sat 02/11/2024

Q&A Special: Actor Derek Jacobi | reviews, news & interviews

Q&A Special: Actor Derek Jacobi

Q&A Special: Actor Derek Jacobi

As he takes on Lear, the actor knight recalls a long and glorious career

Derek Jacobi: 'I think the term is "best feature". They are very blue. They’ve always been rather baggy'Johan Persson

Derek Jacobi (b 1938) grew up in Leytonstone. His father was a tobacconist, his mother worked in a department store. Although he entered the profession in the great age of social mobility in the early 1960s, no one could have predicted that he would go on to play so many English kings - Edward II, a couple of Henry VIIIs and Shakespeare’s two Richards - as well as a Spanish one in Don Carlos. This month he prepares to play another king of Albion: Lear, against which all classical actors past a certain age must finally measure themselves.

Derek Jacobi (b 1938) grew up in Leytonstone. His father was a tobacconist, his mother worked in a department store. Although he entered the profession in the great age of social mobility in the early 1960s, no one could have predicted that he would go on to play so many English kings - Edward II, a couple of Henry VIIIs and Shakespeare’s two Richards - as well as a Spanish one in Don Carlos. This month he prepares to play another king of Albion: Lear, against which all classical actors past a certain age must finally measure themselves.

You don’t play the king. You play the man. And when you play a man, then you play the king

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Comments

Is it possible for you to tell me anything about Sir Derek Jacobi's U.S. tour of King Lear. I heard his interview this past Sunday on "Weekend Edition" on NPR. I would love to find a city near me where I could see him perform.

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