I don’t post a lot of stories here. The last time posted anything was in 2015. However, I saw a segment on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert this week that really hit me emotionally to the point that I really thought it was worth sharing here. Sir Ian McKellen was the guest on the show, and he sat for an extended interview. The whole interview is worth a watch, but it was what he did toward the end of the interview that made my wife and I sit in rapt attention. Stephen and Sir Ian got to talking about a role that he premiered back in 1964 — he played Thomas Moore in the play Sir Thomas Moore. The play was written, in part, by Shakespeare, but was never performed as it was deemed “seditious” at the time (according to Sir Ian). So it literally premiered in 1964. The speech that Shakespeare contributed to the play is incredibly relevant to what is happening here — and actually around the world — the angry and ugly response of the citizenry to the presence of immigrants in the community. I really got quite emotional watching it. I wasn’t able to just clip the relevant portion of the interview so the whole thing is presented here. The part of the interview that immediately precedes Sir Ian’s performance starts at the 20:27 minute mark, and this bit runs for ~ 6 minutes. Unfortunately those who really need to hear these words never will. But that doesn’t diminish the importance of the words.
