Colin David Reese - Shakespearean Actor and Director.
- Isobel Arden
- Nov 17
- 4 min read
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Meet Colin David Reese.
In this interview, Mark invited Colin to create his own fantasy cultural year from the answers to some easy questions where there are no wrong answers. Enjoy his journey below.
Colin David Reese is a theatrical polymath — actor, director, translator, and consummate “Shakespeare guy” — whose lifelong curiosity about the Bard’s verse has become a deeply immersive career.
Born in London to radio actor Harold Reese, Colin first trod the boards as a child, and his early professional work included a musical fantasy about Shakespeare where he played the Bard’s fictional illegitimate son.
He trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London, giving him a firm classical grounding, and later moved to France to study with Jacques Lecoq, delving into physical theatre and Commedia dell’Arte — techniques that would come to shape his approach to Shakespeare.
Over the decades, Colin has acted in a wide variety of theatre productions — from classic Shakespeare to modern drama — and has appeared in more than a hundred film and television roles, according to his acting profiles.
Notably, he performed in Sweet Bird of Youth under the direction of Harold Pinter, and he has collaborated with significant figures in theatre and film.
Colin founded his own theatre company, La Compagnie du Cèdre, for which he has written, directed and staged several original shows, including A Gift to the Future, a piece deeply informed by his Shakespeare research. He is perhaps best known for his one-man show Shakespeare Unbound, in which he explores how the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays came together, and what it was like to be an actor in the Elizabethan theatre world.
In addition to performing, he leads highly regarded workshops to help actors unlock Shakespeare’s verse. His teaching emphasises breathing, articulation, rhythm, physicality, and working from facsimiles of original texts (such as the First Folio), offering a rare, practically grounded method rooted in historical practice.
Colin brings warmth, scholarship and theatrical humour to all that he does — inspiring actors and audiences to rediscover Shakespeare not just as literature, but as living, breathing theatre.
Colin's Fantasy Cultural Year ... with a magic wand and time machine to hand.
A Warm Evening in Granada
Mark paints a vivid fantasy: Colin at a pavement café in Granada, the Alhambra glowing in the early evening, an ice-cold Li Ina sherry in hand, and Doris Lessing’s Shikasta open on the table. He’s in a good mood—he’s just come from a fictitious meeting inside the palace.
A Year Travelling the World for Shakespeare
Mark then drops a remarkable offer: a wealthy Spanish family foundation wants to hire Colin for a year to create a global Shakespeare knowledge ranking. Think first-class flights, a TV crew, a book deal, even a TED talk. Colin chooses India as his starting point—Mumbai, naturally—and he’s already enjoying first-class treatment on the plane.
Twelve Months, One Music Genre
Colin must pick a single genre to listen to all year. Impossible, really, given his eclectic taste. But eventually he lands on European classical music for its sheer breadth. Mark approves. (Someone else chose “live music,” which Colin rightfully calls cheating.)
Ballet Legends … in Mumbai
With a magic wand and a time machine, Colin chooses to see the greats—Baryshnikov, Nureyev, and Margot Fonteyn. Mark proposes a double bill: Indian classical dance first, then the ballet legends. Afterwards, dinner with Colin’s new colleagues.
Lebanese Food, Prague Memories, and Ice Skating
Asked what he fancies for dinner, Colin chooses Lebanese cuisine—inventive, flavourful, and sadly scarce near his home in central France. A dream city to visit? Prague, where he once filmed. Sport? He loves tennis but deeply admires competitive ice skating for its technical brilliance. They wander briefly into memories of Buenos Aires—a place he never visited, despite the family connection through his late partner.
A Week Inside the Arts (Literally, in VR)
Mark and Colin imagine a VR world where you can step inside paintings in 3D; Colin opts for the Pre-Raphaelites.
Then they plan a culture-packed fantasy week:
A Mozart piece in D minor conducted by Herbert von Karajan
Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure at the Globe (Colin’s favourite)
A musical (Broadway or West End), an opera, and a film night for good measure
Angelo, Cabaret, Verdi, and The Matrix
Colin digs into Angelo from Measure for Measure, calling him a morally complex figure—corrupt, self-aware, both good and evil. Their cultural itinerary continues: Cabaret on Wednesday (Colin once met Liza Minnelli), Verdi’s Nabucco on Thursday, and The Matrix in IMAX on Friday. Colin first saw it in Bucharest around 2000 and loved its philosophical edge.
A Dream Lunch with Leonard Cohen
To end, Mark offers Colin a fantasy “hero lunch.” Colin chooses Leonard Cohen, imagining that Cohen would bring Marianne—the great muse of his life.
Explore more about Colin below:
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Mark Walmsley FRSA FCIM AGSM
Chief Culture Vulture
Arts & Culture Network
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