Do you love Dame Judi Dench? Who doesn’t? The actress for all times was interviewed by Brendan O’Hea with Dench talking about all the Shakespearean parts she has played, for the archive department at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre which then turned into this book. I listened to the audio version of the book which is delightful since you get to actually hear Dench’s voice and O’Hea interviewing her. Not only did I find her personal feelings about all the roles she played in Shakespeare plays fascinating but her discussions about other actors and their characters were hilarious. Here’s just one mention of a play to get you running out for the book: On page 185, talking about the play, King Lear: “Oh, it’s a cracking way to start a play. King Lear is getting old and has decided to relinquish power to his three daughters. To work out how to divide up the kingdom, he asks: ‘Which of you shall we say doth love us most?’ It’s such a ridiculous question, so excessive, so unjust. It seems like one big game to him.” And so on…Such wit and humor, there’s comedy and tragedy in just reading this book. And here’s a phrase she stated regarding the times when things went wrong: “There’s magic to be mined in mistakes.” Ahhhh…we should all look at things that way. Fun read.

I found this book to be engaging on a scholarly level. It was a little dense for a casual listen but Judi Dench's voice was fantastic.

This one felt like listening to a marvelous podcast - Judi Dench being interviewed about all the Shakespeare plays and roles she has had, the productions she's been in and the different interpretations by different directors, all the theatre greats she's been on stage with or been directed by, this was quite simply fantastic ! And if you are thinking this is only for high brow cultured theatre buffs, think again, my 17yo son was listening with me for a while (it is very possible to break this into pieces since they give each play a chapter) and he loved it, loved the podcast feel and thought this was very entertaining ! He'll be listening to the Midsummer Night's Dream chapter again soon, since he'll be reading that play for AP English.
It was bittersweet to listen on this drive since my father-in-law's life (born in 1933) and Judi Dench's life (born in
1934) have overlapped for a long time and many of the bigger political events, changing views and technological advances she referenced were of course present in his life as well, lots to think about, but suffice to say we loved our listening and highly recommend the audio, since Judi Dench does part of the audio as well!
The audio books felt so personal and fun. It's like I was sitting in the audience. It was narrated by Barbara Flynn, Brendan O'Hea and Judi Dench. I can't say enough good things about this. It's a must read listen and hope you love it as much as I did. It was fantastic to relate to Judi Dench's mind and experience focused on Shakespeare in a way I hadn't seen before. I'm truly in awe of her talent.

I took my time with this one! It is too delicious not to. . . .I spent my mornings listening and re-reading (I both read and listened - to have Judi Dench's voice and that sweet giggle start my day was a joy and delight!).

The interview process between Judi and Brendan O'Hea (a director and actor also) covers a wide range of acting and Shakespeare work topics:

[Work of W Shakespeare
**Topic - Judi's Take On It]

Macbeth
**Stratford-Upon-Avon
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
**Play
Twelfth Night
The Merchant of Venice
**Company
Hamlet
Coriolanus
**Fireside Ramblings
As You Like it
Measure for Measure
**Rose Theatre
Much Ado About Nothing
King Lear
**Failure
The Comedy of Errors
**Rehearsal
Richard II
Antony and Cleopatra
Cymbeline
**Critics
All’s Well That Ends Well
**Shakespeare’s Language
Henry V
The Merry Wives of Windsor
**Audience
Richard III
**Changing Times
The Winter’s Tale
**Future of Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
**Advice

Mind you, these are not analyses or summaries of the above listed plays. They are the subjects of Dame Dench's reminiscences of her years of experience on and off stage / film working with notables and not-so-notables - all part of her life and days working within William Shakespeare's oeuvre and worldview. IF there were more than 5 stars, I'd be granting ALL The Stars for the pleasure this read gave me in both its formats. The audio also provides a rousing amusement in the form of outtakes from the interviews.

Hurray and Huzzah for Dame Judi Dench's latest book Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent !

*A sincere thank you to Judi Dench, Brendan O'Hea, St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and independently review.*

I absolutely adored this memoir! The conversations between Dame Judi and actor/director Brendan O'Hea were delightful as they dissected the many Shakespeare plays in which she's appeared.

I've seen or read a number of Shakespeare plays and I remember going to the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario several times with my parents. I don't think I appreciated the experience as much as I should have. I also took a Shakespeare course in college, but that's been years ago. So, I loved revisiting the plays I know and learning much about the ones I've heard of but never read, like Anthony and Cleopatra or Cymbeline or The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Their conversations are interspersed with short discussions on audiences, critics, company spirit, rehearsal room etiquette, and directors. I read this on audiobook, with Barbara Flynn reading Dench's parts, and I think this is the very best way to read the book. As a bonus, at the end there's an informal discussion between Dench and O'Hea about the making of the book and their personal experiences that is just icing on the cake!

Luckily I am a Shakespeare fan as this book leans more toward the Shakespeare fan rather than the Judi Dench fan.

This books is a conversation between two friends about Shakespeare, and Judi’s thoughts on everything from the characters she played, the costumes, the play itself, and anything else you could wonder about.

I loved hearing her talk about the characters, their personalities, their motives, it was so insightful.

A must read for a lover of everything Shakespeare

Judi Dench is excellent at explaining Shakespeare in the most basic terms that bring the works alive so that everyone can enjoy and understand the possible meaning behind the words. The audiobook is like listening to a conversation between friends reminiscing about past productions. It is informative, inciteful and fun.

I wish there had been something like this when I was in school! There have been SO many attempts to make Shakespeare more accessible to modern audiences that I'd just about given up on ever genuinely enjoying one of his plays. But listening to this has changed that. Because Judi Dench comes at the plays as plays, not literature. As she and Brendan O'Hea take us on a tour of every Shakespeare character she's ever played, any attempts to turn the conversation in the direction of your English teacher droning on about symbolism and literary devices are dismissed by Judi as "what a stupid question!" or "you'd have to ask him (Shakespeare)." She's an actor, and her focus is on the words on the page and making them make sense to the audience. As she talks about each role - especially in the multiple instances of plays where she has played different roles in different productions - you start to see the plays like she does - stories that let the audience see themselves in the characters' hopes, fears, heartbreaks, scheming, etc. - rather than obsolete blocks of text in need of decoding. And it's OK if you're not familiar with every play she talks about - the plot comes out as she guides you through her character's arc.

This is also a great one for audio - in a stroke of brilliance, Brendan O'Hea transcribed the 120+ hours of conversation he recorded, edited it for clarity and to remove what was apparently an exceedingly frequent use of profanity by Judi Dench plus all of the talking over each other, sentence fragments, background noise, etc., and whittled it down to about eleven hours of the best material. The publisher then found a reader who sounds remarkably like Judi Dench about twenty years ago, and she recorded the edited portion of Judi's remarks, with Brendan reading his own questions and comments. The result is a smooth, easy to follow conversation - what it loses in authenticity (no pauses before answers to questions, very minimal repetition, etc.) is more than made up for by the ease of listening. You even get a little peek at what the original sounded like with a 45 minute bonus interview with the real Judi Dench at the end that includes a great deal of microphone movement, attempts to recall names, background noise, etc.

I can't think of anyone I wouldn't recommend this to!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

One of my favorite things to do is to sit among people I admire their conversations, to just listen and drink it in. Listening to this book while sitting with a warm cup of tea and looking out the window, I could imagine myself doing just that. The audiobook was truly conversational, filled with personal history and experience but also rich with history of the times and industry. I have forever loved Judi Dench and now, I love her all the more. That I have a deeper love and affection for for Shakespeare is a bonus.

Thank you so much to Judi Dench, Brendan O’Hea, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for allowing me such an incredible experience.

All thoughts and opinions are my own.

What a marvelous read. I read mostly nonfiction because I like to walk away having learn something real, be enriched by the topic, and inspired to learn more. This volume certainly checked all of those boxes. We all know of Shakespeare. We all know of Judi Dench. But mesh the two together and you get not only a sonic experience but first hand education. Her deep respect, love and experience with shakespearean theater is jolly good fun. It's a lesson for the ages. There is insights on how speak, pause and challenge/play with the words yes—it's the passion and the appreciation + hilarious and charming stories that makes this story shine. Recommend to many people, across genres and domains to find this book and give it a listen! (Or better yet buy it and bring your highlighter bc there will be so much you'll want to save or reference. You will enjoy sharing the anecdotes with others-so be prepared to spend some time with the author and her love for the stage and the bard!)

If anyone could convince me to Shakespeare it would be Judi Dench. After this audiobook, I know if for sure. The conversation she had with Brendan O'Hea came organically smooth and entertaining. The actress told us about her interpretation of each character she got to play in theater and how she prepared for them. Combined with couple tasty anecdotes from behind the scenes with famous actors, I felt like Judi Dench has admirable appreciation to the language, to the art of theater and her profession which emphasizes empathy for characters in any play or movie. The audiobook contains some passages from Shakespeare's plays; conversation feels like a podcast and goes so fast that even with my 1.5x speed, I would gladly keep another 10h in.

This was fabulous! Even though Dench (who is nearly 90!) was understandably not able to read the entire book herself, they found a great reader for her part who sounds a LOT like her. And she DOES read the lines from the plays at the start of each section and there's a wonderfully funny outtake section (only on audio?) at the end where Dench & O'Hea chat a bit more. Half way thru reading it, I was inspired to look up the 1977 performance that Dench was in and greatly enjoyed seeing her and various other famous British actors in their much younger years. Highly recommended!

I very much enjoyed listening to this audiobook and hearing Judi Dench talk about all the roles she played onstage from Shakespeare during her illustrious career.. it was like taking a trip down memory lane with her including her thoughts on the characters, stories, funny anecdotes and personal things thrown in. My favorite part was hearing her giggling!

I received an #arc from #NetGalley for this title! What a long but lovely ride. The audio book was narrated by Barbara Flynn and Brendan O'Hea with Judi Dench saying some of her lines from the Shakespeare plays she has been in at the beginning of each section. It was surprising as Barbara Flynn does sound quite similar to Judy Dench and her narration flowed seamlessly with Judy- to the point it sounded almost like a sightly younger Judi Dench and I was rather surprised at the end when it switched to the "podcast" with Judi Dench.

I had to do this book in small portions (pretty much in the per play section the book is set up in) because it was rather long and it helped me digest each play and perspective more, but it made me want to reread Shakespeare and see more productions of his work, and watch the filmed productions they discussed! Both Judi and Brendan's love for Shakespeare as they analyzed the plays that Judi (and Brendan as this was how they met!) has been in throughout her life was evident and engaging. It really jumped me into the roles and into different perspectives on the plays. It was refreshing to hear about some of their backstage experiences, how they interacted with different directors, and how different stages of life and grief impacted the roles.

It reignited a passion for Shakespeare through their love of his work.

It was a special treat to hear the "podcast" at the end of the book of Brendan and Judy talking about the time they put into the book and why they chose to write it. You could tell how much respect they have for each other and for Shakespeare's work and how relevant it still is today.

Did you know you needed a book of Judi Dench talking about Shakespeare? I didn't. What a fabulous audiobook has been created here. Brendan O'Hea interviews the icon Dench and it results in what seem to be spontaneous discussions about various plays with sprinkles about her life experiences both off and on stage. It is beyond delightful to hear Dench describe her experiences as various characters. As they talk about each play, describing he remembers quotes from all of the various plays.
The two seem like old friends who are just having conversations, batting quotes and reminiscences back and forth with a delightful epilogue where they discuss their discussions.

Four and a half stars
This book comes out April 23, 2024
ARC kindly provided by Macmillan Audio and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Thanks NetGalley for giving me access to this ARC! It’s not what I expected — more like an interview than a memoir — but it’s utterly delightful. Organizing the narrative around texts and characters was really smart; it provides a deep dive into each piece in a way a chronological telling couldn’t. Ms. Dench’s memory for Shakespeare’s words and her vast career is incredible. Her stories are equally engaging and educational. I could listen to her talk and analyze texts and characters forever. I’ve been a Shakespeare nerd since I was 13 years old — his plays are why I became an English teacher — and this book fed my soul in ways I can’t describe. What a gift this recording will be for generations!

🎧SHAKESPEARE: THE MAN WHO PAYS THE RENT by Judi Dench and Brenden O'Hea was an exceptional educational experience!

This is an incredible collection of stories that encompass Dame Judi Dench's experiences in every Shakespeare play. Her insights into each character she plays, and absolutely unfiltered opinions of the plays themselves proved to be a riot, if not a treasure. If I ever see another of Shakespeare's plays, I want to find the chapters where she discusses it; delving into her ideas of the characters and motivations.

In between the play insights, the two authors discuss other various periphery of theatre and include some personal vignettes that proved a bit saucy at times and I loved it all!

If I didn't already have a massively high opinion of Dame Judi, it would raise yet again. She is brilliant, passionate, hilarious, and I wish I could go have a drink at a pub with her.

Thank you to @macmillan.audio & @netgalley for this exceptional narrative.

Absolute 5 star audiobook. Anyone who has any interest in theatre, Shakespeare, biography, or just wants to listen to some incredibly poignant observations on life needs to listen to this book. 11/10 recommend. Thank you NetGalley for this audio arc.

Here's my background going into Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent: Re: The Bard, I read Macbeth in high school (Lady M, you are my girl! Love, love, love Foul Is Fair), I have seen the movie version of Othello with Laurence Fishburne, I read Brooke McEldowney's Pibgorn Rep: A Midsummer Night's Dream, and, of course, I've seen The Lion King like a million, billion times. Also must shout-out North by Shakespeare: A Rogue Scholar's Quest for the Truth Behind the Bard's Work. So illuminating! Re: Dame Judi Dench, I've seen Goldeneye and Skyfall. Why do I mention this? Because the scant less than stellar reviews for Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent focus on the reader's lack of knowledge, particularly of Shakespeare's works. My opinion: it doesn't matter! Read Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent like you would read fantasy. Just go with it and enjoy. Enjoy the banter between Dame Judi Dench and Brendan O'Hea. If you're reading the paper book, take time to enjoy Dame Judi's elegant artwork. If you're listening to the audiobook, let the words swirl around you. You're eavesdropping on this fun conversation. Let the joy of the verbal sparring partners lift your emotions, too.

See, I freaked out when I realized that I didn't know much, if anything, about most of the plays in the book. I relaxed and let it go. Now, admittedly, that might have been easier because I primarily listened to the audiobook and used the hardcover as backup. (Through luck, I received the hardback for free through Goodreads Giveaways and I would like to thank Macmillan Audio for allowing me to experience the NetGalley audiobook.) Seriously, just go with it, and you'll be surprised what you pick up. If you feel too much in the dark, that's what the Internet is for!

It's interesting that a work that seems like it should be so serious isn't. I think that's a good lesson for Shakespeare. We make the works out to be these inaccessible things, but they were plays for the common people once upon a time. When a Londoner walked into the Globe, they didn't know who Cloten was, they were just there to have an enjoyable time! I think Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent really helped me learn that lesson. The plays really do cover everything at some point, every human emotion, all of life's experiences. Dame Judi's correct-- that's why they endure, not because of forced AP curricula. Thanks for helping me understand, Dame Judi and Brendan.

Final note: as I mentioned, I experienced both the paper and the audio versions of the book. Which one is better? Well, if I really could only pick one I'd go with the audiobook because of the bonus interview with Brendan and Dame Judi at the end. Plus, I think I absorbed more through the audio conversation format rather than the printed conversation. I'd recommend, if means are available, that you get both versions, though. It's always nice to have a printed copy to refer back to when you hear an unfamiliar word. Plus, Dame Judi's artwork. I'm so glad she shared it. It's lovely.

I'd give it 10 stars if I could.

I cannot imagine that reading Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent on the page, could in any way match the joy I felt listening to the audio book with Dame Judi Dench and Brendan O’Hea discussing Shakespeare’s plays, Dench’s roles, her remembrances, beautiful recitations and the cheeky observations that made me laugh out loud.

Culled from 120 hours of recording, many of which were done during Covid, Dame Judi shares it all, from her love of the theater to her favorite actors, the acting companies she loved, her favorite roles, costumes, etc.

“All I ever wanted to do was play Shakespeare, nothing else. It was a kind of zenith for me and Shakespeare at the Vic…that was beyond my wildest dreams,” she said in Chapter 10.

She talks about the continuity and almost sacredness that these words, these plays have, all these years later. O’Hea has her talk about a celebration she attended at Windsor Castle with the king and queen. In the Waterloo Chamber, on display was the second folio that Charles I had with him coming up to his execution, and in the margin names of characters from the play were written. It was Twelfth Night.

Of Shakespeare, after all these years, she still seems in awe that he covers in the plays every single emotion that could happen to anyone in life…love, jealousy, anger, envy, resentment, fear.

Dench also offers a tip for actors, from her performances of Ophelia after the death of her father in Hamlet. “That thing, less is more should be written up in letters 15 feet high.”

Now I have long been a Judi Dench fan and had read her 2011 autobiography, And Furthermore. Listening to to her tribute to Shakespeare has made me adore her even more.

It was an absolute treat to listen to and so I I highly recommend the audiobook of Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent to anyone who is a fan of Judi Dench, of theater, and of course the great bard himself, William Shakespeare.

I received the advance reader copy of Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent audio book from Macmillan Audio, courtesy of NetGalley, and highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Judi Dench, of theater, and of course the great bard himself, William Shakespeare.