The Shakespeare blog

Shakespeare across the gender boundaries

Posted on June 6, 2014 by Sylvia Morris

Harriet Walter will play Henry IV

There’s lots going on just now with all-female and cross-gender productions of Shakespeare, so this post is a quick round-up. Following their success with an all-female Julius Caesar directed by Phyllida Lloyd, the Donmar Warehouse recently announced they will be staging another all-female Shakespeare this autumn, with Henry IV. Harriet Walter will take the role of the King. The artistic director of the Donmar, Josie Rourke, says the all-female Julius Caesar had sparked an important debate to “open up our national playwright to those who have been denied him through gender, heritage or class”. “There is a mission behind this work, which is the question: who owns Shakespeare? Yes, it’s about gender; it’s also about diversity, it’s about class and it is about how we can extend the project of these productions beyond our stage and into the lives of , particularly, young people.” Full details are on the Donmar website.

Over in New York Manhattan’s All-Female Shakespeare Company is presenting Romeo and Juliet for 2014 in their Free Shakespeare in the Parks season. “Manhattan Shakespeare Project provides an opportunity for female actors to play traditionally male roles as well as an opportunity to break into the male dominated theater industry in directing, producing, writing, and stage production.” ” This version of Romeo and Juliet is an ensemble of six women who through physicality, movement, imagination and the bard’s own words literally put the audience in the middle of a tour of Verona as the events unfold in a reverse theatre in the round.” The play is directed by Reesa Graham. Full details are on the website but the production will be staged throughout June in several different locations, all free.

Just opening at The Union Theatre, Union St London is a new production of King Lear with a female lead. This production “puts a mother at the heart of the action supposing that it is a queen who, weary of public office, divides the kingdom amongst her daughters. But the old woman finds it impossible to retire gracefully and as her mental faculties begin to fail she’s cast out by her eldest children”. This production by Phil Wilmott runs until 28 June.

For anyone interested in female Hamlets there’s a new project called Hamlet The Series which breaks the play down into six sections all available on YouTube. The video is the first of the six: links are on the YouTube page. It’s a modern dress version with several roles played against gender. This explanation appeared on the Kickstarter campaign page: ” There are multiple reasons to have a female Hamlet. One is the fresh look it gives to the play’s exploration of gender proclivities, love, and sex. Another, related, is the new light it throws on the many professions of love for the Prince, and their questionable sincerity… But the biggest is that Hamlet is a character who, more than any other, refuses to be kept in any one category… A female Hamlet will not be exactly like a male Hamlet, but will remain fundamentally Hamlet, and help us to see what those fundamentals are”.

It was filmed at the Evanston Community Media Center near Chicago and makes use of the multimedia equipment available. I liked the idea of Hamlet delivering her soliloquies to her tablet computer. Sometimes we see her speaking to the computer, and other times we see what’s being filmed, begging the question who is she speaking to? Who is the audience?

Posted in Legacy, Shakespeare on Stage | Tagged all-female, gender, Hamlet, Henry IV, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet | Comments Off

Howard Blake’s music for Shakespeare in performance

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Sylvia Morris

Howard Blake

This Friday, 6 June, Stratford-upon-Avon’s Orchestra of the Swan’s celebration of the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth reaches its climax with a concert of music inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Three of the four concerts in the series have featured pieces by the composer Howard Blake, best known for the song Walking in the Air that was used in the animated film of The Snowman, memorably covered by the young Aled Jones in 1985. In a long career Blake has written much else, including film music and choral and orchestral work. He has also written a number of pieces for theatre: the first was for the 1984 RSC production of Henry V that launched the young Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespearean career. This was played at the second concert in which the theme was “Rosemary for Remembrance”. In the programme note he explains that in between the scenes of war, he decided to “have a harpist playing variations quietly live on stage whenever there was peace in the land. The harpist would be placed on-stage in period costume…The “theme-tune” of the production was an unaccompanied song on Shakespeare’s words”:

A scene from the 1984 Henry V with Kenneth Branagh

And sword and shield in bloody field Doth win immortal fame.
Would I were in an ale-house in London; If wishes would prevail with me,
My purpose should not fail with me;
But thither would I hie,
But thither would I hie.

Tanya Houghton was the performer at the Orchestra of the Swan concert, but the original soloist was Vanessa Sundstrup, then just beginning her career. She has recently put her own recording of this piece on YouTube. She recalls “The harp was featured as a solo instrument as a symbol of peace and was actually on stage”. I well remember her gentle playing of Blake’s music while the audience was assembling, becoming, sadly, less and less audible as the auditorium filled up. Blake’s music is beautifully melodic and I particularly like the way that you can hear the wistful words of the song “But thither would I hie” in the music.

Blake became associated with Adrian Noble’s productions, writing the songs for his As You Like It in 1985 which have also been sung in this concert series. The first concert featured another Shakespeare commission by the distinguished ex-RSC director Bill Alexander, (who also directed the stage version of The Snowman), for a student production of Twelfth Night. Blake’s version of O Mistress Mine was not actually used in the production so the concert on 16 May was its first performance.

Poster for Adrian Noble’s film of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

In Friday’s concert the Orchestra will play a suite of Howard Blake’s music based on that which he wrote for the film version of Adrian Noble’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This will be the first performance of this suite which Blake has created specially for the 2014 anniversary. In the programme note Blake comments “Since Adrian’s production included a motor-bike for the Mechanicals and a forest consisting of light bulbs, the score did not have to be set in a conventional “mock-Tudor” style and the character of Bottom, for instance, is conveyed by a jazzy solo trombone”. And “A solo violin begins the work announcing the main theme, redolent of fairies flying through midnight skies and enchanted happenings”. Theatre and film music can be overwhelmed by the visuals, so on this occasion it’s going to be great for the music to get the attention it deserves. This series of concerts has been a delight and I’d like to thank conductor David Curtis for the opportunity to hear so much Shakespeare-related music in concert, and not just the obvious pieces.

As a bit of fun to celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday, the Guardian posted its suggestions of the best Shakespeare-inspired pieces of music. Several of the pieces that have featured in the Orchestra of the Swan concerts are included: Walton’s music for Olivier’s Henry V film, and Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream music which we will hear on the 6th. And nobody would argue with Bernstein’s West Side Story or Verdi’s Falstaff, but The Boys from Syracuse and The Lion King – really???? Even more oddly the selection consisted of pictures, with no links to any of the music. Sadly it’s too late to vote for any of the striking but lower-profile music like Howard Blake’s that’s been specifically written for Shakespeare on stage.

Posted in Legacy, Shakespeare on Stage | Tagged A Midsummer Night's Dream, Adrian Noble, As You Like it, Henry V, Howard Blake, Twelfth Night | Comments Off

King Lear and poverty

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Sylvia Morris

Simon Russell Beale as KIng Lear, National Theatre

I’m finally getting to see Simon Russell Beale playing King Lear at the National Theatre this week. I’m not sure how much I’m going to agree with some of the interpretation, but with Beale you know, however difficult the play or unpleasant the character (I believe he doesn’t give us a likeable Lear), he will find the humanity and vulnerability in the part.

Lear’s trajectory takes him from the height of power and influence to the most wretched of states. King Lear is full of displaced people, from Lear himself, Gloucester, and most visibly, Edgar who uses the poverty of a beggar as a disguise. Lear, driven to madness, comes face to face with the plight of the poor and homeless when finding Edgar on the stormy heath.
Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your loop’d and window’d raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? O, I have ta’en
Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou mayst shake the superflux to them
And show the heavens more just.

During Shakespeare’s own lifetime the condition of the poor was an important issue. An Act of Parliament passed in 1572 when Shakespeare was a child showed the general fear of unrest posed by people on the move. As a last resort vagrants, including masterless men and tinkers, could be executed, and begging was closely regulated. Even then though it was recognised that some poor people were legitimately moving around, such as harvest workers and those whose masters had died. The act recognised the need for compulsory contributions to help relieve poverty, but also allowed for the setting up of houses of correction and the appointment of local overseers of the poor. Levi Fox’s book The Borough Town of Stratford-upon-Avon describes how in Stratford the local corporation undertook periodic assessments of need, distributing coal money to the deserving poor and when necessary purchasing corn to sell on to them at low prices. Attempts were also made to find work for the unemployed.

In the 1590s a series of bad harvests caused the price of corn to rise dramatically. In London there were bread riots and uprisings driven by hunger in some parts of the country including Oxfordshire.

This led to new legislation in 1598 and 1601, replacing the brutal earlier laws with a more humane approach. In his book Poverty and Vagrancy in Tudor England, John Pound assesses the changes: “All the legislation reflects the action of a government cautiously groping its way towards a method that would at once remove the threat of insurrection and provide adequate care for all categories of poor”. Even so the first audiences of King Lear in the early years of the Jacobean period would have had a very different attitude to the destitute from ours today.

A couple of years ago Simon Russell Beale played another character who loses everything, Timon. When all his money is gone and debts are called in, his friends also desert him and he is driven to the brink of madness. He finds that he is “open, bare, for every storm that blows”. His servants remain sympathetic:

Simon Russell Beale as Timon of Athens

As we do turn our backs
From our companion thrown into his grave,
So his familiars to his buried fortunes
Slink all away, leave their false vows with him,
Like empty purses pick’d; and his poor self,
A dedicated beggar to the air,
With his disease of all-shunned poverty,
Walks like contempt, alone.

Though in a sense both Timon and Lear bring their own misfortune on themselves, what happens to them is a reminder that anybody can find themselves in need. In Timon of Athens Simon Russell Beale found himself rummaging through black plastic rubbish bags for food, a reference that could hardly have been clearer. Will this production of King Lear.also strike home at a time when caring for the needy, a fundamental part of a civilised society, is so obviously not working?

I recently heard that in the financial year 2013-2014 the Trussell Trust’s foodbanks had given three days emergency food to 913,318 people in crisis. Even more shocking was the news that in prosperous Stratford in 2013 well over 1000 people had received food from the local foodbank. I applaud the work of the Trussell Trust and other voluntary organisations, but am dismayed to find that we now live in a world where such organisations are necessary to ensure the most basic of human needs is met.

Posted in Legacy, Plays and Poems, Shakespeare's World | Tagged foodbanks, King Lear, National Theatre, poeverty, Simon Russell Beale, Timon of Athens, Trussell Trust | Comments Off

Motley’s the only wear: Shakespeare and design

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Sylvia Morris

Margaret and Sophia Harris: Two-thirds of the Motley design team, in 1955.

The name Motley will be familiar to anyone interested in twentieth-century theatre design, or in the history of Shakespeare on stage.

This all-female group designed for straight plays, Broadway musicals, ballets, operas and even films over a period of forty years in London, Stratford and New York. It was not uncommon for women to be theatre designers, in fact for much of the twentieth century design was almost the only area in which women seem to have prospered apart from acting. But the Motleys consisted of two sisters, Margaret (Percy) and Sophia Harris, and Elizabeth Montgomery who worked both collectively and individually on a variety of high-status projects. Their first work was in 1932, designing Romeo and Juliet for a production directed by John Gielgud in London, and for many years they were associated with him. Their first commission for Stratford came in 1939 just before the outbreak of war. The war inevitably caused a halt in their work, but soon after the two Harris sisters resumed their work and from 1948 to 1959 they were regulars at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. In all they designed for seventeen Shakespeare productions in Stratford, several of which went on international tour.

Peggy Ashcroft’s Ganymede costume, 1957

Last year I was delighted to see an original Motley-designed costume in the RSC’s Into the Wild exhibition, Peggy Ashcroft’s jacket and trousers, worn by her when playing Ganymede in the 1957 production of As You Like It. It’s the simplest of costumes, but what struck me, being familiar with the black and white images of the production, was its bright red colour, so appropriate for the exuberance of the character in the rustic forest of Arden setting.

Peggy Ashcroft as Rosalind with her Orlando, Richard Johnson, 1957

The Motleys nearly always used strong colours and simple, bold outlines. They looked at the stage as a whole, identifying how different costumes and the set would work together.

In his introduction to the book Shakespeare Memorial Theatre 1957-9, Ivor Brown commented on the design for the 1958 production of Hamlet, directed by Glen Byam Shaw and starring Michael Redgrave. “The setting, by Motley, was columnar and starkly simple. The scarlet uniforms of the Royal Guard blazed and the sounds of a revelling court came floating aptly to the battlements”.

The final scene for Hamlet, 1958

He’s describing the opening court scene, but the illustration shows the final moments of the play where the body of Hamlet is carried upstage, as white flags are lowered. Characters on stage are indicated by simple lines of paint in different colours, showing the overall effect they wanted to achieve.

Not surprisingly given how much they achieved during their four decades of work, their original designs have found their way into many collections. And there must be many others in private hands: there was a widespread tradition of designers giving designs to the actors for whom they’ve designed costumes. The Victoria and Albert Museum also have a collection of designs by Motley which are illustrated on their online collections database.

Costume for Eileen Atkins, Romeo and Juliet 1958

The one illustrated is of the costume worn by the young Eileen Atkins as a lady in the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre’s 1958 production of Romeo and Juliet. Other original designs are held by the University of Bristol Theatre Collection and, for Shakespeare Memorial Theatre productions, the Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive. The Motleys themselves, though, had kept many of their own designs and in 1981, after their retirement, Professor Michael Mullin of the University of Illinois steered an agreement to purchase their own collection which is now kept in the Rare Book and Special Collections Library. The descriptions and digitised images are now available online, forming a valuable resource on the history of twentieth-century theatre. The Motley Collection of Theatre and Costume Design comprises “over 5000 items from more than 150 productions in England and the United States. These materials include costume and set designs, sketches, notes, photographs, prop lists, storyboards, and swatches of fabric. ”

Colour palette for Antony and Cleopatra, 1953

Another great find among the Illinois images are a couple of colour palettes, showing the range of colours to be used for costumes. I particularly like the one for the 1953 SMT production of Antony and Cleopatra in which “colours for Rome” (greys and black) contrast with “colours for Egypt”(earthy reds and yellows, bright blue). Sadly there seem to be only a couple of these still in existence, but they’re wonderful at showing the kind of contrasting worlds the designers were intent on producing. Below is one of the designs for the Egyptian queen Cleopatra.

Cleopatra, 1953 Antony and Cleopatra

Posted in Shakespeare on Stage | Tagged Elizabeth Montgomery, Glen Byam Shaw, Margaret Harris, Michael Mullin, Motley, Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive, Sophia Harris, University of Bristol Theatre Collection, University of Illinois, Victoria and Albert Museum | Comments Off

Stratford’s Elizabethan wall-paintings

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Sylvia Morris

In 1927, during renovation work in a building in Stratford-upon-Avon, an important discovery was made. The White Swan Hotel was being modernised by the hotel group Trust Houses Limited, and workmen found evidence of surviving wall-paintings concealed behind panelling. Work was immediately halted and experts were brought in to examine the frescoes. In a letter to the Times of 28 July 1927 Martin Conway noted “This, unfortunately, has not always been the case in Stratford and elsewhere, so that many precious heirlooms of national art have been irretrievably damaged”.

The exciting news for Shakespeare-lovers was that the paintings could be dated to the mid-sixteenth century. The building itself dates back to the mid-fifteenth century, and by 1560 was known as the King’s House or Hall, an inn owned by the Perrott family. One of Shakespeare’s friends, Richard Tyler, married into this family. The paintings have been dated to around 1555-1565, so would have been quite new in Shakespeare’s time.

The subject of the paintings is the biblical story of Tobias and the Angel, from the apocryphal book of Tobit. In the story Tobias is sent on a journey to a distant city to collect money owing to his blind father. He is accompanied by a mysterious man. Along the way Tobias stops to wash his feet in a river and is attacked by a monstrous fish, which he catches and kills. He is advised by his companion to save the fish’s heart, liver and gall. These are later used to remove a curse from a woman Tobias wishes to marry and, on return to his home, to cure his father’s blindness. The mysterious stranger is revealed to be the Angel Raphael.

The paintings as reproduced in the Victoria County History

The paintings found in the White Swan were, inevitably, damaged and incomplete, but to even an inexperienced eye they are impressive, the figures dressed in recognisably Elizabethan costume. Here is part of the description from the Victoria County History of Warwickshire:
The wall-paintings show three scenes from he Apocryphal book of Tobit. The larger, 9 ft 2 in long and 3 ft broad from the ceiling to the lower edge, was probably the reredos of a high-backed settle or a buffet. At the top is a 12-in frieze. Below this it is divided into four bays by fluted classic shafts. The outer bays are filled with rather coarse foliage and flowers. The second bay, which has a kind of raised curtain like a scene at a theatre, shows Tobit and his wife, wearing hats and black mantles, handing a letter or some other object to Tobias, who wears a doublet and striped trunk hose; behind him is a sinister figure representing Raphael, half hidden by the drapery. The second scene represents a city with turrets and pinnacles, and the figures of Tobias and Raphael, apparently accompanied by a dog. Much of this scene is destroyed. The frieze above is bordered and divided into long and short panels; the latter contain flowering plants; the longer have scrolls inscribed in black letter describing the scenes. A wall-post divides this part from the next, which is a 2 ft 5 in wide, and rises from floor to ceiling, crossing a timber-strut; this scene shows the river Tigris with Tobias and Raphael cutting open the fish; in the foreground is a landscape with trees and in the back-ground the gate and buildings of the walled city; part of the scene is destroyed.

Mr Conway’s letter included a report from Mr Philip M Johnston, an authority on English mural paintings who commented that “All this is very spiritedly set forth in the painting; and it may be remarked generally that the art-quality of the work is exceptionally good, and obviously that of an English artist”. It must have been a high-status feature of the inn, admired by visitors and local alike in Elizabethan Stratford.

Since the paintings were discovered they have remained on show, behind glass. The hotel underwent a huge revamp in 2012 and the paintings are still there to be seen by anyone dropping in for a drink or a bite to eat. They are one of Stratford’s real treasures, a rare survivor that gives an idea of what interiors were like in the sixteenth century.

Francis Reader’s sketch of the wall paintings, at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Being now difficult to photograph it was fortunate that the artist Francis W Reader sketched them not long after they were discovered. His illustrations are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum along with many other examples of his sketches of Tudor wall-paintings. The main part of his picture was reproduced in the Victoria County History published in 1945.

According to the description of a Florentine painting of the same subject now in the National Gallery, the story’s emphasis on filial piety, enterprise and charity made it popular among the wealthy merchants of Florence. Presumably these characteristics also influenced the choice of the Perrots when decorating their inn in the prosperous market town of Stratford-upon-Avon.

Posted in Legacy, Shakespeare's World, Stratford-upon-Avon | Tagged apocrypha, Bible, Francis Reader, frescoes, Victoria and Albert Museum, wall-printings, White Swan Hotel | 1 Comment

Cycling in Shakespeare country

Posted on May 25, 2014 by Sylvia Morris

It’s the bank holiday weekend, what used to be festival of Whitsun, traditionally marked by fairs and pageants, what Shakespeare calls “Whitsun pastorals”. The first holiday of summer, all the celebrations are going to be out of doors.

Morris dancing and the like still form part of traditional activities, but this weekend there are plenty of modern ways of celebrating the start of summer. Over the last few years Stratford has become quite a centre for cycling, and today, 25 May the Stratford Cycling Festival takes place today in aid of the Stratford-based charity Cyclists Fighting Cancer. This helps children with cancer to take exercise, shown to be beneficial in many ways. Around 800 cyclists will be taking on a variety of cycling challenges, the longest being a 150-mile circular route.*

In case you’ve missed this one, and would like to have a go at something similar, in August the Shakespeare Hospice in Stratford is organising the Great Shakespeare Ride.

The Great Shakespeare Ride

Why so many links between Shakespeare and cycling? In spite of the “evidence” offered in this blog post of lines like “…thou and I have thirty miles to ride yet ere dinner time” from Henry IV Part 1, and “ I’ll provide you a chain; and I’ll do what I can to get you a pair of horns” from The Merry Wives of Windsor, it’s not an activity he could possibly have taken part in. But cycling, like walking, offers a speed of travel, and a closeness to the environment reminiscent of the sort of travelling experience he might have known on horseback or in a carriage.

We know that Shakespeare journeyed many times from Stratford-on-Avon to London, and back. I’ve written before about Shakespeare’s Way, the walk that follows, as closely as possible, the route Shakespeare probably took, ending up at Shakespeare’s Globe on Bankside.

But now a more leisurely cycling equivalent has been devised, going the other way, so you leave the stresses of the city behind you. You even begin with a boat trip upstream to Hampton Court to avoid cycling the city’s streets. Here’s a review from the Telegraph and a description of the holiday:

In celebration of the 450^th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, The Carter Company have created a ‘Shakespeare’s Way’ tour, so you can pedal the route from the Globe Theatre in London, where most of his plays were first performed to public acclaim, to his home in Stratford-upon-Avon where his wife Anne Hathaway and children lived. Discover along the way the places and people featuring in Shakespeare’s life and works. Begin in the heart of London and follow the River Thames into The Chilterns, travel through the beautiful countryside of the Cotswolds and finish up in Stratford-upon-Avon, taking in some of England ‘s finest attractions and cities en route – Hampton Court, Windsor, Oxford and Blenheim Palace.

The tour can be done over 10 nights (the gentle option with no more than 20 miles/day) or over 7 nights (for the more ambitious cyclist). Hand-picked boutique hotels, luggage transfer and bike hire all included.

*Below: Husband Richard starting the Cyclists Fighting Cancer 100K challenge!

Posted in Legacy, Stratford-upon-Avon | Tagged cycling, Whitsun | Comments Off

Celebrating Shakespeare and Purcell with the Orchestra of the Swan

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Sylvia Morris

Henry Purcell

Stratford-upon-Avon’s own chamber orchestra, the Orchestra of the Swan, is currently celebrating Shakespeare’s 450th anniversary by performing four concerts of music inspired by his work. The first concert, last Friday, included the lovely orchestral suite written by Henry Purcell for his opera The Fairy Queen, a late seventeenth-century reworking of Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

This week on the BBC Radio 4 programme Great Lives, soprano Emma Kirkby chose to discuss the life of Purcell with presenter Matthew Parris and Purcell scholar Michael Burden. Born in 1659, very much a Londoner, Purcell lived in turbulent times. By the time of his death aged only 36 he had lived (briefly) under the rule of the Commonwealth and three different monarchs. He made his mark young, becoming the organist of Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal, and the Keeper of the King’s instruments. Although he spent much of his life composing religious works, he was later pushed towards writing for the commercial theatre. The Fairy Queen was one of the most successful of his theatrical pieces. One of the first English operas, it was a spectacular production taking up much of the theatre’s annual budget. But Purcell died in 1695 when his reputation for theatrical composition was at its peak, and only three years after The Fairy Queen had first been performed.

A scene from Glyndebourne’s production of The Fairy Queen

He was recognised as the greatest English composer and the first to be a national figure, honoured by being given a state funeral at Westminster Abbey. With no more music from Purcell, continental music of very different styles became fashionable including Italian opera and the music of Handel. For two centuries Britain produced few world-class composers.

Even Purcell’s manuscript for The Fairy Queen was lost, a copy being found only in 1901 at the Royal Academy of Music. In the twentieth century his work underwent a revival, for example with Benjamin Britten championing his work by taking one of his tunes as the theme of The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.

The Orchestra of the Swan performed a suite of orchestral music from The Fairy Queen. There’s a recording of some of the same pieces (not by the Orchestra of the Swan) here.

The opera as envisaged by Purcell combined a range of different elements rather reminiscent of the Jacobean court masque fashionable at the end of Shakespeare’s career. It included Shakespeare’s text, orchestral sections, dances and operatic singing, spectacular effects and gorgeous costumes. The libretto for the operatic sections was written by Thomas Betterton, the first great Hamlet after Shakespeare’s time. Purcell owed much to earlier forms of musical entertainment. For many years only concert versions of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen were put on, a full performance being estimated to last 4 hours. Then in 2009 to coincide with the 350th anniversary of Purcell’s birth a decision was taken to give it a full-scale production at Glyndebourne. It was directed by Jonathan Kent and was declared a triumph, so successful that it was filmed, released on DVD and repeated in 2012. It’s wonderful that this early adaptation of Shakespeare’s play has at last been shown to be a great work of art. Here’s the Guardian’s review of the 2009 production, and that from Opera Today.

This clip is from the 2009 Glyndebourne production illustrating Purcell’s inventiveness: some speech and acting, singing and dancing all in the space of just a few minutes. I believe it’s an extract from the DVD which is still available for purchase. And yes that is Des Barrit as Bottom and Sally Dexter as Titania.

To return to The Orchestra of the Swan, the extracts from The Fairy Queen formed part of a varied programme of music on the theme of love including songs by Howard Blake who has written much for Shakespeare on stage and Roxanna Panufnik’s new work inspired by three Shakespeare sonnets. There are three concerts still to come, all following the Shakespeare theme in the context of the memorials of the First World War. The concert on 23 May is entitled Let us Garlands Bring – rosemary for remembrance, that on 30 May The Lark Ascending, and on 6 June the whole concert celebrates A Midsummer Night’s Dream. For more information go to the Orchestra’s website.

And here’s a link to the podcast of Great Lives.

And I’ve just heard about a concert including Mendelssohn’s fabulous music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream being performed on 29 May by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at the Music Center in Strathmore, in collaboration with the Folger Shakespeare Library. Here’s the link.

Posted in Legacy, Plays and Poems, Stratford-upon-Avon | Tagged A Midsummer Night's Dream, Folger Shakespeare Library, Henry Purcell, Howard Blake, music, Orchestra of the Swan, The Fairy Queen, Westminster Abbey | 1 Comment

Congratulations to David Bradley!

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Sylvia Morris

It’s truly wonderful news that actor David Bradley has won a BAFTA after a forty-year career that has spanned theatre, TV and film. Not surprisingly, the award he won is Best Supporting Actor in the hit TV drama Broadchurch. David has very often played what are usually called supporting roles, brilliantly.

In recent years David has been best-known as the sinister caretaker at Hogwarts, Mr Filch, in the Harry Potter films, but in between he’s continued to appear onstage, for instance at the National Theatre where he played the title role in Shakespeare’s Henry IV plays with fellow Harry Potter actor Michael Gambon, a role for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award in 2006. Other recent theatre credits include Pinter’s No Man’s Land (for which he was again nominated for an Olivier Award) and Beckett’s Endgame. This link is to an interview he gave in 2011 where he describes playing “people on the edge, or outsiders” as “interesting territory”.

Online biographies tend to focus on screen work but much of his best work has been in Shakespeare. Writing for a company of skilled actors, Shakespeare wrote roles for all of them which I don’t like to call “supporting” because they are rewarding in their own right and sometimes have their own existence outside of the main strand of the play. Many of these are parts which David made his own, but rather than being typecast the range of roles he has successfully taken on is amazing.

Titus Andronicus, RSC 2003

These are some of the roles he’s played for the RSC: in Shakespeare as Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night, the title roles in Cymbeline and Titus Andronicus, Gloucester in King Lear, Polonius in Hamlet, Shallow in Henry IV Part 2, Dr Caius in The Merry Wives of Windsor and the first (which I was lucky enough to see when it was performed in London), Antonio in The Merchant of Venice. In non-Shakespeare he’s played Subtle in The Alchemist, Mephistopheles in Doctor Faustus, and Fistula in Vaclav Havel’s play Temptation. It shows an extraordinary range: from the silliness of Aguecheek to the violent tragedy of Titus Andronicus. He has a wonderful talent for comedy which isn’t often seen in his screen work. And these are only a small selection: he features over 100 times in the RSC Performance Database. And this doesn’t include his equally distinguished work at the National Theatre: the Olivier award he won was for his Fool to Brian Cox’s King Lear. In a previous blog I talked about this performance. He’s also appeared in the a translation of Racine’s classical drama Phedre and Chekhov’s Three Sisters and Uncle Vanya.

David Morrissey and David Bradley in Our Mutual Friend

On TV I’ve particularly enjoyed seeing him in Our Friends in the North, in the serialisation of Dickens’ novel Our Mutual Friend, and just last year he appeared as the first Doctor Who, William Hartnoll in a drama about his life. He has of course also appeared in an episode of Doctor Who.

Here’s a link to his agent’s site which includes a complete run-down of his extraordinary career.

David Bradley receiving his Doctorate from he University of Warwick, 2012

David Bradley receiving his Doctorate from the University of Warwick, 2012

But those of us living in the Stratford area have another reason for being thrilled about his success. David has lived locally for more than twenty years (though often absent because of work), and has generously given support to a number of local organisations. Without a theatrical background David first acted as an amateur in his home town of York, and he retains the link with amateur acting by being President of Stratford’s Second Thoughts drama group. He is a patron of the Shakespeare Hospice, in Stratford-upon-Avon, and in 2010-2011 he was President of the Stratford Shakespeare Club. In 2012 he was granted an honorary doctorate by the University of Warwick. Here’s a link to a page where you can hear a podcast of David Bradley being interviewed at the time of this award.

I can’t be alone in hoping we’ll see him back onstage performing some Shakespeare soon!

Posted in Legacy, Shakespeare on Stage, Stratford-upon-Avon | Tagged BAFTA, David Bradley, National Theatre, Second Thoughts, Shakespeare Club, Shakespeare Hospice | Comments Off

Thomas Nast’s The Immortal Light of Genius

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Sylvia Morris

Thomas Nast’s study for The Immortal Light of Genius, at the Folger Shakespeare Library

Browsing Julia Thomas’s book Shakespeare’s Shrine recently, I came across a reference to a painting created at the height of Shakespeare worship. By Thomas Nast, it was entitled “The Immortal Light of Genius”, commissioned by the great actor Henry Irving in the 1890s. Julia Thomas’s description reads “Set in the birthroom, it shows the bust of Shakespeare radiating with a supernatural glow as the figures of comedy and tragedy present laurel wreaths. The genius will never be extinguished: it lives on in the light that emanates from the bust and shines on the bare walls and floorboards of the birthplace”. For more information she cites William L Pressly’s 1993 Catalogue of Paintings in the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Who, I wondered, was Thomas Nast, and why did Irving commission the painting from him? Why is the subject treated is such a mysterious way? I checked the Folger’s website and Pressley’s book for the full story. Here’s the catalogue entry.

Thomas Nast was born in Germany in 1840 but as a child his family moved to New York. His talent as an artist was recognised early and his political cartoons became a popular feature in Harper’s Weekly from 1862. He was a great admirer of Shakespeare. According to a biography site, ” Nast introduced the donkey to typify the Democratic party, the elephant to typify the Republican party, and the tiger to typify Tammany Hall, and introduced into American cartoons the practice of modernizing scenes from Shakespeare for a political purpose.” In one example from 1868 the Democratic presidential nominee Horatio Seymour is shown as Lady Macbeth guiltily trying to wash the blood from her hands. Seymour had been responsible for a violent conflict during the Civil War. Princeton University’s Digital Library contains hundreds of cartoons by Nast.

So how did it come about that Nast painted this religiously devotional picture of Shakespeare’s Birthplace? Pressly notes “A pilgrimage to Stratford-upon-Avon on a trip to Europe in 1878 produced an image published in Harper’s Weekly showing the ghost of the Bard himself haunting the artist’s imagination”. This visit to Shakespeare’s Birthplace clearly had a profound effect on Nast. He travelled in Europe in 1894 in search of work and had become friendly with Henry Irving who commissioned the work. In 1895 he completed a preliminary sketch followed by an oil study, both of which were acquired by Mr Folger in 1906 and 1908.

The actual painting was completed on 23 April 1896 and presented to Henry Irving. But rather oddly, Irving determined to present it to the Arthur Winter Memorial Library of the Staten Island Academy on the occasion of its dedication on 15 and 16 June. This may be explained by the fact that the President of the Trustees was William Winter, drama critic of the New York Tribune and author of a book on Irving. Pressly explains “Nast, however, was unhappy with the disposition of his painting, feeling Irving should have it rather than the Academy. The painting was returned to him almost immediately after the dedication, but Irving must have persuaded his friend to acquiesce. After slight alterations, Nast sent the picture back to the academy” Pressly notes that the painting “appears to have been destroyed in a fire”.

Nast subsequently painted a second copy of the painting which was presented by his widow after his death, in 1903 (Nast died in 1902), to the Shakespeare Memorial in Stratford-upon-Avon. Pressly notes “The present whereabouts of both pictures are not known”. Another reference comments that it does not appear in the 1970 Catalogue of Paintings held by the RSC, and it is suggested it was destroyed in the first World War. But I checked, and it appears in the catalogues date 1956. “The Immortal Light of Genius”, reads the entry. “A room in Shakespeare’s Birthplace. A bust of Shakespeare, illuminated by a supernatural radiance, is approached by ghostly figures of Tragedy and Comedy in attitudes of reverence. Oil on canvas. 28″ x 41”. So something happened to this painting between 1956 and 1970.

Thomas Nast’s painting in Morristown

The plot thickens again with this article dating from 2008, reporting that the painting had been donated to the Library at Morristown New Jersey, where Nast lived for most of his adult life. It had been purchased at a “country auction” in 1976 and spent thirty-five years in a cupboard. It had required extensive restoration work before being put on public display. The assumption must be that this is the original painting which was not after all destroyed by fire. Although the image isn’t clear, it seems to differ from the Folger’s study. But is it just possible that it’s the Stratford painting that disappeared in the 1960s? Either way it’s great that a rare painting by a renowned American artist has at last found its way to a place where it is valued: the Morristown Library contains much of Nast’s work and is the home of the Thomas Nast Society.

Here again is Pressly’s description of the Folger’s oil study:” Nast introduced the figures of Tragedy and Comedy paying homage to the Bard as they offer laurel wreaths to his statue. It is a conception that could easily slip into the ridiculous, but the dramatic lighting helps it bridge the realms of reality and fantasy. An intense yellow light, without a natural source, radiates from the dome of Shakespeare’s head, firing the wall behind him and sending a few flickering highlights throughout the darkened room… The viewer, like the statue, witnesses the scene as in a trance. It is in the mind’s eye that the action takes place.”

His treatment of the subject may now deeply unfashionable, but it’s a wonderful example of the way in which Shakespeare-worship linked cultures on both sides of the Atlantic.

Posted in Legacy, Stratford-upon-Avon | Tagged Folger Shakespeare Library, Thomas Nast | Comments Off

Henry IV Part 1: relaying the live event

Posted on May 16, 2014 by Sylvia Morris

Antony Sher as Falstaff. Photographer: Kwame Lestrade

Earlier this week I attended the performance of Henry IV Part 1 performed at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, that was being simultaneously broadcast to cinemas around the UK, and is to be shown in schools, around the world and eventually published on DVD.

From my seat in the upper gallery I could see the preparations that had been carried out for the filming: rows of seats had been removed to allow for several cameras, particularly one attached to a huge telescopic arm able to rise high above the stage or get close to the actors at almost stage level. I knew that every shot had been closely planned in advance.

The evening began with the artistic director (also the director of the production) Gregory Doran as warm-up act. As the performance began, I thought about those cinema audiences: it’s a stirring opening, rich in pageantry and music. How much did one of the cameras focus on the unmistakeable figure (for those of us who saw Richard II anyway) of Richard, whose ghostly presence is felt in all the plays that follow?

When the rebels talked about how they would divide the kingdom after they have ousted the King the telescopic arm extended and rose high to get a view of the huge map spread out on the stage floor. Then, during the intimate scene when the Welsh lady sings, the same camera was lowered almost to stage level to get close-ups of the two couples sitting on the stage floor. During moments like Falstaff’s great honour speech, when he’s alone on stage, I wondered how this was being filmed: Antony Sher is as proficient on films as on stage. Was one of the cameras looking him in the eye, or was he maybe altering his performance to engage with it?

How, I wondered, were the scenes in Eastcheap filmed: on the busy stage there were several locations: the balcony where the interview had been held, as well all round the big stage. Would the audience in the cinema see how actors made their entrances down a set of wooden steps, from upstage, or along a walkway through the auditorium? In the theatre I’m used to being able to choose which part of the stage to focus on, though productions always subtly direct the audience’s attention. What decisions had been made about where the cinema audience would be made to look?

Hal as the King interviews Falstaff, playing Hal. Photographer: Kwame Lestrade

One of the most striking sequences comes when Falstaff and Hal rehearse Hal’s interview with his father the king. “Thou wilt be horribly chid tomorrow when thou comest to thy father. If thou love me, practice an answer”, suggests Falstaff. It’s a wonderful piece of theatre. First Falstaff plays the king, and Hal plays himself. Then the roles are reversed, with Falstaff playing Hal and Hal playing the king, taking the opportunity to have a go at Falstaff. Later we get the actual scene where the King harangues Hal for his “barren pleasures, rude society”. Would the filming make connections between these scenes to match the obvious parallels on stage?

The final fight between Hotspur and Prince Hal was thrilling on stage. While theatre audiences willingly imagine the violence of real sword fights, cinema audiences are used to seeing more realism. Would it be so exciting on film, and would a cinema audience respond differently to what is clearly not a “real” fight? I’m very much looking forward to seeing how this works onscreen.

It’s Falstaff though that is the heart and soul of the play. Way back in 1777, in his Essay on the Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff, Maurice Morgann stoutly defended Falstaff from the charge of cowardice. But in his essay he admits “there is something strangely incongruous in our discourse and affections concerning him. We all like Old Jack; yet, by some strange perverse fate, we all abuse him, and deny his the possession of any one single good or respectable quality…He is a character made up… wholly of incongruities; a man at once young and old, enterprizing and fat, a dupe and a wit, harmless and wicked, weak in principle and resolute by constitution”.

Antony Sher as Falstaff is an interesting and not particularly obvious choice. It’s true he’s played the Fool in King Lear and Malvolio in Twelfth Night, but he’s much better known for Richard III, Iago, Macbeth, Leontes and Prospero. There is some humour in these roles, but they can be cold and unlikeable. Sher succeeds in making us like Falstaff, and in feeling the sadness that runs beneath the surface.

On the Shakespeare message board SHAKSPER, there is currently a debate about the subject of who originally played Falstaff. Shakespeare’s resident funny man was Will Kemp, but Falstaff isn’t just a clown. John Briggs thinks that Shakespeare may have played the part himself, an attractive thought, but surely there would be some tradition (like the one that he played Adam in As You Like It). There are other candidates, but maybe we do Will Kemp a disservice by assuming he wasn’t good enough.

Incidentally, I’ve really enjoyed this terrific cartoon summary of Henry IV Part 1 on the Good Tickle-Brain website. Do take a look.

Posted in Plays and Poems, Shakespeare on Stage, Stratford-upon-Avon | Tagged Antony Sher, Gregory Doran, Henry IV Part 1, Royal Shakespeare Theatre | 2 Comments

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Congratulations to David Bradley!

Thomas Nast’s The Immortal Light of Genius

Henry IV Part 1: relaying the live event

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