At last! A magazine with all the Will in the world
SHAKESPEARE Ֆ
Celebrating 450 years of the English language’s greatest-ever wordsmith Ֆ
Launch issue
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Welcome
Welcome
to the first issue of Shakespeare Magazine
Photo: David Hammonds
Back in my teenage years, I was a bit of a Shakespeare fan. Doing an English degree at Oxford, however, was enough to firmly put me off literature for more than two decades. But I could never quite shake off my fascination for Shakespeare, and last year I found myself attempting for the first time to read the Complete Works.
It was a defining, exhilarating, life-changing experience, one which also felt like a personal achievement – similar, I’d imagine, to climbing a mountain or running your first marathon. As a journalist, I instinctively looked for a magazine to enhance my rekindled love of the Bard. And I was stunned to discover that there wasn’t one. So 12 months later, here I am with the very first issue of Shakespeare Magazine, built from scratch by myself and Art Editor Paul McIntyre, along with a team of contributors who have been amazingly generous with their time and talent. Shakespeare Magazine is free to absolutely anyone in the world – although it would certainly help if you understand English, have internet access and are interested in Shakespeare. I’m thrilled to be launching Shakespeare Magazine in the week we celebrate 450 years since the birth of the man himself. It’s yet another testament to the enduring power and magic of his words. I hasten to add that I’m absolutely not a Shakespeare expert or any kind of authority. I’m just a humble journalist embarking on a journey with Shakespeare. And you’re very warmly invited to join me. Enjoy your magazine.
Pat Reid, Founder & Editor SHAKESPEARE magazine
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At last! A magazine with all the Will in the world
SHAKESPEARE Ֆ Celebrating 450 years of the English language’s greatest-ever wordsmith Ֆ
Launch issue
Shakespeare Magazine Issue One 23 April 2014
Contents
Founder & Editor Pat Reid Art Editor Paul McIntyre Advertising Manager Helen Forsyth Writers Robin Askew Zoe Bramley Andrew Bretz Koel Chatterjee Emma Gutteridge Lisa Houston Naomi Lord Kate Madison Samantha Mann Helen Mears Tom Phillips Brooke Thomas Daniela Verdejo
Game of crowns
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How Hollow Crown Fans made Shakespeare a Twitter phenomenon.
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Photography David Hammonds Gavin Roberts Ceramic Art Hannah Tribe Cover Engraving by Martin Droeshout, 1623 Thank You Richard Forsyth Guy Radcliffe Laura Pachkowski Mrs Mary Reid Thomas Xavier Reid Contact Us shakespearemag@outlook.com Twitter @UKShakespeare Coming Soon www.shakespearemagazine.com
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Shakespeare news
What’s shaking in the world of Shakespeare.
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Exclusive 6 competition 19 This unique and beautiful handcrafted Shakespeare swan is up for grabs.
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Contents
Once upon a time Slaughtering Beyond the in the west 20 Shakespeare 28 bloodbath 32 How Bristol became a hotbed of &EVH VIPEXIH EGXMZMX]
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Bollywood shakes!
The century-long romance of -RHME´W QSZMI MRHYWXV] ERH William Shakespeare.
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Jessica Lange, Anthony Hopkins and the most shocking Shakespeare ½PQ IZIV QEHI
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All in a day’s work at Shakespeare’s Globe.
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“All the world’s a stage / And all the men and women merely players�
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Oh, Verona!
The Arena di Verona Opera Festival: clearly the place to be for opera buffs with a taste for Shakespeare.
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unning from 20 June to 7 September, the Festival’s highlights include productions of Carmen, Turandot and 1EHEQE &YXXIVž] JVSQ *VERGS >IJ½VIPPM HMVIGXSV SJ XLI PIKIRHEV] ½PQ SJ Romeo and Juliet 7TIEOMRK SJ [LMGL SR ERH %YKYWX ERH 7ITXIQFIV 'LEVPIW +SYRSH´W STIVE RomÊo et Juliette is staged, with XLI MQQSVXEP :IVSRIWI PSZIVW TSVXVE]IH F] 0ERE /SW ERH :MXXSVMS +VMKSPS Tickets from www.arena.it or email biglietteria@arenadiverona.it
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Strike a Pose Bolton school's stylish R&J is inspired by Madonna's 'Vogue'.
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ast month, Bolton School staged E JSYV HE] VYR SJ Romeo and Juliet with Zack Howarth and 1IKER 7QIXLYVWX TPE]MRK XLI XMXPI VSPIW % QYWMGEP ZIVWMSR MX HVI[ JVSQ XLI ´ W ERH ´ W 2I[ =SVO FEPP WGIRI XS VIMRZIRX the concept of the battling houses of Montague and Capulet. Next up for the school’s Shakespeare 450 celebrations is a festival presenting VIHYGIH TPE]W MR X[S RMKLXW ;EXGL out too for an unpcoming production of Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus, EGORS[PIHKMRK XLEX MW EPWS 1EVPS[I´W XL ERRMZIVWEV] ;IFWMXI www.boltonschool.org Twitter @drama_bsbd
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The Day The Globe Caught Fire roof. And when it began to smoulder, it was thought “but an idle smoak.” According to our eye witness Henry Wotton, the audience had “eyes more attentive to the show”, so “it he first Globe theatre was situated kindled inwardly and ran around like a train, a few hundred yards from today’s consuming within less than an hour the whole replica and was built in 1599. There’s house to the very ground.” some disagreement as to which play was Happily, the only thing hurt was one first performed there – Henry V? Julius man’s pride when his breeches caught fire and Caesar? But we know for sure which play was had to be extinguished with a bottle performed on the day it burned down. of beer. It was 29 June 1616. Inside the In 1989, the site of the Globe was explored Globe, the groundlings – or “penny by archaeologists from the Museum of London stinkards” – stood blinking in the afternoon who discovered signs of charring above the sun, enthralled by the action on stage. The foundations. Fire was an everyday hazard in King’s Men were performing Henry VIII, the 17th Century, and thatched roofs were Shakespeare’s latest, and the house was packed. finally banned after the Great Fire of 1666 As the play progressed, and Henry VIII which devoured the medieval city. Today’s entered Cardinal Wolsey’s house, a cannon Globe theatre is the first London building to be was fired in honour of the legendary king. permitted a thatched roof since then. So thrilling was the spectacle that no-one noticed a stray spark land in the thatched Twitter: @shakespearewalk City of London Tour Guide Zoe Bramley reports from the Shakespeare Trail.
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!News
Back to school with Shakespeare
DO ensure your students know and understand the story of the play they are studying. Show them the whole story and get them to summarise it as a tweet, a fairy story, a rap. Then you can begin to work on smaller, edited extracts of the text.
Inspired by the RSC’s ‘Stand up for Shakespeare’ approach, teacher Helen Mears shares her essential Dos and Don’ts for teaching the Bard.
DON’T speak about Shakespeare in hushed, reverent tones. He was a merchant’s son from small-town Stratford-upon-Avon. He didn’t go to university. He was educated by the English grammar school system. He was of the people and he is for the people. DON’T let your students be afraid of the language. Ninety-five percent of the words Shakespeare used are still in use today. The rest can be looked up in a good glossary or else gleaned from speaking them and looking at them in context. DON’T be afraid that you can introduce Shakespeare too early. Young children are used to archaicsounding language in the form of nursery rhymes and fairy tales. They will enjoy the rhythm and rhyme, particularly that of the faeries and witches in the plays.
DON’T simply sit at the desks and read. The language is there to be explored. Look at punctuation, prose and verse, variations in the iambic rhythm. Think about where they are used and why. What do they tell us about the characters?
DO move away from the desks. Shakespeare’s works are play texts, so treat them as plays. Say the words aloud, start in groups and select key words from the speech or scene, and use gesture to reinforce the meaning of those words.
DO get to know the characters really well. Play ranking and sorting games – who is the most important, DON’T say “I know this is boring but the least? Make character Facebook pages, explore their relationships, we have to”. Talk about Elizabethan emotions and motivations. England – the plague, bear-baiting, castles, stately homes. Tell them about Characters are the heart and soul of every Shakespeare play. the Reformation and the power of kings and queens. Explain why Shakespeare had to be so careful about DO let your students find their own meanings. It doesn’t matter what crusty what he wrote. old critics have said, how do the plays resonate today? Explore the universal DO see the play – a live production, themes that drive the plays – love, hate, recorded, film or television – however revenge, friendship, ambition. Ask your you can. Avoid those hammy Olivierstudents what would they do in the era films. Received pronunciation same situation? didn’t exist in Shakespeare’s England and William himself would have 7XERH YT JSV 7LEOIWTIEVI spoken with a broad regional accent. www.rsc.org.uk/sufs/ Remember, he’s for everyone.
The Shakespeare Magazine Quiz To celebrate the Bard's 450th birthday, our debut quiz is inspired by the “uncertain glory” of the month of April itself...
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Shakespeare’s birthdate is unknown, but thought to be 23 April. On [LMGL HEXI MR [EW FEF] ;MPPMEQ christened at StratfordYTSR %ZSR´W ,SP] 8VMRMX] 'LYVGL#
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'SMRGMHIRXEPP] Shakespeare also died on 23 April – in 'SQTPIXI XLI ½REP PMRI SJ XLI VL]QI IRKVEZIH SR LMW XSQF “Blessed be the man that spares these stones…”
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In his will, Shakespeare JEQSYWP] PIJX LMW “second-best bed” to his wife Anne.The document is also famous for containing three of the existing six I\EQTPIW SJ [LEX#
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From which Shakespeare TPE] ERH [LMGL character, does this UYSXI GSQI “O, how this spring of love resembleth / The YRGIVXEMR KPSV] SJ ER %TVMP HE]²#
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Shakespeare’s FMVXLHE] GSMRGMHIW [MXL 7X +ISVKI´W (E] %X [LMGL *VIRGL GMX] HSIW ,IRV] : VSYWI his troops with these [SVHW ±'V] +SH JSV ,EVV] )RKPERH ERH 7EMRX +ISVKI ²#
Answers: 1) 26 April, 2) “And curst be he that moves my bones”, 3) Shakespeare’s signature, 4) The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Proteus, Act 1, Scene 3), 5) Harfleur
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A dressing room revelation for the cast (Lili Fuller and Joe Sofranco, far right).
Pauline (Lili Fuller) channels 0EH] 1EGFIXL
Works in Progress Hot new US show Complete Works could do for Shakespeare what Pitch Perfect did for acapella.
B
ack in 2004, Joe Sofranco beat 16,000 competitors to win the National Shakespeare Competition in New York. Ten years later, he has a company named Kingdom For a Horse Productions and he’s the writer, co-director and star of Complete Works, a Shakespeare-themed comedy launching on the Bard’s 450th birthday. Joe plays an aspiring, Shakespeare-obsessed actor named Hal, who sounds suspiciously like a younger version of himself. Three years in the making, the show is set in the surprisingly cut-throat world of theatre geeks and collegiate Shakespeare competitions. “This was such a labour of love,” says Executive Producer Lili Fuller, who also plays the character of Pauline. “It stemmed from our shared passion for theatre and Shakespeare. The three of us are theatre geeks, and our community is full of crazy, hilarious people.” With shades of Mean Girls and Pitch Perfect – not to mention cult mockumentary Waiting for Guffman – Complete Works just might be the TV comedy the Bard's fans have been waiting for.
Complete Works is screening at hulu.com/complete-works SHAKESPEARE magazine
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!The Hollow Crown British acting heavyweight Jeremy Irons as Henry IV.
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The Hollow Crown
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“Shakespeare is for everyone, no matter your age, native language or level of education. We try to show that Shakespeare can be a part of pop culture� Hollow Crown Fans
Twitter phenomenon Hollow Crown Fans launched the hugely popular Shakespeare Sunday onto a Bardhungry internet. We tracked down founders Lis and Rose for an illuminating chat about all things Shakespeare...
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!The Hollow Crown ith disarming modesty, Lis and Rose of Hollow Crown Fans describe themselves as “two admins who are both Shakespeare enthusiasts”. They’re a transatlantic duo – Rose is from the UK, while Lis hails from the USA. They first met on Twitter during “the infamous Wimbledon delay” of 7 July 2012. This was the occasion when the BBC’s broadcast of The Hollow Crown: Henry IV Part 1 was held up by the trifling matter of a sporting event in London SW19. “If it hadn’t been for tennis,” they say, “we may have never met.” Rose also had a personal stake in The Hollow Crown, having appeared as an extra in THC: Henry V, which starred Tom Hiddleston: “So you could say we were very early adopters of the series...”
Joe Armstrong as Hotspur in Henry IV Part 1.
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The Hollow Crown
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Ben Whishaw as the divinely decadent Richard II.
How did you get interested in Shakespeare? Lis: “I come from a family that really values and appreciates poetry so Shakespeare was introduced early on. I fell in love with Sonnet 30 as young teenager and began to explore the rest of his work. I became interested in Shakespeare in its theatre form after seeing Ralph Fiennes play Hamlet on Broadway. That made a huge impression on me and I was forever drawn to Shakespeare productions on screen and stage thereafter.” Rose: “I’ve had an interest in Shakespeare from a very early age thanks to my parents and the BBC’s fantastic animated tales series (1992). I think what really made me fall in love with the language was studying Romeo and Juliet in school during the same year Baz Luhrmann’s film was released, 1996. It all seemed to click!” ;LEX WTIGM½GEPP] ETTIEPIH XS ]SY about The Hollow Crown? Lis: “I love the History plays and was keenly interested in new adaptations of them, especially given the dream cast across the tetralogy. Richard II in particular came
“We have young students following us and top academics, actors, producers, media professionals, and top Shakespeare institutions” Hollow Crown Fans
alive in a way the text never did for me upon reading. That’s when I realised how powerful Shakespeare could be, even with the perceived limitations of television. I’d been used to seeing Shakespeare on Broadway and in regional theatre and big films like Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V. The quality of these epic productions for the small screen drew me in.” Rose: “I was lucky enough to have been cast as an extra in The Hollow Crown: Henry V. I love Shakespeare and history, but it was the mention of Tom Hiddleston that gave me courage to take the plunge and give it a go. “As a result I was already physically and emotionally invested in the series from as early as winter 2011! It was so exciting following Tom Hiddleston’s tweets from the battlefield and beyond during the filming process. Some of the locations I had visited on holiday or were local to me, which was an added aspect of interest in seeing this series. To have been involved, be it a very small part, is something I shall never forget. SHAKESPEARE magazine
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!The Hollow Crown “I love Shakespeare and history, but it was the mention of Tom Hiddleston that gave me courage to take the plunge and give it a go” Rose
“Before watching THC, I must confess the history plays never appealed to me, I much preferred the comedies and tragedies! The Hollow Crown opened my eyes to these plays and beyond. The fantastic casting did much to hook me initially, along with visual feast of the costumes and film locations used.” What made you take to Twitter, and can you describe how your following grew? HCF: “We started out to promote a petition to the BBC to release a commemorative book of photographs that were taken during the
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filming of The Hollow Crown. Initially we tried to create interesting content so people would follow us and therefore sign the petition. Since then our scope has changed to reinforce our core beliefs that Shakespeare is for everyone, no matter your age, native language or level of education. We try to show, on a daily basis, that Shakespeare can be a part of pop culture. “As we’ve introduced art and writing contests, interactive activities, promoting news about the cast and Shakespeare, and of course #ShakespeareSunday we’ve steadily grown in numbers but also in the diversity
The Hollow Crown
Tom Hiddleston as Henry V (left) and David Morrissey as Northumberland (above).
of our followers. We have young students following us and top academics, actors, producers, media professionals, and top Shakespeare institutions. We’re proud of our diversity but also with how engaged our followers are with us every day.” How did you come up with the idea for the phenomenally popular #ShakespeareSunday? HCF: “We loved quoting scenes from The Hollow Crown and we’d periodically ask “what’s your favorite quote from...” Then one Sunday in October 2012, we thought we’d
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expand that activity and give the hashtag #ShakespeareSunday a try and see if people liked it. The response to it has been nothing short of incredible.” Can you share some of your favourite moments, tweets or stories from Hollow Crown Fans around the world? HCF: “Favourite moments tend to centre around the activities we’ve done with the community. We ran an art contest in 2012 and it was amazing to see the work of so many talented artists coming in. We did a Cento Poetry competition that was judged by The Shakespeare Institute, and again the creativity of our followers was inspiring. “Probably the greatest tweet was from James Purefoy, who played Mowbray in Richard II. He had tweeted he was on a transatlantic flight and so we asked him to quote some Shakespeare from the air and he responded with one from The Tempest: ‘The cloud-capp’d tow’rs, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself...’ which was simply perfect in context.” “Undeniably one of our favourite SHAKESPEARE magazine
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!The Hollow Crown Shakespeare is what made it successful. We track mentions on Twitter and Shakespeare outruns mentions of any of the actors by 1020 times the rate!”
moments came from a PBS interview Tom Hiddleston did where he spent time talking about our account and #ShakespeareSunday. Getting support from the star of the series, as well as a prominent television network like PBS, is a great feeling.” Was The Hollow Crown responsible for the rise of Tom Hiddleston – or was Tom Hiddleston responsible for the success of The Hollow Crown? HCF: “Tom Hiddleston was already making waves as Loki in the Marvel films, but perhaps The Hollow Crown showed a mass audience how adept he is at performing and leading an audience through Shakespeare. The Hollow Crown had a tremendous cast of new talent as well as legends – it would be a mistake to chalk up the success of The Hollow Crown to any one actor. To be frank,
David Dawson as Poins (left) with Tom Hiddleston’s Hal.
Apart from the obvious big names, who are some of your favourite characters and actors from The Hollow Crown? Lis: “The supporting actor that really stood out for me was David Morrissey as Northumberland in Richard II. I can only describe him as completely badass. His role and lines were appropriate for the historical setting Shakespeare wrote for, but David made the political role modern and fresh with the right balance of edginess and gravitas. “As for favourite character, I really enjoyed how David Dawson brought Poins to life. I thought he and Tom Hiddleston had great chemistry together and provided a lot of levity that stood up well against the wellknown humour between Hal and Falstaff. They made me want to head off to Boar’s Head Tavern for a few cups of sack!” Rose: “Two names I have to mention here. Firstly, Edward Akrout – the ‘dashing’ Dauphin in Henry V. He gave a wonderful performance in a role that was rather edited down from the original version of the play. I felt he gave the Dauphin more than just the ‘bad guy’ image one would originally expect in the role – and by the end might dare to confess even feeling some sympathy it hadn’t gone to plan at Agincourt! “Joe Armstrong as Harry Percy (Hotspur) in Henry IV Part 1 was another key favourite character and actor in the series. I had long been a fan of his father, Alun Armstrong, and was delighted that they were cast as father and son in The Hollow Crown! “Not only did they naturally work
“The supporting actor that really stood out for me was David Morrissey as Northumberland in Richard II. I can only describe him as completely badass” Lis 16
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The Hollow Crown
Edward Akrout cuts a dash as the Dauphin.
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brilliantly together, but Joe matched up to the likes of Jeremy Irons, Tom Hiddleston and Michelle Dockery fantastically. By the end of this episode you were half torn with sadness that the light Joe shone to this character was extinguished by Prince Hal.” What are your thoughts on Hollow Crown 2? Lis: “I could not be more excited - and still a bit shocked - that a second series was announced, as the first series was reportedly disappointing in ratings. But I’m ecstatic that once again the BBC will bring lesser-known plays to the small screen, and ideally find that balance between making it appealing to the masses and detailed enough for the already converted. The casting of Benedict Cumberbatch in Richard III seems to indicate that’s the approach they plan to take.” Rose: “I am still in a complete state of happiness that there is a second series! We knew how much the first was loved by people and, thanks to the internet, how global this was. But realistically, the viewing figures in 2012 were not as high as we had hoped, let alone the BBC’s expectations. “When The White Queen aired on the BBC earlier this year, we had fun pairing up quotes from Henry VI and Richard III to various images, and discussed how much we wished THC could have had a second series! “Philippa Gregory’s novels, along with the recent discovery of Richard III’s body, have brought this period of history more into the public eye and shown there is a wide interest and demand for this material. “The War of the Roses accompanied with Shakespeare during the 450th anniversary of his birth seems the perfect combination right now and we expect only great things from The Hollow Crown series 2!”
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Find Hollow Crown Fans on Twitter: @HollowCrownFans SHAKESPEARE magazine
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Win
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EXCLUSIVE COMPETITION To celebrate the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth on 23 April 1564, we have commissioned this beautiful and entirely original ceramic work from artist Hannah Tribe.
Photo: David Hammonds
Titled ‘Sweet Swan of Avon’, it will make a uniquely perfect centrepiece to the writing desk of any Shakespeare fan.
To be in with a chance of winning our lovely swan, simply send an email to shakespearemag@outlook.com with ‘Swan Comp’ in the subject line. Don’t forget to include your name, address, postcode and contact number. We will accept entries from outside the UK, but please be sure to include full contact details. The closing date for this competition is Monday 26 May – and may fortune favour you!
“This sculpture combines references to characters from Shakespeare’s life, both real and imagined” SHAKESPEARE magazine
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!Shakespeare city: Bristol
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST 20
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Shakespeare city: Bristol
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Main image: Clifton Suspension Bridge is Bristol’s most iconic landmark. Right: Shakespeare Inn, Victoria Street.
Local poet and playwright Tom Phillips takes us on a Shakespeare¾EZSYVIH KYMHIH tour of the city of Bristol.
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“Peter O’Toole’s 1955 performance as Hamlet at Bristol Old Vic is the stuff of legend”
The Shakespeare pub, Redland.
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Photos: Alan Moore, Gavin Roberts
!Shakespeare city: Bristol
Shakespeare city: Bristol
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Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory’s 2000 production of King Lear: Roland Oliver as Lear (below) and Paul Nicholson as the Fool (below, right).
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much-loved, but often-overlooked city in the South-West of England, Bristol makes no claims to have any particular connection with the living, breathing William Shakespeare. There are a few passing mentions of the city in Henry IV pts 1 & 2 and Richard II – mostly in connection with troop movements and ‘the caterpillars of the commonwealth’ who rebel against the monarchy – but it wasn’t a particularly prominent feature on Shakespeare’s imaginary map of England. The playwright’s posthumous presence, however, looms large. Maybe that’s because, having passed through Stratford, the river Avon snakes through the city, runs under Clifton Suspension Bridge and out to the Bristol Channel. You might say, in fact, that the river plugs the city into the Shakespearean heartland. A rather less fanciful explanation, perhaps, is that Bristol has a long and eminent theatre tradition and, not surprisingly, productions of Shakespeare’s plays have been a prominent part of that. Peter O’Toole’s 1955 performance as Hamlet at Bristol Old
Vic is the stuff of legend while the same theatre’s 1997 production of Macbeth with Pete Postlethwaite as the eponymous Scottish king saw the professional stage debut of one Chiwetel Ejiofor (as Malcolm). More recently, the city has also gained an annual Bristol Shakespeare Festival – with many a production staged outdoors or in unlikely venues – and the simultaneously acclaimed and popular Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory. The brainchild of Bristol-based director Andrew Hilton, the latter began life a few weeks after the millennium, when it opened with King Lear. On the face of it, it was absurdly ambitious: a full-cast production of the bleakest tragedy staged in a rough-andready space on the first floor of a stripped-out factory building in what was then a fairly rundown part of south Bristol. On press night, not more than a dozen people showed up. Only two of us were journalists. Of the rest, at least three or more members of the audience appeared to have wandered into the place by accident and had only stayed because it was marginally warmer than the street outside. We spread ourselves out in the auditorium in a desperate attempt SHAKESPEARE magazine
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!Shakespeare city: Bristol
to make it look full. Then the play started. From the outset, it was obvious that this was no ordinary production. Lines which had been dunned into me in A-level English until they’d lost all their poetry were leaping off the page as if nobody had ever spoken them before. Even relatively minor characters were emerging as fully rounded individuals with a life which went way beyond their usefulness as plot devices. Without a hint of gimmickry, without any attempt to be trendily cutting edge by, say, relocating the entire play to a supermarket in war-torn Bosnia, this was a production which put its trust in the text and mined it for every nuance, every ambiguity. The result was extraordinary. By the time Lear was railing against Cordelia’s ingratitude, even the people who’d not really meant to come and see a Shakespeare play at all were sitting bolt upright. By the time of the king’s expulsion onto the heath, they were on the edge of their seats. Even the sword fight between Edgar and Edmund looked as if it might go either way. That same week, apparently, Hilton
Great British Shakespeare venue:Tobacco Factory.
considered pulling the plug on the whole venture. The company was operating on the narrowest of margins and ticket sales were appalling. It seemed that Bristol didn’t have an appetite for yet more Shakespeare after all. Thankfully, he didn’t – because, as word began to spread and reviews began to appear, the city woke up to the fact that something unique was going on and by the last week of the month-long run you couldn’t get a ticket for love nor money. The production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream which followed ploughed the same back-to-basics furrow and fared equally well. More than aware that too early an exposure to Shakespeare can lead to a lifelong aversion, I took my six-year-old daughter to see it. She spent most of the in-the-round performance lying full-length on the very edge of the ‘stage’, enthralled by the antics of Puck, Bottom, Helena and Hermia. While we were walking home, she announced that she wanted to be an actress. Fifteen years later, she’s about to graduate with a degree in performing arts. Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory, meanwhile, have gone from strength to strength. Aside from an ill-fated production of Titus Andronicus which nearly bankrupted the company, they’ve enjoyed unparalleled success, earned themselves a reputation as a sort of West Country-based RSC and given dozens of young actors a leg-up in the perilous early stages of their career, most recently with their second take on As You Like It. What’s more, while they might not have kickstarted the regeneration of south Bristol, their popularity hasn’t done anything to harm it. Exactly how finely honed productions of Shakespeare might benefit a neighbourhood’s local economy is a question that’s yet to be answered, but it certainly feels as if there’s some kind of connection between renegotiating Hamlet’s soliloquies and the
“Even the sword fight between Edgar and Edmund looked as if it might go either way” 24
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Shakespeare city: Bristol
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“The city’s longest-running pub is, of course, called The Shakespeare Tavern, having opened in 1777” Roland Oliver as Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Tobacco Factory, 2000).
reinvigoration of the local high street. Walk down Prince Street towards Bristol docks, meanwhile, and you’ll come across the city’s longest-running pub. It is, of course, called The Shakespeare Tavern and, having opened in 1777, it reputedly took its name because Shakespeare was very much on the menu at the nearby Theatre Royal (i.e. Bristol Old Vic). In here, last summer, you might have encountered an ad-hoc pub performance for Bristol Shakespeare Festival. Over the bar, you might also have noticed a quotation from Merry Wives of Windsor. In here too you might also have spotted someone sitting at a long wooden table with a copy of the Sonnets open beside his pint of Guinness. That was me preparing for another typically quirky BSF performance: Shakespeare Sonnet Russian Roulette, in which audience members shout out numbers from one to 154 and I do sight-read requests. I don’t think I’ve ever been more terrified in my life, but it’s a mark of the poetry’s greatness that its meaning is there, ready and waiting – no matter who reads it. All you have to do is look.
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Could you write a Shakespeare Guide to your favourite city? Get in touch: shakespearemag@outlook.com
Shakespeare Tavern, Prince Street.
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!Titus Andronicus
Saturninus (Alan Cumming) oversees his evil empire in Titus.
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Titus Andronicus
She wound up doing The Lion King and Spider-Man on Broadway. But 15 years EKS .YPMI 8E]QSV HMVIGXIH E XVYP] KVIEX ¯ ERH LYKIP] YRHIV ETTVIGMEXIH ¯ ½PQ SJ Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. Here’s what Robin Askew reckoned at the time...
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t’ll be too baroque, violent and – whisper it! – funny for those who prefer their Shakespeare luvvie-cosy, but Julie Taymor’s brave, visually stunning re-imagining of this little-known vengeance yarn is an absolute vindication of her contention that it’s an overlooked masterpiece brimming with contemporary resonance – and a real treat for those who prefer the Bard’s earlier, gorier ones.
Titus (18)
USA 1999 /162 minutes Director: Julie Taymor Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Alan Cumming, Harry Lennix, Colm Feore, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Angus Macfadyen, Laura Fraser
Much has been written about the way our appreciation of Shakespeare in general, and Titus Andronicus in particular, is viewed through the prism of Victorian criticism, with all its attendant moral baggage. The brilliance of Taymor’s version is that it recaptures the spirit of old Bill’s biggest crowd-pleaser, which entails the increasingly unpleasant deaths of virtually all of its principals in a cycle of vengeance that redeems nobody, with an ugly side-order of sexual abuse, racism and religiously inspired atrocity. SHAKESPEARE magazine
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!Titus Andronicus
Bull-headed and borderline insane: Anthony Hopkins as Titus.
How much more modern relevance do you want? Anthony Hopkins, on top form, is the eponymous granite-hewn, bull-headed warrior who returns to Rome in triumph after an extended bout of blood-letting, bearing Tamora, Queen of the Goths (Lange), her three sons and “barbarous Moor” Aaron (Lennix) as his prisoners. Religious tradition requires a sacrifice, so the eldest son gets to be torn limb from limb, his giblets sizzled over an open fire, earning Titus the undying enmity of the warrior queen. But his first mistake is in pledging fealty to weak and effete new emperor Saturninus (Cumming), who promptly falls for the exotic and cunning Tamora, giving her a position of power from which to unleash the tit-for-tat revenge that will continue until the climactic time-slice freeze-frame. Taymor performs wonders in conjuring such a sumptuous visual feast on a relatively
“Shakespeare had a keen appreciation of comic horror long before the era of The Evil Dead” 30
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Titus Andronicus
“Old Bill’s biggest crowd-pleaser entails the increasingly unpleasant deaths of virtually all of its principals”
“Exotic and cunning” Tamora, played with sadistic relish by Jessica Lange.
low budget. From the tremendous, superbly choreographed opening tableau of an army of warriors performing a victory ritual in the Coliseum, the film mixes and matches the iconography of Ancient Rome, ’30s Italian fascism and beyond, with every aspect of the production design and music carefully thought through, demanding repeated viewing to appreciate its myriad subtleties. The violence which is so central to the story is also explicit only when necessary. No censor would risk the ridicule of cutting Shakespeare, but nor can one imagine them permitting the gleeful rape and mutilation endured by Titus’s virginal daughter Lavinia in any other film. Taymor shows us only what we need to see, but it’s no less horrific for that. Better yet, she restores the play’s oft-excised funny lines, which reveal that Shakespeare had a keen appreciation of comic horror long before the era of The Evil Dead. The performances are uniformly magnificent, many of the characters prefiguring in unvarnished form the Bard’s more famous creations (Titus/Lear, Tamora/ Lady Macbeth, Aaron/Iago), with Harry Lennix’s unrepentant Aaron – Shakespeare’s most overt treatment of race, fact fans – almost stealing it from Hopkins’ borderline insane Titus.
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This review originally appeared in Venue Magazine. SHAKESPEARE magazine
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!Titus Andronicus
S
Beyond the bloodbath Traditionally viewed as the ultimate victim, Lavinia is the VIEP LIVS SJ Titus Andronicus, writes Emma Gutteridge.
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hakespeare’s earliest and bloodiest tragedy, Titus Andronicus boasts a dizzying body count. With 14 deaths by the final curtain, not even Hamlet (nine deaths) and King Lear (ten) come close. But the deaths themselves aren’t the most shocking component of this still-disturbing play.
In the second act, Lavinia, daughter of Titus, is brutally raped by Chiron and Demetrius, sons of the vengeful Queen Tamora. Worse still, to prevent her from revealing their identities, the brothers viciously cut out Lavinia’s tongue and hack off her hands. If you have a strong stomach, try a Google image search for ‘Lavinia in Titus Andronicus’ and then stare open-mouthed at the ensuing gallery of horrors. But Lavinia is more than a mere emblem of victimhood. Her mutilated, blood-drenched body conceals astonishing reserves of strength. Lavinia is, in fact, the nearest thing to a hero in Titus Andronicus...
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She’s a rebel
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Status-conscious Titus elects Saturninus as Emperor of Rome, giving him both his daughter and his war prisoners to show support. But seemingly subservient Lavinia scuppers his plan by eloping with Bassianus, the man she truly loves. Lavinia’s defiant act of rebellion has calamitous consequences. Her father’s reputation is damaged, as is his trust in her. Her actions also inadvertently cause the death of her brother Mutius, a fate which could have been avoided. And Saturninus, denied the chance to marry Lavinia, falls for Tamora instead, providing Rome’s new Empress with enough power to destroy the Andronicus family.
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She takes on Tamora
Before her brutal silencing, Lavinia is vocal in insulting Saturninus or confirming her love for Bassianus. But the bulk of Lavinia’s words are expended in a battle of wits with the formidable Tamora, Queen of the Goths. Discovering Tamora’s affair with Aaron, morally righteous Lavinia furiously condemns the Goth Queen’s adultery. Even after her husband Bassianus is murdered, Lavinia’s verbal assault rages unabated. This clearly is a woman who speaks her mind whatever the consequences.
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She has unbelievable resilience
Photo: Graham Burke
Until her death in Act 5, Lavinia remains a near-constant presence on the stage. Spending three acts dumb and without hands is, of course, a major challenge for any actress playing the role. In the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2013 production Rose Reynolds scrounged a mouthful of boiled egg after
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Titus Andronicus
A blood-drenched Catherine Hamilton as Lavinia (The Tobacco Factory, Bristol, 2006)
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defiantly crushing it with her stump. “She innately possesses an inner strength and power,” Reynolds says.
She never forgets who she is
In one of the play’s most unforgettable scenes, Lavinia finds a way to bring retribution to the Goth Princes. Shakespeare depicts Lavinia chasing her young nephew who holds the books she needs to ‘speak’ to her family. She scrabbles with the pages until ‘The Tale of Philomela’ is open (in fact, the story her tragedy was based upon). Lavinia’s desperation to have a ‘voice’ is brilliantly manifested in the 1985 BBC production, where Anna Calder-Marshall frantically turns the pages with her teeth.
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She’s the bravest character in the play
Surviving the physical and mental wounds of her ordeal, while grieving for her husband and brothers, Lavinia displays more courage than any of the play’s male characters. Ultimately she even brings retribution to her assailants, Chiron and Demetrius – by scraping words in sand with a staff held in her mouth. Lavinia’s final moments are spent in her father’s arms, but their loving reconciliation is heart-rendingly brief, as Titus is honour-bound to end his daughter’s life. !
Read the full unedited version of this article on our Facebook page
“Try a Google image search for ‘Lavinia in Titus Andronicus’ and then stare open-mouthed at the ensuing gallery of horrors” SHAKESPEARE magazine
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!Bollywood Amazingly, the love affair between England’s greatest wordsmith and the world’s biggest ½PQ MRHYWXV] KSIW FEGO EPQSWX E GIRXYV] /SIP 'LEXXIVNII VIZIEPW E[IWSQI JEGXW EFSYX 7LEOIWTIEVI ERH &SPP][SSH
BOLLYWOOD SHAKES!
W
hen we think of Shakespeare in Bollywood we think of adaptations such as Angoor [Grapes] (1982), Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak [From Doom to Doom] (1988), Maqbool (2003) and Omkara (2006). We might add to the list Shakespeare-themed movies such as Shakespeare Wallah (1965) or The Last Lear (2007). The Bard, however, is embedded in the very dialogue and imagery of Bollywood. This was true right from its inception due to the roots of Hindi cinema in the Parsi theatre tradition which freely borrowed from European, Persian and Sanskrit sources. After the 1950s, the Bengali literary tradition resulted in several faithful translations and adaptations of Shakespeare, which, in conjunction with the inspiration of Hollywood Shakespeare films, has led to more complex adaptations of Shakespeare in Bollywood in recent years.
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Naseeruddin Shah, a veteran Bollywood actor who has played Shakespeare on stage
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and on screen claimed: “The roots may look lost but every big story in the Hindi film industry is from Shakespeare.” This may be an oversimplification, but Bollywood not only abounds in sly and unexpected references to popular Shakespeare dialogues and characters, but in common themes and devices such as twins separated at birth, cross-dressing characters, star-crossed lovers, characters falling in love with messengers, the wise fool, the tamed Shrew and the mousetrap device.
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Several early Shakespearean adaptations in Bollywood were copies of Hollywood adaptations such as Kishore Sahu’s 1954 Hamlet, which was a shot-by-shot imitation of Olivier’s 1948 Hamlet. The 1947 Romeo and Juliet starring Nargis as Juliet was a copy of the Hollywood version with Norma Shearer. In recent years, the Rani Mukherjee
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Bollywood
“The 1947 Romeo and Juliet starring Nargis as Juliet was a copy of the Hollywood version with Norma Shearer”
starrer Dil Bole Hadippa! (2009) was a loose copy of She’s the Man (2006), based on Twelfth Night. Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Ram Leela (2013) also owes more to Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (1996) than to Shakespeare.
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The most popular plays in Bollywood are Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, The Merchant of Venice and Hamlet. Taking one example alone, there are three versions of Hamlet in the Parsi theatre tradition: Dada Athawale’s Hamlet or Khoon-e-Nahak [The Unjust Assassination] (1928), Sohrab Modi’s Khoonka-Khoon [Blood for Blood] or Hamlet (1935) and Kishore Sahu’s 1954 Hamlet. Eklavya (2007), the upcoming untitled film by gay rights activist film maker Onir, the in-production Haider by Vishal Bhardwaj, as well as another planned adaptation to be directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia starring Hrithik Roshan, are also based on Hamlet.
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The first Shakespearean adaptation on the Hindi film screen was Savkari Pash (1925) directed by Baburao Painter based on The Merchant of Venice. A social melodrama in the realist tradition, the film dealt with money lending – a problem that ruined countless poor, illiterate farmers. The audience, more accustomed to escapist mythological fantasies and historical love stories, did not appreciate the strong dose of realism and the film did not do well. However, the shot of a dreary hut accompanied by a howling dog is regarded as one of the most memorable moments of Indian cinema.
8LI [SVPH´W JEZI ½PQ SJ The Comedy of Errors is Indian
With a massive Bollywood audience hungry for laughs, it’s no surprise that India has made more film adaptations of The Comedy of Errors than any other country. There are three from Hong Kong, just two from the
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!Bollywood USA and one each from Russia and Mexico. In contrast, there are six known Indian film adaptations of this play and three more in production. Of these, Angoor (1982) is the best known, both in India and in the world. It was also one of the first Shakespearean adaptations in India to be transposed on to a modern Indian setting.
films is completely unacknowledged but the Hamletian echoes are obvious to anyone familiar with the play – or the several adaptations of Hamlet in Bollywood.
(SR´X WLEOI YT 7LEOIWTIEVI Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), now one of the best known adaptations of Romeo and Juliet in Bollywood, was originally scripted
2006) have achieved critical and commercial success internationally. Bhardwaj is the first Indian filmmaker to attempt a Shakespearean Trilogy, following in the footsteps of Lawrence Olivier, Orson Welles, Kenneth Branagh, Gregory Kozintsev and Akira Kurosawa. His Haider (Hamlet) is in its final stages of production.
with a happy ending. Nasir Hussain, who wrote the basic story of QSQT, thought that Bollywood audiences would refuse to accept a sad ending, especially in a love story. However, Mansoor Khan, Nasir’s son and first-time director, felt very strongly about an ending where the lovers die and thought that giving them a happy ending would ruin the integrity of the story. He managed to convince his father and an alternate tragic ending was shot. The film ended up being a superhit.
-RHME´W ½VWX 7LEOIWTIEVI XVMPSK] Directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, Maqbool (Macbeth, 2004) and Omkara (Othello,
%QMXEFL &EGLLER ¯ XLI 7LEOIWTIEVI GSRRIGXMSR Don’t worry, it all ends badly for Bollywood’s starcrossed lovers.
There were several detailed translations of Shakespeare in Hindi prose since the first adaptation of The Merchant of Venice by Bharatendu Harishchandra in 1880 titled Durlabh Bandhu. These adaptations, other than Indianising the names of people or places, faithfully follow the original text and were meant for reading rather than presentation on stage. Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachhan was the first to translate Macbeth and Othello in verse in Hindi (in 1956 and 1958 respectively). Dr. Bachan’s son Amitabh of course became the greatest of all Indian screen superstars.
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The Mousetrap Device, or the play-withinthe-play, helps Hamlet test the Ghost’s accusation against Claudius. Karz (1980) and its remake Om Shanti Om (2007) deal with a popular Bollywood theme – rebirth. Instead of the ghost, it is the protagonist who is killed in these two films, who later returns and uses the Mousetrap Device to ‘catch the conscience’ of the killer. The Shakespearean influence in these two commercially popular
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Shakespeare has seeped into the very idiom of Bollywood and we can find references to it in unexpected places. In Deewar [The Wall] (1975) for instance, the mother disapproves of her son’s nefarious doings and tells him that “all the water in the world cannot wash your hands clean of your sins”. The popular comedic villain Ajit invokes Shakespeare while getting rid of his victim in one movie, instructing his henchman: “Give him the Hamlet poison, he’ll continue to be lost in a haze of to be or not to be!” Փ
Photo: Mary Cregan
!Interview: James Shapiro
All the
World’s a... Screen
As well as being an authority on Shakespeare, James Shapiro LEW WIVMSYW ½PQ FYJJ XIRHIRGMIW ,IVI LI VIZIEPW NYWX WSQI SJ XLI QSZMIW XLEX LEZI GETXYVIH LMW MQEKMREXMSR
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Interview: James Shapiro
“I
cast my lot with those who think that if Shakespeare were around today he’d be making movies. It’s an art form that would have suited his gifts – and his desire to reach a huge audience –perfectly.
!
Bradley Cooper harangues Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook.
“The first film I remember seeing was Laurence of Arabia. I was seven in 1962 when my parents took my brother, sister and I. The thrill of seeing a widescreen film in a dark moviehouse is fixed in my memory. “It’s a rare day when I don’t see a film, or part of one – though given my crazed schedule, more often than not on video. I find it to be the most absorbing art form out there and endlessly surprising – and I try to draw on its lessons when writing my books. “When I wrote 1599, for example, I tried to imagine the opening scene in which a theatre is hurriedly dismantled and moved across the Thames on a wintry December day as the basis for a film script.”
Silver Linings Playbook
“I love romantic comedy but hate romantic comedies. The jokes are never funny enough and the comic timing is always slightly off. I even feel this way about Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. So it wasn’t until a third friend told me that I had to see Silver Linings Playbook that I finally gave in. “I loved this movie. Not because of the
“I loved Silver Linings Playbook because its timing was absolutely perfect. Every joke worked. Every scene set up the next”
amazing chemistry of Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, or because De Niro came close to stealing the show, but because its timing was absolutely perfect. Every joke worked. Every scene set up the next. It was like experiencing a perfect downhill run on skis. I left drained and very happy.”
Lore
“I was in London recently and dropped by the Renoir, my favourite movie house in the world, where Lore was playing. I had never heard of the film but thought I’d take a chance. “I’ve seen or read scores of films and books about the Holocaust and anti-Semitism (and even wrote one about Oberammergau and its Passion Play, which Hitler so loved) SHAKESPEARE magazine
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!Interview: James Shapiro An acclaimed performance by Saskia Rosendahl in Lore.
but I’ve never seen a work that captured so powerfully what happens when ideology and reality collide. “Lore’s struggle to reconcile what she feels with what she has been taught to believe – perfectly rendered by Saskia Rosendahl – continues to haunt me.”
I’m fascinated by what makes for a perfect revenge story. The best revenge is both mimetic and belated – in other words, an avenger needs to take his time and inflict just the right punishment on those who have done wrong. “The director of Man on Fire, Tony Scott, understands the mechanics of the revenge plot perfectly. Denzel Washington has done a lot of good work, but his performance as Creasy, a burned-out former CIA agentturned-bodyguard, is just amazing. “I also love Christopher Walken’s cameo. Just thinking about this film makes me want to watch it again.”
Man on Fire
Paisan
“For sheer visceral pleasure, my all-time favourite film is Man on Fire, starring Denzel Washington. Some films hit you in the gut, some in the heart, some in the head. This thriller gets you in the gut. “I’ve probably watched it 20 times since it first came out in 2004 and never tire of viewing it. As someone who teaches and writes about Hamlet and revenge plays,
Still burning: Denzel Washington in Man on Fire.
“Flipping through the movie channels the other night I came upon a film I had never heard of but will now return to: Roberto Rosselli’s 1946 black-and-white masterpiece Paisan, the closest thing to a great short-story collection on film. “I wondered how I had gone through life without having heard of, let alone seen, such a brilliant work, one that made me feel, as no other art form ever has, what it was like to have lived through the final and terrifying months of the Second World War in Italy.”
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A Columbia University professor, James Shapiro is the author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare and Contested Will: who wrote Shakespeare? and editor of Shakespeare in America. More from: www.jamesshapiro.net Parts of this interview originally appeared in Cineworld Magazine.
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!Diary: Brooke Thomas Working at Shakespeare’s Globe is a dream job for countless Bard fans – but what’s it really like behind that hallowed stage? Brooke Thomas reveals all in her Diary of a Globe Researcher
Around the Globe in a day
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Around t -´Q KSMRK XS WLS[ ]SY [LEX PMJI PSSOW PMOI FILMRH XLI WGIRIW EX 7LEOIWTIEVI´W +PSFI ERH MX EPP WXEVXW [MXL E WXVSPP JVSQ 7X 4EYP´W XYFI EGVSWW 0SRHSR´W 1MPPIRRMYQ &VMHKI© 42
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Diary: Brooke Thomas
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This isn’t the best picture of the Globe, but it’s what I see as I walk across the river to work, and I don’t mind admitting that even six months into my time at Globe Education, this sight still makes me feel like a kid in candy shop.
Bottom’s not bad company, but he keeps going on about how he can do my job better than I can.
the Glob Here I am with Bottom working on an Antony and Cleopatra research document in the library. We try to use original sources as much as possible. This isn’t only a reliable way to research our productions, but has the added benefit of involving early modern woodcuttings, which are hilarious 80% of the time.
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!Diary: Brooke Thomas Every day, or more accurately, when we remember, a member of the team adds a favourite quote to this whiteboard in the library. We try to tie it in with whatever’s currently on in the theatres, but mostly it’s a bit of fun. There’s a slight ‘who can think of the most obscure, but still poignant, Shakespeare quote’ competitive thing going on, but that’s to be expected in this hive of Shakespeare enthusiasts. I’m not sure whether this one wins or breaks the rules by not technically being a quote. Hmmm.
I’m particularly fond of this quote from The Tempest, they’re not just using me as an extra whiteboard.
Globe in My second favourite place at the Globe is the green room. Sadly there were no matinée actors around, and everyone else must’ve been out enjoying the sunshine, so I had a nice quiet lunch with Sam. You can always hear what’s going on in the theatres next door while you’re in the green room, it’s one of the reasons I spend so much time working in there. You hear the cheers, laughter, and groans of the audience, and even if there’s no show on there’ll be musicians rehearsing, or actors, or you might catch the tail end of a tour. Of course, some days, like this day, all you hear are the saws and drills of set builders. Ah well, it can’t always be poetry and lutes.
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Diary: Brooke Thomas
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I’ve only been in my favourite place in the building once, but it still beats the green room, the library, and the theatres hands down for me. Stepping into the tiring house at Shakespeare’s Globe feels like walking into a cathedral. It’s just a small, dark space, just a room, but there’s something about the smell of warm wood and the sunlight filtering through the grates that inspires awe-filled silence. There’s nothing quite like the excitement and apprehension that you feel when those doors open inwards, light floods the sanctuary of the tiring house, and you see the ‘wooden o’ from the actor’s point of view.
Shakespeare’s Globe The Globe theatre, and the new Jacobean playhouse next door, are the vision of American actor and director Sam Wanamaker. Sam worked tirelessly from 1970 until his death in 1993 to bring Shakespeare’s theatre back to London. The third and current incarnation of Shakespeare’s Globe opened on London’s Bankside in 1997, just a street closer to the river 7KDPHV WKDQ WKH RULJLQDO 7KH ÀUVW Globe was opened in 1599 by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. It hosted WKH ÀUVW SHUIRUPDQFHV RI PDQ\ RI Shakespeare’s greatest works, including Macbeth, Hamlet, and King Lear.
n a day Fun fact: the sofas in our green room are comically oversized. They’re on a platform and they’re twice as deep as any sofa I’ve ever seen. This is technically to accommodate the huge costumes our actors wear, but it’s also good for curling up with a cup of tea and definitely not falling asleep because it’s so comfortable. Never. Not even once. Certainly not on a regular basis.
A breath of fresh air overlooking the river Thames on the roof terrace.
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Contributors
Brooke Thomas is a post-graduate
Emma Gutteridge Originally from
Tom Phillips is a poet and
student of Shakespeare in her early Cambridgeshire, Emma is graduating playwright living in Bristol. His twenties. She learnt to love the Bard from Winchester University this year work includes the poetry collection during her BA at Royal Holloway, with a degree in Drama. She will be Recreation Ground (Two Rivers University of London, and is attending Drama Studio London in the Press, 2012) and the plays 100 Miles currently a researcher at Shakespeare’s new academic year to study Professional North of Timbuktu (Theatre West, Globe. Brooke also writes fiction and Acting. Her love of Shakespeare stems Bristol, 2013) and Prella’s Gift (Show hosts a short story competition called from her involvement in a production of Strength, Bristol, 2012). He is a #SmallTales on Twitter. Her days off of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at founder member of the international consist of tea, cake, and Doctor Who. school, and she has since performed in arts network Culture Exchange You can find her at four Shakespeare plays. Most recently Experiment and the online Anglowww.literarygeek.co.uk she played Laertes/Guildenstern Bulgarian collaborative arts project in Hamlet with Winchester-based Colourful Star. Platform 4.
Meet thy makers... Just some of the contributors to this issue of Shakespeare Magazine
Helen Mears teaches English
Koel Chatterjee is an English
Literature, Film and Media Studies language tutor and examiner as at a Further Education college in well as a PhD candidate at Royal Ipswich. She has loved Shakespeare Holloway, University of London. since her schooldays and at weekends Her field of research is Shakespearean can be found volunteering at The appropriations and adaptations in the Globe or the Sam Wanamaker Hindi film industry in post-colonial Playhouse. She is currently studying India. She runs the blog for an MA in the Advanced Teaching www.muchadoaboutshakespeare.com of Shakespeare. She is at her happiest and is co-organiser of the Shakespeare when watching Shakespeare, and Bollywood Conference. exploring castles and monastic ruins or listening to Fall Out Boy.
Hannah Tribe is a young Welsh
artist with “a passion for making”. She studied Drawing and Applied Art at the University of the West of England. Here, she developed an interest in creating work using techniques associated with notions of traditional female craft. In so doing, she attempts to address “the everyday conflicts between feminism and femininity”. She continues to experiment with works in embroidery, floristry, cake decoration and ceramics. SHAKESPEARE magazine
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Curtain
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MICKEY ROONEY (1920-2014)
“If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumbered here Whilst visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend, If you pardon, we will mend... Else the Puck a liar call So, good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin shall restore amends.” A teenage Rooney bids farewell EW 4YGO MR XLI GPEWWMG ½PQ SJ % 1MHWYQQIV 2MKLX´W (VIEQ
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Next issue
We hope you’ve enjoyed Issue One of Shakespeare Magazine. We’ll be back next month, and here’s just a few of the Bard-related delights we’ll be unfurling for your pleasure...
PARIS SHAKES!
An army of Shakespeare experts descend on one of the world’s QSWX JEWGMREXMRK GMXMIW 1EKRM½UYI
! ! ! !
Macbeth at the Movies
From Kurosawa to Fassbender, the Scottish Play on the silver screen.
Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits
From Cole Porter to Elvis Costello, every great songwriter has a touch of the Shakes...
Being Shakespeare
Meet the actors who make a living by playing the Bard.
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13 Feb - 2 May 2014 Tobacco Factory Theatres, Bristol Raleigh Road, Bristol, BS3 1TF 0117 902 0344 www.tobaccofactorytheatres.com 6 - 10 May Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough Westborough, Scarborough, N Yorks, YO11 1JW 01723 370541 www.sjt.uk.com 13 - 17 May Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham Regent Street, Cheltenham, GL50 1HQ 01242 572573 www.everymantheatre.org.uk 20 - 24 May Hall for Cornwall Lemon Quay, Truro, TR1 2LL 01872 262466 www.hallforcornwall.co.uk 3 - 7 June Theatre Royal, Winchester 21-23 Jewry Street, Winchester, Hants SO23 8SB 01962 840440 www.theatreroyalwinchester.co.uk 10 - 14 June Exeter Northcott Theatre Stocker Road, Exeter, EX4 4QB 01392 493 493 www.exeternorthcott.co.uk 17 - 21 June Salisbury Playhouse Malthouse La, Salisbury, Wilts, SP2 7RA 01722 320 333 www.salisburyplayhouse.com Join our mailing list at: