BRITISH ACTOR PAUL GOODWIN VISITED DAUGAVPILS THEATRE

Last week, British actor, director, and acting and stage-speech teacher Paul Goodwin visited Daugavpils Theatre. During his visit, he shared his professional experience with the theatre’s actors, both aspiring and established, and offered audiences a unique opportunity to see his one-man show Macbeth. Paul Goodwin will continue working with the actors in the future, and next year Shakespeare’s play Macbeth will be staged in its original language at Daugavpils Theatre with his participation.

This year, with the support of the State Culture Capital Foundation, several masterclasses led by Paul Goodwin were held at Daugavpils Theatre. During them, the actors worked on analysing William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, as well as on stage speech and movement. Paul Goodwin has extensive experience working with actors whose native language is not English. To date, he has led masterclasses in India, Italy, and Russia, and, in his view, although Shakespeare’s texts are often a challenge even for actors whose native language is English, one of his first and principal tasks is to dispel the actors’ concerns and fears about Shakespeare’s text in its original language: “An accent is unimportant to me; what matters more is ensuring that the actors understand what is being said and the motivations of their characters. Shakespeare’s text is psychological drama, realism, and every actor can connect with it emotionally and understand the characters’ motivations. Moreover, what I like about working with actors whose native language is not English is that they do not have the enormous baggage associated with Shakespeare that we do, so it is much easier to discard everything unnecessary and teach them something new.”

Actress Natālija Kotona took part in Paul Goodwin’s masterclasses and shared her impressions: “It is a unique experience—both hearing Shakespeare’s texts in the original language from a native English speaker and gaining a deeper understanding of them. Of course, Macbeth as a work was already familiar to us, but during the masterclasses we realised that it is impossible to translate Shakespeare perfectly, because a part of the meaning of the original text is inevitably lost in translation. Paul Goodwin presents his vision in a very engaging and comprehensible way and has helped us to understand the play and its characters better.”

Paul Goodwin concluded his October visit with the one-man show Macbeth, which he also directed and for which he wrote the adaptation of the dramatic material, while the show’s musical design was created by Ukrainian composer Dmytro Saratskyi. In the performance, Paul Goodwin portrayed Macbeth’s inner conflict: an irresistible desire to retain power in his own hands, despair, paranoid fear of defeat, and a sense of guilt that drives him into madness. After the performance, Paul Goodwin noted that he felt the audience had come ready to attentively take in what was happening, and he was grateful for the warm reception. In view of the audience’s enthusiastic response, during his next visit, planned for spring 2023, Paul Goodwin would be happy to perform this show again for the audience of Daugavpils Theatre.

Paul Goodwin’s masterclasses at Daugavpils Theatre were held with the support of the State Culture Capital Foundation.