A light-hearted interview with Annabel Leventon

Actress and SAT Trustee

A recent article in The Times in the Relative Values series highlighted SAT Trustee and Actress Annabel Leventon and her cousin Miriam Margoyles discussing religion, sex, and adultery prompts us to publish this short and far less serious interview with Annabel.

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1. When or where did you first become intrigued with the Shakespearean works?

I’ve always been passionate about Shakespeare since I was eleven years old and taken to see The Merchant of Venice at Stratford and shown round Shakespeare’s birthplace before seeing the play.

2. At what point did you begin to question the authorship of Shakespeare’s works?

I’m afraid I must have been a cynical child, as I was not impressed (in the birthplace) to be told, “That was Shakespeare’s crib, there is his writing desk.” I didn’t believe a word of it even then, though it took years before I was interested in the authorship question itself. In 2005, when I was working at the National Theatre in London and asked about it, I said, as I always had, “Who cares? We have the plays.” And an actor, shocked by my attitude, said, “You should educate yourself,” and put a book into my hands. It was Charlton Ogburn’s The Mysterious William Shakespeare. I thank the actor, Chris Larner, daily, for doing that. It changed my life.

3. What is your favourite Shakespearean word or phrase, and what does it mean?

Hard to pick one, out of so many. Perhaps Sir Andrew Aguecheek saying sadly, “I was adored once, too.’ It shows him to be silly, hopeless, and useless, but somehow I found it funny and touching, till I learned he might be a parody of Sir Philip Sidney. Then it just stays silly.

4. What was your favourite performance of a Shakespeare play?

Much Ado About Nothing, also at Stratford when I was fourteen. It was astonishing. Peggy Ashcroft as Beatrice, John Gielgud as Benedick. I cried laughing and decided I would play Beatrice myself one day, which I eventually did. Also, when still a teenager, I saw Peter Hall’s production of Twelfth Night, with Max Adrian (not a young man) playing the fool. At the end, he sat at the front of the stage, dangling his legs over the edge and singing “The Wind and the Rain”—it was heart-breaking. .

5. What is your favourite Shakespearean insult or term of endearment?

“Thou cream-faced loon.”

6. Who is your favourite Shakespearean male character? Why?

Hamlet, of course. The most enduring, deeply felt and imagined version of a potentially wonderful life ruined by betrayal, cruelty, and murder. And somehow we care about him, whoever plays him, over and over again. The depth of feeling, the extraordinary eloquence of thought and expression, the dazzling ability and poetry, all deepen as you know him better over the years.

7. Who is your favourite Shakespearean female character? Why?

Beatrice, of course! Witty, beautiful, fun, heartfelt, eloquent, lyrical, and so, so funny. And at the heart of things a wonderful friend, a passionate believer in justice, frustrated by her inability to defend someone she loves, simply because she’s a woman and has no power except to influence others. Which she does brilliantly.

8. Do you have a favourite play? If so, what appeals to you about it?

King Lear is I think my favourite play, though it’s a close-run thing. Once, as a student, surrounded by a thousand books and essays and notes, studying for finals, I stopped and spent two weeks reading and thinking about Lear, which wasn’t even on the syllabus. Doing that, I learned what I’d gone to university for—to think for myself. I’ve never forgotten that lesson.

9. What is your least favourite play? Why?

Titus Andronicus is pretty dark, too dark for me. I don’t know where it comes from, but it’s bloody and vicious.

10. What piece of evidence, or lack thereof, convinced you that the authorship of the Shakespearean canon may be in doubt?

The crucial one for me, amongst many many important factors, is that that the man from Stratford, despite conjuring up the most brilliant, educated, strong female characters ever created by a dramatist, never educated his own daughters. They signed with a mark, like his parents.

11. What is the first sentence you use when bringing up the authorship question to those who probably don’t know much about it?

I’m very very careful, as it engenders rage in many people. Either that or it’s politely ignored. In fact I’ve stopped mentioning it unless there’s a really promising opening.

12. What is the one book, talk, paper, movie, or television presentation you consistently suggest to those new to the authorship question?

Once it was Diana Price’s Shakespeare’s Unorthodox Biography. Now it’s Elizabeth Winkler’s Shakespeare Was A Woman and Other Heresies, which is clarity itself, brilliantly informed, and easy to read.

13. What is your favourite piece of Shakespeare trivia?

There’s nothing trivial about the misuse of history to create a front man and worship him instead of the real author.

14. Who is your favourite candidate as author?

Edward de Vere, Seventeenth Earl of Oxford.

15. What do you imagine might happen if your candidate is proved to be the author?

All hell would break loose and things would change—for the better! The truth must be revealed, sooner or later. Vero nihil verius—Nothing Truer Than Truth.

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The Times interview with Annabel and her cousin Miriam is a wonderful read. Do treat yourself to the full story.

Miriam: We — like most women in the industry — suffered from sexism in the past. I wasn’t supposed to be funny; men hated it. Annabel was gorgeous and men didn’t like it when she had her own ideas — they resented her being in charge of the stage.

Annabel and I have been close for almost 60 years and there has never been a cross word between us. I don’t think it’s in her nature. She’s honest, welcoming and full of love — more of a sister than a cousin.

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