Making It So: A Memoir

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Even now, Stewart’s age hasn’t quite caught up with some of the walk-on parts he played as a novice – an 85-year-old butler, or someone’s ancient American father in an obscure Shaw play. “I was dreadful and everyone knew it,” he recalls of the latter. He describes some of these early humiliations with the self-deprecating wisdom only 60 years’ hindsight can bestow. Neben seiner legendären Figur als Jean-Luc Picard (2 TV-Serien mit 208 Episoden + 4 Kinofilme) und der Rolle des Charles Xavier, blieb Stewart seit seiner Jugend stets dem Theater und vor allem den Werken William Shakespeares treu; ob auf der Bühne, bei Star Trek durch seine Rolle (es gibt sehr viele Anspielungen und Zitate) oder auch vor der Kamera - sei es für die Royal Shakespeare Company (z.B. Hamlet) in der er viele Jahre zum Kernteam gehörte oder bei der Miniserie "The Hollow Crown" in Richard II.

Patrick Stewart ‘Making it So: A Memoir’ | Royal Tickets | Patrick Stewart ‘Making it So: A Memoir’ | Royal

It’s not a get-out,” he says. “But an understanding, yes.” Then he goes on, “I always used to feel that my father and his violence is what had the biggest impact on my life. There have been times when I have been violent. Rarely to other people, and never to my children. But I can get angry. And it comes from my father.” It was Dormand who first introduced Stewart to Shakespeare. “I couldn’t understand a word,” he recalls, of being asked to read a monologue from The Merchant of Venice. “I couldn’t even pronounce some of the words.” But “I escaped. And my dream became more of a dream. Not just of having a different life. But, for the few minutes I had on stage, actually living it.” I have followed his career since from a respectful distance, and when I learned he was writing his memoir, I was over the moon with excitement. All right,” said Mr D, “start reading.” We all bent our heads over the strange-looking columns of print and started reading. Silently. A moment passed before Mr D erupted: “Not to yourselves, you idiots, out loud! This is a play, it’s action, it’s drama, it’s life. Start again.”But the real reason I became devoted to Mr Dormand was that he was the man who introduced me to the works of William Shakespeare. One day, early in the term, he placed a copy of The Merchant of Venice on every desk. At the time, I did not know that Mr Dormand was also an amateur actor and director. Nor did I have any idea what the hell The Merchant of Venice was.

Stewart, Patrick: 9781982167738 Making It So: A Memoir: Stewart, Patrick: 9781982167738

I tell Stewart that I am surprised he has been able to locate the good in his father, to consider him a positive figure, and we wonder together what that might have taken. “I’ve already mentioned the ‘T’ word,” he says, meaning therapy. “It was a friend who introduced me to the idea of therapeutic sessions and they’ve been a part of my life ever since. Invaluably and particularly since I’ve come to live in the United States, where if you don’t have a therapist you’re weird.” The subject that most captivated me was English literature. In my second year at the Mirfield Secondary Modern School, I was assigned to the Eng-lit class of Cecil Dormand, who was also my form master. He was to have a transformational impact on my life. After finishing this book I felt as though I had just spent a week sitting in a country cottage listening to stories by a dear friend. We did, and we were dreadful. None of us could make sense of what we were reading, what the story was, or what most of the words meant. “Adversary”? “Void”? “Dram”? “Obdurate”? Nobody in our world used words like that.

Making It So, a Memoir,’ is such a delightful and beautifully-written account of an extraordinary thespian life, along with its sparkling anecdotes, that the best advice anyone can give potential readers is to just to grab a copy and immerse themselves in it. Like a super-glued ornament, it’s almost impossible to put down! For it’s a fascinating, funny, surprising and astonishingly honest account of a childhood passion that grew to almost legendary status – and from the mind of an exceptionally talented man, prepared to take chances in pursuit if his acting dreams, often against cautious advice.