Shakespeare Magazine 02

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 magazine 41