Merely Dramaturgy: Tatty Hennessy on gendering Shakespeare

Merely Theatre in association with The Production Exchange present

Twelfth Night and Romeo & Juliet

For 2017, Merely Theatre embark on second national tour of genderblind work with two of Shakespeare’s best loved shows performed in rep.

Presented in Merely Theatre’s signature stripped-back style, the plays overflow with energy and
urgency, seeking to blow the cobwebs off Shakespeare. Merely’s productions are raucous and joyous, stirring and visceral.
Merely’s commitment to gender-blind practice means actors rehearse their five-hand productions in male-female pairs, generating twice the amount of ideas for each role, while halving the rehearsal time for each individual. 

A man and a woman play each set of parts alternately across the venues on the tour; a male Juliet, a female Malvolio - any combination is possible.

Much has been made of the death of repertory theatre. Doing multiple shows at once, working with
the same actors, learning a huge breadth of parts, immersion in the classics, and stretching an actor’s range are just some of the advantages of which theatre luminaries have mourned the loss. 

For some, that loss was too much to take. So, Merely Theatre started as a way for a company of actors to work
together discovering the best way to put on Shakespeare’s plays. 

Rep is not dead, it has evolved.



A Younger Theatre said something about your 'ethics'. Can you explain a little about what these are, and how they inform your approach to theatre?

Merely Theatre believe in equal employment – we have a 50:50 gender split both in the company of actors and directors (myself and artistic director Scott Ellis), because we believe Shakespeare should be accessible for everyone. We believe in an open connection between a performer and the audience. 

We have a set of principals we apply in rehearsals, covering rehearsal etiquette, preparation, approach to text and performance, and a large part of that is including the audience, really speaking to them, really inviting them to the party. We also believe Shakespeare can and should be engaging, clear and intelligible to everyone, from an early modern scholar to a schoolkid who’s never read any before. 

Shakespeare is sometimes an easy choice for a company, but I get the feeling that you are interested in doing something a little different. How well do the plays adapt to to your gender-blind casting: did you choose them for any other reasons?

There are now lots of companies doing exciting things with Shakespeare and gender and it is thankfully becoming the norm to include some form of gender-blind casting when producing Shakespeare, but nobody does it quite like us.  We don’t change the genders of the characters, and we don’t encourage the performers to ‘perform’ male- or- femaleness. 

We’re more interested in almost stripping the genders away and being left with character and story. So really any of Shakespeare’s plays fits with our ethos – last year for example we did Henry V, so we’ve now done comedy, history and tragedy and all work beautifully. But it does kind of feel like Romeo & Juliet and Twelfth Night in particular are perfect for our gender blind approach. Twelfth Night is already a gender-bending comedy of mistaken identity so fits perfectly not only with gender-blind casting but also with the slightly mad multi-rolling that such a small-cast production needs. And as for Romeo & Juliet, it’s a real joy to half of the time get to see a woman perform Romeo, and a man perform Juliet.  
You mention an enthusiasm for the 'Rep' approach: and I am not sure I have seen that in a long time. How did you become interested in it - and what does the 'rep' mean to you?

Working as a repertory company is certainly unusual, especially for a fringe company. However, we believe it has huge benefits. We’re all constantly immersed in Shakespeare, and in the particular style of Shakespeare Merely perform. It means our company have been honing their text skills, their chemistry as a group, their practice and ethos, for over two years now. We can hit the ground running every rehearsal. 

It also means we’re a family. We’ve known each other so long, we’ve worked together so closely, we have an intimacy and a short hand, a familiarity and a shared spark that I’m sure comes across on stage. It also means that everyone has a real stake in the success of the company – we all feel like we own it, like it’s ours. I think that’s what rep means to me, a dedicated and disciplined group of professional friends working communally to further their own craft in the pursuit of great storytelling.

I am not quite sure how the casting approach would work - can you elaborate on how that goes, in terms of the 'pairs' and gender swapping?

We’re a company of ten actors, five men and five women, but we perform every play with just five. Every character is double cast with a pair of a man and a woman, so you could end up watching a male or female Romeo, or a male or female Sir Toby, and it’s kind of up to chance what combinations of performers you get on the night. 

It’s an idea rooted in original practise – Shakespeare's women would have been played by men – opened out slightly and allowing us to have equal representation and employment. It also allows wonderful actors – male and female – the chance to play roles they wouldn’t otherwise play.


Merely Theatre ROMEO & JULIET and TWELFTH NIGHT 2017 UK Tour - REHEARSAL TRAILER from Rob Myles on Vimeo.

Even once the cobwebs are blown off, is there anything in Romeo and Juliet that can still surprise a contemporary audience?

Absolutely! Firstly, I think there’s a danger in assuming that any classic play is covered in ‘cobwebs.’  We work in theatre and have a predisposition to know and love these plays, but a lot of the audiences we perform to have never seen Shakespeare before, so you have to balance surprise with clarity and care for storytelling. I also think people bring a lot of preconceptions to this play that it’s fun to slightly subvert – we all know it’s a moving tragedy, but there’s also so much warmth and laughter and I think people are often surprised by how much of that we bring out. 

A play also always takes on new resonances

depending on the time in which it’s performed. For me what rings so clearly from this production is actually how conventional gender roles shape and limit our lives – the tragedy of Juliet being denied power over her destiny by her father, the tragedy of Romeo picking up a sword as he laments how love has made him ‘effeminate’. 

We don’t cast gender-blind to make a point or observation about gender in the plays – effectively we’re stripping that away – but invariably it brings out elements of the text that explore the performative nature of gender, and I think that’s particularly exciting with these two plays.

And isn't there a danger in Twelfth Night that gender-swapping will complicate an already complex plot?

Oh god yes. It’s something we’ve been very aware of. But I think Twelfth Night is a comedy of complexity. In fact I think juggling complexity, dancing on that knife edge, is kind of the root of a lot of great comedy. So we’ve embraced it, and worked even harder on our storytelling – simple but effective costume design, constantly involving the audience in every beat, every performer knowing which beats of the story they’re responsible for looking after and making sure they land. 

It’s definitely a tight-rope but there’s few things more joyful to watch on stage than perfectly choreographed chaos! 

Artistic Director Scott Ellis comments, We’ve done our best to recreate that same atmosphere and
attitude from the old rep system. The discipline and the technique, the focus. The commitment to
making every time we’ve done it the best time we’ve done it. We put in the work, we sweat it hard, and
out of that pressure cooker come some extraordinary things. It’s an exhilarating way to work. We are
doing raw, pure Shakespeare, the kind people get swept up in and excited by.

Running time 115 minutes 
Artistic Director Scott Ellis
Associate Director Tatty Hennessey
Set/Costume Designer Florence Hazard
Lighting Designer Christopher Nairne
Producer Emmy Rose
Content Producer Robert Myles
Cast Ffion Jones
Robert Myles
Sarah Peachey
Luke Barton
Tamara Astor
Stephen Leask
Emmy Rose
Simon Grujich
Hannah Ellis
David Gerits

Merely Theatre
The actors, the audience, the text. Merely is characterised by playful use of space and audience
interaction. Their dynamic, irreverent but focused use of text ensures modern audiences are as
engaged and entertained as when the words were written. 


10th May The Old Town Hall, High Street, Hemel Hempstead HP1 3AE
22nd – 23rd May Lowther Pvillion, West Beach, Lytham St Anne's, Lancashire FY8 5QQ



24th – 25th May Theatre Royal Wakefield, Drury Lane, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, WF1 2TE

Blood Dramaturgy @ Edfringe 2016

Blood Will Have Blood

C venues – C nova (Venue 145) 

 Aug 9-29 2.15pm-9.15pm

Blood Will Have Blood uses audio-immersive technology to put the audience at the heart of the story. You become children, lost in the brutal world of Macbeth’s Scotland. Adopted by one of the three witches you grow up with stories of terror and learn to fight for your revenge. The audio show moulds itself around your actions, leading to 18 unique endings with over 180 different routes to get there. Like Shakespeare’s original, the show explores the relationship between fate and free-will. It is completely interactive and only open to 12 audience members at a time.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

The main inspiration is the world of Shakespeare's Macbeth: the themes of fate and choice, the characters, the time period, the witches. Another inspiration was choose your own adventure video games like the Stanley Parable but also immersive companies like Punchdrunk and Secret Cinema. The most exciting moment in immersive theatre or video games for me is when you are faced with a choice and in the moment of deciding you understand something about the characters in the story, even if that character is you.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?

It is a small team. The only actor needed is for the witch, who leads you as mother and mentor through the show. We are using the actors from our production of Fire Burn, in which the three witches enact Macbeth. Nicola is our sound designer and composer and I met her on an Old Vic networking event. Clancy wrote a ten minute version of this piece for our immersive new writing event, The Alchemical Door, and we decided to develop it into a full length version.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I have always been interested in making theatre, since I was 6, so it's hard to say. However, I became interested in making immersive theatre when I first heard stories about The Mask of the Red Death. I thought, there is the antidote to the lack of connection I'm feeling to the world. However, when I went to see Punchdrunk in New York, I still felt like there was more you could do to connect the audience. That's when Clancy and I started looking at Video Games and how they bring you into their world.


Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?

No, this is a very unique new piece for us. We have had to learn about bluetooth headphones and Clancy has made a completely bizarre qlab for the show. It has over 80.000 cues and 180 routes and 18 endings. It's a beast! We've done loads of R&D so we keep finding new things. For example. people don't listen when they're doing things so you need to balance the talking and the touching.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

A slow realisation that their actions effect the story. We want them to talk to each other afterwards to see what happened. The best audience members for me and the ones who really look like they're losing themselves in it, the way I lose myself in books.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

Every sentence is a strategy! The whole show is designed to manipulate you into going through it. We spent a day trying to work out if the narrative voice should say "you look around" or "I look around". We also have to balance suggestion and orders. So sometimes it's "I thought about doing it..." and then we wait. If they don't do it we say "but I didn't" but if they do then it becomes "I did it". The language is really tricky to get right. It doesn't want to feel like a monkey hear monkey do story, because it's not, but equally audiences get stressed out if they don't understand what they need to do.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?

Not really. Immersive theatre in it's current form is so new that I don't think it has created a tradition yet.

Blood Will Have Blood came out of our sell out immersive new writing event The Alchemical Door and is part of our movement away from set dependant immersive theatre. It was written by Clancy Flynn, writer of Whistleblower and Wyrd at the Edinburgh Fringe 2013. Her most recent story Intelligence Testing was published in Dark Futures Anthology. We are touring Blood with Fire Burn:The Tragedy of Macbeth. Blood was developed with the generous support of Arts Council England.

Since setting up ImmerCity in 2012 we have done immersive and sitespecific  theatre all over the UK and Ireland. Our larger scale immersive productions include working with Opera Holland Park on The Dwindling House of Holland and with Kensington and Chelsea Council on alien invasion show Crashed. Blood Will Have Blood is directed by ImmerCity’s artistic director Rosanna Mallinson with sound design by Nicola Chang who composes for video games, film and theatre.

Improv Dramaturgy with Rhapsodes: Sean McCann @ Edfringe 2016

Rhapsodes

 Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33)

Aug 3-14 2.30pm

Shakespeare made up on the spot! From the creators of Olivier Award-winning Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, this is improv as you've never seen it before. Honouring ancient Athenian traditions, two Rhapsodes compete to create a fully-authentic Shakespearean masterpiece incorporating rap, poetry-slams and any writer from the last 3,000 years, from Homer to Pinter, from Poe to Dr Seuss. Adam Meggido and Sean McCann have improvised at the National Theatre, Royal Court, Shakespeare's Globe and all over the world.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

Lots ! This show developed out of three years' work with Ken Campbell , and then several years of working on literary - based Impro shows like " School Of Night". With Ken, we first improvised Shakespeare together with Mark Rylance at Shakespeare's Globe in 2005. We wanted to see how much of the audience we could use in a show , and how much we could make the audience part of the narrative. We've also been great fans of narrative poetry , and the entertainment potential of dramatising poetry while playing with the rhyme and rhythm. We try to channel the Marx Brothers as well as Ken Dodd. 

  

How did you become interested in making performance?

We started reading all the Impro books and underlining all the things you aren't meant to do. For example , one book says one could not , nor should not , ever improvise in the style of Edgar Allan Poe's " The Raven ".  We've been doing it for years and audiences are pretty keen on it. So that's how this happened. 

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?

Typical for us , if not for " the others ". This is a very atypical show - it combines stand - up , poetry slamming , music - hall and really really weird stuff. Over the years Adam and I have performed as a double - act and with larger groups. We've honed particular bits of audience - interactive "patter ", and we change our show depending on the shape of the playing space , and the consistency of the audience - so it's very much a bespoke show - you bring your ideas and we'll weave them into our show. We will also compliment you on your dress sense. 

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

We hope they will experience great joy , great wonder , and great ownership of the story. We also hope they will experience a great need to see our show again , and an other-worldly desire to bring their friends. 

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

Get on with it. Be funny. Be touching. Be touchingly funny. We keep the house lights up and work hard on our poetic metre. By the end everyone will have learned something , ideally something beneficial to humankind. 

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?

I'm a huge fan of vaudeville , of double - acts , and of pantomime. We love to get in amongst the crowd , and to create a carnivalesque festivity. We are , at times , very much behind you. Oh yes we are. 

Dramaturge Macbeth: Susie McKenna @ Edfringe2016

Macbeth

C venues – C (Venue 34) ​

Aug 3-20 4.35pm

Music. Ambition. Greed. Murder – A musical adaptation of Macbeth

TWIST Theatre Company (The Way I See Theatre), Hackney Empire’s new graduate company, brings the premiere of a musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, set in the in the cut throat world of the British Music Industry, to C Venues, Chambers Street, for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2016 – Wednesday 03 to Saturday 20 August. 

TWIST’s Macbeth is a modern tale of lust for power, betrayal and murder within King Records, a thriving international music business based in London.  With an R&B, Grime and Afro Beat vibe, street dance and a lot of attitude this is Shakespeare meets Channel 4’s smash hit hip-hop drama Empire.

The production has been created and is performed by TWIST Theatre Company, a talented new company of young Hackney actors, musicians, dancers and singers (17-21 year olds), who have graduated from Hackney Empire’s Artist Development Programme (13 – 17 year olds). This new theatre company, supported by Hackney Empire, the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation and The Monument Trust, is the next step on the path to a career in the industry. 

TWIST Theatre Company - The Way I See Theatre - is a creative and political platform for a dynamic and diverse group of young emerging artists, based in Hackney, to tell stories through their own eyes and in a way that feels true. Company members represent different cultures and backgrounds and share and combine their talents, tastes and influences.  With the opportunity to refresh their minds, share their feelings and showcase their talent they create dynamic theatre that is a voice for their generation.

By bringing to life Shakespeare’s Macbeth with a mix of energy, passion and musical styles - Street, R&B, hip hop, afro beat, spoken word, and jazz - TWIST has created their own magic to inspire, challenge and connect with their audience.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

I worked with the young company to decide on an original and musical approach to Macbeth.

How could this version be a musical adaptation and what setting would work best for this.

Many of us had been watching FOX and Channel 4’s EMPIRE – set against the US R&B music industry and could identify the analogies to Macbeth. This lit the touch paper for TWIST’s adaptation setting it within the British Music industry and the rise and fall of a Hackney Artists who had used any means possible to become successful in the industry and conquer the World.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?

The TWIST ( The Way I See Theatre)  Theatre Company  are all graduates of Hackney Empire’s Artist Development Programme and they were chosen from over 40 applicants from within the programme to form a new graduate company. The creative team are all top professionals who had worked with the young artists regularly for about 4 to 5 years . The Company also has a shadow creative team that will lead the company from within during the Edinburgh run.

How did you become interested in making

performance?

These are young artists that I felt needed to make the next step into the industry and Edinburgh Festival is a great experience.  The story and issues surrounding Macbeth - especially set within the British music industry - demonstrates many of the problems some of these young artists face daily and in the future as they begin to enter the Arts industry. The Company also felt that the play and this approach to it would really speak to their peers and a young audience - making Shakespeare accessible to an audience who may not normally choose to see a classic play such as this.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?

The process followed the normal practice we use for developing new work with young artists here at Hackney Empire. A week of Improvisation, music jamming, sharings for inspiration and then devising the piece in sections. Then move this along with more formal rehearsals to hone and polish the material created and consolidate the script into a rounded piece.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

TWIST wants the audience to experience Shakespeare in a new and different way – that encompasses the music of today making it accessible and surprising to a young audience. 

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

Rather than a usual piece of musical theater the Company also approached the text using some recitative and rap merging with full blown songs - interspersed with the original text. At times the play will break the fourth wall asking its audience to become members of the MOBO’s audience.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?

I think TWIST are very much developing their own style of musical theatre for their generation - and a 21^st century sensibility.

TWIST Theatre’s Macbeth is directed by Susie McKenna (Hackney Empire’s Creative Director) with support from assistant director Patrick Miller (Hackney Empire’s Artist Development Programme Head of Drama / Byker Grove).  The production’s musical director is Renell Shaw (Rudimental), the choreographer is Leroy Dos Santos (Flawless) and the lyricist / vocal coach is Theo Llewellyn (1/4 finalist - The Voice 2016). Designer, Lotte Collett, has also worked on the visualisation and design of the project with the company.

In 2010 graduates of Hackney Empire’s Artist Development Programme formed their own theatre company, Hackney Harlem, and performed their production of A Midsummer Night’s Madness at C Venue, Chamber Street, for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.  They won The Fresh Air award for Best show, gaining 5 star reviews and playing to packed houses.

Shaking up Dramaturgy: James Beagon from Aulos talks Caesar

A brand new twist on Shakespeare’s classic sees the play recast in the grimy underworld beneath the charade of the modern football celebrity. Triumph and glory may be eternal, but individuals are not. Personal codes of honour are all that are left in a world of ultras, hooligans and futile violence.


What was the inspiration for this performance?
The inspiration for this football-based version of Julius Caesar came primarily from a desire to try to bring it to audiences who might not normally engage with Shakespeare. The ongoing FIFA corruption crisis means that our take on the show is about as current as you can get, and thus the topics we deal with are right at the forefront of public consciousness.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?
Aulos Productions has produced several shows in the past few years and thus several team members carried on over from our most recent Fringe show, Women of the Mourning Fields. Our new team members, both cast and crew, came from a mixture of an open auditions process and responses to our online adverts aimed at the amateur and student theatre community in Edinburgh.

How did you become interested in making performance?
I have always been interested in creating my own media from an early age, primarily through creative writing. I became interested in theatre performance specifically when I came to Edinburgh for

university and found myself getting heavily involved with the Edinburgh University Theatre Company based on a chance decision in Fresher's Week. 

Since graduating, I've decided that I want to continue making performance theatre as a career and thus I've maintained those old links whilst starting to head off in my own direction to make the best theatre that appeals to me.


Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?
My most recent productions have been written as well as directed by myself, so this project has actually been a change for me. 

Mostly, it called for a change in my process of abridging the text to suit the message I wanted to get across rather than simply writing it from scratch. That said, many things about my directing process remain the same. For instance, I'm particularly fond of long-form characterisation exercises, which I have used effectively for previous productions and they continue to work well for Julius Caesar.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?
I hope the audience will enjoy the experience of something

watching something that feels both classic and contemporary. For those new to Shakespeare, I hope it encourages them to continue to engage with more Shakespeare productions in the future of various different styles. 

For those who have seen many productions of Shakespeare and Julius Caesar before, I hope to challenge any preconceptions they might have about the text or Shakespearean performance in general with a new and unconventional setting.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

We are employing the use of filmed video alongside live performance, not only in the form of newsreels within the universe of Julius Caesar but with our in-universe stylised adverts that we've made to help highlight the overlap between the modern celebrity and the world of football. Hopefully this approach will help the audience engage more fully with the world we're creating, particularly if football is not something they are inherently familiar with.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
For Aulos Productions as a whole, there has been a certain amount of inspiration from the work of the ancient Greek playwrights (Aeschlyus, Sophocles, Euripides), mainly in regards to combining the role of director and writer. But doing Julius Caesar has been much more a case of simply putting my directing experience from past productions to the most practical use. Whilst it is Shakespeare, the production still follows the same rules as any other. It's always great to experiment and try out new techniques, but I don't think it's helpful to limit yourself to one particular 'tradition' without flexibility.

Shakespeare, his Wife and the Dog++++= Lucifer++++=

The play's the thing...
Although they generate very different atmospheres, both *3Shakespeare, his Wife and the Dog *2and *3Lucifer *2prove that there is still life in scripted theatre. Both scripts play loose with their source material – the life and works of the Bard and the Biblical myth of the Fallen Angel respectively – and engage the audience through strong central performances. 

Yet their intentions are entirely distinct. While *3Shakespeare *2is a playful canter through the playwright's declining years, with plenty of references to the Collected Works, *3Lucifer *2makes a taut analysis of how power corrupts, especially in a city where the law and the criminals are hand-in-glove.


As part of Jethro Compton's Capone Trilogy, *3Lucifer *2is perhaps one of the most precise plays in the Fringe. With only a cast of three, an intimate hotel room setting and rumours from Capone's imprisonment floating around the protagonists rise to power and descent to villainy, Compton and playwright Jamie Wilkes follow his increasing isolation from his wife and family. His reliance on violence as a solution to business difficulties is reflected in his behaviour in the home and his power plays strip him of friends and love. It is an intense hour, with Compton's direction at its most terse and exacting.

*3Shakespeare, his Wife and the Dog*2, however, is a joyous celebration of language, despite the underlying themes of senility and death. Finding himself unfashionable, Shakespeare retires and makes his household's lives miserable. Challenged by his wife, he goes through his glorious past, quoting from his glories and trying to find meaning in his past.

As a meditation on old age, the script is given a sparkle by the quotations, but it feeds heavily on the reputation of the hero: the main points are stolen from various of his plays, and the strength of the production comes from the charming central performances.

The success of both plays attests to the versatility of scripted theatre: where *3Shakespeare *2looks back to the past, and hooks into the ongoing public love of Shakespeare, Compton uses the script as a springboard for exciting staging and contemporary discussions about morality. While devised theatre, physical theatre or dance theatre may be more fashionable, the script still has a tale to tell.

*10Shakespeare, his Wife and the Dog

Summerhall, 560 1581, until 24 Aug, 2pm, £14 (£10)

Lucifer

C Nova, 0845 260 1234, until 25 Aug, 6pm, £11.50 -- £13.50 (£9.50 -- £11.50).

Shakespeare at the Fringe

A Comedian Speaks

...so I told them, right, I get it. I can do that alternative comedy. Things change - that Frankie Boyle went to court to prove he wasn't racialist, in my day it would have been a badge of pride - I can just get out the boot-polish and you've got yourself an ironic take on my old routines...

Sure, I can do it, just change a few lines here and there. The stuff about the Germans, that is old-fashioned. First heard that joke in 1942, and he said he's heard it in 1915... jokes go in and out of fashion... I remember this one started with 'God Bless Mrs Thatcher' then later changed to 'that bastard Thatcher.' I like to move with the times. Got to keep your finger on the pulse. One time, it was all set up, punchline, set up, punchline, then it was observational... isn't it funny how men are different to women, or how something happened at the post-office.

They don't make them like that anymore. He could bring the house down with a catch-phrase. All he needed. Vaudeville was a tough crude, they had to bring on the children to calm down the crowd some nights. Dancing children. Only thing to calm the heaving breast.

But those vaudeville performers. So versatile. I don't think Beckett would have been a success with them. They got his absurdism, right off the bat. Coming from Working Men's Clubs, you kind of understand what it means to be in a harsh world devoid of meaning.

I've studied the art. Right back to the Greeks. Aristophanes - now, he had a way with the dick joke. A
saucy aside, a quick chuckle at the Spartans, then an undercurrent of conservative political thought. Like Benny Hill. Genius. To this day, people start laughing when you play his theme tune. On the internet, set anything to Yakety Sax and you are guaranteed a million hits. Even car crashes are funny.

But I don't really hold with that sick humour... it doesn't make it okay if you just ask 'too soon?' afterwards. No. Say what you like, we were never nasty. Like Chekhov... okay, so it is never clear whether it is meant to be a tragedy or a comedy but... there's a compassion there. You can't say Uncle Vanya, or Sonia, or anyone, are bad people. I mean, they all want a bit on the side, their share of the action, but they are not malicious. Except when he gets the gun out, I suppose. But what's Chekhov without a gun, eh?

It's like Michael Emans told me - Chekhov thought he was writing for laughs, but his director Stanislavski had them as weepies. Nice guy, Emans, does a bit of populist theatre - he did Vanya as a broad Scottish comedy with little Jimmy Chisholm. Vaudeville roots, see. It's about the way you play him, or translate him. And if you really want the comedy, overplay the romance. Sound stupid if you put your heart into it...

Then again, it's about the audience, too... what do they think they are going to get. Like that time I did a benefit for the miners... never should have gone with the Falklands routine. Funny how the working man changed in those years. But if you have a posh audience in a fancy proscenium arch, they want the tragedy... they probably belong to the same social class as Chekhov's characters, give or take a century and a different country.

It's like Shakespeare said - I'm paraphrasing, because stand-ups aren't good at learning lines - nothing is hilarious or melancholic but thinking makes it so. And he'd know... his comedies are comedies just because they have happy endings. It is up to the actors to get the puns from the pentameters...

Shakespeare Inc

Although my enthusiasm for Shakespeare has long been slaked - that one Fringe with 200-odd versions of Macbeth kind of did for me - I have a soft spot for a bit of bardolatry. There are plenty of his scripts that are served up rarely enough to retain some sense of surprise, while the big events plotted by the Royal Shakespeare Company bring attention to the theatre world in general. Besides, it is better than the whole World War I nonsense that Michael Gove wants to celebrate.

Wednesday 23 April, Fireworks - outside the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, after the evening performance of Henry IV, Part I

Saturday 26 April, events for the whole family in and around the RSC’s theatres, as part of the annual Birthday Celebrations
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) will celebrate Shakespeare’s 450th birthday this year with a spectacular firework display on Wednesday 23 April (Shakespeare’s actual birthday).

Taking inspiration from Ben Jonson’s ‘Star of Poets’ description of William Shakespeare, the RSC will Henry IV Part I. Emergency Exit Arts, one of the country’s best and most experienced providers of pyrotechnics, will create this special anniversary event.
launch its Shakespeare birthday festivities with a fireworks display from the top of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre after the evening performance of

Personally, I blame Jonson for bardolatry... was he trying to hitch his own talent to Billy S's star? Still, fireworks are nice.

As part of the Birthday Celebrations on Saturday 26 April the RSC will offer a range of free activities for the whole family, including storytelling sessions, stage fighting workshops and the chance to discover how fake scars and bruises are created. Visitors will also be able go on theatre tours, enjoy music in the foyer areas, and explore the 36 metre high Theatre Tower.

The Celebrations will also feature an appearance by Godiva, a six metre tall mechanical puppet, created by Imagineer Productions for the Cultural Olympiad in 2012. Godiva will arrive in Stratford on Friday 25 April, spending the night at Shakespeare’s Birthplace in Henley Street before leading the community parade on Saturday 26 April. 

In the afternoon Godiva will visit the Bancroft Gardens where she will be joined by her future lifelong companion, The Humming Bird. This mechanical bird, capable of flying one and half kilometres, will make its inaugural flight in an outdoor performance. Godiva’s visit to Stratford as part of the Birthday Celebrations has been supported by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and the RSC.

Puppets? I'm in. 


The RSC is also working with community artist, Georgia Jacob and four organisations based in Stratford ) to produce an exciting addition to the community parade on Saturday 26 April. Each group will produce a carnival-style prop, such as a large puppet, based on a character from Shakespeare which will be carried on the processional route. After the Birthday Celebrations the pieces will be hung in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre during the summer. This activity has been enabled by funding from the Citizen’s Advice Bureau’s Reach Out And Help Partner Fund, and is supported by Stratford Town Trust.


Geraldine Collinge, Director of Events and Exhibitions at the RSC, said: “2014 is the 450th Birthday of Shakespeare, and I am really excited about what the town and the RSC has planned to mark this very special year. Here at the RSC we’ll be lighting up the sky on Shakespeare’s actual birthday, Wednesday 23 April, with what promises to be a magnificent firework display.

“And then over the Birthday Celebrations weekend, we'll be offering families myriad opportunities to participate in a range of practical theatre activities. If you want to find out more about stage fighting or how we create theatrical cuts and bruises, then make sure you come and visit us. I'm also delighted that Godiva will be making a trip from Coventry to Stratford. She’s an amazing sight and - along with the carnival items groups from Stratford will be making with Community Artist, Georgia Jacob - will be an exciting addition to the community parade. I am sure the town will be buzzing throughout the week, and I encourage everyone to come and soak up the very special atmosphere of the Birthday Celebrations.”


ACTIVITIES TAKING PLACE IN AND AROUND THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE THEATRE ON SATURDAY 26 APRIL:


MUSIC IN THE FOYERS OF THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE THEATRE
From 11.15am – 1pm, and 4.15 until 6pm - FREE

Including Balkan Gypsy rhythms and English Madrigals

FAMILY CRAFT ACTIVITIES ON THE BANCROFT TERRACE, IN FRONT OF THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE THEATRE
From 11.30am-4pm - FREE

Simple arts activities for under 10s. Sign a birthday card our birthday card for Billy, make a simple crown and be a king, design Titania's flowers or create a Shakespeare finger puppet to take away with you.



THEATRE SKILLS WORKSHOPS FOR FAMILIES AND CHILDREN IN THE MARQUEE IN THE SWAN GARDENS

All of the sessions below are free, last approximately 45-60 minutes and tickets are available on the day, 15 minutes before the start time on a first come, first served basis.


Stage Fighting
12.00– 1pm - FREE

Learn how to pull a punch in this active workshop and demonstration of stage fighting techniques.


Singing
1.15 – 2pm - FREE

Sing your heart out in this workshop with an RSC Voice practitioner.


Movement
2.15 – 3.15pm - FREE

A chance to experience the type of movement work RSC actors undergo in order to perform on our stages.


Voice
3.30 – 4.15 pm - FREE

Take part in a simple warm up and have a go at bringing Shakespeare's text to life in a fun and energetic session with one of our voice practitioners.


WORKSHOPS FOR FAMILIES AND CHILDREN IN THE FERGUSON ROOM

All of the sessions below are free, last approximately 45-60 minutes and tickets are available on the day, 15 minutes before the start time on a first come, first served basis.


Blood, Guts & Gore
12.30 – 1.15pm - FREE

Join former RSC Head of Wigs and Makeup Brenda Leedham as she shows you the tricks of creating bruises, cuts and scars in this demonstration needing willing participants! Suitable for all ages.


Family Workshop – Henry V
1.30 - 2.30pm - FREE

A practical, fun workshop for children and their families to introduce and explore Shakespeare's play Henry V actively together. Suitable for ages 8+


Speaking Shakespeare
2.45 - 3.30pm - FREE

Want to have a go at speaking some of Shakespeare’s speeches? Come along to this fun and lively session that will have you quoting Shakespeare like a pro!


Active Storytelling - Henry V
3.45 - 4.30pm - FREE

Become an actor and tell the story of Shakespeare's Henry V. Everyone gets involved, so be prepared to make music, dress up and join in with the fun. Suitable for 3 – 7 year olds.


SONNET FERRY
12 noon-4pm, pay at the sonnet ferry across from The Dirty Duck pub on the day

Why not sit back and relax to the sounds of Shakespeare's sonnets spoken by RSC actors as you enjoy a trip across the river.

I hate Shakespeare

Not really, but the tradition of producing Macbeth every season is as artistically redundant as cutting and pasting press releases in an attempt to keep the numbers up on a cultural blog. So here's a release about a new national project... 

The Theatre Archive Project (TAP) – a collaboration between De Montfort University (DMU) and the British Library (BL) – brings together a vivid collection of reminiscences about British theatre from 1945 to 1968 and has captured more than 300 interviews in 234 hours of oral history recording.

Led by DMU’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dominic Shellard, and the BL’s head of English and Drama, Jamie Andrews, the project has been running for ten years.

The archive holds interviews with one of the greatest actors of the 20^th century, Laurence Olivier, which were given to the project, as well as Ian Richardson, star of the original BBC series House of Cardswhich has recently been adapted into an award-winning TV series in the US.

To mark the 400^th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in April 2016, the project will now also begin to capture interviews with cast and crew, theatre workers, audience members, scholars and critics who have experiences of Shakespearean productions from 1945 to the present.

This new direction will be unveiled at the TAP’s annual celebration at the BL this week (25 Oct) which is exploring repertory (rep) and ensemble theatre.

[Rep being when a theatre company present different plays every week and ensemble, when a group of theatre artists work together for many years on different pieces.]

Often considered to be older ways of working, these systems have been rejuvenated with The Royal Court Theatre recently reviving the weekly rep method and a number of other theatres across the country reinvigorating the idea of ensemble companies.

Speakers at the BL event this week will be leading UK director Laurence Boswell, actors Laura Elphinstone and Richard Franklin, and DMU’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Dominic Shellard. The event will be chaired by Guardian theatre critic Lyn Gardner.

During the event the panellists will discuss whether these approaches to theatre-making still have a future in the UK theatre scene.

Professor Shellard said: “DMU’s collaboration with the British Library continues to evolve and our new focus on Shakespeare marks an interesting and dynamic new direction for TAP.

“In 2016 the British Library will be unveiling a new Shakespeare exhibition and we hope that some of the oral history that we can gather during the next few years will be able to support its curation.”

Zoë Wilcox, Curator of Modern Literary and Theatrical Manuscripts at the BL, said: “This event at the British Library will use some of the fascinating personal testimonies gathered by the Theatre Archive Project over the last ten years to spark debate about theatre practice today.

“We are looking forward to adding further interviews to our freely accessible online collection in future. If you think you may have a story to tell about Shakespeare in performance, we’d like to hear from you.”

The event will take place at the BL on Friday 25 October, 6:30-8.00pm, followed by a wine reception.