He also says that his first year with the RSC was, “at that point, the happiest year of my working life,” though he was only cast to play small roles until he was made an Associate Artist in 1967, just one year after joining.Ī post shared by Patrick Stewart on at 3:01pm PDT Stewart tells Variety that his only regret during his time with the RSC is that he “might have perhaps been a rather bolder, pushier and more extravagant actor.” But it’s his understatement and subtlety that make him so compelling. Sure, plenty of people are already engaged in making children, without any help from Shakespeare or Patrick Stewart, but those who aren’t might decide to work on other legacies that will outlive them. Maybe we all feel we’re growing old in the boredom and anxiety of our new siege-like conditions.
This were to be new made when thou art old,Īnd see thy blood warm when thou feel’st it cold. Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse,’ If thou couldst answer ‘This fair child of mine How much more praise deserv’d thy beauty’s use, Were an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise. To say, within thine own deep sunken eyes, Where all the treasure of thy lusty days Then being asked, where all thy beauty lies, Will be a totter’d weed of small worth held: Thy youth’s proud livery so gazed on now, When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,Īnd dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field, In his reading of Sonnet 2, above, he says before beginning, “this is one of my favorites.” The actor occasionally adds some brief commentary. Where the intimacy of celebrity social media can sometimes feel cloying and insincere, Stewart seems to feel so genuinely at home with his setting and his text that we do too. Maybe even better (some might say), we have the mellifluous Stewart delivering the goods, to soothe us in our days of isolation.Ī post shared by Patrick Stewart on at 2:41pm PDT So, imagine Olivier or Gielgud reading a Shakespeare sonnet to you every day, right in the comfort of your own home. He’s as august a Shakespearean actor as Olivier or Gielgud. Only the most enviable nerds, however, have seen him live on stage with the RSC, in any number of roles, minor and major, that he has played since joining the company in 1966.
Maybe you’ve seen him in 2010’s Ceaușescu-inspired Macbeth or the 2012 BBC production of Richard II, or as Claudius in 2009’s televised Royal Shakespeare Company Hamlet, with David Tennant in the title role? There are many sides to Patrick Stewart, but at his core, Shakespeare nerds know, he’s a Shakespearean. We know him as an advocate for victims of domestic violence, a tragic reality he witnessed as a child.
We’ve heard him gamely voice a ridiculous animated character in American Dad. He is a “ geek cultural icon”: Captain Picard and Professor X. When I was a child in the 1940s, my mother would cut up slices of fruit for me (there wasn’t much) and as she put it in front of me she would say: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” How about, “A sonnet a day keeps the doctor away”? So…here we go: Sonnet 1.Ī post shared by Patrick Stewart on at 4:28pm PDT