Judi Dench will reflect on William Shakespeare in a new book of conversations with actor and director Brendan O’Hea, St. Martin’s Press announced in a news release.
The press will publish Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent next year. It describes the book as “Judi’s love letter to Shakespeare.”
Dench has long been associated with the Bard of Avon. Her first professional stage role was as Ophelia in Hamlet in 1957 at London’s Old Vic. Over the next few years, she would act in Old Vic productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Measure for Measure, and As You Like It.
She appeared in film adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays including A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Henry V, and she won an Academy Award in 1998 for playing Queen Elizabeth I in the movie Shakespeare in Love.
O’Hea is an actor who has directed several plays for Shakespeare’s Globe in London, including Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Merchant of Venice.
In the book, St. Martin’s says, Dench “will guide us through Shakespeare’s plays with incisive clarity, revealing the secrets of her rehearsal process and inviting us to share in her triumphs, disasters, and backstage shenanigans.”
“Shakespeare has been a cornerstone—a constant in my life,” Dench said. “Revisiting these plays while writing the book has been one of the most fulfilling and happiest of times.”
Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent is slated for publication on April 23, 2024—the 408th anniversary of the Bard’s death.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
