Eileen Atkins on Viola

Eileen Atkins discusses playing Viola in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, in this ebook taken from Shakespeare On Stage: Volume 2 - Twelve Leading Actors on Twelve Key Roles.

In each volume of the Shakespeare On Stage series, a leading actor takes us behind the scenes of a landmark Shakespearean production, recreating in detail their memorable performance in a major role. They lead us through the choices they made in rehearsal, and how the character works in performance, shedding new light on some of the most challenging roles in the canon. The result is a series of individual masterclasses that will be invaluable for other actors and directors, as well as students of Shakespeare – and fascinating for audiences of the plays.

In this volume, Eileen Atkins discusses playing the role of Viola in two productions of Twelfth Night seventeen years apart: at the Old Vic Theatre in 1961, directed by Colin Graham; and in a Prospect Theatre Company production in 1978, again at the Old Vic Theatre, directed by Toby Robertson.

This interview, together with the others in the series (with actors such as Simon Russell Beale, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Harriet Walter), is also available in the collection Shakespeare On Stage: Volume 2 - Twelve Leading Actors on Twelve Key Roles by Julian Curry, with a foreword by Nicholas Hytner.