Judi Dench is honest about acting

It’s a bit like that Robert Browning quote: “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, / Or what’s a heaven for?”

But ultimately we all fail at acting, don’t we?

What do you mean by that?

Don’t let’s pretend that everything’s hunky-dory and we’re always giving great performances. Yes, once or twice we might achieve something half-decent, but it’s very rare that anyone goes to see a play and thinks: That is absolutely brilliant. Sometimes they might, but those actors won’t be brilliant like that every single night… at least I don’t expect so. And often it’s not an actor’s whole performance that blows an audience member away — it could just be a particular moment that they never forget.

That is from Shakespeare The Man Who Pays the Rent, which was waiting under the tree for me. I went to see All’s Well The Ends Well recently at the Globe and it was fine. Lots of lines weren’t delivered especially well. Georgia Mae-Myers was an excellent Diana and Emilio Doorgasingh was pretty good as Lafew, but the overall production just wasn’t great. But I stayed to the end because I love the play. I was covered in goosebumps when Helena entered at the end. I’ve seen plenty of hopeless Shakespeare but this was an example of how effective it is to just play the truth of the lines, as Dench says elsewhere, and let the play take care of the rest. The production wasn’t brilliant but they played the truth enough to make it work. Despite my general feelings, Helena’s final entrance was a particular moment that I will never forget.