From playing Bond villain Elliot Carver
and
Game of Thrones’ High Sparrow,
to his current Shylock in the Globe
Theatre’s
The Merchant of Venice, Jonathan
Pryce’s dramatic instincts and panoramic
range have been the envy of the industry
– but it was well-timed compliments that
actually launched his career. Pryce was an
art student who needed an elective and
heard that drama was the easiest, but
he ended up enjoying acting more than
painting. 'As much as I thought my drawings
and paintings were good, no one was telling
me how good they were,' he recalls. 'But
people were telling me to be an actor. It’s an
odd thing to say, but it was about praise.'
Oddly, for someone whose Royal
Academy of Dramatic Arts tutor once told
him that he’d never play anything but villains
in British police drama Z Cars, Pryce defies
categorisation. (His advice for someone
with a discouraging teacher? 'Change the
teacher!') He got his start at Liverpool’s
Everyman Theatre and found that as
'players cast' they were doing a show a
month – whatever part was assigned.
Pryce remembers playing Owl from Winnie
the Pooh and Edgar from King Lear on the
same day. 'It builds your confidence, so
you’re not afraid of tackling anything,' he
says. 'I used to be able to dance; I can sing
and act, and I like the variety,' he says. 'If
I do one kind of role in a film, I deliberately
look for another kind.' This extends even to
projects that have been written specifically
for him. 'That’s that writer’s view of what I
can do,' he says. 'I wouldn’t necessarily find
that interesting.'

Even so, he initially turned down a role
on Game of Thrones, saying that the genre
didn’t appeal to him, but when they returned
five seasons later with a fascinating
character in an international cultural
sensation, he took the job – based partly
on advice from an early agent delivered 40
years ago. 'He said that if the part isn’t the
lead character, does this character come
into the situation and change it? Which is
what the High Sparrow does; that storyline
could not have existed without him.' As for
the sixth season ender – warning: spoiler
alert – Pryce says he 'would have liked to
have done a John Snow and have come back
for the seventh season, [but] that didn’t
happen, sadly.' Then he adds, 'But who
knows with Game of Thrones.'
Game of Thrones’ flexible scheduling
meant he could take on Shylock at the
Globe’s 2015 Merchant production –
although he initially turned this down as
well. 'I shared the conviction with millions
of people that Merchant is a racist play,
rather than a play about racism,' he says.
'But reading it from Shylock’s point of view,
and with today’s rise of racism, of anti-Semitism,
of fear of the immigrant and the
alien, of putting up walls instead of knocking
them down, it’s proven to be an incredibly
relevant piece,’ he continues. 'I wouldn’t be
doing it if I thought it was in any way racist, or
if it didn’t help the political situation.'
Neil Constable, the Globe’s executive
director, agrees that Merchant is the right
play at the right, if turbulent, time. 'Religious
intolerance around the world is seen on
a daily basis, so doing a Merchant revival
felt appropriate,' he says. 'It has anti-Semitic
themes, but it’s not an anti-Semitic
play, especially in the way it’s played,' he
continues, adding that this version has a
surprise ending (Pryce is cagey about this
too). '[Audiences] did have this wonderful
connection to these words from 400
years ago. Shakespeare would not have
dreamt that his plays would have had such
resonance today.'
Pryce often plays controversial
characters that find faith intertwined with
power, be it loss or
gain. In 2015, he
played Thomas Wolsey
in BBC’s Wolf Hall. 'As a
member of the church
hierarchy, he was very
wealthy; his palace was
bigger than the king’s.
For Wolsey and people
like him, it was all
about power.' He also
feels the High Sparrow
was misguided rather
than megalomaniacal.
'He was motivated by
faith, whatever the
hell that faith was, but
he uses his power in
a dangerous way,' he
says. 'That mix of power,
fundamentalism and
zealotry is a dangerous
and unattractive one;
he is divisive and
homophobic, not a great
person,' he continues.
'Shylock is a victim of people like him.'

According to Pryce, director Jonathan
Munby brought Shylock’s decades of
abuse and discrimination centre stage.
'A lot of people are seeing Merchant for
the first time, and they’re coming with their
own prejudices,' he says, adding that the
Globe’s traditional interpretation (except for
the secret ending) forces audiences to draw
their own conclusions to make it relevant.
'You don’t want to pander, because the
audience isn’t dumb,' he continues. 'They
can decide [whether they want] to go deeper
into the production, or to say this is as bad
as watching a Trump rally.'
But audiences – in their way – have
responded. Pryce mentioned that during
one Globe performance, the scene
depicting Shylock’s forced conversion to
Christianity drew cheers from the crowd.
'We found out later they were a group of
American evangelicals,' he says. 'For
them, this wasn’t punishment, this was
salvation, but to Shylock, it is devastating,'
says Pryce. 'It means the loss of his faith
and his family.' But Constable remembers
a very different audience, who might have
understood this better. ‘[There were] bunch
of schoolgirls in hijabs in the groundlings
(standees), shouting "Shame on you" when
Shylock renounces his religion,' he says.
'Shakespeare wanted people to reflect and
comment on these plays.'
Munby’s interpretation focuses on
Shylock’s 'Christian' treatment as the core
of his all-consuming
need for vengeance.
He also emphasises
a relationship many
overlook – since
brainy beauty Portia
steals the show –
that of Shylock and
his daughter. Here,
Jessica is played
by Phoebe Pryce,
Jonathan’s actual
daughter, although he
insists that The Globe
approached her first
('and she’s very good!').
Jessica eventually
elopes with a Christian,
stealing her father’s
money, and worse, a ring
her deceased mother
gave to Shylock before
their marriage. '[Munby]
saw this as vital to
Shylock’s situation, the strong relationship
they had, and why it was devastating
when she left,' says Pryce, who adds that
Shylock is depicted as a domestic tyrant.
'The abused Shylock becomes the abuser
at home, at least verbally, and he places
terrible restrictions on her,' he says. 'It’s all
about how he became the person he is, and
his desire for revenge.' In light of today’s
prejudice and persecution, hopefully this
lesson sticks.
Did you know...
Now seen mostly on university stages, The Merchant of Venice has a distinguished history in
China, being the first professional Shakespeare performance (1913), the first performance
based on a full translation (1930), and the first Chinese Shakespeare done in Beijing after
the Cultural Revolution (1980). The independent and clever Portia embodied the emerging
modern Chinese women, while fairy tale elements such as the pound of flesh and the three
caskets enchanted the audience – and of course, vicious moneylenders were everywhere.
Normally the anti-Semitic elements are underplayed, not for sensitivity’s sake but because
it was assumed the cultural connection would be lost. The Globe’s version should offer a
whole new take on a semi-Chinese classic.
The history of The Globe
Originally built in 1599, The Globe
Theatre caught fire during a 1613
production of Henry VIII, when a misfired
cannon set the thatched roof alight. It
was rebuilt the following year, only to be
destroyed again 30 years later, when
the Puritans deemed all theatre immoral
entertainment. The once-glorious spot
stayed empty until American actor
and director Sam Wanamaker made a
pilgrimage to Shakespeare’s playhouse
and found nothing but a plaque.
Wanamaker relocated to the UK,
where, in 1969, he launched his own
campaign to rebuild Shakespeare’s
Globe. He faced funding shortages,
apathy and outright ridicule for
decades, but in 1991, construction on
the new Shakespeare’s Globe began.
Why the resistance? 'Everyone was
convinced it would be twee, that it
would be some Disneyfied experience,
that there would be no credibility,' says
Neil Constable, executive director
of today’s Globe. 'But when artistic
director Mark Rylance brought the
tradition of original practice, the
naysayers saw how valuable a resource
this was. It always takes an outsider
to tell you what you need. Sadly,
Wanamaker never got to see it.'
Wanamaker died in 1993, having
seen only a rehearsal performance
on a temporary stage. But he would
have been pleased with the result.
Theatregoers still sit on wooden
benches only partly protected by the
elements, and the 'groundlings' still
stand open air and elbow-to-elbow in
the ‘pit’. ‘At five pounds a ticket,’ says
Constable, ‘it’s the cheapest date
night in London.’
As far as the Globe’s
future in China, the theatre is setting
up a Shakespeare education centre,
and hopes to have regular tours to both
first- and second-tier cities – because
everyone should experience the Bard.
'Shakespeare [allows] people to reflect
and understand who and what they
are in the world,' says Constable. 'He
writes about all walks of life and all
classes, so that everyone can find
a character that represents them.
Shakespeare is a passport to life.'