Shakespeare Magazine 02

At last! A magazine with all the Will in the world 

SHAKESPEARE 

Character'd 

on thy skin..." 

" 

Blood meets ink in the world 

of Shakespeare Tattoos 

Aussie Rules 

Shakespeare! 

A double bill of the 

Bard in sunny Sydney 

King David 

From Doctor Who to Hamlet and 

Richard II, David Tennant is a 21st 

century Shakespeare superstar!

Claudie 

Aged 5 

(Princess for 

the day) 

W elcome to 

BERKELEY CASTLE 

WHAT’S ON IN 2014 

APRIL 

MAY (cont.) 

JUNE (cont.) 

AUGUST 

20th & 21st 

Easter Dragons Meet our friendly 

dragons, join our Chinese dragon 

procession, be amazed by the 

stories about dragons 

MAY 

4th 

Tudor Ladies Come and meet 

our authentically dressed Tudor 

gentlewomen and find out what 

they can tell you about life 450 

years ago 

12th – 14th May 

Sorry, during this period the 

Castle & Grounds will be closed 

for filming 

25th – 28th May 

Knights & Princesses go FREE 

Come dressed as a knight or 

princess this May half term and 

explore the Castle and Butterfly 

House FREE. Swords and Bows & 

Arrows are available from the shop 

for any knight who has lost his own 

weapons. Beautiful hats for Knights 

and Princesses to dress up in while 

visiting the Castle. 

JUNE 

ROSE MONTH Enjoy the 

stunning display of roses in the 

Castle’s rose walk and terraced 

gardens throughout June 

8th Tudor Ladies 

15th Gardens open for NGS 

Gardens open for the National 

Gardens’ Scheme (reduced £5 

admission for gardens only) 

JULY 

6th Tudor Ladies 

12th – 16th Archaeology Festival 

(with Jenner Museum & Church) 

13th Gerard’s Regiment 

of the Sealed Knot 

19th July -27th August 

Summer Activities 

Arts & Crafts Sundays, 

Storytelling, Jester, Archery 

(to 27th) 

Summer Activities 

Arts & Crafts Sundays, 

Storytelling Mondays, 

Jester Tuesdays, 

Archery Wednesdays 

SEPTEMBER 

16th – 1st Oct 

Gold-work Embroidery 

Exhibition 

OCTOBER 

5th – 15th 

Celebration 

of Harvest 

OPEN from Tuesday 1st April (every Sunday, Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday) 

www.berkeley-castle.com

Welcome 

Welcome 

to Issue 2 of Shakespeare Magazine 

First of all, I must apologise for the fact that this issue is 

a few days late! I’m writing this on a plane to Alicante, 

having foolishly booked a holiday in the belief that the 

magazine would have already been published by now. 

That’ll teach me. 

Still, I do think this issue is worth waiting for. Once again, I have 

to thank my brilliant Art Editor Paul McIntyre and our quicklyexpanding 

team of contributors for their entertaining, informative 

and often dazzling work. 

Part of Shakespeare Magazine’s mission is to provide a new voice 

for the world’s Shakespeare fans. And so it feels perfectly appropriate 

that David Tennant should be the first living person to appear on our 

front cover. 

David is a fantastically versatile actor who’s done a terrific job 

of bringing Shakespeare to a new generation of fans. And he seems 

to have achieved this while remaining steadfastly down to earth and 

unfailingly generous of spirit. Find out what the fans themselves have 

to say in our exciting cover feature. Enjoy your magazine. 

Pat Reid, Founder & Editor 

Photo: David Hammonds 

SHAKESPEARE magazine 3

At last! A magazine with all the Will in the world 

SHAKESPEARE 

Character'd 


" 

Blood meets ink in the world 

of Shakespeare Tattoos 

Contents 

Aussie Rules 

Shakespeare! 

A double bill of the 

Bard in sunny Sydney 

King David 

From Doctor Who to Hamlet and 

Richard II, David Tennant is a 21st 

century Shakespeare superstar! 

Shakespeare Magazine 

Issue Two 

June 2014 

Founder & Editor 

Pat Reid 

Art Editor 

Paul McIntyre 

Writers 

Zoe Bramley 

Mary Finch 

Rebecca Franks 

Margaret Gaskin 

Ilana Kimmelman 

Rafaella Marcaletti 

Antje Strauch 

Brooke Thomas 

Christopher Tomkinson 

Yasmin Waldeck 

Emma Wheatley 

Amanda Markus 

Photography 

Piper Williams 

Thank You 

Mrs Cathy Kirby 

Mrs Mary Reid 

Mr Peter Robinson 

Biblioteca Cristobal Zaragoza, 

Villajoyosa 

Web design 

David Hammonds 

Contact Us 

shakespearemag@outlook.com 

Twitter 

@UKShakespeare 

Website 

www.shakespearemagazine.com 

King David 10 

 

Shakespeare experiences 

Who is 

Hamlet! 18 

David Tennant’s Hamlet, as 

performed by Doctor Who 

 

 

 

Shakespeare 

news 6 

Shock and horror at the Globe! 

X-Men stars have 

played Macbeth? 

 

4 SHAKESPEARE magazine

Contents 

Exclusive 

giveaway 19 

 

tickets to Richard III in Covent 

 

 

When David 

met Richard 24 

 

 

 

 

Shakespeare’s 

great fire 30 

 

 

 

Concord of 

sweet sounds 34 

 

 

 

 

Sport most 

royal! 38 

 

 

 

“Character’d on 

thy skin...” 42 

What it really means to adorn 

 

 


News 

SHAKESPEARE 

N ews 

“All the world’s a stage / And all the men and women merely players” 

Mac attack: 

(l-r) Stewart, 

McAvoy, McKellen, 

Fassbender. 

OPENING SCENE 

Macbeths of 

Future Past 

The London premiere of the latest X-Men 

blockbuster delivered this Macbeth-themed 

treat for Shakespeare fans. 

As X-Men: Days of Future Past 

rocketed to the top of the global box 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Macbeth 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Macbeth 

 

 


News 

Following Shakespeare’s footsteps 

City of London Tour Guide Zoe Bramley continues her report from the Shakespeare Trail. 

Crossing over the Millennium 

Bridge back into the City, the 

English Baroque splendour 

of St Paul’s Cathedral looms before 

you. Turn left at Carter Lane and walk 

about 100 yards. On the left, affixed to 

a nondescript grey building, is a plaque 

telling us that here is the site of the Bell 

Inn from where one Richard Quiney 

wrote a letter to his Warwickshire 

pal Shakespeare in 1598. Quiney 

was asking for a loan of £30, a huge 

amount. 

Whether he got the money, we don’t 

know. But the letter was found among 

Quiney’s possessions after his death so 

he evidently decided not to send it. 

Continue down Carter Lane and 

turn left down St Andrew’s Hill. We 

are now in the Blackfriars area. At the 

bottom of the hill there is a cosy little 

pub called the Cockpit, named after the 

brutal cockfighting matches that took 

place there in the Victorian era. The bar 

still boasts an example of a cockfighting 

ring but happily there are no blood 

sports on offer today. 

It would be understandable for 

anyone in search of Shakespeare to 

ignore this pub and head back over 

the river to the Globe. The Cockpit is 

not on the tourist trail. But maybe it 

should be – because it boasts a Tudor 

cellar which was almost certainly part 

of a house which Shakespeare bought 

in 1613, the house known as the 

Blackfriars Gatehouse. He paid £140 

and his mortgage was witnessed by 

John Hemming, his fellow actor who 

later helped compile the First Folio of 

all Shakespeare’s tragedies, histories and 

comedies in 1623. 

So what exactly was this gatehouse? 

Well, the narrow alleyway you'll find 

there is called Ireland Yard and once 

led into a Dominican monastery, 

the Blackfriars, so called because of 

the black gowns worn by the friars. 

Shakespeare’s gatehouse formed 

the entrance to the monastery. It’s 

uncertain whether he ever lived in the 

house himself but we know that he 

bequeathed it to his daughter Susannah 

in his will. 

Find Zoe on Twitter: 

@shakespearewalk 

Romeo and Juliet head for HOME 

A fairy tale version of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet is coming to Manchester’s Victorian Baths. 

T 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


News 

Shakespeare in the Classroom 

This month the RSC’s Henry 

IV, Part 1 and 2 will be seen in 

hundreds of classrooms across 

the UK. 

 

 

success as Falstaff. 

After the success of 

broadcasting Richard II to 

schools in 2013, the Royal 

Shakespeare Company is once again 

bringing top quality Shakespeare to 

classrooms all across the UK. 

Both parts of Henry IV will be 

broadcast this month – Part 1 on 

Friday 6 June, followed by Part 2 

on Monday 30 June. Broadcasts will 

include an interval as well as a live 

question and answer session. 

With last year’s Richard reaching 

over 31,000 students, the RSC is 

expecting Henry to exceed that 

number, making it the “world’s 

biggest Shakespeare lesson.” 

These broadcasts give many 

British kids their first experience of 

professional theatre – and often their 

very first taste of Shakespeare. 

The Henry plays are also screening 

in cinemas around the world. 

Go to www.rsc.org.uk for 

more information. 

The Shakespeare Magazine Quiz 

Women weren’t allowed on stage in Shakespeare’s day, but he still wrote 

plenty of unforgettable female characters. How well do you know them? 

1 

 

 

 

plays? 

3Much 

, when her 

 

 

 

5 

 

 

 

 

2 

 

 

 

4 

 

 

 

6 

 

 

loses her son? 

Answers: 1) Imogen from Cymbeline is thought to originally be “Innogen” 2) Lady Macbeth, 3) “man” 4) Rosalinde from As You Like It 5) Rosalinde, As You Like It 

Act 3 scene 2, 6) Volumnia from Coriolanus 


News 

 

 

 

 

There will be Blood 

Media gleefully reports outbreak of mass fainting at the 

Globe’s shocking new Titus Andronicus. 

 

 

Spencer-Longhurst's 

 

violent and 

daringly experimental” 

“Grotesquely 

is how Shakespeare’s 

Globe Theatre in London describe 

their current production of 

Titus Andronicus directed by 

Lucy Bailey. And with audience 

members fainting during the most 

gory moments, it seems to be an 

accurate description. 

The most gruesome scenes 

include rape, murder, and 

mutilation powerfully performed 

by a cast including Michael 

Houston as Titus, Indira Varma 

as Tamora and Flora Spencer- 

Longhurst as Lavinia. 

The Daily Mail reports that 

during one production five people 

fainted after seeing Lavinia soaked 

in blood following her ordeal of 

rape and mutilation. 

However, according to The 

Evening Standard, fainting is not 

uncommon and the Globe are 

prepared, with first aiders standing 

by at every production. 

Despite losing audience 

members to swooning, the current 

production remains popular. 

“If you have the stomach for it, 

the play is wonderfully gripping” 

says Charles Spencer, theatre critic 

with the Telegraph. Likewise Lynn 

Gardner from the Guardian says 

the “bloody tragedy is ingeniously 

disturbing, and much more than 

just a splatter fest.” 

Even accounts of fainting and 

nausea admit that the play is well 

done. Helen Chandler tweeted: 

“Two people fainted at this 

evening’s performance of Titus 

Andronicus at the Globe. Best 

value entertainment in London by 

a bloody mile.” 


King D 

David Tennant fans 


David Tennant fans 

The combination of 

sensitivity, charm, razorsharp 

intelligence and manic 

energy he brought to Doctor 

Who made David Tennant 

a superstar. But the actor’s 

greatest achievement has 

been alerting his legion of 

followers to the power and 

pleasure of the Bard. 

We asked fans from England, 

Italy, Sweden, Germany 

and the USA to share 

their personal experiences 

of Tennant performing 

Shakespeare... 

avid 

A fall from grace 

for Tennant as the 

doomed Richard II. 

 




“I’m from Karlsruhe, Germany and I became 

a fan of David through Doctor Who. Even 

though I learned English in school for 

several years we never really talked about 

Shakespeare. To be honest, I think most 

people from my class wouldn’t understand 

a lot. Since I’m a fan of David Tennant, I 

watched several recordings of him playing 

Shakespeare and I loved it and I realised how 

captivating Shakespearean literature can be. 

“When Richard II was announced, me 

and my boyfriend called the Barbican from 

the German landline and reserved two £5 

tickets, since we don’t have a lot of money. 

Months later, we finally booked our flight 

and found a place to stay. The day we picked 

up our tickets was really exciting for us. 

“We’re both 19 and we never really went 

to the theatre to see a play, except when we 

were told to go there by our school. Since 

I was afraid that I wouldn’t understand a 

thing, I read the bilingual version of Richard 

II, finishing it just in time on our way to the 

theatre. This made it much easier for me to 

actually understand what was happening so I 

could focus more on the way they were acting 

and not just on the language. 

“To be honest, I was really astonished by 

everything, because they just talked casually, 

as if it’s the easiest thing ever to speak that 

way. I was captivated by the play and I think 

David Tennant was marvellous in that role. 

“Since I was afraid 

that I wouldn’t 

understand a thing, 

I read the bilingual 

version of Richard 

II, finishing it on 

our way to the 

theatre” 


It made me realise how different it is to be 

on stage than to be on the TV. I would have 

never expected such a powerful and authentic 

performance, even though I knew he was a 

good actor. 

“When we got outside we waited with 

many many other people, but we were able 

to talk with David and we both had a picture 

taken with him. Our trip to London was 

really really worth it and I hope we can return 

soon to go to an English theatre again. All 

this really got me into Shakespeare and I love 

reading his works, which is not so common at 

my age.” 

David Tennant 

with Yasmin. 



Ilana and 

David. 


“His stage presence and how 

he spoke those Shakespearean 

words was extraordinary” 


“I am 20 years old and I live in Santa Rosa, California. 

It’s an hour north of San Francisco in wine country. 

I became a fan of David when I started watching 

Doctor Who about four years ago. His role as The 

Doctor is what got me interested in his other work. 

When I found out he did quite a few Shakespeare 

plays I got all excited because I love Shakespeare. 

“I was very fortunate to see David Tennant 

perform Richard II in Stratford-upon-Avon in 

October 2013. I’m not from England, so seeing 

him perform on stage is not an everyday activity. I 

went with a friend of mine and we were both very 

excited to see our idol in person. After the first half 

of the performance we were both in a daze. Not 

only could we not keep our eyes off of Tennant, 

but his stage presence and how he spoke those 

Shakespearean words was extraordinary. It comes so 

naturally to him. Almost effortless. The whole cast 

was brilliant, but Tennant was the real star. After the 

play finished we were extremely lucky to meet Mr 

Tennant in person. He was very kind and generous 

to all the fans that were there, and it is a moment I 

will cherish forever.” 



A day visiting 

the Shakespeare 

birthplace 

culminated in 

heading to the 

stage door and 

meeting DT. 

Right: David 

showing off his 

hair extensions 

for Richard II. 

Emma Wheatley 

Hamlet, October 2008 

“Whilst performing the sword fight scene 

with Ed Bennett one night, one of the swords 

broke and landed on stage. They all managed 

to avoid it during the rest of the fight, with 

David even picking up a new sword along the 

way. It was completely flawless, as if it should 

have happened.” 

Love’s Labour’s Lost, October 2008 

“In one scene Berowne was required to throw 

a hat towards a branch on the tree. Every 

performance I witnessed saw David miss, 

except once. The crowd cheered, and without 

breaking character David said to the audience 

‘Happens every time’, which resulted in a lot 

of laughter.” 

Love’s Labour’s Lost, October 2008 

“At another performance a girl was sat in the 

front row reading along with a text book and 

making notes. David jumped down, sat next 

to her, took her book and signed it, all whilst 

giving his speech. In the same show David 

threw a letter into the crowd. That letter is 

now in a frame on my Shakespeare bookcase, 

along with with a signed photo of David 

holding it.” 

Hamlet, September 2008 

“My absolute favourite encounter with David 

was when we met him leaving the theatre 

after he had been signing at the stage door. 

It was my birthday and I was seeing Hamlet 

with a friend. David very kindly stopped, 

asked us not to tell anyone where we had met 

him, and then said happy birthday to me, 

which made my day.” 

Richard II, November 2013 

“Seeing David in Richard II was phenomenal. 

Seeing him go through so many emotions, 

from strong king to being reduced to 

a prisoner... The abdication scene with 

Bolingbroke was magnificent, and without 

a doubt my favourite stage performance of 

David’s.” 

“David threw 

a letter into the 

crowd. That letter 

is now in a frame 

on my Shakespeare 

bookcase” 

Emma Wheatley 



Amanda Markus 

Amanda 

meets David. 

“I became a fan of David Tennant when a friend 

recommended Doctor Who to me about two years ago. 

Me and three friends saved most of our studying money 

to go and see Richard II in January this year. I had 

just turned 18 and to go and see my number one idol 

perform seemed like an impossibility because I live in 

Sweden. But we decided to go to London anyhow, and 

seeing the play was one of the best things I’ve ever done. 

“The feeling when the trumpets sounded and David 

came out on stage in his majestic outfit made my eyes 

tear up. We were sitting in the very front row so it 

couldn’t get much more magical than that. David stood 

literally five metres away from me, and I had to pinch 

my arm just to make sure that it was real. 

“The play was brilliant. I don’t know if I’m the right 

person to say so, because I don’t think I understood all 

of it. My English is very limited and I must admit that 

I didn’t catch all of what the actors said. But just sitting 

there and watching my absolute hero in action was a 

feeling I don’t know if I can ever achieve again. 

“The amazing evening didn’t end when the play was 

over, because we rushed out to the stage door to get 

David’s autograph and take a photo with him. I didn’t 

get a photo that evening, but we decided that since we 

had travelled so far we would come back the next night 

and try again. And so we did. 

“I managed to get a photograph of me and my idol 

the next evening, and I felt like the happiest person 

alive. The ten-month-long wait from booking the tickets 

to when we actually sat at the Barbican Theatre to 

experience the play was all worth it. I am so glad I was 

able to experience all that.” 



Mary Finch 

“While most 21-year-old students might 

go to great lengths to get to a party or see 

their favourite band, I prefer misadventures 

for the sake of Shakespeare. However, being 

landlocked in central Pennsylvania adds a 

special level of difficulty to this. I live in 

Grantham, a small town 20 minutes outside 

of Harrisburg, the state capital. Harrisburg is 

known for many things (like an extravagant 

Farm Show every autumn), but not for 

Shakespeare. 

“When we heard that the Bryn Mawr 

Film Institute near Philadelphia would be 

screening the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 

Richard II featuring David Tennant, my 

friend Alison Williams and I were beyond 

thrilled. Alison had been a fan of David 

Tennant longer than I. In the spring of 2013, 

instead of watching the American cultural 

event that is the Super Bowl, she introduced 

me to Tennant by showing me his Hamlet. 

Of course it caught my attention, and after 

watching him in Doctor Who as well as 

some of his movies (The Decoy Bride is a 

personal favourite), I knew this man had 

incredible acting talent. Richard II was 100 

miles away, neither of us had a car, and final 

examinations started the next day, but it was 

an opportunity we couldn’t afford to miss. 

“Getting there was an adventure in and 

of itself. In the course of the morning, our 

ride abandoned us, our train was cancelled, 

two different buses we tried to take were not 

running that day, and when we finally got to 

“It was mature, 

serious and tragic, 

potently emotional 

and almost absurd 

at times” 

Mary Finch 

Alison Williams (left) and 

Mary Finch. 

Bryn Mawr by trolley, we realised we didn’t 

have directions from the trolley station to the 

cinema. Despite all of this, we arrived only 15 

minutes late, though quite out of breath. 

“In the three hours that followed, all the 

anxiety and stress of the morning was entirely 

forgotten as we watched the tragic story 

of Richard. I laughed. I cried. I gasped in 

surprise. David Tennant performed the role 

in an entirely unique way, and he only called 

back to previous performances once when he 

let a classic ‘Well…’ show his Scottish accent. 

This role allowed an entirely different side of 

his talents to shine through – it was mature, 

serious and tragic, potently emotional and 

almost absurd at times. 

“We already knew Tennant as an actor 

and Richard II as a play (having fallen in love 

with Ben Whishaw’s Richard in The Hollow 

Crown), but both of us were left speechless 

after the screening. In all honesty, we sat in 

silence for over five minutes as everyone else 

left. 

“Experiencing all of this in a cinema was 

interesting. There is no way these screenings 

will replace the thrill of live theatre, yet 

for someone who lives where I do, it was a 

dream come true. Even with the problems of 

getting to the venue, seeing David Tennant 

in Richard II was worth every moment of the 

panic and frustration that preceded it.” 



“He is also so generous to the 

others actors and so sensitive 

in his responses that the play 

becomes a choral chant” 

Raffaella Marcaletti 

 

Raffaella at 

New Place. 

“I live in Comabbio, a very small village in the 

north-west of Italy. I became fan of David in 2010. 

I saw his Hamlet and then I bought Taking Over 

The Asylum, Single Father and Doctor Who to 

refine my judgment. 

“I saw David in Richard II on stage at the Royal 

Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon on 

the night before the live broadcasting. He is such a 

good actor because he gives life, soul and truth to 

the character he is playing. He is also so generous 

to the others actors and so sensitive in his responses 

that the play becomes a choral chant. David has 

that charisma and also a great ability to concentrate 

the atmosphere of the story into his character. 

“When I went back to my hotel that night I had 

the strong impression of having been part of the 

story of Richard. I was sad that he hadn’t managed 

to find his humanity and the warmth he needed in 

the end, as I would be for a real person. 

“When the play ended I noticed some 

young people running to the stage door. 

Apparently David dedicated some of his 

time every evening signing programmes 

for his fans. I spoke to a couple of them 

and I discovered a true admiration and 

love for David, a more intimate and 

thoughtful fondness than I expected from 

a fan. I waited with them and had my 

programme signed. 

“Tennant the actor gives new life to 

Shakespeare, but Tennant the man is 

very kind and unassuming. It was a very 

memorable day!” 

 


Toy Hamlet 

For Dresden-based fan Antje Strauch, 

David Tennant's Hamlet was such an inspiration 

she decided to restage it – with the help of 

friend Claudia Bochynek and her trusty Doctor 

Who and Torchwood 

Who is Hamlet! 

1 

The play opens with 

an introduction by 

Shakespeare himself. 

2 

At night, Hamlet, his 

friend Horatio and a 

soldier see Hamlet's 

father as a ghost: 

"I am thy father’s spirit, 

doom’d for a certain term 

to walk the night…" 


Toy Hamlet 

3 

Hamlet swears to avenge 

his father, the others are 

sworn to secrecy: 

“Never to speak of this that 

you have heard. Swear by my 

sword.” – “Swear!” 

4 

Polonius gets the 

impression that 

Hamlet is crazy: 

“Though this be 

madness, yet there is 

method in't.” 

5 

Rosencrantz and 

Guildenstern 

arrive to check up 

on Hamlet, who 

welcomes them: 

“My excellent good 

friends!” 

6 

Trying to get a reaction 

from Claudius, Hamlet 

sets up the performance 

of a play which features a 

murder. 

 


Toy Hamlet 

7 

Hamlet and Ophelia 

watch the play: 

“Lady, shall I lie in 

your lap?” 

8 

Polonius is hidden behind the mirror and 

Hamlet accidentally shoots him: 

“A rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!” 

9 

Hamlet returns from 

England. At a cemetery he 

 

no idea that the grave is dug 

for Ophelia: 

“Alas, poor Yorick! I knew 

him, Horatio.” 


Toy Hamlet 

10 

Laertes wants to avenge his 

sister’s death. Hamlet and 

Laertes start to fence: 

“Another hit - what say you?” 

11 

Gertrude drinks from the 

winner’s cup. The poison 

put into it by Claudius was 

meant for her son: 

“The drink, the drink! I am 

poison’d.” 

You can see Antje's action figure 

Hamlet in its entirety in her 

LiveJournal: http://dieastra. 

livejournal.com/28212.html 

12 

Hamlet is fatally wounded by Laertes’ 

sword and dies in Horatio’s arms. Gertrude, 

 

Claudius and Laertes are dead too: 

“The rest is silence.” 


Competition 

EXCLUSIVE GIVEAWAY 

Iris Theatre returns for the sixth year of its celebrated summer season in the gardens of 

St Paul’s Church in London’s historic Covent Garden. This year they’re presenting a new outdoor 

production of Shakespeare’s Richard III (featuring David Hywel Baynes in the lead role) which 

runs from 25 June until 25 July. 

And excitingly, Shakespeare Magazine has FIVE pairs of tickets to give away. 

Four winners will each get pairs of tickets for performances between Wednesday 25 June and 

Saturday 28 June. 

And one overall winning pair will get to join Iris Theatre for press night on Monday 30 June, 

including interval wine and nibbles with the Iris team, and a signed programme! 

Win! 

Tickets for 

Richard III at 

Iris Theatre 

in Covent 

Garden! 

To be in with a chance of winning, simply send an email to 

shakespearemag@outlook.com 

with ‘Richard Comp’ in the subject line. 

Don’t forget to include your name, address, postcode and contact number. 

The closing date for this competition is Monday 16 June. 

Please make sure that you’re able to attend performances before entering the competition. 

Very best of luck! 


Interview: David Hywel Baynes 

“Richard is definitely bringing out a side 

in me that I didn’t think was there.” 

David Hywel Baynes 


Interview: David Hywel Baynes 

When 

David 

met Richard 

New York-based British actor David Hywel Baynes is known for his intensely 

physical performances. As he prepares to take on the role of Richard III at 

London’s Iris Theatre we talked to him about all things Shakespeare. 

What was your formative 

Shakespeare experience? 

“All the roles I’ve played in the past have 

changed me in some way, and I think 

that’s what appeals most to me performing 

Shakespeare. I’m constantly surprised by 

the challenges each play presents to an 

actor, and each one makes you really look at 

yourself and what kind of person you are in 

comparison. 

“I guess Puck in A Midsummer Night’s 

Dream really opened my eyes to the 

possibilities that were open to you in these 

texts. You can go so many different directions 

with a character like Puck and I love how free 

you can be with your imagination. 

“I’d have to give Brutus a mention as well. 

David has found 

that working on 

Shakespeare in America 

has challenged many of 

his assumptions 

Playing him made me more considerate as a 

human. There’s nothing like playing the most 

honourable man alive to make you feel utterly 

dishonourable, so yeah, Brutus very much 

made me want to be a better person.” 

Was there a moment when you 

realised you were well and truly 

bonded to the Bard? 

“I think the moment I really started to feel 

a bond forming was when I started looking 

closer at the Sonnets. The Sonnets are written 

by a man baring his soul, and to really get to 

grips with the depth of character in his plays 

they are key to understanding the man that 

wrote them. 

“Although he’s writing about kings, gods 



and sorcerers, he has the ability to make these 

epic beings very human, and I don’t think 

he’d be able to do that without bringing a lot 

of himself to them. The more you look at his 

works, the more you get to know the man that 

wrote them, and the Sonnets really show just 

how human he was. 

“To wear his heart on his sleeve with 

such personal material that he explores in 

the Sonnets, I feel is something that has to 

be considered when looking at his plays, and 

what his initial intent was when writing them. 

You can’t help but feel a connection with a 

man that writes plays about human nature and 

emotion that anybody can associate with.” 

What are you bringing to the role 

of Richard III that’s uniquely ‘you’? 

“You’ll have to come and see to find out. I will 

say that Richard is definitely bringing out a 

side in me that I didn’t think was there, and 

what he is bringing out in me is incredibly fun 

and liberating.” 

“In the end you have to stay true 

to the script and do the play that 

Shakespeare’s written” 

David’s full-on 

performance as Puck 

in A Midsummer 

Night’s Dream. 

Is Richard evil – or just 

misunderstood? 

“I’d have to say that Richard first and 

foremost is a human being. I think if you take 

the play Richard III on its own then it’s all 

too easy to see why he’s seen as evil, but his 

villainy must have reasoning behind it. 

“When you take Richard from the very 

first time we meet him in Shakespeare’s plays, 

in Henry VI, Part 2, he is a vastly different 

character. Over the course of Parts 2 and 3 he 

goes through quite a lot, to say the least, and 

there’s a big part of me that understands why 

he behaves the way he does. The original title 

of the play was The Tragedy Of King Richard 

the Third, so I think Richard has to be tragic. 

At some point you have to see the tragedy in 

him. 

“I’ve been considering a lot whether 

someone is born evil – or are they made evil? 

I liken him to a pitbull that has been beaten 

and chained up his entire life. You’re creating 

a monster by doing that, and I think that’s 

where the tragedy really is in Richard.” 

Has your interpretation been 

influenced by the recent discovery 

of Richard’s remains in Leicester? 

“Not really. It just clarified the scoliosis and 

informed the physicality, to be honest. It’s 

interesting stuff reading about why he was 

buried in Leicester, and the theories behind 

how he ended up there, but in the end you 

have to stay true to the script and do the play 

that Shakespeare’s written. Trying to change 

what Shakespeare has written just because of 

new facts that have come out about Richard 

would be like banging your head against a 

brick wall. 



“Shakespeare was pretty liberal with the truth 

in the histories anyway, and he was writing 

for a Tudor monarch so he couldn’t really 

make Richard a hero. Elizabeth would not 

have been amused. 

What is your favourite 

Shakespeare quotation? And what 

does it mean to you? 

“There are so many, but the one that really 

stands out for me is a Lucio line from 

Measure for Measure: ‘Our doubts are traitors 

/ And make us lose the good we oft might 

win / By fearing to attempt.’ 

“I just find it so profound and it clearly 

shows to me how deep a thinker Shakespeare 

actually was. We all have moments of 

insecurity in our lives and at points the fear 

of failure can cripple a great many of us. It 

has with me, that’s for sure. This line gives 

me hope and lets me know that it’s perfectly 

acceptable to fail sometimes, as long as you 

gave it a go in the first place. 

“As an actor, pushing the boundaries and 

David’s Brutus in Julius 

Caesar, with Daniel 

Hanna as Casca. 

trying new things is integral, and self-doubt 

can really hold you back in that sense. It 

makes me feel like anything is possible as long 

as you believe in yourself.” 

What’s your all-time favourite 

Shakespeare film? 

“The two I’ve enjoyed the most are probably 

Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V and Baz 

Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet, for very 

different reasons. I thought Branagh’s Henry 

really captured just how epic that story is, and 

who doesn’t want to actually see ‘Once more 

unto the breach…’ done in front of an actual 

battle? 

“Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet brought 

Shakespeare to a whole new audience and 

I loved it. His commitment to make it 

accessible to a younger audience is something 

to be admired. Luhrmann really added his 

artistic stamp on the play as well, without his 

vision detracting from the overall story. That 

takes real courage and, more importantly, 

talent. 



“I’d love to see some of the plays taken on 

more by Hollywood nowadays. Imagine 

what a huge budget could do with a play like 

Macbeth.” 

Have any Shakespearean actors 

or directors been particularly 

inspirational to you? 

“As directors go, I’d have to say Nicholas 

Hytner’s work at the National over the last 

few years has been particularly memorable. 

His Othello with Adrian Lester and Rory 

Kinnear last year was immense. I really like 

the way he makes the stories timeless and his 

modern settings never detract from the telling 

of them. 

“As actors go, I could watch Mark Rylance 

on stage all day. I saw The Globe’s Twelfth 

Night and Richard III playing in rep on 

Broadway in New York. I was concerned 

watching his Richard because I came out 

thinking ‘I have to play the part in a few 

months and I’ve just seen it done perfectly’. 

“Rylance really personifies what I like to 

call ‘rock and roll Shakespeare’. He has this 

ridiculous ability and confidence to make it 

seem like he is making up the lines on the 

spot, seeming to have little or no respect for 

what he’s saying, when really you can see that 

he is so respectful that he’s not just reciting 

them, he’s making them his own whilst 

keeping true to the story. His technique is so 

absurdly good, that going to see him on stage 

isn’t just going to see a show to me, it’s like an 

acting masterclass. I’ve learned so much from 

seeing him perform. 

“I’d have to give Tim Carroll a mention 

as well for directing him in Twelfth Night 

and Richard. I thought his Twelfth Night 

was ‘Shakespeare Comedy 101’ and really 

showcased the Globe’s method in its best 

light.” 

Brutus stabbing 

Caesar (Matthew 

Mellalieu) with his 

fellow conspirators. 

Do you have any favourite non- 

Shakespeare authors or works 

from the same era? 

“I’m a bit of a puritan when it comes to other 

authors of the time and reading them makes 

me feel a bit like I’m cheating on Shakespeare. 

I do have a few, though. Marlowe’s Doctor 

Faustus I think is amazingly dark and I love 

thinking about just how controversial that 

would have been back in the day. 

“I also have a bit of a soft spot for 

Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, as it was 

the first play I saw by another author of the 

period other than Shakespeare. I have a real 

penchant for gritty, dark storylines. 

“When it comes to other authors of the time, reading them 

makes me feel a bit like I’m cheating on Shakespeare” 



You divide your time between 

London and New York – how do 

approaches to Shakespeare differ 

in these cities? 

“The truth of the matter is they don’t really. 

Everywhere you go in the world you’re going 

to find good and bad productions of any 

play, Shakespeare included, but it still gets 

performed a hell of a lot on both sides of the 

Atlantic. 

“I’m really lucky living in New York 

because there are so many people that want 

to bring Shakespeare to the masses and, most 

importantly, children. The approaches to the 

performance of the plays, though, and the 

successes and failures of the performance, 

seem to me exactly the same. 

“Don’t try and bring something 

to the party that wasn’t invited 

by the author. Gimmicky 

Shakespeare is everywhere” 

With Laura Wickham 

as Portia (Laura also 

returns to Richard III 

as Queen Elizabeth). 

“The best plays I’ve seen performed in New 

York and London alike are those that are 

honest and don’t try and bring something to 

the party that wasn’t invited by the author. 

Gimmicky Shakespeare is everywhere, but 

if the gimmicks take away from the story 

then you’re already onto a losing battle. The 

simplest and most honest productions are the 

ones that stay with me. 

“As I said, I feel intensely lucky to live in 

New York as there are just as many people 

there that are just as passionate about the 

plays as I am. The talent of some of the 

actors I’ve met in New York, and their ability 

to perform Shakespearean language has 

astounded me since I moved there. 

“When I arrived, I’m ashamed to say, I 

didn’t think Americans would be able to do 

it as well as us Brits. I’m very glad to say that 

I couldn’t have been more wrong. They hold 

these plays in just as high regard as we do, 

and there is a real understanding of how they 

should be done.” 

 

David stars in Richard III at London’s Iris 

Theatre from 25 June to 25 July. He’s also 

leading a Richard III masterclass on Sunday 

8 June. Details and tickets from 

www.iristheatre.com 


Shakespeare’s Great Fire 


Great Fire 

 

 

The Great Fire 

of London, with 

Ludgate and Old 

St. Paul’s (dated 

1670, artist 

unknown). 


Shakespeare’s Great Fire 

IIt was (as the old story begins) a dark and 

stormy night. In the heart of the City of 

London, an accidental fire sprang up in 

a royal baker’s and spread to the house 

next door. The wind was high and, along 

narrow City lanes, one half-timbered building after 

another was swiftly consumed. Some citizens called 

for houses to be pulled down as a fire-break but 

Lord Mayor Bludstone refused, earning a kind of 

immortality with his dismissive, “A woman might 

piss it out”. The fire raged on unchecked. 

By the time it was finally halted – three days 

later – the conflagration had consumed fourfifths 

of the City of London that Shakespeare 

had known. And William Shakespeare’s own 

life – or anything that we can ever know of it 

– had been transformed; changed, profoundly 

and forever, half a century after his death. 

As the flames approached in September 

1666, escapees from the City had bundled 

prized possessions onto carts or into rowing 

boats on the Thames. A surprisingly high 

number of keyboard instruments in these 

boats, mused Samuel Pepys, who decided to 

bury his wine and precious Parmesan cheese in 

the garden along with his important business 

papers. 

But who among London’s fleeing 

inhabitants had found time or inclination to 

rescue grandad’s old box of letters? Or those 

closed account books going back to the last 

century? Piles of scribbled scrap paper used for 

wrapping books? Even the books themselves? 

Fortunately, many members of the 

London Stationers Company, who between 

them printed, published and sold most of 

the books in England, had a secure haven for 

“With almost anyone who knew 

him already dead, first-hand 

knowledge of Shakespeare’s real 

life was now all-but snuffed out.” 

their most precious stock. Those who operated 

from stations in St Paul’s Churchyard were 

parishioners of St Faith’s. In the Middle Ages 

this church had been demolished when the 

Cathedral was extended, with a compensatory 

chapel built down in the Cathedral crypt. 

Here the stationers worshipped, and its heavy 

wooden doors would be sufficient to hold out 

the fire a goodly while. 

And they did so – even after the lead roof 

of the poor, ruined Cathedral crashed to the 

ground after two days of fire. Did so right up 

to the moment, in fact, when, danger past, 

the chapel doors of St Faith’s were flung open 

to retrieve the precious goods inside. And 

the inward rush of as-yet-uncomprehended 

oxygen met a superheated stack of board and 

paper, causing a fierce new blaze to spring up, 

destroying everything inside. 

And thus, over just a few days that 

autumn, London and the world lost – what? 

A prompter’s script, or an old promotional 

playbill? A handwritten letter or two? A 

distinctive signature on a receipt or a marginal 

note in an old source-book? Why not a secret 

commonplace book or journal to rival Pepys’s 

own, with racy Elizabethan theatrical gossip 

jotted down in code alongside court intrigues 

and memorable sermons? Even as much as a 

lost play to satisfy seekers after the vanished 

Cardenio or the mysterious Love’s Labour’s 

Won? 

With almost anyone who knew him already 

dead (Shakespeare’s only grandchild, just eight 

at his death, would herself die childless in 

1670), first-hand knowledge of Shakespeare’s 

real life – the man that William Shakespeare 

had truly been, rather than the literary colossus 

– was now all-but snuffed out. 

Henceforth, the only sources of 

information available to searchers after the man 

and his works would be those things that had 

been written down already. And a significant 

proportion of those had just gone up in smoke. 

Four years before, Shakespeare had 

received a brief mention in Thomas Fuller’s 

posthumously published book Worthies 

of England. Fuller had praised William 

 


Shakespeare’s Great Fire 

Shakespeare’s plays in the book’s Warwickshire 

section, noting that the playwright was a 

Stratford man and had been buried “in the 

town of his nativity” (though he had left 

the date blank). Fuller also vividly described 

Shakespeare and fellow-playwright Ben Jonson’s 

friendly battles of wits. Though, sadly there is 

no evidence that this was anything but Fuller’s 

own lively imagination at work. It was a brief 

enough biography for a life that had been filled 

with so much drama, one way or another. 

Not that anyone would have remarked 

the fact at the time: the age of Bardolatry had 

not yet begun. Indeed, the age of theatre itself 

had only recently returned from exile with 

Charles II. Nearly two decades of Puritan rule 

had all-but obliterated such godless cavortings 

from theatre-loving London. And, despite the 

advocacy of actors, it was by no means certain 

that long-dead William Shakespeare would ever 

regain his old popularity on stage. 

Samuel Pepys, given his first opportunity 

to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1662, 

judged it “the most insipid ridiculous play that 

ever I saw”. The previous November, John 

Evelyn’s diary had recorded: “I saw Hamlet 

Prince of Denmark played, but now the old 

plays began to disgust this refined age, since His 

Majesty’s being so long abroad.” 

It is not hard to imagine performances 

falling flat. From the human and artistic 

resources at his disposal – his actors, his 

theatres, his audiences – William Shakespeare 

had created remarkable theatrical events. But 

how could those events be rebuilt in later ages 

with only the bare script, and a few original 

song tunes, to go on? 

Over the intervening fifty years the 

language had changed, fashions had changed. 

Some actors did make an effort, seeking 

instruction from old men who claimed to have 

learned from older men who had been coached 

in their roles by Master Shakespeare himself. 

 

Restoration 

 

inferno that 

swallowed up 

Shakespeare’s City. 

Old men who had once played Shakespeare’s 

heroines had fewer disciples: during King 

Charles’ years of exile he had developed a 

European enthusiasm for female actresses 

and, for the most part, Restoration audiences 

followed their king. 

These new theatres, too, with their 

proscenium arch and painted scenery, were 

quite unlike any theatre for which Shakespeare 

had written. His huge “wooden O” playhouses 

had been pulled down by the Puritans along 

with the bear and bull-baiting arenas, back in 

the 1640s. The handful of indoor theatres had 

been turned to new uses. Virtually all record 

of the appearance of either, or their manner of 

performance, had been lost. Those audiences 

who had seen William Shakespeare himself act 

upon the stage, had heard him speak the words 

he himself had written, were very old now, or 

dead, and disregarded. 

But still, there were those scripts... 

 

Margaret Gaskin’s biography of William 

Shakespeare is due out in 2016. 

“By the time it was finally halted – three days later – 

the conflagration had consumed four-fifths of the 

City of London that Shakespeare had known.” 


Shakespeare & classical music 

Concord 

of Sweet 

Sounds 

For centuries, 

composers have 

striven to marry 

their music to the 

world and words of 

the Bard. 

Rebecca Franks 

investigates 


hallowed place in 

classical music. 

Mendelssohn’s 

later incidental 

music for the 

Dream included 

his famous 

Wedding March. 

f 

or Robert Schumann, Shakespeare stood out for 

his universality. For Giuseppe Verdi, it was his 

understanding of the human heart. And they aren’t 

the only composers who have been seduced by 

Shakespeare’s plays, poems and sonnets. 

From Thomas Arne in the 18th century to Thomas Adès in recent 

years, musicians have long been scribbling away to create Shakespearean 

operas and songs, symphonies and choral pieces. One recent book on 

the subject listed over 20,000 pieces of music inspired by Shakespeare. 

Here we take a tour through ten tales of the greatest of composers, and 

what the man from Stratford meant to them. 


Shakespeare & classical music 

 

The original 

Shakespearean composer 

Shakespeare’s plays are packed with songs, 

yet little of the original music survives. 

At first the lyrics would have been set to 

pre-existing music, but after about 1609 

a resident composer was employed by 

Shakespeare’s theatre, The Globe. Thomas 

Morley and John Wilson might have written 

for the Bard, but the only name that can be 

proven to have done so is Robert Johnson. 

A royal lutenist and composer, Johnson 

worked on The Winter’s Tale, probably 

Cymbeline, and most notably The Tempest 

in 1611. 

Teenage prodigy pens 

Shakespeare hit 

Felix Mendelssohn was just 17 years 

old when he wrote his Overture to A 

Midsummer Night’s Dream (1826). It 

turned out to be one his most famous 

and popular pieces, showing off his skill 

for painting pictures with notes. The four 

magical opening woodwind chords 

transport the listener to a fairy realm, where 

elfin strings scurry in the woodland. Sixteen 

years later the King of Prussia commissioned 

him to write incidental music for the rest of 

the play. 

“Shakespeare, coming upon 

me unawares, struck me like a 

thunderbolt” 

Hector Berlioz 

Below left: Hector 

Berlioz. 

Below: Harriet 

Smithson caught his 

eye playing Ophelia 

on stage; they 

married in 1833. 

The composer and the 

actress 

“Shakespeare, coming upon me unawares, 

struck me like a thunderbolt,” wrote Hector 

Berlioz. The great French composer owed 

this revelation to the Irish actress Harriet 

Smithson, who in 1827 appeared in Paris as 

Ophelia and Juliet. After seeing her act, the 

24-year-old Berlioz was instantly smitten. 

They married, but love soon turned to hate. 

Still, Shakespeare proved a keeper, and Berlioz 

wrote a Roméo et Juliette Symphony, and the 

opera Béatrice et Bénédict, based on Much 

Ado About Nothing. 

A year of Shakespeare 

Robert Schumann, the quintessential German 

Romantic, arguably loved literature as much 

as he loved music. In 1852, at the age of 43, 

he spent the best part of a year rereading 

Shakespeare’s plays, which he’d always loved. 

It wasn’t so much for inspiration – in fact 

he composed little that year – but to find 

passages for a planned anthology of great 

authors’ writings about music, to be titled A 

Poet’s Garden. 

Shakespeare on the shelf 

Verdi was in many ways the musical 

equivalent of Shakespeare – a master of 

dramatic form and human emotion. Though 

the Italian composer spoke little English, 

and Shakespeare’s plays weren’t often staged 

in his native country, that didn’t stop him 

loving the Bard above all other playwrights. 

He supposedly kept the complete 

Shakespeare, in Italian translation, in the 

bookcase by his bed. Verdi dabbled with 

ideas for several Shakespearean operas and 

completed three, all masterpieces: Macbeth, 

Otello and Falstaff. 


Shakespeare & classical music 

Early 

Wagner’s Shakespeare 

mash-up 

The ever-ambitious Richard Wagner nicked 

bits from not one but several Shakespeare 

works in order to fashion his first opera plot, 

Leubald. In the mish-mash of a six-hour-long 

libretto can be found parts of Romeo and 

Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, Richard III, King 

Lear and Henry IV, Part One. There’s a pair 

of ill-fated lovers, Leubald and Adelaide, a 

sorceress and several ghosts, as well as various 

murders and a mad scene. Over the top? 

Well, Wagner was only 15 when he wrote it. 

Signing off with 

The Tempest 

Sibelius was one of the 20th century’s greatest 

composers, with seven symphonies to his 

name. But for the last 32 years of his life he 

hardly wrote any music at all. One of his 

final big orchestral pieces was for a staging of 

The Tempest, coincidentally also thought by 

some to be Shakespeare’s last solo-authored 

play. Written in 1925-26 for a production 

at the Royal Theatre in 

Copenhagen, Sibelius’s score 

is a masterpiece of orchestral 

colour and drama. 

Romeo and Juliet’s 

happy ending 

They are the world’s most 

famous doomed lovers. Apart 

from in Prokofiev’s hands, 

where instead of dying they 

dance off happily ever 

after. But this daring twist 

by the Soviet composer, 

who was penning music 

for a new ballet of the 

play, didn’t ever make it to 

the theatre. Soviet leader 

Stalin put his foot down, and 

Prokofiev was obliged to stick 

with Shakespeare’s tragic tale. 

The original ending was recently 

discovered and has since been 

staged in New York. 

work Macbeth 

 

three Shakespearean 

masterpieces. 


Oscar nominations 

“For me, music made the film,” said 

Laurence Olivier, the director and star of 

the 1944 film of Henry V. The music in 

question was by William Walton, who had 

first met Olivier in 1935 on the film set of 

As You Like It. They went on to work on 

three Shakespeare films together, with the 

superb scores of both Henry V and Hamlet 

(1948) earning the British composer Oscar 

nominations. Richard III (1955), though, 

didn’t complete the hat trick. 

The problem with Lear 

Verdi and Britten both thought about setting 

King Lear to music. Debussy even went 

as far as writing a whole five minutes 

of incidental music for it. But for 

some reason, although several lesser 

composers have tried their best with 

it, King Lear has seemed to be the play 

that defeated the greats. Most recently, 

the acclaimed Alexander Goehr was 

inspired by a dream to write 

a King Lear staged as a 

Japanese Noh play. 

But his 2010 

opera Promised 

End didn’t go down 

well with the critics. 

The curse of King Lear 

strikes again. 

 

The Winter’s Tale – 

the first new fulllength 

Shakespeare 

ballet from The Royal 

Ballet since Romeo and 

Juliet – will be available 

on DVD soon. Go to 

www.roh.org for further 

details. 

Photo: © ROH / Clive Barda 


Diary: Sport for Jove 

Sydney’s Sport for Jove take 

pride of place in Australia's 

vibrant Shakespeare scene. 

Actor Christopher Tomkinson 

tells us all about their latest 

Bard-related double-whammy. 

Main photo: Seiya Taguchi 

recently leapt headlong 

into a repertory season 

of Twelfth Night and 

All’s Well That Ends 

Well for Sport for Jove. 

I was playing Antonio, 

the Sea-Captain in Twelfth Night 

and, in All’s Well That Ends 

Well, an amalgamation of Lords 

our director, Damien Ryan, had 

cheekily named ‘Chitopher’ – a 

name stolen from elsewhere in the 

script. 

While Twelfth Night is a 

famous crowd pleaser, All’s Well is 

known as a ‘difficult’ play – with 

no clear hero for the audience 

to love and a disquieting ending 

that leaves us with challenging 

questions rather than easy answers. 

While excited to be telling a 

Shakespearean story the audience 

would be largely unfamiliar with 

(the last major production in 

Sydney was 30 years ago), it’s a big 

risk to invite audiences to take on 

an unknown Shakespeare. Would 

they come with us? Could we find 

a way of taking that ambiguous 

ending and bringing it to life? 

Chris works up a 

sweat with Sport 

for Jove. 


Diary: Sport for Jove 

One of the great things 

about working with Sport 

for Jove is my trip to 

rehearsals. I bike across the 

Sydney Harbour Bridge. 

It was an invigorating ride 

that kept me fit and helped 

trim my figure for the 

particular demands of this 

production of All’s Well. 

Sport for Jove is very hands on. One of 

the things I love about this company 

is the opportunity to get involved in 

all aspects of production. Here we are 

laying the stage floor in the rehearsal 

room – of course, there are six flights 

of stairs to get the boards to this room. 

Then the hard work of 

rehearsing begins. We started 

with an initial two-week block 

on All’s Well That Ends Well. 

In the second fortnight we 

restaged our production of 

Twelfth Night – lines, songs, 

choreography and fights all 

came back quickly and easily 

in spite of the 12-month break. 

Here we are singing a rehearsal 

run to a close with The Rain It 

Raineth Every Day. After this 

we bumped in to the first of 

our two venues. 


Diary: Sport for Jove 

We performed a short season of Twelfth Night at The 

Riverside Theatre, Parramatta. Here, towards the end 

of the show, Orsino tries to avenge himself on Cesario. 

As the heartbroken Antonio, I’m handcuffed to the 

jetty up the back, unable to stop the murder. Don’t 

tell anyone, but I liked my character’s jacket so much I 

stole it at the end of the run. 

We returned to finish creating All’s 

Well That Ends Well, but discovered 

that our much-loved rehearsal room 

had been sold. So we decamped our 

forces to rehearse on an unused stage 

at our next performance venue. 

The introduction of our soldiers in 

the show involved lots of calisthenics. 

Climbing things on stage is always fun – 

although the endless repetition in rehearsal 

does get more than a little exhausting. 

As opening night approached 

we shifted from our ‘rehearsal 

theatre’ into the ‘performance 

theatre’ next door and 

reconstructed the centrepiece 

of the All’s Well set 

on the stage – a glossy black 

cube that transforms from a 

bed to a climbing frame, to 

a sauna, helicopter, hospital, 

soldier’s barracks and more. 


Diary: Sport for Jove 

One scene that surprised many audiences 

was Shakespeare’s little-known nude 

shower scene in All’s Well. Damien staged 

Helena’s selection of her husband as a 

“meat market of men in a shower room”. 

There was vibrant rehearsal discussion 

of the idea’s merit, and varied levels 

of comfort amongst the cast with the 

prospect of nudity, but in the end we all 

dropped our kit and the scene was lit so 

beautifully it all became very sculptural. 

All is smooth at the curtain, but 

of course the season had the usual 

number of mid-show crises. One 

night a drape detached from the set, 

so mid-scene I climbed four metres 

in pitch black (the scene was lit only 

by torch light) armed with gaffer tape 

to repair the rip. I delivered all my 

lines from this new position and no 

one seemed to miss me. In another 

performance I butchered the play’s 

most famous line, switching ‘faults’ 

for ‘virtues’ in the typically antithetical 

Shakespearean line: “Our virtues 

would be proud if our faults whipped 

them not; and our crimes would 

despair if they were not cherished by 

our virtues.” 

My final part in the show was 

baking an All’s Well That Ends 

Well-themed cake for closing 

night. Inspired by the play’s 

reference to ‘withered pears’ I 

used dried pears, sour grape 

juice, nutmeg, cinnamon and 

bay leaves. The result had a 

sexy ambiguity of sweet, sour 

and spicy flavours, hinting at 

the darker side of love – just 

like the show... 

More on Sport for Jove: www.sportforjove.com.au 


Shakespeare tattoos 

“Most literary tattoos 

represent something deeply 

personal” Brooke Thomas 

Photos: Piper Williams 


Shakespeare tattoos 

A generation of literature fans are having 

the Bard indelibly marked on their skin. 

 

Character'd 

 


" 

Tattoos are no longer an explorer’s story from a far 

off land, as they were in early modern England. 

Nor are they just for sailors, as they have been in 

the more recent past. No, tattoos today are almost 

as commonplace as hair dye, and everybody you can 

think of - celebrities, students, builders, your mum 

(probably) - is getting inked. What may surprise 

you, though, is that Shakespeare is an increasingly 

popular choice for tattoo inspiration. 

So what drives somebody to have such 

a permanent reminder of their favourite 

Shakespeare quote? To find an answer, just 

take a look at a literary tattoo blog such as 

Contrariwise or The Word Made Flesh. 

True, many of the tattoos featured here are 

presented without comment, but others 

are accompanied by stories from the owner 

which explain their reasons for choosing that 

particular quotation or image. 

Although Shakespeare tattoos are 

relatively common these days, the reasons for 

getting them are incredibly varied. The most 

popular Shakespeare tattoos, or at least the 

ones that pop up on the web most frequently, 

are “to thine own self be true” and “though 

she be but little, she is fierce”. Many belong 

to people like me – students of English 


Shakespeare tattoos 

Brooke’s 

Literature who specialise in Shakespeare. 

One young woman with the “fierce” 

quote is five-foot-one Liz Robertson. She 

fondly recalls the theatre experiences of her 

schooldays, and uses her tattoo as a mantra 

for when times get tough. Another “fierce” 

woman is blogger ThePrimalPen, a recovering 

anorexic. Paige, meanwhile, is reminded that 

life is worth living by her “to be or not to be” 

tattoo, because she believes Hamlet chose “to 

be” and Shakespeare knows what he’s talking 

about. 

Sisters Janine and Ursula Vero have 

“I.iii.66-71” tattooed on their arms, a 

reference to the passage in As You Like It that 

describes Celia and Rosalind as “coupled and 

inseparable”. Trainee midwife and mother 

Emma Medeiros has “sleep thou, and I shall 

winde thee in my arms” from A Midsummer 

Night’s Dream. 

As you can see, although some people love 

tattoos purely for their aesthetic value, most 

literary tattoos represent something deeply 

personal, as well as the wearer’s connection to 

a particular text. Getting Shakespeare’s words 

tattooed in a visible place is a very public way 

of expressing a private connection with a story 

or a phrase. When I got the tattoo on my 

back, the first of three literary tattoos, I was 

writing my undergraduate dissertation on The 

Tempest, but this particular line had already 

been haunting me for years. 

“We all were sea-swallow’d, though some cast 

again, 

And by that destiny to perform an act 

Whereof what’s past is prologue, what to come 

In yours and my discharge” 

tattoo artist 

is Samantha Ford of 

Silver Needles II in 

Southend-on-Sea. 

It’s one of those lines that resonates beyond 

its context, as all the best ones do. In many 

ways my tattoo is a synecdoche of the skin. 

The line represents the play, which represents 

the works, which represents the cultural 

omnipresence that is Shakespeare, and his role 

in my life and career. My tattoo is a badge 

that declares me a Shakespearean. 

It is also, however, on the personal side of 

the coin, a reminder that everything in the 

past, even the difficult bits, is prologue to a 

future that’s yet to come. 

 

More from: Contrariwise www.contrariwise.org 

and The Word Made Flesh www.tattoolit.com 


Curtain 

PETER 

O’TOOLE 

(1932-2013) 

Photograph by Desmond Tripp, courtesy of Bristol Old Vic. 

“For in that sleep of 

death what dreams 

may come 

When we have shuffled 

off this mortal coil, 

Must give us pause.” 

Peter O’Toole’s mesmerising 1958 portrayal 

of Hamlet at Bristol Old Vic. 


Contributors 

Rebecca Franks is an arts journalist 

and reviews editor of BBC Music 

magazine. She’s loved Shakespeare 

since her schooldays, when a local 

theatre’s workshops first revealed 

the magic of Twelfth Night. While 

studying music at Cambridge, Rebecca 

helped commission Shakespeare 

Deranged, three short operas based 

on mad scenes in the Bard’s plays. She 

loves classical music and books, as well 

as film and theatre, and blogs at 

www.beccamusic.blogspot.co.uk 

Mary Finch is in her fourth year 

studying English at Messiah College 

in central Pennsylvania. Will first 

grabbed her attention in secondary 

school and hasn’t let go since – she 

reads, recites and watches Shakespeare 

whenever possible. Besides going 

on irrational adventures to see 

performances with her friend Alison, 

Mary also has a passion for swing 

dancing, dabbling in calligraphy and 

tending to her ever-growing window 

garden of succulents. 

Piper Williams is a freelance 

fashion and portrait photographer 

from Portland, Oregon, now 

working out of Surrey. He spends 

his days time-travelling via historical 

docudramas, silent films and vintage 

radio broadcasts. These adventures 

are a catalyst for his imagery and his 

wardrobe. His current project, 1928, 

is a modern take on the Jazz and War 

age aesthetic. Also in the works is a 

Steam, Diesel and Cosplay-inspired 

series of Shakespearean characters. 

Meet thy makers... 

Just some of the contributors to this issue of Shakespeare Magazine 

Emma Wheatley lives in Redditch 

in the Midlands and works as a 

shopping TV director. She first fell 

in love with Shakespeare during her 

GCSEs, studying Romeo and Juliet 

in the year of Baz Luhrmann’s movie. 

In her spare time she loves to learn 

more about Shakespeare. 

Antje Strauch grew up in Dresden, 

Eastern Germany, which she believes 

helped her to think outside the box 

and develop the ability to be creative 

in every possible way. Working as a 

draftswoman in an engineer’s office, 

she loves to read, write, draw and 

craft in her free time. She never tires 

of inventing new adventures for her 

collection of action figures (they also 

accompany her on travels to the UK). 

Antje worked on the Hamlet project 

with her friend Claudia Bochynek. 

Margaret Gaskin is a former 

Publications Editor of the Royal 

Shakespeare Company. Her book 

Blitz: the Story of 29th December 

1940 (Faber), and the subsequent 

Channel 4 documentary Blitz: 

London’s Firestorm (still available on 

4oD) are an accidental outcome of 

her deep exploration of Shakespeare’s 

London. Her current book project, 

Shakespeare in Reality, is due for 

publication in 2016. 


Next issue 

We hope you’ve enjoyed Issue Two of Shakespeare Magazine. 

We’ll be back next month, and here’s just a few of the Bard-related 

treasures we’ll be proffering for your perusal... 

NILE FEVER 

Why the world is still besotted with Shakespeare’s Cleopatra. 

 

Shakespeare Samba? 

 

The Game’s Afoot... 

Is the video games universe a Shakespeare-free zone? 

Forget the World Cup – here’s the Shakespeare Guide to Brazil! 

 

Stormy Weather 

Revisiting Derek Jarman’s 1979 Punk-Shakespeare 

masterpiece The Tempest.

Shakespeare Magazine 02

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