actually it was a second production withjohn gielgud actually it was a second production with john gielgudctually it was a second production withjohn gielgud and arthur lowe in the two leading roles. and it thrilled me. and, even though i was much too young, i fancied the role of shakespeare. and then the royal shakespeare mounted it in 1979, and i played a much toojuvenile — that's a flattering term, but i was — shakespeare. then we brought it to london, to the warehouse, as it then was. and there are some projects that never leave your system. it's like a virus that you can't get rid of and bingo was one of those in the very best sense. on the fac of it it is not a flattering portrait of shakespeare in the final years of his life. and one presumes that he is a hero of yours. well, the fact is, if he had not lived, i would have been out of work most of my life. i got to spend years and years and yea rs i got to spend years and years and years back in the 60s and 70s with the royal shakespeare company performing him. over that the royal shakespeare company performing him. overthat time, an

what i did instead, i really fell in love with john gielgud's recording.se i knew that i could never get to that kind of poetry, so even if i tried to imitate him, i could never get to that, but i loved hearing it like music. in a way, it is -- at least in rehearsals, it felt more like playing music. i'm a musician. often sometimes when dialogue is very sparse, you have to think of a lot of things and then you infuse the words with these feelings. these words, what happens is it is almost like playing a song. i don't have to think about sad things before i play a sad song. i start playing it and then the thing happens. you start to say these words and it starts affecting you and you are affecting it and it creates this perpetual motion that just goes. charlie: what is the hardest part about it, other than the length? oscar: this production, the way we have approached it because we tried to strip away as much artifice we can and approach it in a very direct way, it is physically very demanding. the four hours. the vocal requirements, the physical requiremen