scenes experience of theatre, please read (or rather listen to) this book! I would give it more than 5 stars if I could.
April 4, 2025
This book is about Greg Doran and his work as the artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre during 2012 to 2022. During this time he completed most of the First Folio along with a couple others at the National Theatre.
In the book Doran explains the concept of the play, how he approaches staging it and the actors he chooses. He describes the work undertaken prior to the performance such as the era, how each part needs to be acted and its staging. It is essentially a book explaining "behind the scenes" with its mistakesand comic scenario's
I probably was in a better positionwhilst reading the book as I had seen all the plays he directed at the Shakespeare Theatre thus having experienced both the before and after
In the book Doran explains the concept of the play, how he approaches staging it and the actors he chooses. He describes the work undertaken prior to the performance such as the era, how each part needs to be acted and its staging. It is essentially a book explaining "behind the scenes" with its mistakesand comic scenario's
I probably was in a better positionwhilst reading the book as I had seen all the plays he directed at the Shakespeare Theatre thus having experienced both the before and after
May 9, 2023
This is a brilliant read that (through thoughtful reflections and reminiscences) shines a light on different elements of each of Shakespeare’s plays. Doran’s passion for Shakespeare and theatre are evident in every word. His academic and passionate explorations of the words are the core to his wonderful productions. A thoroughly dedicated and intellectual Shakespearean. He certainly deserves his place among his heroes Cicely Berry and John Barton - a Stratford great!
August 14, 2024
A compelling biography, an exciting history of the Royal Shakespeare Company, an insightful look into the complexities of the directing process, a guide to the First Folio and how to read Shakespeare, and a love story all in one. Alongside Anatoly Efros’ books, it stands as one of the best writings on the passion and love of stage directing.
August 17, 2025
Brilliant!!
Part history of the RSC through this period of time, part textbook on the directing and acting of Shakespeare’s plays, and part memoir of his own personal and professional journey, this book resonates deeply on all levels. It is an absolute pleasure to read! Bravo and well done!!
Part history of the RSC through this period of time, part textbook on the directing and acting of Shakespeare’s plays, and part memoir of his own personal and professional journey, this book resonates deeply on all levels. It is an absolute pleasure to read! Bravo and well done!!
July 22, 2023
I have been lucky enough to see some of Greg Doran's productions in person and have always admired his passion for Shakespeare and his approach to directing it. There is so much great knowledge and theory in this book and it is one I will definitely be returning to in year's to come.
July 31, 2023
My favourite sort of book, covering my favourite subjects, Theatre and Shakespeare. Very conveniently divided up into productions, so if you want to know more about certain Shakespeare plays, you can go back and read the chapter. There are very moving moments.
September 1, 2023
I found it fascinating - the approach to Shakespeare, the ideas, where they came from and how they worked. Fascinating interactions with leading actors, particularly his husband Antony Sher who's loss id felt deeply in the later part of the hook. A wonderful, life affirming read.
November 25, 2023
Outstanding. Gives fantastic insight into how Shakespeare is actually performed. Loved learning about Doran’s insights and approach to each play and the behind the scenes japes. My favourite book on Shakespeare.
January 4, 2025
Such an insightful account of a life directing Shakespeare. I recommend listening to the audiobook to hear Greg read Shakespeare’s lines and how he thought through the artistic possibilities of performing them.
August 12, 2025
i read this book like it was a thrilling page turner, even though i wasn’t expecting to. really beautifully written love letter to shakespeare, theatre, and doran’s husband. so much insight into shakespeare and life and the plays. loved this book so so much. made me want to start journaling again.
December 25, 2023
Writing an article about this and another book for Shakespeare Newsletter, so I will publish my comments there.
July 29, 2024
Fantastic read!
April 26, 2023
A snapshot of an incredible career.
It made me laugh, cry and left me wanting more!
It made me laugh, cry and left me wanting more!
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews