Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves.  You are reading a blog post by THE FIRST ACTOR IN HISTORY TO PLAY ALL THE ROLES IN A SHAKESPEARE PLAY.

The play in question is The Merchant of Venice, in particular the audio version of the play as recorded this month for The Merchant of Venice – Ignatius Critical Edition.  Incidentally, the Ignatius Critical Edition series is a set of classic works, from Huckleberry Finn to Frankenstein, edited by Joseph Pearce, each of which includes both the texts themselves as well as essays of literary criticism from a sane perspective.  While many of the essays included in each volume may not necessarily be from a Christian point of view, they are at least honest attempts to examine the texts in question from a traditional perspective, which is to say from a perspective that does not impose a perverse modernist agenda on the interpretation of the works.

As the publishers state on their website, these books “represent a genuine extension of consumer choice, enabling educators, students, and lovers of good literature to buy editions of classic literary works without having to ‘buy into’ the ideologies of secular fundamentalism.”  In other words, the Ignatius Critical Editions are part of the war to reclaim Christian culture, as fought on the battlefront of great literature and the attempts to read and understand it.  See http://www.ignatius.com/ignatiuscriticaleditions/index.htm

But enough about reclaiming the culture – let’s talk about the greatest actor in the room – me.  Or as Bottom would say in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “I can play all the parts”.

In fact, I have been recording audio books for Ignatius Press since last spring, giving “dramatic readings” of works of fiction, in which I use my vocal talents to turn novels into something closer to “radio plays”.  And though it’s not good to brag, sometimes you have to in show business; so allow me to brag for a moment, not about my talents as a dramatic reader (playing all the parts), but about the material I am given to read – especially the tremendous sprawling and deeply spiritual novels of Michael O’Brien (no relation), works by G. K. Chesterton, and the “Socrates Meets” series by Peter Kreeft.  See www.ignatius.com .

And so, when the folks at Ignatius Press approached me about reading The Merchant of Venice and its accompanying essays, at first I offered to record the text of the play with a professional cast of actors, but Ignatius was insistent that I play all the roles.  This is either because A) they have great faith in my abilities as an actor, or B) I work cheap.  Perhaps it is a combination thereof.

Now I realize that this had enormous “cheese” potential.  “Why is this guy playing all these characters and why is it so bad – so cheesy?” I could imagine many listeners thinking – until I recorded it and listened to it myself.  Perhaps it’s the beauty of Shakespeare’s text or perhaps it’s the magic of “radio”, which engages our imagination (for the same imagination which in Shakespeare’s day allowed the underlings to accept a boy playing a girl on stage, these days persuades the listening audience that a man changing his voice on CD or ipod  is Portia – and Bassanio, and Shylock, and everybody else), but whatever the explanation, the thing turned out to be pretty darned good.

Therefore once I finished the project, and heard how well it came out, I decided that I might as well trumpet my case a bit.  I wrote to the Guinness World Records organization and described the feat.  We’ll see if they get back to me on it and give it their official recognition.

Meanwhile, it really seems as if I am the first person to pull this off.  First, it would not have been possible to play all the parts in a Shakespeare play in the same production in the days when the stage was the only medium in which to produce them.  Since the advent of film and audio recording, it has indeed been possible for one actor to set such a record, but my research has turned up only once when anybody came even remotely close.

In an art film version of The Tempest called Prospero’s Books (a film teeming with nudity, I’m told), John Gielgud voiced every role, though the roles themselves were portrayed by actors miming as Gielgud spoke.  This still may have counted – but at the end of the film, when Prospero’s wand is broken, the actors themselves begin to speak.  So Gielgud does not play all the parts all the way through.  (The spell, you might say, is broken!)

If there are other documented instances of one actor playing all the roles in a Shakespeare play, I’m open to hearing about them – though I would be utterly crushed if the record does not in fact belong to me.  So be gentle, dear readers, if you know more than I do, when you let me down.

Now we simply have to hope that Ignatius Press puts out the entire canon of Shakespeare’s works, so that I can be the only actor to play every role in every play ever written by the Bard.  Then and only then will I get the quirkish recognition I so long have deserved!

And now, back to the books and the studio … and can we say St. Bottom the Weaver, pray for us?