Goosebumps! People often ask, is Shakespeare still relevant? Here is a great example, from the Steven Colbert Show, in which Sir Ian McKellen delivers an extraordinary speech. Shakespeare’s words are timeless, urgent and important. #Shakespeare #ianmckellen #stevencolbert

I've seen him on stage many many times and he continues to inspire. I was in NY seeing Godot. It was miserably cold but a group of young people were waiting at stage door for him. So excited he impacted new generations. An actor who took the time for them.

How wonderful ♥️

Shakespeare's "The Speech to the Rioters" Scene 8 of collaborative play "Sir Thomas More" (1592-1601) considered most significant literary work dealing with explosive tensions around immigration, xenophobia, and violence in Elizabethan London. Context 1517 attacks on immigrants.

I have so much endless respect for this man 🖤✨

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Thank you for sharing - this was awesome 😎

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Spine tingling stuff to see an absolute legend dip back into Shakespeare with such ease and reverence. Poignant considering the current climate, too. Absolutely brilliant!

@LindaMcQuaig Whether you agree with the opinion or not, this master raised a scene written “400 years ago” and brought it to life, alone on a stage, without any effects or costume but with his voice, his cadence, his passion, experience and sheer talent. Simply amazing! Bravo Sir McKellen!

Love this. It cuts through, Lee.

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Thank you for sharing this! 🎯

@jprowell 🤝

Beautiful. And clever language too. It’s a romantic notion, brilliantly relayed. But there’s more to this, isn’t there? What if those who appear in desperate need come with ill intent? With unmatched desires? Not with an open heart. How should we welcome them then? An army?

But this speech is all about the sentiment, the notion of humanity, the light in us all, exactly the opposite of looking for ‘stranger danger’.

So where do we put caution? There’s a place for that, isn’t there?

@leebrown2 Yes, caution matters. We should be cautious of our righteous anger in the moment; because if we don't check it, we risk making the world uglier than it needs to be. Empathy is the strength that comes from refusing to be ruled by emotions. Caution is a two way street.

@leebrown2 Tread lightly, yes. If people feel that their culture is being challenged, by whatever perception, and those can be manipulated, they have an instinct to protect it. It’s as old as the hills. The most extreme example of a culture being threatened or changed, is an invasion.

@leebrown2 But the direction of our rage is mostly misplaced, yes. You wonder how much of it is being manipulated by design…

@leebrown2 It is a choice whether to let tribal reflex through manipulation rule consciousness instead of holding space for both the ideal and the reality. 'Civilization is a triumph of mind over matter, of reason over instinct, and of the distinctly human over mankind's animal nature.'

@leebrown2 I don’t know. Tribal reflex can be very appropriate. Yes, the waters are muddied now; I don’t think we’re meant to see or know where the lines are anymore. The logistics and practicalities exist outside of philosophical generalisations.

“this your mountainous inhumanity…” - Shakespeare Breathtaking🙏

Is Music Relevant? Is Art Relevant? Is Civilization & Mankind relevant? Is Love relevant? When such perfection can bring you to tears…watching the most gifted among us recite the words as if they were feeding into us our life’s blood… I say Shakespeare is in fact relevant🙏

The great culture that such eloquent language came from is the very culture that is being eradicated by immigration today. Shakespeare was a great playwright, but he was also a man of his time. These are very different times, and very different immigrants.

It's nice to be reminded that most people are good. It is so easy to focus on the awfulness that seems everywhere right now. Thank Ian Mckellen.

he's a great actor. Shakespeare obv. great writer. Colbert at one time great comedian. but the whole thing feels a little cringe. a pompous lecture. condescending, even. there's a difference between going to see an actor perform, and being acted at.

Ian McKellen is a beautiful man and a beautiful soul.

Timeless? lol. Great speech, great acting, but the context does not apply today. 400 years ago White English London did not go from 99% to 35% in the blink of an eye with daily rapes, murders and normalised theft by 'the strangers'. It's easy to be compassionate from such a position of strength - but when you have lost safety, hygiene, public order, civility, culture, community... then less so.

that’s why Shakespeare is Shakespeare timeless , Ty Sir Ian

Shakespeare’s timeless, urgent and important words ~ made that much more powerful by being delivered by an absolute master of his craft…..

Spellbinding performance with seemingly little effort, which is Sir Ian’s forte. Shakespeare’s writing remains important today because he writes of the human condition.

Absolutely stunning on many levels. What stands out in Shakespeare today and why his relevancy is constant, is because human nature has never changed.

Shakespeare will always be relevant. His work is like angels singing in your ears.

Now that’s an artist. Not someone who can put together a few rhymes over stolen music.

That generation of actors is amazing. Dame Judy Dench can perform similarly. Listening to them their years fall away.

I watched this last night on YT. If you're a fan of Sir Ian McKellen I recommend. It was delightful. Thanks for sharing this. I adore him.

I saw Sir Ian recite this at the RSC in October last year and you could hear a pin drop. He’s wonderful.

The most phenomenal actor of our time. I had the great privilege to see Sir Ian McKellen in the lead role in Coriolanus at the National Theatre, London, 1985, while I was a student of Shakespeare attending University of London. He put tears in my 20 year young eyes just as he did now 40 years later. The man is utter genius. He was born to speak Shakespeare. In the words of the great Fiona Shaw, “Go forth and convert Shakespeare!”

The next time someone says that celebrities should “shut up & dribble,” show them this by Sir Ian McKellan and tell them to go fuck themselves.

This is precisely why R’s have gone out of their way for decades to defund public education. The more people who know and can appreciate this (and history, science, math, reasoned argument, independent thought, etc), the less they can be governed by fear—the fuel of conservatism.

I met Sir Ian many years ago, after waiting backstage for his autograph. He spent time talking with me as he would do to a friend . . . a talented actor and lovely human being ❤️

GOAT, what a complete legend.. unique delivery of such a powerful speech.

The "wretched strangers, their babies at their back" in question.

Amazing actor and artist! Not very intelligent or wise. Mouth piece for the state selling out its own people and shaming everyone into thinking it’s compassion. Truly evil. He is probably too dumb to know he is on the wrong side.

Thanks for posting, Lee! #SirIanMcKellen #WilliamShakespeare

My pleasure