Meeting Shakespeare in autumnPart 01
DRAMA: Walking up and down and mingling with the crowds on Henley Street, on a crisp autumn morning with the howling cold wind in my ears, I was able to reminiscence what Shakespeare would have experienced. Throughout his life he would have plodded on this now very famous street in autumn. One season he romanced along with winter, summer and spring, he so ardently included in his plays. To celebrate the works of William Shakespeare, the Royal Shakespeare Company is hosting The Complete Works Festival 2006-2007. The exhibition is at Nash's House and New Place while Stratford-Upon-Avon Poetry festival is sponsored by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and there is more going on at Shakespeare Countryside Museum with garden tours and workshops. The year 2006 sees the biggest festival of William Shakespeare that England has ever seen as the RSC has invited companies from all over the world. The Stratford-Upon-Avon District Hospitality Association has arranged over-night accommodation requirements to thousands of visitors who are trekking into the Mecca of literature. Perfectly located town centre, offers very convenient walk to theatres that are involved with the RSC. The expectancy in the air is like that William Shakespeare would magically appear in person as all over the world, actors and directors see Strafford as a spiritual home. For 12 months the Festival will have over 50 productions which include the 37 plays, major poems and sonnets. They are all supported by 200 talks, workshops and events along with film-series, open-air performances, etc. The 18 months of preparation had been a hectic experience.
In the recent months, things have gone up a gear as rehearsals have started up in farflung places like Pondicherry to Cornwall, Rio de Janeiro to Saitama, Clapham to Kuwait with poor Sri Lanka left out. And all this energy and all the talent and vision, is descending upon Stratford in the months to come. Wish I could go on and on at this place as I heard the message of Prince Charles read; 'Shakespeare's timeless appeal come from the continuing relevance of his plays around the world.... Chiefly because they are about the eternal human conditions. What I find so endlessly refreshing is how the plays continue to be reinterpreted by successive generations with increasing ingenuity. There is just as much love, war, revenge, joy and passion in a Shakespeare play as any TV soap operas and these themes in his work never go out of fashion. I am delighted that the Complete Works Festival of the Royal Shakespeare Company this year is a truly international one. While television and film have created superbly original adoptions of Shakespeare's works, the best way to appreciate the plays is to see and hear them on stage. A visit to the RSC in Stratford-Upon-Avon is always a special event but this year the town will play host to one of the biggest cultural events of the year. It will also be the perfect opportunity to discover why Shakespeare's work is as relevant today as it was 400 years ago. The Royal Shakespeare Company is founded on the principle of ensemble theatre which is an approach to theatre making that involves the same group of artists collaborating and evolving creatively over a sustained period. Welcoming visitors from all over the world who share the commitments of the RSC who will share their presentation of Shakespeare in a modern world, will no doubt offer a fantastically rich exchange of ideas, culture and theatre making.
To see how the RSC house playwrights is interpreted the world over is not only an education for their audiences but a necessary journey for the RSC as a theatre producing company. The plays are given different twists by different directors without removing the original dialogue or the plot of the story. While many plays retain the old-world charm with which the Bard wrote them, few have been modernised to yield to the appetite of the younger Shakespeare fan for whom the poignancy, innocence and sacrifice of the young tragic lovers of Romeo and Juliet are intact as much as the dialogue are rendered with modernised acting. The young see Romeo and Juliet like themselves, with many experiencing opposition from parents for their union in marriage. I liked very much the acting of Rupert Evans and Morven Christie as the 'modern' young lovers as well as Fribar Lynch as Cassius, drenched in blood, starkly evident against his white shirt in Julius Caesar. These actors are classic examples as to how they could interpret Shakespeare characters to fit the new millennium. But being a rigid, ardent disciple of William Shakespeare, I opt for 'Costumed' drama at the time they were written, like the Cleopatra I saw tonight. |
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