Derek Jacobi had a bout of it during a world tour of Hamlet. Bill Nighy wrestled with it in the run-up to The Vertical Hour opening on Broadway. Juliet Stevenson has likened it to “a disease”. It has even caused some to take flight: Stephen Fry disappeared from Cell Mates, while Lenny Henry left the stage during Educating Rita. “I’ve completely gone,” he said – although he did return to finish the show.
Stage fright can cause the shakes but it can also trigger a complete physical freeze-up, to say nothing of a total verbal drying up – all right under the spotlight. So how and why does it take grip? Can it be overcome? And what does it feel like to be seized by the actor’s nightmare?
