clarence darrow had this remarkable life.hat is most interesting about doing this play which was originated by henry fonda who did it in 1974, is that every single issue that clarence darrow was fighting for or against in the late 1800s and early 1900s, we are still grappling with today. every single issue. we are still trying to get it right. he is such a remarkable figure. i've had the chance to play him on two other occasions. i did a film on about -- about his life 20 years ago and one at the old vic about five years ago. there are two things that never done. i've never done a one-man show and i've never done a show in the round. we have reconfigured the old vic for this season to be a theater in the round. that means there is nowhere to hide. they are everywhere, and they are very close. i have a stage that is not much bigger than this platform we are sitting on. it is just a remarkable experience to be that intimate with an audience. and in britain, particularly, although i hope to bring it to the united states, they do

and now that i'm at the end of my time alt the old vic athafter this round of clarence darrow, i know's the best decision i could have made. i know the experiences i've had at the old vic in this 11 years i have been artistic director but i've also acted in a play or two plays every year for the last 11 years, that all of those experiences and working with the directors and playing the parts made me a better actor. i wouldn't have been ready for frank underwood. >> rose: and gave you a better life, probably. >> absolutely. it's been remarkable in terms of the timing of it, but also where i am as a person, what i learned about running a company what i learned about having an incredibly brilliant and large staff, what i learned about fundraising, because we get no public subsidy at the old vic. >> rose: were you ready in your life for this? had you come to a conclusion that yes it was risk, abandoning a film, i'm an oscar winner, all that stuff. >> i just tried to follow my heart. i didn't worry about what if this or that. i didn't have a whole lot of debates about whether i would go to

the night before i close i have to make sure there are no clarence darrow's in here. this is a book about charles darrow but i don't believe there is a relation but who knows? it's a relatively common last name i believe. >> now you have seen a lot of how things have been changed. what is being done to honor the legacy of mcghee? >> that's a wonderful question. the short answer is i don't know. she didn't have any children and i did my best to contact relatives but by then they were so distant that it is what it is. there isn't anything tangible in place so after ralph's trial he went without really trying to make sure the quakers and atlantic city were not acknowledged. so i guess my version is just telling the story. it seems like -- i can't even tell you how many times people said you were writing a book on that but what about the depression came? i think part one is just getting the story out there. i don't know of anything tangible. if you have ideas i would be all ears. >> there were monopoly games in the stores back in the 70s. >> you can still buy them. >> have

i went through the book the night before it closed, i thought i have to make sure there's no clarence darrows in here. it's a book about charles darrow. i don't believe there's a relation, but who knows? it's a relatively common last name, i believe. yes. >> and now you've seen a lot of how kind of the history's been changed as to who's the creator of monopoly. what's being done to honor the legacy of magie? >> that's a wonderful question. the short answer is, i don't know. she didn't have any children, and i did my best to contact distant relatives but by then they're so distant that, you know, it is what it is. there isn't really anything tangible like in place, so after ralph's trial he went about a trying to make sure the quakers in atlantic the city were acknowledged, and he put up this plaque. so i guess i mean, my version of it is just telling her story. i mean, it seems like most -- i can't even tell you how many times in the last few years people go, oh, you're writing a book about monopoly the depression game. and i was just like oh. part one is just getting the story out there. but

it's easy to bring a clarence darrow or a william jennings bryan. but george washington, we have this view of washington, for many people he's like a wax figure in madam trudeau's museum. or a carved figure up on mount rushmore, he is distant to a lot of us. i think a lot of it is that terrible picture painted on the $1 bill, that was paint near death with a bulging, he looks like a squirrel with his oversized false teeth. actually, that's not what washington was like, and i got to see that in this period of his life when he was much younger before the presidency and after he was a general when he was not in political power when he didn't have -- or military power. he didn't have an office. he was a farmer. he was a plantation owner. he was a private citizen. and i could find out that he was a very, very affable person. he was a wonderful conversationalist. he was a great retail politician. he could tell stories at parties. he loved to go to parties, he loved to dance. he would go to a party -- of course, he was the choice, he was -- when he was you

it harkens back to the clarence darrow days. >> you took the words out of my mouth, except he actuallylty plea. in this case they did not enter a guilty plea. she's allowing this jury to have the satisfaction if you will of finding him guilty not once not twice, but writing the word guilty on the verdict form 30 times so that when it comes time to ask the jury to spare his life, she has some credibility left with them and she just might succeed. >> a lot of people have compared this to the d.c. sniper trial where it was the younger man who was spared the death penalty and sentenced to life in prison. do you think this strategy works and as a prosecutor how do you counter it? >> i think the strategy will not work here. i think the government has a much stronger case. there's a lot more evidence that dzhokhar was acting very much on his own. there's video tape of him planning the bomb. there's video tape of his innocently running away. there's video tape of him running toward the police car where that actually was eventually killed. there's so much evidence that he wasn't just a forlorn