When Gregory Doran, the artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, first decided to direct Shakespeare's cycle of English-history plays, he met with Sir Ian McKellen and asked him if he'd consider playing Falstaff"the fat, uproarious counsellor to the young Prince Hal. McKellen demurred, telling Doran that it was not the part for him, Doran recalled recently. "But then he said, 'Why are you looking for Falst…
SOURCE: The New Yorker at 06:37AM on April 25, 2016