Shakespeare Magazine 9
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At last! A magazine with all the Will in the world<br />
SHAKESPEARE<br />
FREE<br />
Issue 9<br />
TOM<br />
HIDDLESTON<br />
From Henry V to Coriolanus:<br />
Say Hello to <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s<br />
Secret Weapon!<br />
Annus<br />
Horribilis<br />
James Shapiro on<br />
1606: William<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> and<br />
the Year of Lear<br />
Special issue<br />
SHAKESPEARE AT THE CINEMA <br />
Coriolanus<br />
Hiddleston<br />
finds his<br />
killer instinct<br />
Macbeth<br />
A movie epic with<br />
Michael Fassbender<br />
and Marion Cotillard<br />
Bill<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong>an<br />
comedy from the<br />
Horrible Histories crew<br />
Hamlet<br />
Benedict<br />
Cumberbatch<br />
on the big screen!
Duchess of Brittany.<br />
Wife of Henry IV.<br />
Queen of England.<br />
She is Joanna of Navarre. This is her unforgettable tale.<br />
The Queen’s Choice by Anne O’Brien is published by<br />
MIRA on 14 January 2016, priced £12.99 (Hardcover),<br />
£7.99 (eBook)
Welcome <br />
Welcome<br />
to Issue 9 of <strong>Shakespeare</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong><br />
Photo: David Hammonds<br />
A few months ago I strolled into Bristol’s Odeon cinema, paid<br />
the princely sum of five pounds, took my seat in the front row,<br />
and settled down to watch Michael Fassbender and Marion<br />
Cotillard in the epic new film of <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s Macbeth.<br />
One evening soon after, I drove to the Bristol Cineworld, where<br />
I sat enthralled by the NT Live screening of Benedict Cumberbatch<br />
in Hamlet. Around the same time, we could have seen brilliant<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> spoof Bill in UK cinemas, while encore screenings of<br />
Tom Hiddleston’s Coriolanus were on the way. And screenings of Alex<br />
Hassell in Henry V and Kenneth Branagh and Judi Dench in The<br />
Winter’s Tale were not too far behind.<br />
Apart from enjoying these films and screenings myself, I’ve also<br />
enjoyed seeing the often delighted reactions of <strong>Shakespeare</strong> fans all<br />
over the world. And I’ve learned some interesting facts along the way.<br />
Did you know that Cumberbatch’s Hamlet was screened in 85% of<br />
UK cinemas? And that its biggest single audience was in Bristol? Not<br />
the screening I was at, but the Vue cinema over at Cribbs Causeway,<br />
where a staggering eight screens were packed out.<br />
To celebrate the rise and rise of <strong>Shakespeare</strong> on screen, this issue’s<br />
cover star is the superb Tom Hiddleston as Coriolanus.<br />
Let me also take the opportunity to wish you all a happy and<br />
rewarding 2016. Of course, it’s set to be another huge year for<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong>, so we’d better brace ourselves!<br />
Enjoy your magazine.<br />
Pat Reid, Founder & Editor<br />
SHAKESPEARE magazine 3
At last! A magazine with all the Will in the world<br />
SHAKESPEARE<br />
FREE<br />
Issue 9<br />
TOM<br />
HIDDLESTON<br />
From Henry V to Coriolanus:<br />
Say Hello to <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s<br />
Secret Weapon!<br />
Special issue<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong><br />
Issue Nine<br />
December 2015<br />
Founder & Editor<br />
Pat Reid<br />
Art Editor<br />
Paul McIntyre<br />
Staff Writers<br />
Brooke Thomas (UK)<br />
Mary Finch (US)<br />
Contributing Writers<br />
Helen Mears<br />
Kayleigh Töyrä<br />
Chief Photographer<br />
Piper Williams<br />
Thank You<br />
Mrs Mary Reid<br />
Mr Peter Robinson<br />
Ms Laura Pachkowski<br />
Web Design<br />
David Hammonds<br />
Contact Us<br />
shakespearemag@outlook.com<br />
Facebook<br />
facebook.com/<strong>Shakespeare</strong><strong>Magazine</strong><br />
Twitter<br />
@UK<strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
Annus<br />
Horribilis<br />
James Shapiro on<br />
1606: William<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> and<br />
the Year of Lear<br />
SHAKESPEARE AT THE CINEMA <br />
Coriolanus<br />
Hiddleston<br />
finds his<br />
killer instinct<br />
Macbeth<br />
A movie epic with<br />
Michael Fassbender<br />
and Marion Cotillard<br />
Website<br />
www.shakespearemagazine.com<br />
Newsletter<br />
http://tinyletter.com/shakespearemag<br />
Bill<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong>an<br />
comedy from the<br />
Horrible Histories crew<br />
Hamlet<br />
Benedict<br />
Cumberbatch<br />
on the big screen!<br />
Contents<br />
6 Lord of war<br />
The landmark that was<br />
Tom Hiddleston’s Donmar<br />
Warehouse Coriolanus.<br />
13<br />
“I play the<br />
man I am...”<br />
How <strong>Shakespeare</strong> helped<br />
<br />
Hiddleston’s stellar career.<br />
16 Sweet prince<br />
<br />
screenings, we look again at<br />
Cumberbatch’s Hamlet.<br />
20<br />
Mud, blood<br />
and fears<br />
A muscular Macbeth movie<br />
starring Michael Fassbender<br />
and Marion Cotillard.<br />
26<br />
All the<br />
king’s men<br />
World-renowned <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
scholar James Shapiro on his<br />
new book, 1606.<br />
30 A series of funny<br />
misunderstandings<br />
<br />
<br />
the people behind Bill.<br />
38<br />
Man and<br />
myth<br />
Paul Edmondson re-examines<br />
<br />
42<br />
“The glory of<br />
our art...”<br />
Gorgeous poster art book<br />
Presenting <strong>Shakespeare</strong>.<br />
4 SHAKESPEARE magazine
Coriolanus<br />
Due to massive popular demand,<br />
Tom Hiddleston’s Donmar Warehouse<br />
Coriolanus recently made a triumphant<br />
return to cinemas around the world.<br />
Our US correspondent caught it on the<br />
<br />
Words: Mary Finch<br />
Images: Johan Persson<br />
Lord<br />
of<br />
War<br />
6 SHAKESPEARE magazine
Coriolanus <br />
“Hiddleston<br />
embodied the<br />
extremes, contrasting<br />
his gentle appearance<br />
and voice with the<br />
harsh and bloody<br />
events of the play”<br />
<br />
SHAKESPEARE magazine 7
Coriolanus<br />
ast year in London, Donmar Warehouse’s staging of<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s Coriolanus made headlines not only for<br />
a powerful production, but because British movie star<br />
Tom Hiddleston played the title role, continuing the<br />
trend of big film actors tackling the Bard.<br />
Set in a nondescript modern war zone, the<br />
design of the production heightened the<br />
violence of the language and the action.<br />
But being tall, athletic and charming,<br />
Hiddleston hardly seems like a brutal warhardened<br />
soldier. His portrayal of Hal and<br />
<br />
Virgilia (Birgitte<br />
Hjort SØrensen) and<br />
Coriolanus (Tom<br />
Hiddleston).<br />
8 SHAKESPEARE magazine
Coriolanus <br />
Cominius (Peter<br />
De Jersey, left),<br />
Sicinia (Helen<br />
Schlesinger, above),<br />
Titus Lartius<br />
(Alfred Enoch,<br />
below).<br />
SHAKESPEARE magazine 9
Coriolanus<br />
Clockwise from<br />
left: Menenius (Mark<br />
Gatiss), Alfred Enoch<br />
in rehearsal, Brutus<br />
(Elliot Levey), Valeria<br />
(Jacqueline Boatswain).<br />
10 SHAKESPEARE magazine
Coriolanus <br />
“Actors remained<br />
on stage even when<br />
their characters<br />
were not in the<br />
scenes. The sparse<br />
set and costume<br />
design maintained<br />
a brutal simplicity”<br />
Henry V in The<br />
Hollow Crown TV<br />
series easily fitted<br />
his intense youthful<br />
demeanor, but Coriolanus<br />
seemed a bit of a stretch.<br />
Indeed, most of his film experience has<br />
been playing the soft-voiced villain (such as<br />
Loki in Marvel blockbusters Thor and The<br />
Avengers) or the smooth-faced gentleman<br />
(for example, Sir Thomas Sharpe in the<br />
recent Crimson Peak).<br />
But director Josie Rourke knew what<br />
she was doing. As is the case for so many<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> characters, Coriolanus is a<br />
constant contradiction and Hiddleston<br />
embodied the extremes in his performance,<br />
contrasting his gentle appearance and voice<br />
with the harsh and bloody events of the play.<br />
Coriolanus’ downfall is both his<br />
hardheaded pride and his compassion for<br />
his mother, Volumnia (Deborah Findlay).<br />
Because Hiddleston captured both aspects,<br />
the play truly felt tragic.<br />
His moments of intimacy with Virgilia<br />
(Birgitte Hjort Sørensen) and Volumnia read<br />
as sincere as his roaring against the tribunes<br />
Coriolanus and<br />
<br />
Fraser).<br />
and plebeians. Hiddleston’s Coriolanus was<br />
adorably amusing as he solicited for voices<br />
from the fickle citizens, while also being<br />
viciously terrifying in his delivery of “I<br />
banish you!”<br />
The intimacy of the Donmar space<br />
translated smoothly to the cinema screen for<br />
those of us watching around the world. But<br />
it was unapologetically a piece of theatre.<br />
The actors remained on stage even when<br />
their characters were not in the scenes, and<br />
<br />
SHAKESPEARE magazine 11
Coriolanus<br />
the sparse set and costume design<br />
maintained a brutal simplicity.<br />
While Hiddleston’s performance<br />
made the character a success, the<br />
supporting cast made the production<br />
a success. Perhaps best known as<br />
Mycroft in Sherlock, Mark Gatiss<br />
played Menenius as the politician you<br />
could love, while the tribunes Brutus and<br />
Sicinia (Elliot Levey and Helen Schlesinger)<br />
lent an Iago-like conspiratorial feel to their<br />
conniving conversations. As much as the<br />
audience hated them, we couldn’t help being<br />
drawn into their plans.<br />
Almost a year since seeing the<br />
production, many moments remain<br />
seared in my mind. Coriolanus dripping<br />
blood after the battle, physically and<br />
emotionally exhausted. Menenius losing his<br />
unquenchable optimism and determination<br />
12 SHAKESPEARE magazine<br />
Hiddleston’s<br />
Coriolanus at his<br />
blood-drenched<br />
zenith.<br />
after his failed intervention with Coriolanus.<br />
Aufidius (Hadley Fraser) shrewdly eyeing<br />
his enemy and choosing to forge a vengeful<br />
alliance. Volumnia facing down her son<br />
when all the men have given up hope.<br />
Ultimately, this production proves<br />
that Coriolanus deserves a place among<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s other great tragedies. And that<br />
Tom Hiddleston has the power to dominate<br />
the stage as well as the screen.
Tom Hiddleston <br />
“I play the<br />
man I am…”<br />
With his 2013 portrayal of Coriolanus at London’s<br />
Donmar Warehouse, Tom Hiddleston was acclaimed as<br />
one of the world’s most exciting <strong>Shakespeare</strong>an actors.<br />
However, the British star’s relationship with the Bard<br />
began much earlier in his career…<br />
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The Gathering<br />
Storm <br />
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“One critic described Hiddleston<br />
as riding <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s verse<br />
like an Olympic horseman”<br />
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SHAKESPEARE magazine 13
Tom Hiddleston<br />
“British <strong>Shakespeare</strong> legend Kenneth Branagh<br />
cast Hiddleston as the villainous Loki in his<br />
Marvel adventure Thor”<br />
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14 SHAKESPEARE magazine
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Hamlet<br />
Benedict<br />
Cumberbatch’s<br />
Hamlet captured<br />
the popular<br />
imagination and<br />
ignited a global<br />
media frenzy.<br />
Starring Benedict Cumberbatch,<br />
director Lyndsey Turner’s Hamlet<br />
at London’s Barbican was the<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> event of 2015. And<br />
then it was screened live to cinemas<br />
worldwide, which meant we all got<br />
to see what the fuss was about…<br />
Words: Kayleigh Töyrä<br />
Sweet<br />
Prince<br />
16 SHAKESPEARE magazine
Hamlet <br />
Hamlet is always going to be a tricky play<br />
to stage. Everyone, from theatre buffs to<br />
armchair <strong>Shakespeare</strong> scholars, has an idea of<br />
how Hamlet ought to be. Add an actor like<br />
Benedict Cumberbatch and naysayers start<br />
baying for blood – claiming his star quality<br />
detracts from the role, or that people are<br />
seeing the play for the ‘wrong’ reasons.<br />
Unquestionably droves of people flocked<br />
to London’s Barbican and to local cinemas<br />
to see Hamlet, but whether initial interest<br />
was because of Cumberbatch or not seems<br />
irrelevant – the production delivers a fresh<br />
and modern Hamlet. And, thanks to<br />
National Theatre Live broadcasting the play<br />
Hamlet (Benedict<br />
Cumberbatch) and<br />
Laertes (Kobna<br />
Holdbrook-Smith)<br />
in the eye of the<br />
rehearsal storm.<br />
in cinemas, big productions like this are now<br />
becoming accessible to a much wider range<br />
of audiences. And the screenings of Hamlet<br />
were a stunning success, with box office<br />
takings running into the millions.<br />
Presented by Sonia Friedman Productions<br />
and directed by Lyndsey Turner, the play is<br />
immediately distinguished by Es Devlin’s<br />
beautiful set design. The stage is elegant and<br />
suitably cinematic in its detail, and the 360<br />
degree filming means that NT Live audiences<br />
can fully appreciate the subtleties of staging.<br />
The ornate banquet table, the piano<br />
played by Ophelia (Siân Brooke), and the<br />
richly decorated walls evoke early twentieth-<br />
<br />
SHAKESPEARE magazine 17
Hamlet<br />
“Designed by Es Devlin, the<br />
stage is elegant and suitably<br />
cinematic in its detail”<br />
century European decadence. We first meet<br />
the royal couple Gertrude (Anastasia Hille)<br />
and Claudius (Ciarán Hinds) hosting a<br />
lavish dinner party in their palace, with the<br />
commandeering Claudius goading Hamlet<br />
in front of preening courtiers. This socially<br />
privileged world becomes increasingly fragile<br />
as revolution threatens to blow it all to pieces.<br />
Huge piles of rubble fill its floors, while<br />
soldiers brandishing guns run up and down<br />
the palace stairs.<br />
Against this backdrop, Cumberbatch<br />
plays a Hamlet who never loses his<br />
Sîan Brooke’s<br />
portrayal of<br />
Ophelia resonated<br />
powerfully with<br />
audiences.<br />
dignity nor his intellectual poise. Indeed,<br />
Cumberbatch is charming as Hamlet, even<br />
when manipulating the earnest Horatio<br />
(Leo Bill). Only in the scene where Hamlet<br />
is playing with toy soldiers do we see<br />
him slightly unravelling, but he quickly<br />
composes himself. Though by no means<br />
light-hearted, the production provides ample<br />
opportunity for laughter in the humour of<br />
the foolish Polonius (Jim Norton) and the<br />
witty gravedigger (Karl Johnson). Anastasia<br />
Hille plays Gertrude superbly, capturing her<br />
divided loyalties, whereas Ciarán Hinds’s<br />
Claudius is dictatorial yet strangely attractive.<br />
Siân Brooke’s Ophelia is heartbreakingly<br />
delicate and creative, clutching a camera<br />
and snapping photos. Her affection for<br />
Hamlet seems immature and her descent into<br />
madness is pitiful – she slowly disappears<br />
from sight as she clambers over rubble.<br />
The onset of war and madness is not<br />
only mapped by the palace’s decay, but also<br />
by increasingly dishevelled appearances<br />
as imagined by costume designer Katrina<br />
Lindsay. Gertrude in particular loses her<br />
stately poise, ending up distraught in a silk<br />
nightie. Credit is also due to the trio of Jane<br />
Cox (lighting), Christopher Shutt (sound)<br />
and Jon Hopkins (music), who maintain the<br />
tempo throughout, deftly transporting us<br />
through the play’s charged scenes.<br />
The production offers a refreshing take on<br />
a famously complex play, giving us a Hamlet<br />
which reverberates with our recent 20thcentury<br />
history of dictators, war and madness.<br />
And just as refreshing is the way in which<br />
NT Live is bringing this all within reach of so<br />
many more would-be theatre-goers.<br />
<br />
18 SHAKESPEARE magazine
Hour-Long <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
expertly abridged for performance and as an introduction to <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s greatest plays<br />
VOL ONE<br />
Henry IV, Part 1, Henry V AND Richard III<br />
VOL TWO<br />
Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth AND Julius Caesar<br />
‘Matthew Jenkinson’s careful alterations of some of <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s<br />
most important plays may give us less than 50% of each play’s<br />
lines, but they convey far more than that percentage of each play’s<br />
theatrical power. Moreover, they belong 100% to the highest<br />
traditions of both teaching and performing <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s plays’.<br />
Professor Michael Dobson, Director of the<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> Institute, Stratford-upon-<br />
Avon, and Professor of <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
Studies, University of Birmingham<br />
Order now from<br />
www.johncattbookshop.com<br />
Coming soon: Vol 3: A Midsummer<br />
Night’s Dream,<br />
Twelfth Night and<br />
The Tempest
Macbeth<br />
20 SHAKESPEARE magazine
Macbeth <br />
Macbeth (Michael<br />
Fassbender)<br />
broods over the<br />
bleak Scottish<br />
landscape,<br />
Starring Michael Fassbender and Marion<br />
Cotillard, director Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth is<br />
a cinematic feast of majestic Scottish scenery<br />
and brutal <strong>Shakespeare</strong>an violence.<br />
Words: Kayleigh Töyrä<br />
SHAKESPEARE magazine 21
Macbeth<br />
eeing Macbeth on the big screen is<br />
rather a revelation. The potential<br />
of cinematically depicting the<br />
play’s rugged Scottish setting and<br />
pitched battles sets it on a different<br />
path from the more domestic<br />
explorations that have become<br />
current in theatres.<br />
This on-screen Macbeth is less about the<br />
twisted psychology of guilt, and more about<br />
the brutal Highland culture and the physical<br />
trappings of kingship. The initial battle<br />
scenes and the misty isolated village where<br />
Lady Macbeth (Marion Cotillard) prays and<br />
waits for her husband, are in stark contrast<br />
with the later vast cavernous palace and royal<br />
bedchamber. Despite its refined setting,<br />
Macbeth’s kingship offers him no respite – his<br />
crimes become more insidious, his mind more<br />
tortured.<br />
The film’s re-iteration of violence and<br />
blood makes for uncomfortable viewing. Yet<br />
the violence constantly intermingles with long<br />
lingering shots of the scenery, and beautiful<br />
music. Even battle scenes are filled with stylised<br />
shots, in a way that aestheticises the violence.<br />
In a similar way, the three screenwriters, Jacob<br />
Koskoff, Michael Leslie and Todd Louiso,<br />
maintain the aesthetics of <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s words<br />
and the beautiful cadences of his verse. The<br />
brutality is poetic, never gratuitous.<br />
Michael Fassbender makes a stately, serious<br />
<br />
Fassbender and<br />
Cotillard as the<br />
regal Macbeths.<br />
22 SHAKESPEARE magazine
MacbethI <br />
Fassbender’s<br />
Macbeth is every<br />
inch a battlehardened<br />
warrior.<br />
“Duncan’s death<br />
is visceral and<br />
messy – the perfect<br />
embodiment<br />
of the horror<br />
of murderous<br />
ambition”<br />
SHAKESPEARE magazine 23
Macbeth<br />
“Lady Macbeth’s<br />
languidness is<br />
mesmerising. She<br />
makes us feel the<br />
terror of Macbeth<br />
spinning out of<br />
control”<br />
Macbeth who transforms from bloodstained<br />
warrior into evil tyrant. His Macbeth is<br />
attractively brooding and mysterious, though<br />
his apparent pleasure in burning Macduff’s<br />
family at the stake alienates him from the<br />
audience rather definitively. Marion Cotillard<br />
is beautiful as Lady Macbeth, though a few of<br />
her speeches lack energy and vigour.<br />
The interesting choice of starting the film<br />
with the Macbeths’ child’s funeral means that<br />
Lady Macbeth’s background is that of grief,<br />
not of blind ambition. Her languidness is<br />
mesmerising and, in her poised interactions<br />
with him, she makes us feel the terror of<br />
Macbeth spinning out of control. Eventually,<br />
the shock of Macbeth’s actions leaves Lady<br />
Macbeth speechless and she increasingly<br />
disappears from sight, dying quietly. The sexual<br />
chemistry between the two is convincing in its<br />
easy, familiar manner, and Macbeth holds her<br />
dead body like he once embraced her.<br />
Macduff is brilliantly played by Sean<br />
Harris, whose clipped heroism conveys his<br />
integrity as a staunch family man. In his final<br />
slaying of Macbeth in an epic sword battle,<br />
his pain of losing his family is transformed<br />
Marion Cotillard’s<br />
nuanced portrayal of<br />
Lady Macbeth was<br />
widely praised.<br />
into murderous rage. Similarly David Thewlis<br />
gives us the perfect King Duncan, noble yet<br />
diffident, whose death is visceral and messy<br />
– the perfect embodiment of the horror of<br />
murderous ambition.<br />
The witches (Seylan Baxter, Lynn Kennedy,<br />
Kayla Fallon and Amber Rissmann) are one<br />
of the film’s true triumphs. They appear<br />
and disappear in the fog like a dream and<br />
are a flawless blend of the supernatural and<br />
the earthly. The sense of female wisdom<br />
and regeneration, demonstrated by their<br />
growing brood, provides a thought-provoking<br />
counterbalance to the masculine powerbrokering<br />
of the Scottish kingdom. By giving<br />
young Fleance (Lochlann Harris) such a<br />
prominent role in the story’s ending, the film<br />
celebrates the witches’ powerful understanding.<br />
Just like the witches, it seems, the film hails<br />
the coming of the next generation, underlining<br />
the cyclical nature of a history fuelled by<br />
ambition and violence.<br />
<br />
24 SHAKESPEARE magazine
Planning to perform<br />
a short selection<br />
from <strong>Shakespeare</strong>?<br />
The 30-Minute <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
Anthology contains 18 abridged<br />
scenes, including monologues, from<br />
18 of <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s best-known plays.<br />
Every scene features interpretive stage<br />
directions and detailed performance<br />
and monologue notes, all “road tested”<br />
at the Folger <strong>Shakespeare</strong> Library’s<br />
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<br />
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educator. Newlin is a staunch advocate for students learning<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> through performance.” —Library Journal<br />
The 30-Minute <strong>Shakespeare</strong> Anthology<br />
includes one scene with monologue<br />
from each of these plays:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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THE 30-MINUTE SHAKESPEARE is an acclaimed series of abridgments that tell the story of each play while keeping the beauty of<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s language intact. The scenes and monologues in this anthology have been selected with both teachers and students in<br />
mind, providing a complete toolkit for an unforgettable performance, audition, or competition.<br />
NICK NEWLIN has performed a comedy and variety act for international audiences for more than 30 years. Since 1996, he has<br />
conducted an annual teaching artist residency with the Folger <strong>Shakespeare</strong> Library in Washington, D.C.<br />
The 30-Minute <strong>Shakespeare</strong> series is available in print and ebook format at retailers<br />
and as downloadable PDFs from 30Minute<strong>Shakespeare</strong>.com.
Interview: James Shapiro<br />
James Shapiro’s 1606<br />
depicts <strong>Shakespeare</strong> at<br />
a creative crossroads<br />
during a troubled time<br />
for England.<br />
26 SHAKESPEARE magazine
Interview: James Shapiro <br />
All the<br />
King’s Men<br />
James Shapiro discovered so much about <strong>Shakespeare</strong> when<br />
exploring a single year, 1599, that he resolved to repeat the<br />
process. The result is a new book, 1606: William <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
and the Year of Lear, that opens a window into <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s<br />
stellar career as a King’s Man during the reign of James I.<br />
Interview by Pat Reid<br />
Author photo by Mary Creggan<br />
You’ve said that your<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> journey began<br />
when you were visiting<br />
London in the late ’70s<br />
and you got hooked on<br />
watching <strong>Shakespeare</strong> plays<br />
– seeing literally hundreds<br />
of productions in the space<br />
of a few years. Is this what<br />
propelled your approach<br />
as an academic – taking<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> studies out of<br />
the ivory tower and returning<br />
it to the sweaty cockpit of<br />
London’s theatreland?<br />
“I’ve never really thought of those<br />
two sides of my identity – cultural<br />
historian and theatergoer – as quite<br />
so separate as your question implies.<br />
They are really complementary. It’s<br />
true that I didn’t enjoy <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
in high school and never took a<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> course at university,<br />
and only became interested in<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> after seeing scores of<br />
productions in the late ’70s and early<br />
’80s in London and Stratford-upon-<br />
Avon. But seeing those performances<br />
made me all the more eager to<br />
investigate the circumstances of their<br />
creation. I’ve spent the past three<br />
decades in archives on both sides of<br />
the Atlantic delving deeply into how<br />
those plays were a product of their<br />
times. Over the past few years I’ve<br />
summed the circle, and now spend<br />
a good deal of my time advising<br />
theater companies about the cultural<br />
pressures that helped shape the<br />
plays.”<br />
When your book 1599 came<br />
out a decade ago, it felt like<br />
a periscope into the past.<br />
Readers like myself were<br />
excited and inspired by how<br />
it allowed us to imagine<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s life and work<br />
in the context of a historical<br />
moment.<br />
“I stumbled on the idea about<br />
writing about a single year quite<br />
by accident. I felt that I needed<br />
to learn everything I could about<br />
<br />
SHAKESPEARE magazine 27
Interview: James Shapiro<br />
“James I didn’t really understand his<br />
English subjects, and couldn’t control<br />
Parliament as Elizabeth had”<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> and his world – what he<br />
read, what was going on politically<br />
and economically at the time,<br />
how <strong>Shakespeare</strong> got to and from<br />
Stratford, even what the weather<br />
was like. I had to set a limit, of<br />
course, and the one I chose was<br />
chronological – stick to one year.<br />
I chose 1599 because that was the<br />
year in which the Globe Theatre was<br />
built. It took me 15 years to research<br />
and write that book, and by the end<br />
of that time I had a much clearer<br />
understanding of <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s<br />
working conditions – and a finished<br />
manuscript that I could share<br />
with others equally curious about<br />
experiencing his world in this way.”<br />
In 1599 there was a strong<br />
sense of anxiety and paranoia<br />
about current events – the<br />
Spanish threat, unrest<br />
in Ireland, the Queen’s<br />
declining years – that fed<br />
into <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s output<br />
during that time. In 1606,<br />
if anything, the situation in<br />
England is even worse?<br />
“In retrospect, the crises of 1599<br />
quickly passed. Within five years the<br />
Irish rebels were crushed, a peace<br />
treaty was signed with Spain, and<br />
the aging and childless Queen was<br />
succeeded by James VI of Scotland,<br />
who had a male heir and a spare –<br />
Prince Henry and Prince Charles.<br />
The problems of 1606 would not be<br />
resolved quite so easily. The Union<br />
of Scotland and England, which<br />
James so avidly promoted, would<br />
not occur for another century. The<br />
aftermath of that failed terrorist<br />
attempt to topple the king and<br />
destroy the royal family and the<br />
nation’s political and religious elite –<br />
the Gunpowder Plot – would leave<br />
deep scars. The great hopes for the<br />
Jacobean regime were all but over by<br />
the end of this year.”<br />
You’ve been a prime mover<br />
in encouraging readers to<br />
think about the Jacobean<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> who succeeded<br />
the Elizabethan one. For<br />
many of us it’s still a<br />
revelation that <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
was not only alive during the<br />
Gunpowder Plot, but that<br />
in Macbeth he apparently<br />
penned a response to it…<br />
“I began as one of those scholars<br />
who always spoke of <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
as an Elizabethan, never fully<br />
acknowledging that he spent the<br />
last decade of his writing life as a<br />
King’s Man, in a playing company<br />
patronized by James himself.<br />
And in my book on 1599 I only<br />
reinforced the image of <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
as an Elizabethan. So I’ve spent<br />
much of the last decade trying to<br />
make amends, first researching<br />
and presenting a three-hour BBC<br />
documentary on the Jacobean<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong>, then writing a book<br />
about a remarkable Jacobean year.”<br />
It’s also staggering to think<br />
that Macbeth, Antony and<br />
Cleopatra and King Lear<br />
could all have been written<br />
in the same year. Would this<br />
have been mind-blowing for<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s colleagues and<br />
audiences? Or just business as<br />
usual in the rapid-turnover<br />
world of the Jacobean<br />
playhouse?<br />
“If I recall correctly, Thomas Dekker<br />
wrote or collaborated on ten or more<br />
plays in 1599. Writing three plays a<br />
year was not unusual for Elizabethan<br />
and Jacobean dramatists, nor had it<br />
been for <strong>Shakespeare</strong> from, say, 1595<br />
to 1599… But the years between<br />
Hamlet and Lear were fallow ones<br />
for <strong>Shakespeare</strong>, in which he wrote<br />
one or at most two plays a year. He<br />
tended to write plays in inspired<br />
bunches (and would again in 1611-<br />
12 when he wrote three romances<br />
– Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and<br />
The Tempest). We’re just fortunate<br />
that he found his footing in 1606<br />
and wrote three remarkable – and<br />
quite different – tragedies.”<br />
As an addendum to the<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> Authorship<br />
Question you addressed in the<br />
excellent Contested Will, I’ve<br />
noticed a growing number<br />
of people who’ve chosen<br />
to believe <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
was a Catholic or Catholic<br />
sympathiser. What do you<br />
think about this? While<br />
researching 1606, did you find<br />
anything that might support<br />
or disprove this notion?<br />
“Most of the evidentiary claims<br />
for the Catholic <strong>Shakespeare</strong> have<br />
been demolished of late. My own<br />
position is that we don’t and can’t<br />
know with any confidence what<br />
he professed. His religious beliefs<br />
remain hidden from us, and anyone<br />
28 SHAKESPEARE magazine
Interview: James Shapiro <br />
who claims otherwise is reading the<br />
life through the work, or projecting<br />
onto <strong>Shakespeare</strong> things they want<br />
to believe about him.”<br />
How did your view of King<br />
James evolve while you<br />
were exploring 1606? Did he<br />
deserve the “wisest fool in<br />
Christendom” tag that history<br />
has given him?<br />
“That’s a great question. I remain<br />
of two minds about James. I have<br />
enormous respect for his intellect<br />
and he was surely the best writer<br />
ever to sit on the English throne. He<br />
also handled the aftermath of the<br />
Gunpowder Plot quite well, refusing<br />
to listen to those who wanted to<br />
crack down on his Catholic subjects.<br />
But as smart as he was, James was<br />
also profligate, didn’t much enjoy<br />
the day-to-day business of ruling<br />
(preferring to let others handle that<br />
while he spent his days hunting), and<br />
wasn’t much of a husband or father. I<br />
could excuse all that if he had learned<br />
how to become a better king, but by<br />
the end of 1606 it was clear that he<br />
didn’t really understand his English<br />
subjects, didn’t know how to control<br />
Parliament as Elizabeth had, and had<br />
failed to fulfill the high hopes the<br />
English had in him.”<br />
You’ve spoken eloquently<br />
about how the word<br />
‘equivocation’ changed its<br />
meaning for <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
between Hamlet and Macbeth.<br />
Did you encounter any other<br />
words that underwent similar<br />
transformations in or around<br />
1606?<br />
“It’s really unusual for the primary<br />
meaning of a word to undergo such<br />
a sea-change in so short a timespan<br />
as ‘equivocation’ did in the aftermath<br />
of the Gunpowder Plot. There are<br />
other words that underwent shifts in<br />
meaning at this time – ‘individual’ is<br />
one – but those alterations typically<br />
take decades. It’s fascinating tracking<br />
these changes in the Oxford English<br />
Dictionary as well as in new scholarly<br />
tools like the database Early English<br />
Books Online.”<br />
You’ve recently been involved<br />
in taking a production of<br />
Macbeth into prisons in New<br />
York. This made me think two<br />
things: how admirable to bring<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> to some of the<br />
most disenfranchised people<br />
in the US – and weren’t you<br />
afraid a riot would break out?<br />
“Having spent a few afternoons in<br />
prisons and jails of late, I’m struck<br />
time and again by the graciousness<br />
that those who are incarcerated have<br />
extended to the actors. I’ve never felt<br />
threatened or scared. Jails, especially<br />
ones like Rikers Island in New York,<br />
can be awful places to be imprisoned.<br />
But the Public Theater’s Mobile<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> Initiative, which visits<br />
these facilities, has never had anything<br />
but the warmest reception. Like<br />
all playgoers at good productions,<br />
inmates are quickly engrossed. And<br />
unlike performances in the West End<br />
or Broadway, in prisons the magic of<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> is never disrupted by the<br />
ringing of cell phones.”<br />
Macbeth is the only one<br />
of <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s works to<br />
contain either the word<br />
‘rhinoceros’ or the word<br />
‘rhubarb’. What’s the most<br />
absurdly interesting thing<br />
about <strong>Shakespeare</strong> or his<br />
works you’ve learned from<br />
immersing yourself in 1606?<br />
“Another great question. It would<br />
have to be a fresh discovery that<br />
changes our view of <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s<br />
sociability. Until this past year,<br />
surviving anecdotes about<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> often portray him as<br />
someone who shied away from<br />
company (at least according to reports<br />
by neighbors in Stratford-upon-<br />
Avon). But a researcher in Edinburgh<br />
has recently unearthed a document<br />
from the 1640s that describes how<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> (along with Ben Jonson<br />
and fellow actors Richard Burbage<br />
and Laurence Fletcher “and the rest<br />
of their roistering associates in King<br />
James’s time”) had “cut” his name on<br />
the paneling of the famous Tabard<br />
Inn in Southwark. The discovery<br />
allows us to imagine a different sort<br />
of <strong>Shakespeare</strong> – a popular actor<br />
who enjoyed drinking with friends,<br />
one who was happy to join them in<br />
carving autographs on the wall of a<br />
favourite pub.”<br />
<br />
Get James Shapiro’s new book<br />
UK: published by Faber as<br />
1606: William <strong>Shakespeare</strong> and<br />
the Year of Lear.<br />
USA: published by Simon<br />
& Schuster as The Year of Lear:<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> in 1606.<br />
SHAKESPEARE magazine 29
Bill<br />
“People will<br />
remember the name<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong>…<br />
twenty years from<br />
now!” Mathew<br />
Baynton as the<br />
overly-optimistic<br />
Bill <strong>Shakespeare</strong>.<br />
30 SHAKESPEARE magazine
Bill <br />
A Series<br />
of Funny<br />
Misunderstandings<br />
From the Horrible Histories crew, the<br />
brilliantly funny Bill<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Words: Brooke Thomas<br />
SHAKESPEARE magazine 31
Bill<br />
Testing times for<br />
Bill <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
and Christopher<br />
Marlowe (Jim<br />
Howick, right).Laurence Rickard and Ben<br />
Willbond’s vision of <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
couldn’t be further from<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> in Love’s swaggering<br />
sex god artiste. He’s also very<br />
different from the mature<br />
playwright we know from the<br />
ubiquitous Chandos portrait.<br />
Bill is more of a naive and<br />
bumbling dreamer type – an<br />
Elizabethan Del Boy, if you will.<br />
He’s confident that this time next<br />
year his talent will have made the<br />
family rich. Even if he’s not quite<br />
sure what his talent is yet.<br />
The Horrible Histories team channel true<br />
comedy greats in their first feature-length film.<br />
There are moments that echo Monty Python,<br />
others that are pure Mel Brooks on History<br />
of the World: Part I form, and plenty of stuff<br />
that’s unique to this delightful company. It’s a<br />
testament to the team’s comedic bravery that<br />
the title character, the great and wonderful<br />
Bard with a capital ‘B’, spends half of the film<br />
dressed as a tomato.<br />
Bill (Mathew Baynton) is a failed lute<br />
player. The band that throw him out, Mortal<br />
Coil, are more Mumford and Sons than<br />
‘Greensleeves’, but even they can’t handle Bill’s<br />
idiosyncratic style. Much to the dismay of his<br />
wife Anne (Martha Howe-Douglas), Bill takes<br />
off for “that London” hoping to sell a play. The<br />
only problem is he can’t write for toffee and<br />
plague has closed the playhouses. Anne just<br />
wishes he’d grow up and get a real job.<br />
32 SHAKESPEARE magazine
Bill <br />
Bill screenwriters and<br />
co-stars Ben Willbond<br />
and Laurence Rickard<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Laurence: “There was one that<br />
got cut from a really early scene.<br />
Bill’s talking to Anne on the hillside<br />
and it was just a really geeky thing,<br />
it was a detail I really remembered<br />
from school. When he said he was<br />
going to get another job, she said<br />
‘Oh, you’re going to go work for your<br />
father, because people always need<br />
gloves.’ I love those rich little nuggets<br />
of history. I think there’s plenty in the<br />
film.”<br />
Ben: “There’s too much in the end.<br />
We couldn’t cram enough in, really.”<br />
Bad guys<br />
Walsingham<br />
(Laurence<br />
Rickard, above)<br />
and King Philip<br />
II of Spain (Ben<br />
Willbond, below).<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Ben: “I do like Much Ado. It’s perfect.<br />
It’s farcical, it has misunderstandings,<br />
highs and lows, assorted love<br />
stories…”<br />
Laurence: “I think that’d be good.<br />
I’d like to do a Merry Wives as well,<br />
because Falstaff is just…”<br />
Ben: “I was hoping that one day<br />
you’d give us your Hamlet.”<br />
Laurence: “I think you might have<br />
to keep hoping on that one. For the<br />
love of <strong>Shakespeare</strong> I will not do<br />
Hamlet.”<br />
SHAKESPEARE magazine 33
Bill<br />
Multi-talented cast members<br />
Simon Farnaby, Jim Howick<br />
and Martha Howe-Douglas<br />
Anne <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
(Martha Howe-<br />
<br />
herself on a certain<br />
iconic London stage.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Simon: “No, not at all, because I think he<br />
would have approved. <strong>Shakespeare</strong> himself<br />
wrote historical plays and I’m sure not<br />
everything he said about, for example, King<br />
Richard III was true. He took dramatic licence<br />
and never let facts get in the way of a good<br />
story. We’ve kind of done the same with<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s story… We fill in the gaps in a<br />
very creative and interesting way.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Martha: “Collecting bodies.”<br />
Jim: “Probably a minstrel of some kind or a<br />
jester. I’d be some sort of servant man, maybe<br />
a messenger.”<br />
Simon: “I’d be a – probably a prostitute.<br />
I mean, it’s an easy way to make some money,<br />
you’d get to hang around the court a bit…”<br />
Martha: “I think you could be an<br />
innkeeper.”<br />
Simon: “Yeah!”<br />
<br />
<br />
to Bill<br />
<br />
Jim: “Hamlet the Dane, I think. To give a sort<br />
of Horrible Histories interpretation of Hamlet<br />
would be quite fun.”<br />
Martha: “I like The Taming of the Shrew, so I<br />
wouldn’t mind giving that a bash.”<br />
Simon: “I’d like to do a comedic Richard III.”<br />
Jim: “Hasn’t that already been done?”<br />
Simon: “Has it? Who’s done it?”<br />
Jim: “I did it.”<br />
Simon: “You!”<br />
Jim: “But not a <strong>Shakespeare</strong>an one.”<br />
Simon: “Yeah I’d actually do it, ‘Now is the<br />
winter of our discontent…’”<br />
Martha: “Well, now everybody’s heard that<br />
you never know, do you?”<br />
Simon: “Yeah, it might be snapped up.”<br />
34 SHAKESPEARE magazine
BillI <br />
Queen Elizabeth I<br />
(Helen McCrory) faces<br />
a dastardly Spanish plot.<br />
Meanwhile, tension is growing between<br />
Elizabeth I (Helen McCrory) and King Philip<br />
II of Spain (Ben Willbond). The latter hatches<br />
a plot to kill the Queen and sails to England<br />
with a gang of villainous ne’er do wells. Before<br />
long, poor hapless Bill, his mentor Marlowe<br />
(Jim Howick), and long-suffering Anne are<br />
embroiled in the evil scheme. The play’s the<br />
thing to kill a queen, and Bill’s work is hijacked<br />
by the Spanish and their new accomplice the<br />
Earl of Croydon (Simon Farnaby).<br />
Even though the film is, of course, full of<br />
inaccuracies and anachronisms (the scheme to<br />
kill Queen Elizabeth resembles the gunpowder<br />
plot that was aimed at her successor, for<br />
example) it’s also rife with nerdy easter eggs.<br />
Many of <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s great works are quoted<br />
directly, and one of the funniest lines comes<br />
from Kit Marlowe arranging a meet-up at The<br />
Bull’s Head in Deptford. “It’s quite safe,” he<br />
says confidently.<br />
It’s silly, very silly, and there’s no time<br />
to catch your breath between jokes. At one<br />
point, on a beach strewn with bodies and with<br />
fear of a murderous regicidal plot seizing the<br />
country, Walsingham declares “The game is<br />
<br />
SHAKESPEARE magazine 35
Bill<br />
“It’s a delightful comedy that has<br />
echoes of everything from Monty<br />
Python to Mel Brooks”<br />
afoot!” while holding a disembodied leg. The<br />
death scene with the most heartstring-tugging<br />
potential is deflated by the best-timed ‘your<br />
mum’ joke in history. You’ll groan as often as<br />
you laugh, but that’s expected. The writers play<br />
up to it with knowing nods, and, alongside the<br />
more innovative humour, the groan-worthy<br />
puns manage to feel fresh.<br />
This ensemble is as used to playing<br />
multiple roles in a single piece as <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s<br />
own actors would have been. It’s a true<br />
joy to watch them playing such a range of<br />
characters with such a dizzying array of silly<br />
accents. Although each and every character<br />
has stand-out moments, Walsingham, one of<br />
Larry Rickard’s parts, steals every scene he’s<br />
in, especially when he’s hiding. Songs are a<br />
staple for the Horrible Histories and ‘A Series of<br />
Croydon (Simon<br />
Farnaby) seems to<br />
be doing an early<br />
version of Macbeth<br />
in Bill’s play.<br />
Funny Misunderstandings’ brilliantly sends up<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s comedic tropes.<br />
This is the rare kind of film that pretty<br />
much everyone can enjoy. Adults as well as<br />
kids, <strong>Shakespeare</strong> fans and people who don’t<br />
give a plague rat’s arse about Early Modern<br />
theatre. It’s a witty, irreverent send-up of all<br />
the period dramas we’ve seen before, as well as<br />
a unique comic story in its own right. A great<br />
family comedy and a unique addition to the<br />
every growing <strong>Shakespeare</strong> ‘lost years’ mythos.<br />
We hope that Bill isn’t the last <strong>Shakespeare</strong>inspired<br />
project this talented team take on.<br />
<br />
36 SHAKESPEARE magazine
Ever wished you could walk in<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s footsteps?<br />
Now you can!<br />
The <strong>Shakespeare</strong> Trail is published by Amberley Publishing, priced £20 hardback.<br />
It is available from bookshops, or you can order your copy online.<br />
ORDER NOW
Interview: Paul Edmondson<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> scholar<br />
<br />
<br />
38 SHAKESPEARE magazine
Interview: Paul Edmondson <br />
Man<br />
and<br />
Myth<br />
Paul Edmondson of the <strong>Shakespeare</strong> Birthplace Trust is the<br />
author of , an eminently readable<br />
introduction to the Bard. We met Paul in Stratford-upon-<br />
<br />
centuries-old facts of <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s life.<br />
Interview by Pat Reid<br />
<br />
At one point, Paul, you had<br />
no less than five <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
books in the pipeline. Let’s talk<br />
about just one…<br />
“<strong>Shakespeare</strong>: Ideas in Profile is<br />
published by Profile Books, who<br />
published Eats, Shoots & Leaves. It’s<br />
a book about <strong>Shakespeare</strong> for the<br />
general reader, it’s about 40,000<br />
words long, and it’s divided into six<br />
chapters. The first is biographical, it’s<br />
called ‘What was his life like?’ The<br />
second chapter is ‘How did he write?’<br />
The third chapter is ‘What did he<br />
write?’ The fourth chapter is called<br />
‘The Power of <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’, and puts<br />
over some of the great themes to be<br />
found in the works. The fifth chapter<br />
is called ‘Encountering <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’,<br />
which considers things like theatre<br />
reviewing and how we might do it,<br />
reading <strong>Shakespeare</strong> aloud, thinking<br />
<br />
SHAKESPEARE magazine 39
Interview: Paul Edmondson<br />
about <strong>Shakespeare</strong> in performance<br />
and the various changes that a director<br />
may take a text through. And the final<br />
chapter is called ‘Why <strong>Shakespeare</strong>?’,<br />
which is about the after-effect of<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> on international culture<br />
over the last 400 years.”<br />
Did you have a personal<br />
<br />
“It was an opportunity for me to really<br />
share my enthusiasm for <strong>Shakespeare</strong>,<br />
and to write the book I perhaps wish<br />
I’d most been able to read when I<br />
was setting out on the <strong>Shakespeare</strong>an<br />
journey. It was very interesting to<br />
visit, as directly as I do, the whole<br />
world of <strong>Shakespeare</strong> biography. This<br />
is something I have published on<br />
before, and obviously it’s something<br />
the Birthplace Trust is very interested<br />
in because of the way we present<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> – in part – through the<br />
five <strong>Shakespeare</strong> houses and the many<br />
documents we care for here from the<br />
time. But I revisited all of this afresh,<br />
and I hope for chapter one I’ve really<br />
brought some fresh sidelights and<br />
some fresh illumination on what<br />
might be considered old facts.”<br />
<br />
examples of how you’ve been<br />
<br />
<br />
“I can. One of the other books I’ve<br />
been working on is about New Place,<br />
which is the house that <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
purchased in the centre of Stratford<br />
in 1597. We’ve been doing an<br />
archaeological dig there, so that book<br />
is about the dig, and that’s coming<br />
out from Manchester University Press<br />
in 2016. So perhaps that’s another<br />
conversation. But that is the big<br />
project for the <strong>Shakespeare</strong> Birthplace<br />
Trust in 2016, to re-present the site<br />
of New Place. And it’s very much a<br />
world-focused <strong>Shakespeare</strong> project,<br />
because we’re the only people who can<br />
do that – the site where he died, the<br />
site of his family home.<br />
“And in recent years, when you<br />
look at <strong>Shakespeare</strong>an biography, there<br />
is a renaissance in how New Place<br />
has come to be considered as part of<br />
his life. And one of the things I have<br />
sought to challenge, and which our<br />
re-presentation of New Place seeks<br />
to challenge, is this old crustacean of<br />
biography that is ‘Oh, he left his wife<br />
and family and went and did all of his<br />
work in London, and then retired back<br />
to Stratford’.<br />
“You hear that phrase ‘retired<br />
back to Stratford’ every day from the<br />
mouths of tour guides as you walk<br />
around Stratford, and every time I<br />
hear it I wince. Because if you owned<br />
a house the size of New Place from as<br />
early in your career – he’s 33 when he<br />
acquires New Place – there’s no way<br />
you’d spend most of your time away<br />
from it – it just wouldn’t be how you<br />
would wish to live.”<br />
What do you think New Place<br />
<br />
“It was a status symbol, his wife and<br />
family were there. Other members<br />
of his family… his brothers never<br />
married, so what did they do after<br />
1601, after <strong>Shakespeare</strong> leased his<br />
father’s family home, the Birthplace,<br />
“I wanted to write the book I wish<br />
I’d been able to read when I was<br />
starting the <strong>Shakespeare</strong> journey”<br />
which he’d inherited, to become a<br />
pub? They had to live somewhere,<br />
so my guess is that the extended<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> family were living in the<br />
large New Place.<br />
“It took three to four days to<br />
travel from Stratford to London, and<br />
one of the things I wanted to do in<br />
my opening chapter is to build up a<br />
picture – and I’m not the first to do<br />
this – to emphasise <strong>Shakespeare</strong> as a<br />
literary commuter, somebody who<br />
got back to Stratford when he could.<br />
Here, one can start to imagine what<br />
his library looked like, a place for<br />
his books, a centre of stillness, to get<br />
away from it all, from the hectic life<br />
of professional theatre. And a place of<br />
retreat, to write and to think.”<br />
<br />
is quite different to how he’s<br />
<br />
“It’s all too tempting to imagine<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> as an inky-fingered Joseph<br />
Fiennes, dashing off a sonnet, writing<br />
the next speech at the drop of a hat,<br />
and actually nothing can be further<br />
from the truth. When you look at<br />
the works carefully, he had books<br />
around him when he was writing<br />
some of those plays. Some of the plays<br />
directly lift from the source material –<br />
reshaping it, of course. I write about<br />
this in ‘How did he write?’ – the<br />
transforming power of his imagination<br />
on the sources he was using, and the<br />
sources he needed.<br />
“So New Place for me is a place<br />
of books, a place of writing, and<br />
therefore a place that <strong>Shakespeare</strong> used<br />
as a literary base as well as a family<br />
home. Over the time he was working<br />
in London, isn’t it interesting that he<br />
doesn’t have a permanent home in<br />
London for the whole of those 20 or<br />
30 years? He’s moving around different<br />
parishes… He does buy the Blackfriars<br />
Gatehouse towards the end of his life –<br />
of course, he didn’t know it was going<br />
40 SHAKESPEARE magazine
Interview: Paul Edmondson <br />
to be the end of his life. But he doesn’t<br />
seem to have lived there, it seems to<br />
have been a financial investment. So<br />
that’s definitely something I wanted to<br />
point on.”<br />
You mentioned that you’ve<br />
<br />
some of the stories about<br />
<br />
18th century…<br />
“When we look at Rowe, three really<br />
interesting things still resonate with<br />
me from Nicholas Rowe’s account.<br />
One is that around about 1594 the<br />
Earl of Southampton gives him a<br />
thousand pounds. Which is amazing<br />
and fascinating. It would explain<br />
how he could afford the shares in the<br />
Lord Chamberlain’s Men around that<br />
time. It would also explain how he<br />
could afford to buy New Place a few<br />
years later. And then, of course, when<br />
his father dies, he makes even more<br />
financial investments, which suggests<br />
his father was not impoverished, as<br />
people often say. Maybe he had money<br />
from the wool dealings. This has been<br />
suggested by the scholar David Fallow<br />
from the University of Exeter, and I<br />
mention him in my book.<br />
“The other two things from Rowe,<br />
though, are the deer poaching at<br />
Charlecote – I have no immediate<br />
objection that that shouldn’t be true in<br />
some way. And [the third is] William<br />
Davenant, who liked to say he was<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s illegitimate son. So I<br />
look a little bit afresh at those.”<br />
And you look into some of the<br />
more ‘nuts and bolts’ aspects<br />
<br />
“The first chapter is also about his life<br />
in the professional theatre, and I think<br />
that’s fascinating, to look at how his<br />
output was shaped by the demands<br />
of the company. And then ‘How<br />
did he write?’ is about the books he<br />
needed in order to produce the work,<br />
the actors he was working with, the<br />
stage conditions that affected what<br />
he was able to produce, as well as the<br />
shaping power of his imagination<br />
using the sources… Even down to<br />
him using home-made ink from oak<br />
apples, mixed with water or wine or<br />
vinegar – you know, and having to<br />
sharpen his quill every so often. It’s the<br />
kind of hardware that we find almost<br />
impossible to imagine now, but that’s<br />
what <strong>Shakespeare</strong> had to use.<br />
As for the actual content of<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s plays, how do<br />
<br />
“‘What did he write?’ looks at things<br />
such as how the canon divides up<br />
generically – and why that should be<br />
the case, and is that helpful? – and the<br />
plays he worked on in collaboration<br />
with other people.<br />
“And I look in that chapter<br />
especially at The Two Gentlemen<br />
of Verona. The play is often talked<br />
about as a slight work, but we can<br />
see the origins of what <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
then goes on to produce. The theme<br />
that Proteus is the emergence of the<br />
malcontent figure – Iago, Richard<br />
III, Iachimo and so on. And so I look<br />
at The Two Gentlemen of Verona as<br />
carrying essential DNA for the rest of<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s output. That was a really<br />
lovely thing to be able to write about<br />
– I’ve always loved that play, I once<br />
played Valentine in it. And it’s nice to<br />
write about the dog, Crab, as well…”<br />
<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong>: Ideas in Profile by<br />
Paul Edmondson is published by<br />
Profile Books, priced £8.99<br />
SHAKESPEARE magazine 41
Presenting <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
“The Glory<br />
of our Art…” Macbeth<br />
(III, 5)<br />
Containing 1,100 posters from productions past and present, new book<br />
Presenting <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s global sweep encompasses the strange, the<br />
disturbing and the intoxicatingly beautiful range of <strong>Shakespeare</strong>-inspired<br />
art, illustration and design. Here are just a few examples…<br />
42 SHAKESPEARE magazine
Presenting <strong>Shakespeare</strong> <br />
Romeo and Juliet,<br />
Theater Alnwick, US,<br />
1820. d: n/a.<br />
Much Ado About<br />
Nothing, Libanon<br />
on Stage, Charity<br />
Theatre of the Order<br />
of Malta, DE, 2010.<br />
ad/d/p: Alexander von<br />
Lengerke.<br />
Much Ado About<br />
Nothing, Portland<br />
Community College,<br />
US, 2014.<br />
ad: Cece Cutsforth,<br />
d/p: Anthony Catalan<br />
<br />
SHAKESPEARE magazine 43
Presenting <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
Julius Caesar,<br />
Habima National<br />
Theatre, IL, 1961.<br />
d: Dan Resinger.<br />
44 SHAKESPEARE magazine
Presenting <strong>Shakespeare</strong> <br />
Richard III, Theatre de la<br />
Renaissance, FR, 2010.<br />
ad/d/p: Cedric Gatillon.<br />
Hamlet, Teatr Ochoty,<br />
PL 1985. ad/d: Andrzej<br />
Pagowski (Dydo Poster<br />
Collection).<br />
A Midsummer<br />
Night’s Dream, Teatr<br />
Dramatyczny, PL,<br />
1981. d: Eugeniusz Get<br />
Stankiewicz (Dydo<br />
Poster Collection).<br />
Presenting <strong>Shakespeare</strong> is available<br />
now from Princeton Architectural<br />
Press. Order your copy here:<br />
SHAKESPEARE magazine 45
Contributors <br />
Brooke Thomas is a freelance writer<br />
and small business owner based<br />
in London. She found her love of<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> at university and now<br />
runs Past & Prologue, a <strong>Shakespeare</strong>inspired<br />
clothing company. She spent<br />
most of her MA in <strong>Shakespeare</strong> Studies<br />
scouring various pop-culture mediums<br />
for references to the bard – a habit that<br />
has endured beyond graduation.<br />
Find her on Twitter @LiterallyGeeked<br />
Mary Finch Our US Staff Writer<br />
studied English at Messiah College<br />
in Pennsylvania, and is furthering her<br />
obsession at Mary Baldwin College<br />
in Virginia, earning her Masters in<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong> and Performance. Her<br />
interest in the Bard ranges from<br />
the theatrical to the educational to<br />
the literary. Besides William, Mary<br />
has a strong affinity for succulents,<br />
typography, and limericks. Find her<br />
on Twitter: @DaFinchinator<br />
Meet thy makers...<br />
Just some of the contributors to this issue of <strong>Shakespeare</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong><br />
Kayleigh Toyra is a commercial<br />
copywriter by day, poet and <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
lover by night. Having grown up in<br />
Finland, <strong>Shakespeare</strong> holds a special<br />
place in her heart as she connected with<br />
British culture through <strong>Shakespeare</strong>. She<br />
also loves how different cultures always<br />
find their own meanings in <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s<br />
words. She specialised in <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
during her MA at Bristol University, and<br />
became fascinated by local <strong>Shakespeare</strong>an<br />
performance history.<br />
Find her on Twitter @KayleighToyra<br />
Helen Mears fell into bardolatry<br />
during her teenage years and has<br />
never recovered. She is a volunteer<br />
steward at <strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s Globe,<br />
which ensures a regular diet of the<br />
Bard. She teaches English, Film and<br />
Media at Suffolk New College and is<br />
a specialist in teaching <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
using active methods. Her favourite<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong>an actor is Jamie Parker<br />
and her favourite plays are the Second<br />
History Tetralogy. She hopes to<br />
finish her Masters in the Advanced<br />
Teaching of <strong>Shakespeare</strong> very soon.<br />
Find her on Twitter @hipster_hels<br />
SHAKESPEARE magazine 47
Next issue<br />
We hope you’ve enjoyed Issue Nine of <strong>Shakespeare</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong>.<br />
Here’s a taste of what we have coming up next time…<br />
<strong>Shakespeare</strong>’s First Folio<br />
Emma Smith takes us between the pages of the book<br />
that started it all.<br />
<br />
Kenneth Branagh<br />
Actor. Director. Icon. King Ken talks about Judi Dench<br />
and The Winter’s Tale.<br />
<br />
Parlez-vous Le Bard?<br />
<br />
Yes, it’s the <strong>Shakespeare</strong> Guide to Paris…<br />
What just happened?<br />
Behind the scenes of web series How <strong>Shakespeare</strong><br />
Changed My Life.