See how talking portraits bring to life the greatest living Shakespearean actors

An exhibition in the Red Eight Gallery in London immortalizes the greatest Shakespearean actors of our time through portraits that can blink, breathe and deliver monologues.

For hundreds of years, artists have captured the theater’s greatest actors through portraits. The new show, titled “The Shakespeare Portraits (Act I)”, aims to modernize the practice by bringing theater makers to life using state-of-the-art technology.

The show features ten digital portraits of contemporary actors – including celebrities such as Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen – reciting lines from various Shakespeare plays. However, the portraits are not just small films that are unloopable. Artnet‘S Richard Whiddington writes that they are “not unlike the living portraits of Harry Potter” that move and capture the subject’s mannerisms.

Michael Billington, a critic for the Guardianwrites that he was “struck by the intimacy of the experience.”

“I sat under a large, framed picture of Ian McKellen, and as I spoke to the exhibition’s creative director: Arsalan Sattari-HicksI realized that Sir Ian’s head moved occasionally, his gaze subtly shifted and his facial features expressed a variety of emotions,” he adds.

The portraits were made by StageBlocka technology studio that creates new types of interactive art. The actors worked with the studio, ‘posed’ in front of a camera and recited their lines.

Museum visitors can hear the speeches by pressing a button. Each of the ten actors puts their own spin on their chosen Shakespeare text, giving viewers an up-close look at how they bring the Bard’s lines to life.

“Ian McKellen delivers ‘all the world’s a stage’ The way you like it, Dirk Jacobi offers Hamlet’s ‘to be or not to be’,” writes Artnet. “Harriet Walter turns to Prospero’s ‘You elves of the hill‘ by The storm, David Suchet performs Macbeth‘s infamous lines about the futility of life “tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” (a role Suchet never played).

Stage Block’s Shakespeare Portraits

StageBlock hopes that viewers will not only see the novelty in the new pieces, but also treat them as lasting works of art that can be hung in galleries and sold to interested buyers.

“It’s a bold, visionary new idea for the digital age, but I hope it won’t stifle the talent of the individual portraitist,” writes Billington of the Guardian. “I cherish the idea of, for example Salvador Dalí’s painting of Olivier as Richard III, hanging on a gallery wall next to the enchanting image of McKellen watching with vigilance and fascination.

The tech company also plans to create an Act II of the show, which will feature a second round of Shakespearean actors in new digital portraits next year.

“This collection is the result of deep collaborations with some of the most iconic actors of our time,” Sattari-Hicks said in a statement. “This is just the beginning, with many renowned domestic and international talents already lined up for future collections.”

“The Shakespeare Portraits (Act I)‘ is on view at the Red Eight Gallery in London until January 10, 2025.