'Being Shakespeare' a labor of love for Callow
British actor/author/director Simon Callow ("Shakespeare in Love," "A Room With a View"), can sometimes guess what films people will recognize him from based upon the country he's in and the age range of the approaching fans.
"'Four Weddings and a Funeral' mostly, but here more than in England, people recognize me from 'The Phantom of the Opera,'" Callow said during a telephone interview from New York. "And a younger generation recognizes me, I'm afraid to say, from 'Ace Ventura Pet Detective 2: When Nature Calls.'"
But for die-hard theater fans, Callow is known for originating the role of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Peter Shaffer's 1979 play "Amadeus," and for his masterful one-man shows focusing on the lives of great British authors like Oscar Wilde ("The Importance of Being Oscar") and Charles Dickens ("The Mystery of Charles Dickens"). Callow also has memorably portrayed Dickens in episodes of the relaunched BBC-TV series "Doctor Who."
Now Callow returns to the Windy City after a decade-long absence with another critically acclaimed one-man show called "Being Shakespeare," playing from April 18-29 at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place courtesy of Chicago Shakespeare Theater's World's Stage initiative. The Chicago run of "Being Shakespeare" follows the show's earlier engagements at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York and stints in London and Edinburgh.
"There's something about it that seems to stir people quite deeply, and I love doing it and making people - this is the plan - fall in love with Shakespeare again in a slightly different way," Callow said. "I'm glad to say that most people who see the play do come away feeling that they actually do know something more about Shakespeare and something about the context of his life which gave rise to the plays."
As expected with many shows focusing on the life and works of Britain's great Bard, "Being Shakespeare" provides Callow the opportunity to perform famous (and some other not so famed) monologues from William Shakespeare's many plays. But as written by historian and author Jonathan Bate, "Being Shakespeare" goes more in depth into what life was like in Elizabethan England and how that affected the Bard's work.
Bate structures "Being Shakespeare" from the famed "seven ages of man" monologue (it begins "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players") spoken by the character Jaques in the comedy "As You Like It." The monologue serves as framework to explore the course of Shakespeare's own life.
"It's a very useful sort of spine to the evening to take us through a human life," Callow said. "(Shakespeare's) delineation of each age is so canny and unerring and unchanging really. When he comes to describe dementia as he calls it 'second childishness and mere oblivion; sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything,' that's pretty well what it is now as it was 500 years ago."
Callow's recently penned the biography "Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World" (to be released in the U.S. in August), and is soon to start work on another biography on the later life of actor/director Orson Wells (it was Callow's work on a previous biography called "Orson Wells: The Road to Xanadu" that first brought him to Chicago to do research in the early 1990s). "I love Chicago," Callow said. "It's really got a unique sense of itself - a wonderful swagger. I love the architecture, the food and the theater - particularly the Chicago Shakespeare Theater which is a beacon in the world."
And when inevitably asked which he prefers more, be it writing, directing or acting, Callow said, "I like best whatever it is I'm not doing at the moment. When I'm directing, I'm always, 'Oh God, I wish I was acting,' and when I'm acting, I'm always, 'Oh God, I wish I was writing.'"
“Being Shakespeare”
Where: Chicago Shakespeare Theater at Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place, 175 E. Chestnut St., Chicago
When: Wednesday, April 18 to Sunday, April 29: 1 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Monday.
Tickets: $45-$75
Info: (312) 595-5600 or