Fools

The great ones are those from Shakespeare - Touchstone, Feste, and, greatest of all, the uncanny nameless Fool of King Lear. (All originally played by Robert Armin. What an actor, performer rather, he must have been.) When I first read the play in my mid-teens I was aware of making a new discovery about the deepest nature of things, yet with a sense it was something that I'd always known. I recognised the Fool from the first line and I'm proud to say I think I've got something of that quality in me. A few years back I was consciously cultivating that aspect of myself. Say something honest in the right tone of voice and invariably people, sometimes the most unexpected, will laugh.

Now I'm, sadly, too old to play the fool. (Except unintentionally.)

It's interesting to try and figure out, by the way, how the Fool in Lear should be played. Young? Old? Tired? Manic? Crazy? It's the only part I can think of in pre-twentieth century drama that you can play as if he's just walked in from another time and place and make perfect sense in doing so.

And in connection with all this, Noi and I have found ourselves discussing a sequence of old men in the news who can't bear to let go of power, the latest being Mugabe. I hope someone somewhere is licensed to play the fool for that gentleman. He certainly needs one, urgently.