Director Martin Percy writes: Sir Ian McKellen has created an amazing free interactive video piece for the National Theatre. In it, he talks interactively about the opening speech of Shakespeare’s Richard III (you know, the “Now is the winter of our discontent…” one). He also talk about Shakespeare in general, and asks you the viewer questions like…
“Do you think there’s a link between Shakespeare and modern stories like Lord of the Rings — yes or no?”
Two buttons then pop up – yes or on, and you have to answer, and see what Sir Ian’s response is to you. Sir Ian does an amazing job, of course, and even people who are not into Shakespeare find the site interesting and moving.
Or if you’re viewing from outside EU, try here.
This piece was already nominated for an Emmy and a BAFTA British Academy Award. It is currently nominated for a Webby – “the Oscars of the internet”. If any members of The One Ring community enjoyed Sir Ian’s piece and wanted to vote for it in the “people’s choice” section of the Webbys, here’s a web page which tells you where to go and what to do. Voting for the Webbys closes on April 30th: http://thedigitaldebate.com/vote_mckellen
