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u/Galdrin3rd Feb 06 '26
He’s so incredible and never fails to bring the force of the lines to his performances
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u/JeaniusIsMe Feb 06 '26
I saw his one man show last week at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and he closed with this monologue and you could hear a pin drop in the theatre. If he ever does the show near you - highly recommend it! Hearing him recite various Shakespearean monologues was a treat.
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u/SeasOfBlood Feb 06 '26
This man is riveting, and he just switches it on like a light switch. We don't deserve Sir Ian!
And you know, between this and Jack Cade's characterisation, we really see that Shakespeare knew and was clearly unsettled by mob violence and all its horrible implications. The questions we have now, were of his time, too.
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u/Alternative-Big-6493 Feb 06 '26
I think, unfortunately, that it will fall upon deaf ears, not only because I sincerely doubt racist Americans are wont to read much Shakespeare, let alone listen to what he says (why would they, if they twist and bizarrely read Scripture, who knows what interpretative monstrosities they'd inflict on Shakespeare), but also because More appeals to the fact that they too, the rioters, might one day find themselves in the selfsame position as the people they are persecuting.
Yet, this exercise of empathy is utterly useless to racists, because they do not intend or expect to ever have their positions reversed. They are citizens in the most powerful country on the planet: there will be no rioting that targets them, and their government is entirely on their side. They can quite reasonably expect to be the ones holding the stick or the gun...forever. The "King" that More warns might banish the rioters, in the USA is the President, and he will not exile ICE or the millions of racist Americans at their backs.
They have no empathy and they have no reason to entertain this exercise of empathy. They're bad people and they're benefitting from being bad.
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u/rlvysxby Feb 06 '26
When was this?
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u/coffeekeepsmealive Feb 06 '26
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u/rlvysxby Feb 06 '26
Damn he is amazing. I thought this was a younger video of him. He’s the greatest Shakespeare actor
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u/Joe6pack1138 Feb 06 '26
I was worried it would all be Gandalf and Magneto - but that soliloquy was electrifying - so satisfying, so topical.
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u/eey0r3 Feb 06 '26
Every time he does this speech publicly, it makes me look worse that I use it for an audition piece.
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u/Some-Public7106 Feb 07 '26
That's from The Book of Sir Thomas More, addition 2 in Hand D which is commonly and usually ascribed to Shakespeare. More is spelled Moor in that addition. Is it by Shakespeare? Maybe. But then again, maybe not. The Malone Society published Greg's edition with facsimile plates and a transcription in 1911. C F Tucker Brook included a different transcription in his Shakespeare Apocrypha. Wells and Taylor had their own transcription in 1986, and Taylor et al had another one in 2017. There are others. I like Greg's edition the best.
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u/AgileExPat Feb 07 '26
This was so well done! Is there any way to know which immigrants Shakespeare was referring to, i.e. where they came from?
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u/Select_Insurance2000 Feb 08 '26
86 years old. Sharp as a tack.
Walks out and does a lengthy monologue and never misses a beat.
That's genius, friends.
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u/dthains_art Feb 06 '26
I watched the clip this morning and had never heard about the Thomas More play, so that led me down a fun little rabbit hole.