Shakespeare on Love
Friday, February 19, 2010 at 10:32AM
It seems inevitable that a famous historical artists will be remembered for a few of their ‘greatest hits’ while a great majority of their output is all but forgotten. Michaelangelo had the Sistine Chapel and Statue of David, Leonardo Da Vinci had his Mona Lisa, and Leonardo Di Caprio had Titanic. That’s not to say that all three of them didn’t produce many other similarly great works of art that have simply faded from our consciousness.
William Shakespeare wrote thirty seven plays and is perhaps the most famous playwright who ever lived. Of all the lines he wrote, how many can we recite from memory?
To be, or not to be: that is the question. (Hamlet)
Parting is such sweet sorrow. (Romeo and Juliet)
The lady doth protest too much, methinks. (Hamlet)
…and maybe a few others.
Adelaide company Poor Yorick have uncovered scenes from The Bard that you may not have been introduced to yet and combined them with other more familiar Shakespeare moments to present Shakespeare on Love.
Using the premise outlined in Shakespeare’s own words “true lovers run into strange capers,” Poor Yorick shows just how strange those capers can be and proves that the course of true love “never did run smooth.”
The show is set in lovely, fragrant, candlelit garden in Hyde Park, Picnic at Connies’s. The audience are invited to lounge on picnic blankets or “cabaret style” on small tables and chairs.
Shakespeare on Love features two of Adelaide’s most respected performers—US-born, UK-trained State Theatre Company veteran Rob MacPherson, and local dancer and actress Cheryl Bradley. Rob and Cheryl are directed by Tiffany Lyndall-Knight, herself an award-winning Canadian actress and veteran Shakespeare performer.
Rob and Tiffany shared some thoughts about the show with cabaretconfessional.com
Shakespeare on Love seems to be an event more than simply a show. Instead of inside a theatre, you set the performance within a garden and the audience aren’t confined to rows of chairs. Which decision was made first - the venue or the content of the show?
Rob MacPherson: We knew we wanted to do something human-scale and intimate, with variety and some music. As it worked out, the venue and the show kind of found each other.
How have you selected the scenes you will present?
RM: We wanted emotional variety in the content, we wanted to present some of the less obvious love scenes (no Romeo and Juliet for example), and lastly, we wanted to find a “shape” that helped us make sense of the scenes in relation to each other. We ended up with a shape that tells the story of one relationship between a man and a woman from meeting through break-up to possible reconciliation.
Is much known about Shakespeare’s own love life?
RM: Much is speculated about it—homosexual relations, the “dark lady” of the sonnets. The only thing KNOWN with any certainty is that he married the pregnant Ann Hathaway when he was 18 and she 26 (an old maid in those times). A shotgun wedding, perhaps. If the sonnets are any indication, though, his love life was both broad and deep.
Which scene in the show resonates with your own experience the most?
Tiffany Lyndall-Knight (Director): I have always loved the scene between Hotspur and Lady Percy. I think anyone who has been married or in a committed relationship for a certain length of time can appreciate the mixture of intimacy, irritation and humour this couple uses to express their love for each other in a time of crisis.
RM: The beauty of it is we’ve all been in something like each of the scenes. When people talk about Shakespeare’s comprehensive sensibility, this is what they mean.
A production of Shakespeare would traditionally be considered a ‘theatre piece.’ You’ve designated yours as cabaret. What makes your production more cabaret than theatre? How will the differences in how you present the show affect how the audience receives it?
RM: Intimacy, casual seating, alcohol and food, candlelight—all add up to a less formal, more relaxed and “filmic” experience of the piece.
Out of the Shakespeare performances that you have seen, which one stands out as the one that affected you the most?
RM: Without a doubt the late Robert Stephens’ King Lear at the RSC. A close second is the late Ian Charleson’s Hamlet at the National Theatre, played when he knew he was dying of AIDS.
TLK: One of many that stands out is a production of “The Tempest” I saw in Vancouver last year. The clowns, Trinculo and Stephano, a pair of drunkard castaways, were played by women. It was a marvelous way of re-inventing the relationship, not only with the other characters onstage, but also with a modern audience’s perceptions of women.
Rob, you trained at RADA in London. Do you think the study of Shakespeare is treated any differently in the Bard’s homeland than it is abroad?
RM: The actors certainly study it differently there. The text is treated with the kind of reverence and investigative passion you’ve give a secret, sacred code. Like studying music, key is the discovery of musical and rhythmic patterns in the verse to get both the thought and the feeling of the lines. These sound patterns, if your instrument is sensitive enough, actually work on you to create the performance. The lines act you, in short. This at least was my training, and has been passed down in oral tradition from the days of the first professional companies, like some gnostic, apostolic rite.
The other performer in Shakespeare on Love is Cheryl Bradley, who is a professional dancer as well as actor. Does she have the opportunity to use her dancing skills in the show? Are there any other talents or skills that you get to utilise during the show?
RM: Oh yes. There are in a few scenes, some physical work only a dancer or acrobat could do. Cheryl and I have done physical theatre work like this before in the 2006 fringe production of “Lost Babylon.” There are lifts, grapples, carries, and some fisticuffs!
Tiffany, you have performed in many Shakespeare productions internationally and have been seen in a number of sci-fi television shows. Is there a connection to be drawn between Shakespeare and science fiction?
TLK: I think there’s a very strong connection between Shakespeare and sci-fi, in that they are both about powerful story-telling. When sci-fi is done well we watch characters in fantastical situations whom, to our surprise, we find ourselves relating to on a very personal level. The heightened situation puts the humanity of the characters into a sharper focus. The same is true when Shakespeare is performed well.
As director, what have been the challenges of piecing together this show and what discoveries have you made during the process?
TLK: It’s been fun to explore ways to transition between one scene and another with the aim of finding a clear through-line for these disparate characters. The scenes come from very different stories, and we’ve taken a bit of license with the emotional journeys of certain sections. It’s certainly shed light on the motivations of some of the characters, which I would like to explore further in full-length productions down the road.
Pack your picnic rug and head to ‘Picnic at Connies’ to see Poor Yorick present Shakespeare on Love and then come back and share your thoughts on the show in the comments section below!
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Venue: Picnic at Connies
20-26 Feb @ 8.00pm, 6-13 March @ 7.30pm & 9.30pm
Full Price $25/Concession $20/Fringe Benefits members $20/Group $17.50
Book at FringeTIX (1300-FRINGE) or click here.
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Other cabaret shows featured in Adelaide Fringe 2010:
Everybody’s Got Something to Hide (Except for Melissa, Mark and Libby)
Ali McGregor in ‘Jazz Cigarette’
Grocery Girls Gone Wild OR Lock Up Your Porters
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