Some would see it as a brave decision by actor Tracy-Ann Oberman and writer-director Brigid Larmour to relocate The Merchant of Venice to London’s East End during the Battle of Cable in 1936. Shlylock is transformed into a Jewish matriarch, a widow whose losses – both personal and financial – eventually become too great for her. In this swirling production, gangs of Jew-baiting bully boys – rendered here as Bullingdon Club boys – roam the capital’s dark streets spewing their rats lies and looking to cosh easy targets.

The multimedia production allows us to witness not only political thuggery but also seemingly ordinary members of the public in their ill-fated dalliance with the British Union of Fascists, as they march in red armbands flanked by sympathetic police. Antonio, for his part, bestrides the stage in jackbooted swagger as he suavely evades the bond he owes to Shylock.

Overman’s portrayal of Shylock shows us how she has had to fight for survival to keep her family together, despite being slandered as a dog: ‘Since I am a dog, beware my fangs!’.

Shylock is betrayed first by her daughter, Jessica, who runs off with the Christian Lorenzo taking her money and jewellery, and then once again by both Bassanio and the law who use her own lawful bond to exact cunning revenge. Oberman, in a masterfully impressive performance, is at turns the strong and proud matriarch, the cunning businesswoman, and, finally, the defeated mother and Jewess.

A truly shocking moment in the play comes when, succumbing to the court’s sentence, she is ‘christened’ by a throw of a glass of water in her face by a yob. Accused of base usury, she is herself cruelly misused and we see how the law, class and bigotry conspire to rob Shylock of justice from Antonio (a noted performance from Raymond Coulthard).

Other directorial decisions shine fresh light on the play’s troubling anti-Semitism: Lancelot Gobbo becomes Mary Gobbo (Jessica Dennis), an Irish maid who scurrilously delights in mocking her former mistress Shylock behind her back with gross caricatures of her behaviour. The transformation deftly shows how recycled racism is often the result of a desire to be accepted and to not be cast out with the ‘other’.

Oberman visibly winces when then cruellest part of the sentence is handed down to Shylock: agree to convert to Christianity. If this is Christian behaviour, duplicitous, scheming and vengeful, what kind of sanctuary is there for a Jew in such a country and its religion?

The ending, with its battle cries of ‘They shall not pass!’, seems stapled on and unnecessary but at one with the production’s insistence on resisting tyranny.

The Merchant of Venice (1936) is at Home, Manchester from 15 to 25 March 2023. Age guidance 12+

The post The Merchant of Venice (1936) with Tracy-Ann Oberman: Review appeared first on Quays Life.

What excites you about directing Measure for Measure?
Gregory: “It’s always astonishing how Shakespeare seems like a magnet attracting all the iron filings of whatever is going on in the world at the time. Measure for Measure has particular resonance today. Just look at the plot. A young woman appeals to a man in authority to save her brother’s life. He agrees on condition that she sleeps with him. When she threatens to expose him, he asks who would believe her. She turns to the audience and asks: ‘To whom should I complain?’ #METOO!”

I believe you’re setting the production in early Twentieth Century Vienna. What influenced your decision to set it in this period? What do you think that setting will bring to the production?
Gregory: “We generally have little idea of what Vienna meant to Shakespeare, but it has very particular associations for us today. In the first decades of the 20th Century it was the birthplace of psychology as Freud was based there. It was also the centre of an explosion in thought, creativity and art. Just think of the people who were working there: Mahler and Schoenberg, artists like Klimt, Schiele, and Kokoshka, and the advances in architecture, philosophy, and political thought. But it was also the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which would shortly collapse in the First World War along with many of the Royal Houses of Europe. The Sacred and the Profane sit closely together in that city. It had one of the great cathedrals, in St Stephens, but was also notorious for having some of the most successful brothels in Europe.

“Those ingredients closely match the elements of the play Shakespeare describes in the London that he knew. His own theatre sat very close by some of the steps of Southwark. I hope the associations we will invoke in 1900s Vienna might match and illuminate the milieu he conjures in this play”.

Stephen Brimson Lewis, RSC Director of Design, has designed the show. Can you tell us something about how the production will look?
Gregory: “The script reads like a film script. It’s very fast and has the pace of a thriller. It also feels like film noir, and we have tried to ensure that any set we have only enhances that sense, and does not hold up the action. Stephen has brilliantly captured both a sense of the essence of Vienna, and the swift change of location, in our new excitingly reconfigured Royal Shakespeare Theatre auditorium”.

You’ve worked with Stephen on many productions. Can you tell us something about your working relationship?
Gregory: “It’s always exciting to work with someone you know very well and can trust. We have a shorthand which allows us to cut through quickly to what is essential. And we have complementary tastes I think. He always surprises me, and yet seems to fulfill exactly what I am looking for”.

Measure for Measure is often described as one of Shakespeare’s “problem plays.” What are the challenges of directing this particular play in the 21st Century?
Gregory: “The play has been called Shakespeare’s farewell to Comedy. It is certainly the darkest of the comedies. He wrote it shortly after writing Troilus and Cressida, which I directed last autumn. It doesn’t reach quite the rancid depths of that play, but it certainly probes about in some pretty murky ponds. But I think that makes the play very contemporary. The Jacobean period was a time of uncertainty. The world seemed to have lost its moorings. Moral absolutes were being questioned. I think we recognise that today. We are suspicious of neat happy endings. Life is not like that, and Shakespeare here seems to feel the same”.

If people have seen previous productions of the play, how would you entice them to come and see this one?
Gregory: “We have an exceptional cast: including Antony Byrne as the Duke, Lucy Phelps as Isabella, Sandy Grierson as Angelo, Joseph Arkley as Lucio and James Cooney as Claudio, as well (as a complete bonus) both Amanda Harris and Clare Price delivering smaller roles. That is the joy of the ensemble. And they are all match fit having performed the first two plays in the summer season. I am very excited about the production and the play”.

What do you think Lucy Phelps, Antony Byrne and Sandy Grierson will bring to the key roles of Isabella, The Duke and Angelo?
Gregory: “Their own peculiar genius”.

You must have directed nearly all of the Shakespearean canon. Which of Shakespeare’s works have you left to tackle? Is it your ambition to direct all of them?
Gregory: “Measure for Measure is our 27th production as we journey through the entire canon, since I took over as Artistic Director, and I think it is also the 28th Shakespeare play I have directed for the company. So, I am just over 3/4 of the way through. Alfred J Prufrock, in T.S.Eliot’s poem, measured out his life in coffee spoons, I guess I have measured out mine in Shakespeare plays. I have been very lucky. It would be a shame not to finish”.

The Royal Shakespeare Company is touring to The Lowry, Salford from 25 September to 5 October 2019.

Justin Audibert shares the idea behind his gender swapping ‘The Taming of the Shrew’.

The post RSC Artistic Director, Gregory Doran talks about directing Measure for Measure appeared first on Quays Life.

Here director, Justin Audibert keeps all the silliness and mischief that has made it a favourite with audiences and flipped the genders so that the shrew is now an obstinate man who eventually conforms to make the perfect husband to his loud and powerful wife.

In keeping with the Italian language here Petruchio is renamed Petruchia, played by a wild-haired, swaggering, scene-stealing, Claire Price. But while pronouns are changed, Joseph Arkley is still called Katherine and his more genteel and sought-after sibling Bianca is now his brother, Bianco. It sounds confusing but the switch is easy to follow. Basically, Audibert has kept the play in its original 1590s setting and reimagined it as a matriarchy where it is men who face the social restrictions and are presented by their mothers to rich suitors as marriage material.

This fantasy world works because we’re in a comedy, where Katherine’s petulant eating of chicken legs and discarding the bones on the floor is as difficult as he gets. There is always a risk with a physical imbalance that Katherine’s disobedience comes across as aggression. But it is best not to overthink it. The idea of taming a man is no better than taming a woman, but as a concept the switch is thought-provoking, not least in seeing so many strong female actors on a Shakespearean stage.

The huge Elizabethan dresses are sumptuous, and the performances are very funny. Emily Johnstone brings a cheeky bawdiness to Lucentia; Laura Elsworthy adds a Monty Pythonesque zaniness to Trania, while Sophie Stanton mixes excellent comic timing with skilled physical humour as her Gremia seemingly floats across the stage like a wind-up toy.

The action is accompanied by a live soundtrack from a 7-piece band, raised on a platform on the stage, and their music elevates the common Shakespearean songs to genuinely beautiful interludes.

In all, it is a funny, entertaining evening that doesn’t take itself too seriously and neither should we.

The Royal Shakespeare Company is touring to The Lowry, Salford from 25 September to 5 October 2019.

Justin Audibert shares the idea behind his gender swapping ‘The Taming of the Shrew’.

The post RSC The Taming of the Shrew: Review appeared first on Quays Life.

In your production key characters are re-imagined and played as the opposite binary gender, with no ambivalence and not ‘gender blind’. Is that right?

Justin: “Yes, so for example, the role of Petruchio, which we have renamed Petruchia, is being played by Claire Price as a woman in a woman’s costume but with the same character motivations and social status as Petruchio in any other production. Likewise, Katherine is being played by a male actor, Joseph Arkley, and he’s playing it as a man, and will be wearing a man’s costume, but will have the same social restrictions that a woman in 1590s England would have had. The actors are playing their own gender but we have flipped which gender holds power”.

How did you come up with this idea?

Justin: “I was very inspired by the novel, The Power by Naomi Alderman. It’s set in a version of contemporary society, where women have the power to give electric shocks to men and bit by bit they become the dominant gender. By holding up this mirror to our contemporary society it forces you to confront how power is wielded in our world and who wields it.

“Shrew is Shakespeare’s second most performed play, which is incredible given its strongly anti-egalitarian ending in a traditional production, and that the title itself suggests that a woman is a ‘shrew’ and needs ‘taming’. At the moment there is an important conversation about gender and power and where that lies, and whenever you make any play or work of art of any kind, you’re always influenced by what’s going on around you. I don’t want to make another Shrew in the way it’s been done many times before. I am really interested in seeing what happens when you get female actors to play traditionally powerful male roles, and vice versa. During rehearsals it’s been fascinating to see how things feel when, for example, a mother sells off her two sons, as opposed to in the traditional retelling when a father sells off his two daughters. We are somehow not shocked by the traditional version but when we see a mother selling her sons off that feels transgressive.

“There have been many times when I’ve sat in a rehearsal room rehearsing Shakespeare or another classical text, and the weight of the room has been so male in its nature. It’s not that there aren’t brilliant roles in Shakespeare for women, but you still end up in a room that’s 60 – 70% male. I wanted to see what it would feel like when you flip that on its head, where the male voice is not the dominant one. I say this knowing that I’m the director, and I’m a man and I wield considerable power in that role, but still the weight of the room feels different, in a brilliant and creative way”.

Can you tell us more about the setting for the production?

Justin: “I’m setting it in a reimagined 1590 in which England is a matriarchy. In the rehearsal room we’ve been exploring the different ways that women in a matriarchy would assert power.

“In Elizabethan England and Renaissance Europe more widely, eye contact was a huge thing. Women weren’t supposed to look you directly in the eye – but in the world we’re creating in the play the female actors are looking people directly in the eyes in a very bold way, and the male actors are not.
“Similarly, we’ve looked very carefully at how characters greet each other, how the women take the men’s hands, and kiss them and how that reads to a contemporary eye.

“Another thing we are exploring is how in most of Shakespeare’s plays, female virginity is prized above anything else, but it’s fascinating to see how that feels when it effectively becomes male virginity that is prized”.

There are those who say what you’re doing with Shrew is thought-provoking, others would say it’s gimmicky? Do you have any sympathy with the idea that this is a gimmick?

Justin: “I understand why someone might think that, but I’d like to think that we as a company of 19 are going about this with a sense of intellectual curiosity and artistic enquiry. I think you have to come and see the show to make up your own mind. The fact that if you come the vast majority of the lines are going to be spoken by women in those iconic roles means the play is going to feel different to every other time you may have seen it.

“The late, great and much missed Cicely Berry from the RSC Voice Department has always been my guiding light. She said you have to make the play talk to now – and that’s what we are trying to do with this production”.

Can you tell us more about the set, music and costumes?

Justin: “The setting has a strong feel of the Mediterranean about it, with a colour palette that is warm, vibrant and with a sense of fun and mischief.

“The costumes will certainly give a sense of the 1590 period. The costumes worn by the female actors will be beautiful, imposing, expensive and involve lots of material. They will dominate the space. The costumes the male actors wear will be much more delicate even subtle.

“There will be a strong baroque feel to the music, fitting the 1590 setting. As the play goes on the music will change and become louder, more electric. I want strings with a big beat behind them, sort of like the Eurythmics, so the music will progressively have a strong 80s feel to it. We are calling it Rock Renaissance in the rehearsal room”.

What do you think Shakespeare himself would think of what you’re doing with the play?

Justin: “I’m going to imagine he’s in literary heaven, and he’s seeing what’s happened on earth for the last 400 years. I think he’d probably be quite up for it. He’s a person of the theatre, someone who was into experimenting. His plays were never done the same way twice: he would change things, take things away, add things. I think he’d probably applaud the endeavour of trying to do something original with his play and then ultimately he’d judge us all on whether the production is any good or not!”

The Royal Shakespeare Company is touring to The Lowry, Salford from 25 September to 5 October 2019.

The post Justin Audibert shares the idea behind his gender swapping ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ appeared first on Quays Life.

Why did the puppet need to be so big?

Stephen: “Shakespeare’s As You Like It ends with a great marriage ceremony. He asks for the God of Marriage to appear on stage and bless the couples. In other productions an actor might change costume and come back dressed as a god. But Kimberley Sykes (the director) and I wanted to make something bigger, to create a moment at the end that felt very different to the rest of the play.

“We looked at things like the Burning Man Festival in Nevada, where they do these huge events with big puppets – and then a little closer to home, Mervyn and I both remembered the Sultan’s Elephant, which was a huge marionette that went through London in 2006”.

Mervyn: “At Burning Man they have some things that are extraordinary pieces of engineering, made with artistic sensibility – so we knew the opportunity was there to make a piece of sculpture on a massive scale that was also able to move dramatically”.

What were the initial steps in creating Hymen?

Stephen: “The first step in the design process was to research the traditional image of Hymen – surprisingly Hymen turns out to be male, but we decided to make him in to something slightly more androgynous.

“I’ve certainly never designed a huge puppet on this scale. That takes a very particular skill so we got in touch with Mervyn Millar and his company Significant Object, and asked for his help. I’m delighted he came on board”.

Mervyn: “Stephen and Kimberley already had a strong concept when they came to me. They showed me some drawings and asked if what they wanted to create could be done, and whether I could help.

“We did some more drawings, and then we had to work out how we could realise that on stage. We had to work out how the actors would operate it, whilst ensuring it could work reliably for over a year’s worth of performances”.

How did the design process develop?

Stephen: “We had a computer scan of him created, and a full-size polystyrene head, from which we then cast the materials that created the real head. It’s made from a very simple, almost hat-like material called variform, which you can heat and mould and bend over objects. We also had to make the ‘skin’ and the ‘bones’, and the skeleton had to be a metal structure to ensure it was durable. Alongside that we also had a ‘muscle’ layer which was all made in wood”.

Mervyn: “We created smaller versions of Hymen and did some work on the computer, but it’s not until you get the final object in the room, when you can handle it, that you can really begin to understand how the joints are going to move and what kind of adjustment it will need. So there was a lot of experimenting and testing the joints”.

Creating a puppet on this scale must require a lot of people. Can you tell us about who else was involved?

Stephen: “I don’t think we’ve ever built anything quite like it here at the RSC, so with Mervyn’s expert advice and skill we pulled together a team from our Scenic Workshops, who make all our sets and props. Quite early on we learnt we needed carpentry, prop making and scenic painting skills, people who could work with a range of materials, particularly people who worked with metal to advise us on what the joints would be like. It was a wonderfully collaborative process”.

Mervyn: “The RSC has an amazing group of skilled people: brilliant carpenters, painters and metalworkers who’ve got loads of experience, and a technical design team who are willing to take on anything. I have to say the experience was really pleasurable, and the attitude of the staff fantastic.

“One of the reasons I love puppetry is because it brings all the different technologies of the theatre together into one space. It’s got movement, it’s got performance, it’s got design. And it’s always satisfying when everyone’s skills coalesce into this dynamic theatre object”.

When was Hymen integrated into rehearsals?

Mervyn: “Because this puppet is so big, all of the testing of the mechanics had to happen in the workshops. With a smaller puppet, you might make a prototype, send it into the rehearsal rooms and then bring it back onto the workbench and fiddle a bit more. That just wasn’t possible on this project”.

Stephen: “I was keen to try and introduce the puppet into rehearsals as soon as possible, but it became increasingly clear we couldn’t. Our rehearsal rooms in London aren’t big enough or high enough to get him in. We managed to get him ready for the last week of rehearsals when we had moved up to Stratford.

“Before that, the actors had spent weeks and weeks with broomsticks, baskets on sticks and lots of sellotape over things so they could get a sense of how big the puppet was going to be. I’m guessing few quite guessed the scale until we introduced him on their first day in Stratford!”

How are you hoping the audience will react to Hymen?

Mervyn: “It’s a huge figure. It may be made of steel, aluminium, wood, mesh, tissue paper, moss, leaves and all sorts of strange things, but you want the audience to believe in it. When he’s on stage he breathes, looks around the auditorium, and his arms reach out into the space. The audience knows it’s a puppet, but I hope they forget that, and believe the character has come to life”.

Stephen: “I’m hoping audiences will feel the enjoyment, and, if you like, the playfulness of this character, and enjoy that wonderful suspension of disbelief that you can get with puppets – even though we all know they’re inanimate objects!

“It happens in Peter Pan doesn’t it? You know, there’s that wonderful moment where they address the audience and say, “Does anyone believe in fairies?” and anyone will cheer and scream, however cynical they are, however many times they’ve been to the theatre. I certainly got it when I went to watched War Horse. To just experience what is really a few canes and bits of fabric, you utterly believe it’s a living breathing horse. It was great to discover that Mervyn had been a part of that journey too – to work on those puppets, and so then I knew that we were already onto a winner with Hymen.

“There’s just something rather wonderful when the audience buys into it, and they want to believe it’s come alive, and I think for me, that’s the essence of theatre”.

The Royal Shakespeare Company is touring to The Lowry, Salford from 25 September to 5 October 2019.

Read our interview with As You Like It director, Kimberley Sykes.

The post Making Hymen, the God of Marriage, for the RSC’s As You Like It appeared first on Quays Life.

What has influenced your thinking around the production?

Kimberley: “I think a big thing which has influenced my thinking on the production has been about what a forest is and what it represents. I did a lot of reading into the way forests function and the societal behaviour of trees. I was quite determined not to have any trees on stage, mainly because everybody kept asking me how are you going to do the trees?

“But actually, when you look into trees and their behaviour, they’re extraordinary. There’s a network of roots in a forest, so all the trees are connected to each other. If one tree is struggling then other trees who have enough, will send nutrients to try and save that other tree through the root system, regardless of species. They believe – it sounds ridiculous! – the success of the forest depends on the success of every single tree within that forest. I took that as a metaphor for society, and what Shakespeare is asking us to think about as audience members watching this play, especially right now in a time of increased borders and a rise of – you could say – nationalism, and concern with ourselves.

“In the play there’s a marked difference between the restrictive world of the court and the forest. In our version of the play the audience will represent the trees. When the play reaches the forest scenes, the actors will be able to see the audience, whereas they didn’t have access to them during the court scenes. The forest world is a world where we can interact and communicate with each other”.

You have said this production was all about putting the ‘you’ in As You Like It – can you tell us a bit about what you mean by that and how will this be reflected in the staging?

Kimberley: “I think putting the ‘You’ in As You Like It is something that Shakespeare has done with this play – he’s constantly playing with the relationship between the actors and the audience, and lots of the characters in the play go between being characters, being spectators, being actors – he’s referring to the act of theatre constantly – “All the world’s a stage”. And so I think Shakespeare is asking us as theatre-makers to reconsider our relationship to the audience, making the audience feel that their presence in the theatre matters, that it changes what we’re doing. And they can be directly involved with what’s happening on the stage – so we’re really embracing that with the production.

“I think it’s also reflected in the actors that are part of this show, and the other two plays that are part of the same season. We want the acting company to reflect the nation in all its diversity. This play was written at a time when society was becoming more diverse, and the play itself is about celebrating and embracing difference”.

What are your current thoughts on the style of the production? Can you give us any early insights into the process?

Kimberley: ” I’m not setting the play in a particular time or place. It doesn’t feel like a play which needs a certain period setting. And I’m very aware as a director of not choosing a setting which restricts the play, and that only tells one aspect of the play so I always look for the approach and the framework that allows all of the play to live.
In many ways the play is a massive exploration of theatre itself. So there will be elements of panto, live music, stand-up comedy on stage. And there will be audience interaction, political debate and improvisation.

“Although everyone will look and feel very modern, we’ll be using a real mingle-mangle of costumes from different productions, and will be playing with different genres, different times, different periods. It’s going to be a real mish-mash that celebrates the art of theatre making”.

Would you say As You Like It is as much about ‘finding yourself’ as ‘getting lost’?

Kimberley: “I think sometimes you have to lose yourself to find yourself. But Shakespeare isn’t asking us to get lost in order to just get lost – that would be pointless. He’s asking us to break down some of our barriers and to think outside of the boxes that we’ve put ourselves in, or that society has put us in. And he puts the responsibility on the human being to do that for one’s self. I think the play is about the potential for change in humanity, and for us to be able to change the world we must first change ourselves and embrace other sides of ourselves”.

We understand that this production features one of the most ambitious props and set elements ever created by the RSC’s production teams. Can you explain a little bit about where the idea for ‘Hymen’ came about?

Kimberley: ” Hymen is the god of marriage, which will be represented by a very large prop/puppet We have to believe in this God and yet, God is not a tangible thing. God is a leap of imagination, so how do we get 1000 audience members to take that leap in their imaginations and believe in this God? All of the actors will be involved in the scene in which Hymen appears – it will be a communal act, to give the sense of coming together and believing in a God or in something bigger than ourselves”.

The role of Rosalind has been described as ‘the female Hamlet’ and is credited with more lines than any other female Shakespearean character. Was this something that attracted you to the play?

Kimberley: “Yes absolutely! I was attracted to a woman who is working out who she is as the play unfolds. I think sometimes with Shakespeare’s women, it feels like they already know who they are. Or that their internal life isn’t really the thing that Shakespeare is exploring in the play. With Rosalind it’s completely different. She changes her mind all the time, and she changes her mind with us, with the audience.

“She talks about this magician, this uncle magician, who she’s conversed with since the age of 3, and Lucy Phelps, who is playing the role, and I have talked a lot about who on earth this magician is. We feel that this magician is inside of all of us, representing the potential for change and to be different people. The play is really all about Rosalind having a conversation with herself to find a way to contentment, and that’s not easy. Sometimes you have to crawl through the dirt to get to the diamond”.

Many well known actors have played Rosalind for the RSC, including Peggy Aschroft, Vanessa Redgrave, Eileen Atkins, Juliet Stevenson, and more recently, Katy Stephens and Pippa Nixon. What do you think Lucy Phelps will bring to the role?

Kimberley: “Ah, Lucy Phelps! I think Lucy is relentlessly intelligent and rigorous in what she as an actress and as a woman wants from the world, and she does all of that with generosity and with the most infectious spirit. I think you have to have both of those things to play Rosalind. And that’s something that she has very, very naturally.

“Lucy’s never satisfied as an artist. She’s always digging, she’s always chipping away. But if you chip, chip, chip away in rehearsal, and then walk on stage and you’ve stopped chipping because you’ve decided what it is, then you’ve lost Rosalind – whereas Lucy has the bravery as an actress, to keep discovering… to keep searching…”

What do you hope audiences will take away from this production?

Kimberley: “I would like for the audience to take away a new relationship with their own ‘magician’. To feel able to explore the possibility and potential of change, especially right now, with all of the uncertainty in this country and Europe and the rest of the world. To feel that change is possible, and that change can come from working together, learning from each other and from being more honest. Being brave enough to jump off the cliff into the unknown”.

If you were given the chance to escape to the forest, what three things would you take with you?

Kimberley: “My dog, Plato.
“My husband.
“And a really good walking stick!”

The Royal Shakespeare Company is touring to The Lowry, Salford from 25 September to 5 October 2019.

The post Director Kimberley Sykes is putting the ‘You’ in As You Like It appeared first on Quays Life.

Macbeth is Shakespeare’s most intense and terrifying tragedy, dramatising the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. However, in this production, the direction from Christopher Haydon, seems to transform it into a comedy. At one point I wondered whether Christmas has arrived early and I had just entered Pantomime season.

The start of this production seemed promising, with the witches emerging from modern battle-gear to deliver their ‘when shall we three meet again’ speech. The use of strobe lighting and modern dancing cleverly modernised these three weird sisters. Lead witch, Bryony Davies, is my stand out performer of this production, with her clear diction.

Unfortunately the production didn’t live up to this opening high. I am no Shakespeare snob, but, for me, the true beauty of any of his plays are in his words, and in Macbeth there are so many beautiful and famous speeches. The excellent Paul Hickey, as Macduff, excepted, I felt actors rushed lines or failed to project their voices to the extent that little of that wonderful dialogue was clearly conveyed. Ellinson’s delivery of Macbeth was simply not strong enough for me. I felt no chemistry between the two leads. Lady Macbeth is supposed to be one of Shakespeare’s most frightening female characters, but this was far from the character I saw on stage on opening night.

Hannah Sand, Assistant Director, writes in the programme about the chaos in Macbeth. This production was certainly chaotic, perhaps best exemplified when Banquo’s ghost appears. From the beginning, Banquo is seen as Macbeth’s closest friend. However, their friendship is challenged after an encounter with the weird sisters, where the witches promise kingship to Macbeth, and Banquo’s descendants are promised to sit on the throne. In Macbeth’s selfishness, he murders Banquo, receiving word during a banquet that Banquo has been murdered. Shortly after receiving the news, Macbeth imagines he sees the bloody corpse sitting on an empty stool at the banquet.

This is such a significant event in the play, where guilt has overcome Macbeth, and the imagined ghost of his murdered friend haunts him. Although every murder is meant to benefit him in some way (by bringing him the crown, greater security, or peace of mind), ironically every murder simply makes his life full of more unhappiness, insecurity, and torment. In this production, this crucial and dramatic moment is portrayed as a farce. The banquet is reminiscent of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party from Alice in Wonderland, and what is supposed to be a frightening ghost, sees Banquo dressed in a teddy bear costume. He removes the bear head and stands on the table centre-stage – a furry, Yeti-like creature towering above Macbeth.

I love the Royal Exchange Theatre. I have seen hundreds of productions there over the past 30 years, but this is the worst I have ever seen. This was a mockery of Shakespeare. Thank goodness there were two shining lights in the chaotic quagmire of a production in the form of Bryony Davies and Paul Hickey. A truly disappointing evening.

Macbeth is at The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester from 13 September to 19 October 2019.

The post Macbeth at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre: Review appeared first on Quays Life.

He talks to Quays Life about his dance interpretation of Shakespeare’s timeless romantic tragedy.

Shakespeare’s classic tale of star cross’d lovers has inspired the creative community for generations. The tragic and passionate love story set against the conflict of two divided families has spawned countless plays, musicals, operas and songs.

For choreographer Matthew Bourne his interpretation in dance was inspired as much by who he would work with on the ballet as the original narrative. “I avoided doing it for years as I think it was something everyone expected me to do and it had been done in so many different ways in so many different mediums,” he explains. “I thought it would be hard to find a new way into it which is something I always search for.

“The thing that really made me want to do it was the opportunity to work with young people. It is a story about them and young love. I got even more excited when it was suggested we cast it with young people and work with young creative associates in all the different departments of the show alongside my usual world-class team. It is all about nurturing them and telling the story.”

The strong themes that run through Shakespeare’s famous plot make it a natural fit for choreographic expression. “Dance is very good at extreme emotions, and Romeo and Juliet as a story is certainly full of those,” says Matthew. “It has passion, love against the odds, and several extremes of murder and violence. It is all those big emotions. Shakespeare captured it very well. Young people are very hot-headed and react very quickly to things.

“One thing I have tried to bring out is that when young people first fall in love and feel that passion, they really go overboard in many ways. I often think about how classical ballet handles this and how the young girl gets very excited by a kiss on the cheek. Young people today, if they are into each other, are kissing until their mouths are sore. I have tried to capture that intensity.

“It is also set a little way into the future, but it is not futuristic. It is a time when society is frowning on young people having an excess of feeling and emotion which sends them off on the wrong tracks as far as society is concerned. I got the idea from Arthur Laurents, the co-creator of West Side Story, who was asked why the young people in it are violent and act the way they do? He said they have too much feeling and they need to find a way to release it. I thought that was an interesting way into the story and very true. It made me go in the direction I went in.”

One of the UK’s best-known directors and choreographers, Matthew has been creating dance for over 30 years for musicals, theatre and film as well as his own New Adventures company which boasts a list of hugely successful productions including the iconic Swan Lake, Edward Scissorhands, Red Shoes and Play Without Words.

For Romeo and Juliet, Matthew has once again gathered his trusted creative team around him including associate artistic director, Etta Murfitt, set and costume designer, Lez Brotherston and lighting designer, Paule Constable to add their skill, knowledge and talent to the production to both cushion and push him as he brings his interpretation of the Bard’s work to life. Matthew says: “They know me well enough to question me on what we are doing, whether it works, and they will suggest things too. Sometimes a new creative team are a bit nervous about coming forward with their suggestions when they are working with someone like me who has been in the business for a long time. It is nice to work with a team who don’t have a problem with that.”

Part of the team is the composer, Terry Davies, another long-term collaborator of Matthew’s who had the job of adapting Prokofiev’s music for this production. “We nervously went to the Prokofiev Estate and asked them if we could do a new arrangement,” says Matthew. “While it is wonderful and big and lush for big opera-house productions and suits that style of production, I wanted something a bit more earthy and a bit more quirky. It would be very faithful to it and it is only 15 musicians who multi-task and play lots of different instruments. It is quite rare for us to take an orchestra out on tour with us. It is sounding wonderful and I hope the Prokofiev Estate are happy. It is a very recognisable score and that is really the script that we work with.”

Featuring and engaging with young people is as key to this production as the warring Montagues and Capulets. At each venue, six fast-emerging dancers (three male and three female) will perform on stage alongside the professional company. After a series of auditions around the country, this highly-talented half-dozen were chosen to be part of a world premiere tour surrounded by the professional company. “They are an integral part of the show. They are not token appearances. They’re part of the main company,” he said.

In addition, a team of young associates have been appointed to work within each creative arm of the project including lighting, sound, orchestration and costume. It is happening with the choreography too, with Matthew being joined by Arielle Smith. “She is wonderful. Not     only is she a great up and coming talent but I get on with her very well.  We have a laugh. With such an enormous age difference between us of around 30 years, she is like a mate and she is incredibly mature for her years in terms of the way she has handled the whole process and there is a lot of her and her work in it. She is not standing by my side watching me work. She is taking rehearsals, creating movement for the show and she has been great. I hear from the other creatives that they are enjoying working with their associates as well. We have all been getting together and thriving with this opportunity,” he said.

It is a similar model to the Lord of the Flies tour where Matthew and his team gave the opportunity for young men who were interested in dance to be part of the professional production alongside his New Adventures company of professional performers which has generated its own success stories. Three of the young Lord of the Flies were cast for Romeo and Juliet, while others are part of his Swan Lake 2019 company. “They have gone through several programmes that we have to nurture young British-trained dancers. We are very proud of those young guys and we hope that this time we will bring some women into the fray that we have nurtured so there will be even more people who started in Lord of the Flies or Romeo and Juliet that will hopefully come back into the company,” said Matthew.

And with four major productions this year plus a Special Award at the Olivier’s for services to dance, 2019 is proving to be quite a year for Matthew. “It has been amazing,” he says. “Swan Lake coming back is always a thrill because it does introduce so many more people to dance and to our company. It always has an incredible effect on audiences around the country and our casts are so devoted to it.

“In the middle of all that, getting the Olivier Special Award right in the middle of creating a new show was rather good because the award can feel a bit like it is the end of your career and people are saying ‘Thank you, Please Stop.’ It felt great to be in the middle of a new creation like Romeo and Juliet. It was about the past and about the future at the same time.”

And for Matthew and all his team, their passion and excitement for Romeo and Juliet is every bit as strong as that which binds Shakespeare’s young characters at the heart of this explosive production. He adds: “What started out as being quite a scary project involving so much untested talent and young people that I didn’t know very well has ended up being rather an exciting new show.”

For full tour details visit new-adventures.net

Read our review of Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet at The Lowry.

Matthew Bourne talks about his iconic interpretation of Swan Lake.

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With a simple, yet effective design by Lis Evans, the company makes full use of the stage, filling it with props, costumes and lively musical direction by Rebekah Hughes, until it overflows with a WW2-atmosphere and much needed comedy.

The comedy and tragedy of the play is starkly contrasted by some superb performances, fully embracing the darkness and light of Shakespeare’s text.

Robin Simpson’s RAF officer, Benedict is wonderful, with a fine line in double takes. First emerging as an arrogant, self-loving marriage hater, through the play revels his true self to be loyal, fearless and concealing his love for Beatrix.

Isobel Middleton provides the formidable, intelligent, spirited Women’s Land Girl, Beatrix, a true match for Benedict. The scenes where their friends and family employ clever deception to make them admit their long-concealed love for each other are hilarious, and beautifully staged. 

Vampire-like, Don John’s wicked plan to destroy the young love between Hero and Claudio brings darkness, treachery and deceit to the play. Who would think that the Dad’s Army-like night watch will come to the rescue with their heroic band of misfits!

David Nellist’s Dogberry, leader of the night watch, brings to mind an equally self-important, Captain Mannering, with his hilarious mangled language, and baffling pronouncements.

The whole cast collaborate to deliver a production that embodies the spirit of Shakespeare in this, Conrad Nelson’s joyous swansong production for Northern Broadsides.  With many playing instruments, dancing, singing as well as embracing their characters, they bring to mind a merry band of players. 

The clarity of the production is striking – the words of the Bard shine, with the cast clearly conveying the wit and beauty of his language in their delivery. 

I watched the show with my mum (a retired English teacher and expert in all things Shakespeare). We both saw the RSC’s 2014 excellent production and agree this production is better! 

This fantastic production is truly Shakespeare for all – making his work accessible for young and old alike.

Northern Broadside’s Much Ado About Nothing is at The Lowry from 7– 11 May 2019.

Read our interview with Only Fools and Horses’ actor, Gwyneth Strong about going on the road as Mrs Boyle in the latest UK tour of Agatha Christie’s legendary whodunnit, The Mousetrap coming to The Lowry.

The post Much Ado About Nothing Northern Broadsides Theatre Review appeared first on Quays Life.

This doesn’t just feel like the aftermath of a bloody civil war, but the end of the earth as we know it.

Rae Smith’s set design creates a dark and brutal world, where even the trees have mutated into steel pole trunks with withered rags for leaves. The effect captures something between a Gothic sci-fi movie and a nihilistic video game –  the audience, made up largely of teenagers, go wild for it.

If director, Rufus Norris wanted to capture Shakespeare for a new generation it seems he has done it. Being a GCSE set-text always helps to get bums on seats, but it does nothing to keep a young audience quiet, no matter how many notices you put on the door stating no confectionary is to be consumed during the show. Here for the most part they are silent and transfixed.

We hear laddish excitement when Macbeth leans towards Lady Macbeth for a passionate embrace, and I marvel how the actors keep straight faces. Thankfully, there is more killing than kissing and the gamer generation quickly settle down. It’s clear the gruesome action that follows has them hooked.

While this production may not be one for purists, it is a visually stunning retelling that puts violence and power at the core. And although the witches’ scenes are cut back, their presence is memorable – darting up and down poles and conjuring supernatural beings with doll-face horror masks.

Scottish actor, Michael Nardone, makes a strong and believable Macbeth. We first meet him, decapitating a man with a machete before holding up and bagging his bloody, severed head. We don’t believe he needs much coaxing into evil deeds by Lady Macbeth. Kirsty Besterman’s performance captures Lady Macbeth’s frailty from the start. She’s propelled forward by Macbeth’s prophetic fortune but there is a sense she doesn’t really know what evil she’s opened-up until her hands are plunged into Duncan’s sticky blood.

The futility of it all weighs heavy even before we get to Macbeth’s ‘brief candle’ soliloquy. On taking the crown Macbeth still lives in a dirty prefab with bare walls. He holds his armour together with packing tape and serves wine to guests out of old plastic catering bottles. The murders and zombie hauntings seem a whole lot of bother for what appears to be a red suit and sequinned dress.

Still, as we all know, there is a lot more blood to be spilled before the final curtain. If Shakespeare’s language made this descent into hellishness seem poetic, this production assures us it is not.

★ ★ ★ ★

Macbeth is at The Lowry, Salford Quays from  29 September – 6 October 2018. Visit the National Theatre website for full details of the tour.

Read our interview with National Theatre Artistic Director, Rufus Norris about the show.

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