William Roxby Beverley, a forgotten theatre artist at Stratford-upon-Avon

Posted on March 17, 2017 by Sylvia Morris

Photo of the interior of the SMT around 1920 including the drop curtain

A couple of weeks ago I was browsing the Stratford-upon-Avon Then and Now Facebook page when I spotted an unusual image posted by David Mills. With nearly 2000 members, this group demonstrates the level of interest there is in images of Stratford-upon-Avon and members share a wide range of professional postcards and family snaps.

The image David Mills posted was interesting because it showed a little-remembered feature of old Stratford, the act drop curtain painted for the 1879 Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. In Victorian theatres, the act drop was a painted canvas mounted on a frame that was lowered during scene changes to conceal onstage activity. They were usually decorative, because the audience would have to look at them for several minutes. For the new Memorial Theatre an act drop was commissioned from one of the top scenic artists of the day, William Roxby Beverley (or Beverly). I’m grateful to retired RSC Head of Stage Roger Howells for explaining to me that it would have been  painted on canvas in London, probably at Drury Lane itself where they had the necessary equipment, before being rolled up and brought to Stratford and nailed to its frame.

Seascape by William Roxby Beverley

Beverley came from a theatrical family. His father was a well-known actor-manager and all his five children worked in the theatre at some time. William, born around 1810, was the youngest son. Like his brother Henry, William acted onstage but in July 1831 he began painting scenes for the Theatre Royal in Manchester which his father managed. Many of the backdrops required for the theatre were scenes, and when he wasn’t painting for theatres William painted atmospheric land and sea-scapes, often shown at the Royal Academy. While, as far as I can tell, none of his theatre work still exists, and little of it was ever photographed, existing paintings can be found here.

By the 1840s and 1850s his work was being compared favourably with that of the great theatrical artist Planche, and in 1854 he began an association with Drury Lane Theatre that was to last twenty years. As well as painting spectacular scenery, particularly for pantomimes, he worked on a number of Shakespeare revivals including King John, Henry IV part 1, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra and Richard III, but apart from the scene-drop he seems not to have worked for the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre.

Beauty and the Beast, Drury Lane Theatre 1869 playbill

This playbill, for a Christmas pantomime Beauty and the Beast, at Drury Lane Theatre in 1869, boasts “with new and characteristic scenery by William Beverly whose personal services are now exclusively devoted to illustrating the productions of this Theatre”. His name is on the bill in letters much larger than those for the author and actors. It is now kept at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

On his death in 1899 the Daily Telegraph obituary described him as the ‘long acknowledged chief and doyen of English scenic artists’, also praising his ‘noble water-colours done in leisure hours.’ Ironically it’s on these, rather than the painting that made him famous, that his reputation now depends. But we do, too, have images of the act-drop he painted for the Stratford theatre. It appears on photographs, and, in colour, on a postcard, rather oddly as a portrait rather than landscape-shaped image. Strangely his entry in the Dictionary of National Biography does not mention the Stratford act-drop.

Painting used as drop between acts at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, showing a state procession of Queen Elizabeth to the old Globe theatre in Southwark. CC-BY-NC-ND Image Courtesy of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

It shows the imaginary scene of a state procession of Queen Elizabeth to the old Globe Theatre in Southwark. On its first appearance during the opening performance the act drop was applauded. The Stratford Herald  described it “In the foreground is Alleyn, a great friend of the Bard, who is talking to the Earl of Leicester and standing near him is the Earl of Southampton. They are supposed to be having a chat respecting the play, before leaving their horses with their pages and entering the theatre”. The Daily News said “the scene is animated, the composition picturesque, and the colouring brilliantly harmonious”. A postcard of the act drop, printed in colour, is held at the SBT Library and Archive (SC67/46).  Repaired in 1895 and partially repainted in 1903, it met its end during the fire that destroyed the Memorial Theatre in 1926.

Photographs of the interior of the 1879 building show that its decoration was austere and it has often been compared to a non-conformist chapel, misleadingly implying that it was uncomfortable and probably cheaply furnished. In fact Charles Flower’s intention was always that the building would be a fitting tribute to Shakespeare, decorated with high-quality materials. Details that still exist in the newly-restored “Swan wing” like the stained glass windows, oak panelling and stone-carved fireplace illustrate how this aim was achieved. The act drop, by a leading artist of the day, was another beautiful feature, designed to impress but sadly now forgotten.

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Edward’s Boys and Thomas Middleton’s A Trick to Catch the Old One

Posted on March 14, 2017 by Sylvia Morris

Programme cover for Edward’s Boys

On Sunday 12 March 2017 I attended the last of four performances given by Edward’s Boys of Thomas Middleton’s city comedy A Trick to Catch the Old One. It was another triumph for this group, led by Perry Mills, consisting of boys attending King Edward VI School in Stratford-upon-Avon, almost certainly attended by Shakespeare himself. In his note, Perry explains “The work is demanding, requires discipline and is enormous fun. It also involves a great deal of sex and violence. Onstage. What more could a group of boys ask for?”

It’s an inspired idea: Edward’s Boys explore the repertoire of the boys’ companies of Shakespeare’s times, but do so in a way that makes sure we never forget we are in the twenty-first century. In some productions (though not this one), boys have come on wearing elements of school uniform, as if to remind us who they are. This time the first thing the audience saw as they took their seats was the drum kit, electric keyboard and guitars. And the coolest place to be all evening was in the 5-piece band, Teenage TricKES, in which the leads took it in turns to do the vocals.

The production found its style in the anti-establishment energy of punk, so much so that the programme includes a two-page article by Dr Jonathan Heron examining the beginnings and development of the movement, and how it relates to Middleton. He suggests Middleton’s writing “has all the danger of a Sex Pistols lyric”,  and is “fascinated by the psychological complexity of human desire and acts of atrocity, committed with punk-ish abandon”.

A scene from A Trick to Catch the Old One

The concept frees the production of any quaintness and allows us to concentrate on the extraordinary vitality of the play, the brilliant choreography, and the subtle detail of the performances. There’s no attempt to turn the boys into seventeenth century highly-trained members of early modern boys’ companies, or us into seventeenth-century audiences. Instead we see that, as today, most people are out for themselves. The plot turns on the protagonist who has lost all his own money and is denied his inheritance by a wealthy uncle. He comes up with the idea of trying to trick the old ones of the title by bringing to London a young prostitute (or courtesan) under the pretence that she is a wealthy widow. The vision of the old men behaving badly as they compete for her is enough to ensure we side with the young prodigal and the courtesan.

Watching the play now, the audience can’t help but ask why these particular plays were written to be performed by boys rather than adults. This play was written around 1605, when the boys companies, as Hamlet reminds us, were all the fashion, and Middleton wrote several comedies for them. In his book Shakespeare & Co. Stanley Wells comments “It is difficult for us to imagine the effect produced by these young actors when they were performing the highly sophisticated, often bawdy, plays written specifically for them”.  Laurie Maguire notes, too, “the boys – of all ages- are simultaneously innocent and knowing in performance”.

Thomas Middleton

Shakespeare is thought to have seen Middleton’s talent and promoted it.  They collaborated on Timon of Athens, and we can see a direct parallel between the line of tradesmen demanding money from Witgood and Timon’s so-called friends who abandon him when he loses his money. A recent theory suggests that Middleton may have also collaborated on Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well. The themes of obsession with property, money and power, deception and disguise, corruption and family breakdown between the generations, so strong in these plays by Shakespeare  and particularly in King Lear, are also here in A Trick to Catch the Old One, albeit dealt with in a completely different way by Middleton.  It’s also thought that Middleton made additions to Macbeth and Measure for Measure, probably after Shakespeare had died when alterations were needed.

Unlike Shakespeare, Middleton did not tie himself to a theatrical company, and no collected edition of his works was issued around the time in which he lived. Many of his plays were published anonymously or with false attributions so arriving at an agreed body of work has been challenging, particularly given the realisation over the last few decades that collaboration was normal when writing for the high-pressure world of the theatre. In 2007 Oxford University Press published Thomas Middleton: The Collected Works.  There is more information at this website.

Audience reaction to Edward’s Boys remains outstanding, not least among the academic community who have commented that the productions are “joyful” and “inspired” as well as “outrageous”. Performances are now regularly given in Oxford and London as well as Stratford and nobody needs to miss them as each production is available on DVD through the website. Here’s to the next one!

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Elisabeth Scott, architect and pioneer on International Women’s Day

Posted on March 8, 2017 by Sylvia Morris

Elisabeth Scott

8 March 2017 is both the UK’s Budget Day and International Women’s Day, when attention is drawn to gender inequality in all fields including education and jobs. In addition, demonstrations will be held at Westminster by WASPI campaigners fighting for the pension rights of women suffering from a lack of transitional arrangements to cover changes in their retirement age.

Equality may not yet have been achieved, but in Stratford-upon-Avon stands one of the most obvious manifestations of women’s entry into the professional world in the early twentieth century. The Royal Shakespeare Theatre (formerly the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre), although much changed by the transformation project completed in 2011, was designed by a woman, Elisabeth Scott. Following the disastrous fire of 1926 a competition was held for a new design, and the resulting theatre was opened in 1932. The Builder pointed out that “this was the first important work erected in this country from the designs of a woman architect”, and The Lady suggested “Miss Scott’s theatre will stand as a landmark in the professional and artistic achievements of women”. Not only was Elisabeth Scott a woman, she was a young woman, and at the time she entered the competition she was still too young to vote. Women only gained equality with men in 1928 when the voting age for women was lowered from 30 to 21.

The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, 1932

Scott was related to Sir George Gilbert Scott, the designer of London’s St Pancras Station, but she was also a qualified architect, having spent five years studying for her Architectural Association diploma. She worked for Maurice Chesterton’s architectural firm in London and colleagues collaborated with her on developing her ideas. The location, where all four sides of the theatre would be visible, made it particularly challenging. “The Stratford site offers difficulties and opportunities” she said at the time.

In accepting the award she stated:
I belong to the modernist school of architects. By that I mean I believe the function of the building to be the most important thing to be considered. In terms of theatre…this means…that acoustics and sight lines must come first…At the same time I have taken full advantage of the exceptionally beautiful site on the banks of the Avon.

The Royal Shakespeare Theatre from the river, during the 1960s

For the assessors, her design had won because it had “a largeness and simpleness of handling which no other design possesses. The general silhouette and modelling to fit the lines of the river are picturesque and the character of the design shows consideration for the locality”.

After winning the award she spent a year developing detailed plans, visiting theatres in other countries with the theatre’s Director William Bridges-Adams and Archibald Flower, Chairman of the Theatre’s Governors. Bridges-Adams explained “The need is for absolute flexibility, it should be, so to speak, a box of tricks out of which the childlike mind of the producer may create what shape it pleases”, not the clearest guidelines for an architect called on to make decisions as work progressed. The Governors of the theatre meanwhile brought in experts in theatrical equipment, stage designers, acoustics and electrics. Some of Scott’s original ideas were abandoned, and many changes were made for financial rather than artistic reasons. There was inevitably an air of disappointment when the theatre opened.  When it came to performing, actors felt cut off from audiences and audibility was a major problem, though sight-lines were good with most of the audience directly facing the stage.

They may have said that “nothing but the best is good enough for Shakespeare” but in spite of, or perhaps because of, the amount of advice offered, the theatre was far from perfect. Writing in 1993, Iain Mackintosh suggested that while Elisabeth Scott thought she had created a focused intimate theatre, she had not. “The theatrical profession, when roused, is more vociferous than the architectural profession and the nation accepted the theatrical view: it was all the fault of the architect. It is clear that there had been a breakdown in communication between the two professions”.

There were many attempts to remedy the situation, and the transformation of the last 10 years has now completely changed the auditorium, altering the actor/audience relationship and making the theatre much more intimate.

Two pages (featuring Elisabeth Scott from the new British passport design. Home Office/PA Wire

The modernist exterior had both admirers and critics, but many of the beautifully-crafted details such as the richly-decorated doors, the spacious foyer and the spiral staircase with its marble fountain (designed by another woman, Gertrude Hermes) were often remarked on and have been enjoyed by generations of theatre-goers.

The theatre building is its own memorial to Elisabeth Scott as the heart of her theatre remains. So important is she seen to be that an image of her, and the theatre she designed, now graces the United Kingdom passport. But it seems to me a pity that there is no acknowledgement to her within the theatre, nor to the part she played in establishing the role of women in the workplace.

NB The quotations, and many of the details in this post are taken from Marian J Pringle’s book The Theatres of Stratford-upon-Avon 1875-1992, published by the Stratford-upon-Avon Society, 1994.

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Shakespeare and the destructiveness of fire

Posted on March 6, 2017 by Sylvia Morris

Shakespeare uses fire as a metaphor for the energy of life as well as the destructiveness of death. He writes of the fires of purgatory, of the warming fire on the hearth and of the fires lit to tell of victory in war. In his everyday life Shakespeare experienced fire’s dreadful, swift violence in both Stratford and London and fire has continued to be part of the Shakespeare story.

The theatre burning, showing the wind blowing away from the Library wing on the left

6th March is the anniversary of the most famous of Stratford-upon-Avon’s many fires. A few people are still alive who remember how in 1926 the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre caught fire and, within a few hours, was reduced to a charred and smouldering ruin. The cause of the fire has never been established, but the theatre was being made ready for the Shakespeare Festival to begin a few weeks later. It might have been a dropped cigarette, or perhaps an electrical fault. It was a common occurrence: in the nineteenth century the average life of a theatre was only 20 years, because of the regularity with which they burned down.

Stratford saw many fires during Shakespeare’s lifetime, the worst taking place in 1594, 1595 and 1614. The first two of these have already been extensively written-about, but in his new essay in Warwickshire History* Dr Robert Bearman closely examines the evidence for the 1614 fire, estimated at first to have caused £8000 of losses with fifty-four houses and many barns and outbuildings destroyed. It happened on Saturday 9 July, and devastated areas near to Shakespeare’s house New Place. A diagram shows that the worst-affected areas were the lower end of Chapel Lane (below the garden of New Place), and Sheep Street.

With several hot dry summers leading to fires in a number of other towns, Stratford’s Corporation had recently discussed the town’s fire precautions, finding them inadequate. Orders in 1612 had suggested that members of the Corporation should provide leather buckets “to cary water in for the better defence and preservacion of the houses & buildings…against casualtie of fyer”, but most had failed to do so. It’s hard now to believe that even if all forty-two buckets had been provided they could have made much difference to a fire fanned by strong winds.

Early modern firefighting using buckets and fire hooks

The essay  explains how the destruction of fires was dealt with in the days before insurance. As in other towns, the Stratford Corporation authorised several people to go around the country gathering donations. Although it was in everybody’s interest to contribute (it could be your town next), the system was inefficient and open to corruption. Bob’s research shows that the collection was poorly organised, bringing in only a fraction of the money needed. The largest local contributions were given by people in Bridge Street, a commercial street in the town unaffected by the fire, but collectors went as far as Kent. As there is no mention of Shakespeare I assume there’s no way of knowing if he contributed to help his neighbours.

A report noted that fires “had their beginnings in poore Tenements and Cottages which were Thatched with Strawe, of which sort very many have byn lately erected”. The solution was to replace the thatch with tile or slate, but the poor could not afford to do so making the anti-thatching policy impossible to enforce. The fire impacted severely on the prosperity of those affected, delaying the rebuilding by five years or even longer. The whole essay offers a fascinating glimpse of a rarely-seen aspect of life in Jacobean England.

It’s thought that by 1614 Shakespeare had retired to Stratford permanently, so he may well have watched the buildings near his own house going up in flames. This must have brought back dreadful memories: less than a year before, on 29 June 1613, the Globe Theatre in London had burned down during an early performance of his play Henry VIII. As a spectacular part of the action, cannon were set off to welcome the arrival of the King, and as a result burning material landed on the thatched roof, setting it alight. Sir Henry Wotton told how the audience were so engrossed in the play it took some time for them to notice. The fire “kindled inwardly, and ran round like a train, consuming within less than an hour the whole house to the very grounds”. By a miracle, nobody was hurt. Shakespeare must surely have been there: both a shareholder and the joint author of the play, he would have wanted to observe how the play was received by the audience and to assess the performances of the actors. The fact that the Globe was rebuilt within a year, with a fire-resistant tile roof this time, shows what a thriving and profitable business the theatre was. Around this time Shakespeare retired to Stratford, presumably looking for a quieter life. Instead he experienced the anxiety of another major fire approaching his own doorstep.

*With thanks to Dr Robert Bearman who has generously allowed me to quote from his essay Stratford-upon-Avon’s Fire of 1614, published in the Winter 2016/7 edition of Warwickshire History.

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Spring events in Stratford-upon-Avon

Posted on February 25, 2017 by Sylvia Morris

The Birthplace before its restoration, around 1847

Fresh for 2017, there is quite a crop of new ideas and events for the Shakespeare-lover in Stratford-upon-Avon. In particular, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust have come up with some different ideas to be held at the Shakespeare Centre in Henley Street.

SBT Research Conversations

These are thirty-minute free sessions in which you will find out more about the Shakespeare and Stratford-upon-Avon-related research taking place at The Shakespeare Centre and in the wider world. They comprise a thirty-minute presentation followed by up to thirty minutes for questions and discussion. No booking required, just turn up.

These are the first two in a series that will take place at The Shakespeare Centre each month (except April) from 5.00pm to 6.00pm.

​​Wednesday 19th April, 5-6pm – Dr Tara Hamling and Dr Cathryn Enis (University of Birmingham), ‘Shakespeare’s Lost Domesticity and the Mulberry Trees of New Place.’​​

Wednesday 10th May, 5-6pm –  Professor Ewan Fernie (University of Birmingham), ‘The Birthplace and Revolution.’

On Saturday 20 May, SBT is holding a one-day Conference:   The Faith of William Shakespeare. On the 500th anniversary of the Reformation this conference will explore what that important event meant to Shakespeare and Stratford-upon-Avon.​ ​

Professor Peter Marshall (University of Warwick) will present an overview of religion during Shakespeare’s time; Professor Graham Holderness (University of Hertfordshire) will talk about Shakespeare’s Calvinism; Dr Tara Hamling (University of Birmingham) will curate a special exhibition based on Reformation-related material from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s Collections; Professor Ann Hughes (Keele University) considers Stratford-upon-Avon’s Puritans; Dr Jonathan Willis (University of Birmingham) discusses public worship; Dr Cathryn Enis (University of Birmingham) will speak about friendships at a time of religious division; and Dr Robert Bearman (Honorary Fellow, The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust) will talk about religion and Shakespeare’s daily mind. The conference is hosted by Dr Paul Edmondson, Head of Research, The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

​​The cost is only £25.00 (£20.00 SBT Friends), including refreshments (not lunch), and participants will receive a copy of Graham Holderness’s new book, ​​ The Faith of William Shakespeare.  The Conference will take place at The Wolfson Hall in The Shakespeare Centre. Doors open at 9.45am and the first session will begin at 10am. The day will finish at 5pm.  ​ Bookings can be made for the conference via the website

Meanwhile, over at the Royal Shakespeare Company it’s worth remembering their own blend of talks and activities from the family-friendly exhibition The Play’s the Thing to Director talks sessions and post-show talks. Full information is to be found at the RSC’s website.

 

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Talking to the Stratford Society

Posted on February 17, 2017 by Sylvia Morris

The publication and now the promotion of the book I’ve co-written with Susan Brock on the history of Stratford’s Shakespeare Club has been a constant and enjoyable preoccupation over the last few months. I’m pleased to report that with the book now being stocked by the local branch of Waterstones and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s own bookshop in Henley Street, sales are looking healthy. Copies are also being sold direct via the Club’s website.  

Next week, on Monday 20 February, we are giving a presentation to the Stratford Society, the  town’s Civic Society, set up in 1966 with the aim of protecting the heritage of the town and its residents. It takes a particular interest in the town’s buildings, promoting high quality design in keeping with the character of the famous and much-visited area.    

It’s appropriate that we’re talking to this Society because decades, even centuries before preservation societies were founded to care for the historic buildings in our towns, Stratford’s Shakespeare Club had done just that. By the 1820s places associated with Shakespeare were under threat: his own house at New Place had been first replaced, then razed to the ground, his monument in the church was in poor repair, and the Birthplace in Henley Street, in spite of being open to tourists, appeared semi-derelict. 

Shakespeare’s Birthplace before it was purchased for the nation, c. 1845

Physician Dr John Conolly was an inspirational leader of the Club. At the 1835 dinner he addressed the members, suggesting that protecting the Shakespearean relics in the town should be a priority: “for a long time after his death there was either an indifference to his immortal memory, or the want of a Shakspearean Club to concentrate individual regard and give it an honourable utility”. From the 1830s to the 1860s the Club helped to care for these sites, making sure their future was secure. In the case of the Birthplace this meant promoting its purchase by public subscription to ensure it was not left in private hands. When the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust was finally created, many years after the purchase, it became a sort of blueprint for how buildings associated with literary people should be dealt with. Many British writers, including Jane Austen and John Clare, are now celebrated through their houses.   

Although always independent, the Club was bound up with the life of the town. By the time of the first major celebrations for Shakespeare’s Birthday the Club numbered 200 members, including many burgesses and aldermen of the Corporation. When the Club refounded itself in 1874 the Mayor and his Deputy became the President and Vice-President of the Club and the tradition of the Mayor being President was only discontinued in 1941. 

As we researched the book we realised that the club and its activities were not simply recreational but had a real impact on how the town developed, in particular how it came to be the world centre of Shakespeare performance and celebration that it is today. Its influence, as with the founding of the theatres, was often behind the scenes, but it was there nevertheless. This is why we often refer to the book as an alternative history of the town.  

The Club’s archives, like so many other records relating to the town’s history, are cared for by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and the display of related materials will illustrate the activities of the Club over two centuries. These will include the magnificent glass goblet given to the Club in 1830 and a unique blue and white pottery tankard dating from the same period. Medals, books, minute books and other documents will be included. All these reinforce the role taken by the Club in the history of the town. 

This is a rare opportunity to see these items on display together and to hear the authors talk about researching the subject. They will also be bringing along their own personal items of historic Club memorabilia. The meeting will take place at 3pm at the Wolfson Hall in the Shakespeare Centre, Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon on Monday 20 February. It is open to guests for £5, and copies of the book will also be available to buy for £12.99.

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Looking forward to Stratford’s Birthday Celebrations 2017

Posted on January 30, 2017 by Sylvia Morris

The traditional Birthday Procession

After the extravaganza that was 2016 it might be thought that Stratfordians would be putting their feet up for the Birthday Celebrations over the weekend of 22 and 23 April 2017. But no, I’m glad to report this year there will be some changes, and additional events to enjoy.

After three years of lunching in a magnificent solid marquee in the gardens near the church, a decision has been made to hold the luncheon on Saturday 22 April in the banqueting hall of the Crowne Plaza Hotel at Bridgefoot in Stratford (formerly the Holiday Inn). This will be a slightly more intimate affair with “only” 450 places, and a ticket price of £45 to include an initial glass of sparkling wine followed by the full luncheon. It’s being organised by Stratford Town Trust chairman Alan Haigh, who said in an interview with the Stratford Herald last year: 

I wanted to reassure people that the 2017 luncheon would go ahead and I hope to make the event more open to the people of Stratford and aimed specifically at Shakespeare. The previous committee did a great job and organised some tremendous lunches but as we don’t have any big Shakespeare anniversaries coming up, now is the time to celebrate the ordinary birthdays with the Stratford people. 

The Crowne Plaza Hotel

It’s hoped that there will be more community input this year and the Shakespeare Club is intending to display material about the Club’s history, closely involved as it is with the history of the Birthday Celebrations.  Alan has also had the delightful idea of carrying guests for the luncheon from the Church, where the procession ends, down to the hotel by boat.  It’s a fair walk and those taking part will already have spent over an hour on the traditional parade around the town.

Tickets will be sold through the RSC box office and will go on sale on Friday February 3rd. It isn’t clear whether these bookings will be available online as well as in person: there’s no sign of it yet on the booking page here but keep looking!  All other aspects of the lunch will be as in previous years with a number of speeches and toasts and the presentation of the Pragnell Prize. It should be a great event for lovers of Shakespeare.  

This is all good news, but there’s more!

On the evening of Friday 21 April, that’s before the Birthday Celebrations, a new entertainment is to be put on at Stratford’s ArtsHouse. It is called The Bard’s Night, and will be “A Feast of an Evening Celebrating the Life of William Shakespeare”. It will feature a sumptuous three course dinner with wine, and performances from professional actors, dancers and musicians. As a finale to the evening the Methuen Shakespeare bust, with the players, the sponsors and selected VIPs will process by candlelight from the Atrium foyer to the centre stage. A specially-written tribute will be delivered and the audience will drink a toast, followed by three cheers, to the life of the genius William Shakespeare. Full details are available on the website, and the organiser, Gill Davies is currently offering four tickets for the price of three if people contact her direct. Otherwise tickets are already on sale via the ArtsHouse box office.   

Eating and drinking have long been traditional elements of the Birthday weekend, and it sounds as if there will be plenty to enjoy this year.

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Shakespeare in Padua

Posted on January 27, 2017 by Sylvia Morris

A view of Padua

Just recently we’ve been experiencing cold, grey, depressing weather in the UK and we must all be thinking longingly of long, warm days spent somewhere exotic. It’s just the time, of course, for planning a summer holiday and for the third time the organisation Shakespeare in Italy is running a residential Summer School.

No ordinary holidays, these Summer Schools are a way of spending a fortnight in a glorious location learning something new in the company of like-minded people and highly experienced theatre professionals. This is the description from the website where all the information you need is to be found:

Shakespeare in Italy seeks to enhance experience and international understanding of the works of Shakespeare and in particular appreciation of the influence of the Italian Renaissance, culture and philosophers on all his writing.
The Company aims to explore this with actors and artists through performance in the UK, Italy and beyond, as well as via a programme of education and outreach.
Shakespeare in Italy was founded by two former Royal Shakespeare Company actors, Julian Curry and Mary Chater in association with the Italian theatre manager, Sandro Pascucci. Their aim was to create opportunities to explore – through performance and workshops with people young and old – the important influence of Italian culture on Shakespeare and his writing. 

The first two Summer Schools, in 2014 and 2015, took place in Urbino, but this year they go to the town of Padua, the location for The Taming of the Shrew, the place from which Dr Bellario sends his advice to Portia in The Merchant of Venice, and the home of Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing.  Petruchio describes the town as “Fair Padua, nursery of the arts”, and it was indeed the home of a renowned university: also, it seems from the evidence of The Taming of the Shrew a place where young ladies might find flirtation while supposed to be learning languages and music.

Marjorie Bland as Portia and John Nettles as Bassanio, 1978

Each year they concentrate on a handful of plays set in Italy,
to explore them in depth, and their relationship to the huge European cultural wealth that Shakespeare imaginatively drew upon. Course work will include discussions, textual and character analysis and work on scenes. This year we will be focusing on one of the great tragedies, Othello, an early Roman play, Titus Andronicus, and The Merchant of Venice.

As always, they have found some terrific actors and directors with whom the participants will work. Director Lucy Bailey will take on Titus Andronicus: she has already directed the play, as well as other Shakespeare plays including Macbeth, Timon of Athens and Julius Caesar. John Nettles is focusing on The Merchant of Venice. Although much better known for his television roles in Bergerac and Midsomer Murders he has had a distinguished career in theatre including several years with the RSC during which he played Bassanio and a second spell when he performed Leontes in The Winter’s Tale and Brutus in Julius Caesar.

John Kani as Othello and Joanna Weinberg as Desdemona, Market Theatre Johannesburg 1987

Finally Dame Janet Suzman will work on Othello, a play with which she has a particular connection. In 1987 in her native South Africa she directed the first black Othello (John Kani), opposite a white actress, Joanna Weinberg as Desdemona. She recently wrote “What I am always interested in is how the play relates to our world. Othello at that time suited apartheid South Africa like a glove”. She is sure to find twenty-first century parallels in this new investigation. Dame Janet’s Shakespeare credentials are impressive to say the least having performed many of Shakespeare’s heroines from Joan of Arc, Portia and Kate to a definitive Cleopatra.

The Summer School will run from 24 June to 8 July, and will afford an extraordinary opportunity for participants to immerse themselves in Shakespeare in Italy and to find that as Shakespeare said “Padua affords nothing but what is kind”.

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Shakespeare and the White House

Posted on January 19, 2017 by Sylvia Morris

President Obama is about to hand over to the incoming President Trump, and in the last few days an interview with Obama about the books that are important to him has been published in the New York Times. One of the authors he mentions is of course Shakespeare. 

Shakespeare applied to our national bereavement, April 1865

President Obama has not made it a habit to quote from Shakespeare in his speeches, unlike his predecessor President Lincoln, who Obama has often mentioned as a source of inspiration. Lincoln was so closely associated with Shakespeare that after his death in April 1865 this document “Shakespeare applied to our national bereavement” was published quoting from Macbeth, in particular the murder of Duncan.

Many presidents have been influenced by Shakespeare and his interest in politics, as this essay that appears on the White House Historical Association’s site shows, and I have cited before this section from the Folger Shakespeare Library that includes a piece on how many US presidents owed ideas or quotations to Shakespeare.

My blog post on early American visitors to Stratford included the visit of two Presidents-to-be who came a pilgrimage to visit the Birthplace in the astonishingly early year of 1786. John Adams and  Thomas Jefferson were the men.

President Obama at Shakespeare’s Globe April 2016

President Obama may not have come to Stratford-upon-Avon, but during his visit to the UK in April of 2016 when the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death was being marked he visited Shakespeare’s Globe in London, where, among tight security,  they staged a medley of scenes from Hamlet specially for him.

It seems unlikely that the new occupant of the White House will be reading, or quoting, much Shakespeare over the next four years, but Shakespeare will still remain relevant. The Shakespeare play most appropriate for the political situation we find ourselves in at the start of 2017 seems to be Coriolanus, though the parallels are complex. Even written for a very different world, four hundred years ago, Shakespeare brings out those similarities, and a production of the play in New York just before the election in succeeded in reflecting the concerns of many in the USA. It isn’t just the interplay of Coriolanus, Aufidius, and those Roman tribunes, but Menenius’s speech about the belly’s place in the body as a metaphor for a political system, that strikes a chord.

There was a time when all the body’s members
Rebell’d against the belly, thus accused it:
That only like a gulf it did remain
I’ the midst o’ the body, idle and unactive,
Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing
Like labour with the rest, where the other instruments
Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,
And, mutually participate, did minister
Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body…
The belly responded:
‘True is it, my incorporate friends,’ quoth he,
‘That I receive the general food at first,
Which you do live upon; and fit it is,
Because I am the store-house and the shop
Of the whole body: but, if you do remember,
I send it through the rivers of your blood,
Even to the court, the heart, to the seat o’ the brain;
And, through the cranks and offices of man,
The strongest nerves and small inferior veins
From me receive that natural competency
Whereby they live:…
Though all at once cannot
See what I do deliver out to each,
Yet I can make my audit up, that all
From me do back receive the flour of all,
And leave me but the bran.’ …
The senators of Rome are this good belly,
And you the mutinous members; for examine
Their counsels and their cares, digest things rightly
Touching the weal o’ the common, you shall find
No public benefit which you receive
But it proceeds or comes from them to you
And no way from yourselves.
Whatever happens next, it seems certain that Shakespeare will already have written about it.

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Documenting the oldest Shakespeare organisation in the world

Posted on January 17, 2017 by Sylvia Morris

Club ribbon, 1830

Regular readers will be aware that The Story of Stratford-upon-Avon’s Shakespeare Club, 1824-2016: Long life to the Club call’d Shakspearean has recently been published, documenting the history of the oldest surviving Shakespeare organisation in the world. The Club began as a small group of local tradesmen wanting to promote their own businesses as well as celebrating the life and work of Stratford’s most famous son. Some records still exist dating back to the foundation of the club and its first activities in the 1820s, and for over 150 years the Club’s archives have been kept by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

At 3pm on Tuesday 24 January 2017 the authors, Susan Brock and Sylvia Morris, will be giving a talk and display of related material at the Shakespeare Centre in Stratford-upon-Avon. The Collections Department of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust will be bringing some of this historic material that we featured in the book out of its secure storage for the event. These will include the magnificent glass goblet given to the Club in 1830 to celebrate its outstanding success and a unique blue and white pottery tankard dating from the same period. Medals and ribbons created for members will also be on display, as will a range of images and newspaper cuttings of the Celebrations organised by the Club. Documents will include minute books, the handwritten list of the first committee, playbills, photographs and programmes for performances sponsored by the Club. All these reinforce the vital role taken by the Club in the development of the town as a centre for Shakespearean performance and celebration.

These items have never been displayed together to the public before, so this will be a rare opportunity to see them and to hear the authors talk about some of the mysteries they had to solve when researching this unexplored topic. The authors will also be bringing along their own personal items of historic Club memorabilia.

Friends of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust will be admitted free of charge, but a small number of places are still available to the general public for £5 paid on the door. Because there is a limit on numbers, if you want to come along please email stratfordshakespeareclub@gmail.com  in advance.

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