With Brendan O’Hea
What a treat this book was from first page to last. I finished reading it on Boxing Day, and it went straight into my 2024 Books of the Year list.
It is written with Brendan O’Hea, who is an actor/director friend of Dench, and is Associate Artistic Director at the Globe Theatre in London. You could view the structure as primarily a series of interviews or discussions, but the pair come over more as friends having a good chat which makes for the most entertaining and interesting reading. O’Hea, who really knows his Shakespeare too, gently nudges Dench into full flow, talking about all the different Shakespeare women roles she has acted over her many decades in the theatre, from one of the fairies in Dream to her favourite Lady Macbeth, interspersed withother thoughts on acting, and all sprinkled liberally with hilarious anecdotes about her acting, directing and other colleagues and life in the theatre in general. O’Hea comments on how many expletives he’s removed from the text, Dench is known for being sweary!
But when she speaks about the parts, she speaks with such passion and insight, with instant recall of her lines thanks to her photographic memory. They begin with Lady Macbeth, which she has played twice, once in the 1960s for Peter Hall, and then mid 1970s at the RSC for Trevor Nunn. She contrasts their very different ways of directing. Hall all about the rhythm, Nunn took a more psychological approach. Having had the rhythm of iambic pentameter drilled into her by Hall, she speaks brilliantly about how Shakespeare set out the text for shared lines, where another actor picks up the line in the middle.
Moving on from a conversation about Stratford, which she fell in love with from the start. It’s where she first played Titania (whom she calls ‘Tits’) in 1962, playing her twice more, each time for Peter Hall, the middle one being Elizabeth I playing Titania. The first production was filmed at nearby Compton Verney and all the fairies were green and draped with greenery only, which cause much merriment, one senses that Dench didn’t have many inhibitions as a young actress. O’Hea asks her how one plays the Queen of the Fairies …
You don’t. You play the situation. You hope you look right and let the lines do it for you.
Titania doesn’t think of herself as Queen of the Fairies – unless it’s expedient to do so. Titania and Oberon are a couple at war who happen to be queen and King of the Fairies. Your job as an actor is to find the humanity: something that the audience can identify with. In this case it’s two people having a blazing row.
Dench has also played Hermia and First Fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the latter in a production with Frankie Howerd as Bottom, who ‘never quite knew the lines and would occasionally ad lib and throw in a few of his trademark ‘oooooohs’ and ‘aaaaaahs’.
We move on through Twelfth Night, ‘a beautiful play – exquisite in its form’ in which she played Viola and Maria, (the first larger role she played after having a baptism of fire and poor notices as Ophelia which she comes to later), we arrive at …

The Merchant of fucking Venice. Oh my God. I loathed it. I used to dread going to the theatre every night. I think it’s a horrible play. Shakespeare must’ve been having a funny turn when he wrote it. All the characters behave so badly. Nobody really redeems themselves. Our director, Terry Hands, came storming backstage once and said, ‘If I hear this play being called The Merchang of [vomit sound] again I shall be very angry.’
But she got to play Portia opposite her husband Mikey as Bassanio, and later in the play, after Bassanio chooses the right casket, Dench is forced to admit there are some beautiful passages of poetry in the play, indeed…
After Portia’s beautiful speech, Bassanio says ‘you have bereft me of all words.’ And that’s the inscription on Mikey’s grave.
The next play to be discussed is Hamlet, in which she made her professional debut as Ophelia. She was terrified and starstruck, but Coral Browne, playing Gertrude, took her under her wing, and director Michael Benthall gave her her first great note about playing Shakespeare.
‘You have to make it more legato.’ … Don’t chop it up and certainly don’t rush, as the audience need time to hear the arc of the thought. I always say to my students, ‘If you want to learn about phrasing listen to John Gielguid or Frank Sinatra.’
She also played Gertrude, with Daniel Day-Lewis as Hamlet, and when asked how he was to work with is suitably direct.
Fun? No–not ‘fun’, because Daniel would become Hamlet every night. He’s a complex man, an extraordinary actor, and an adorable and beautiful human being, but there aren’t many jokes in rehearsals.
I could carry on quoting from this delightful book ad nauseam, there are so many of the major plays I haven’t got to yet – she’s played all three of Lear’s daughters, Beatrice in Much Ado, Cleopatra, Juliet, Hermione and Perdita in Winter’s Tale and more. She talks about all of them with the same passion, wit, character insight and commitment to great verse speaking. One thing that runs through this entire volume though is the value that she puts on the company, the teamwork that goes into a production from the entire cast and crew, without this camaraderie, it can’t work well. I can imagine with her impish charm she was great at fostering friendships and reading her fellow actors.
This book should be on every aspiring Shakespearean’s actor’s shelf, it’s a manual on how to do the Bard well – it may concentrate on the female parts’ perspective, but it shows those acting against them how to react and would help understand the female character’s motivation. However, it’s also completely accessible for those who don’t know his plays well at all. You’ll feel more at home in the audience having read the relevant parts. She is wonderful company, and I loved her sketches which are gathered on the endpapers above, and scattered in monochrome throughout the text.
Judi Dench, Shakespeare: The Man who Pays the Rent (Michael Joseph, 2023), 400pp., hardback. BUY at Blackwell’s via my affiliate link (free UK P&P)
This sounds wonderful. Judi Dench is always so engaging and fun when she talks about Shakespeare.
I learned so much from it, but in such an entertaining and engaging way. I will dip into it again when I next see a Shakespeare she’s done to remind myself of the play too.
I don’t read much in the way of non-fiction, and when I do, it is usually travel books. But this… this one sounds really good.
She brings the texts to life, and is basically adorable!
I feel I ought to return to reading more Shakespeare before considering this, especially the comedies like “Much Ado” and “All’s Well” which I scarcely know.
No need really – there are so many quotes, and they essentially work through play by play, but through the characters’ perspective. It is such a joyful read.
This looks like a beautiful book!
It was worth reading for Shakespeare buffs and non-buffs who might like Shakey alike. So entertaining and perscipient.
Not only do I love Judi Dench, I complete agree with her assessment of The Merchant of Venice. I had to do it for O level! This sounds a complete delight. Lovely review, Annabel.
What a terrific review. I shall look out for this book.
Thank you Sue. It is just lovely and I learned so much about her craft and understanding Shakespeare from it.