Darren Tunstall

This chapter will show how an actor who has been trained in what I will call “the Lecoq tradition” may approach the rehearsal of Shakespeare’s text. No one can legitimately claim to make statements that are true in all contexts for all actors who have come into contact with Lecoq’s work. It is possible, however, to argue for patterns of agenda, vocabulary and approach, and in trying to do so I will draw largely upon Ariane Mnouchkine’s production of Richard II (1981) for her company Théâtre du Soleil. In addition, I will refer to two productions of Shakespeare I directed, for which my approach was influenced by Lecoq’s ideas: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2009) and Macbeth (2011), both at St Peter’s Arts Centre, Preston in the UK. I will also mention in passing two productions of Shakespeare plays by Theatre de Complicite for elements of supporting evidence.

This is the first study of gesture in Shakespeare, tackling not only those gestures declared in the text, but also drawing on recent scholarship on kinesics and gestural codes to shed new light on practice. Through theoretical and practical analysis of the role of gesture, Tunstall argues that it must be seen within a network of non-verbal acts.