Shakespeare Magazine 05

At last! A magazine with all the Will in the world
SHAKESPEARE
Issue 5
Off
with
their
heads!
Shakespeare
and the Tower
of London
Golden
Virginia
Join us on a
trip to the
American
Shakespeare
Center
Muse of Fire
Two men. One epic journey.
Giles and Dan make the ultimate
Shakespeare documentary!

November
2 Read Not Dead/Rarely Played
Damon and Pithias
4 Setting the Scene
’Tis Pity She’s a Whore
18 Setting the Scene
’Tis Pity She’s a Whore
20 The Youths That Thunder
22 Shakespeare Untold
Titus Andronicus
Shakespeare and his contemporaries returned time and again
to the central importance of friendship, a complex relationship
that encompassed kinship, romance, eroticism and devotion
beyond death. Our Friendship season explores the theme
through !"#$%&'(%)"#$ staged readings, family events and
scholarly talks.
DECember
2 Setting the Scene
’Tis Pity She’s a Whore
11 A Concert for Winter
13 Shakespeare Untold
Romeo & Juliet
16 Setting the Scene
The Knight of the Burning Pestle
january
17 Voice Studio
17 Shakespeare Untold
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
20 Setting the Scene
The Changeling
24 Voice Studio
31 Voice Studio
The season continues until April 2015. See website for full details.
#ShakespeareandFriendship

Welcome
Welcome
to Issue 5 of Shakespeare Magazine
This momentous year of 2014 draws to a close, and
with it my first nine months as a full-time Shakespeare
journalist. It’s already been quite an education, but then,
that’s exactly the point. I started the magazine so I could
learn about Shakespeare and take others along with me
for the ride. So far, the plan is working like a dream.
I can think of no finer cover stars to round off our first year than
Giles and Dan, whose wonderful Muse of Fire documentary has been
reaping new Shakespeare converts across the globe. They’ve interviewed
everyone who is anyone in their amazing Shakespearean quest. Now it’s
their turn to answer our questions...
Also this month, I had the great pleasure of hosting Shakespeare
Magazine drinks with some of our contributors in Bristol and London.
It was a chance for me to personally thank them for their excellent work
this year, and to look forward to further Shakespeare shenanigans in
2015 (including, I hope, at least one Shakespeare Magazine live event).
It just remains for me to thank Paul McIntyre, our estimable
Art Editor, without whom this enterprise would be “but a walking
shadow...”
Enjoy your magazine, and Season’s Greetings to you all.
Photo: David Hammonds
Pat Reid, Founder & Editor
SHAKESPEARE magazine 3

At last! A magazine with all the Will in the world
SHAKESPEARE
Issue 5
Contents
Off
with
their
heads!
Shakespeare
and the Tower
of London
Golden
Virginia
Join us on a
trip to the
American
Shakespeare
Center
Muse of Fire
Two men. One epic journey.
Giles and Dan make the ultimate
Shakespeare documentary!
Shakespeare Magazine
Issue Five
September 2014
Founder & Editor
Pat Reid
Art Editor
Paul McIntyre
Staff Writers
Brooke Thomas (UK)
Mary Finch (US)
Writers
Zoe Bramley
Lucy Corley
Chief Photographer
Piper Williams
Photographers
Michael Bailey
Chuck G. Barnes
Anne-Marie Bickerton
Farrows Creative
Alex Harvey-Brown
John Melville Bishop
Lauren D. Rogers
Lindsey Walters
Thank You
Mrs Mary Reid
Web design
David Hammonds
Contact Us
shakespearemag@outlook.com
Facebook
facebook.com/ShakespeareMagazine
Twitter
@UKShakespeare
Website
www.shakespearemagazine.com
Muse of Fire 6
The Shakespeare Force is strong with these two!
Meet Dan and Giles, and prepare to be a-Mused.
4 SHAKESPEARE magazine

Contents
This must be
the place 14
Our US correspondent is
transported by Macbeth at the
American Shakespeare Center.
Tower of
Power 24
In Shakespeare’s day, all roads led to
the Tower of London.
Sound and
Vision 30
Filter Theatre Company take on the
Scottish Play in Bristol.
The Letter of
the Law 36
The Globe’s Read Not Dead puts
the plays back in their place.
Between the
lines 42
The Nurse’s Tale retold by novelist
Lois Leveen.
WIN!
One of 5 copies of Station
Eleven, the thrilling post-
Apocalyptic Shakespeare novel
by Emily St. John Mandel.
Simply send an email to us at
shakespearemag@outlook.com
with ‘Station’ in the subject
line. Don’t forget to include
your name,
address and
contact number.
Closing date is
Wednesday 15
January.
Good luck!
SHAKESPEARE magazine 5

Tongues o
Muse of Fire
6 SHAKESPEARE magazine

Muse of Fire
Actors and best mates Dan Poole and Giles Terera have wowed the
world with their celebratory Shakespeare road-trip documentary
Muse of Fire
Words: Brooke Thomas
f
Fire
Giles (left) and Dan take centre
stage at Shakespeare’s Globe.
Images courtesy of Muse of Fire.
SHAKESPEARE magazine 7

Muse of Fire
of Shakespeare?
Dan: “Sitting in a classroom in Sheffield.
They took us down to a room and they
wheeled in this crummy TV that was locked
down in a big steel cage. They put in – and
I can’t remember what it was – but I have
a feeling it may have been Henry V. They
did it quite consistently, every month or so
you’d go sit watch another one. You can’t
just do that – that doesn’t mean anything.
As a result, I assumed it was something that
I shouldn’t like, or wouldn’t like, or I’d never
like, and I didn’t see the relevance of it.”
Giles: “My first memory of Shakespeare
I don’t actually remember, because my
mother told me about it. We were at a
neighbour’s wedding. I was a page boy, my
sisters were flower girls, so I was probably
three or four. I was running around
The two actors
travelled all over
the world on their
quest to explore
and understand
Shakespeare.
and being noisy and this woman at the
wedding said to my mother ‘Oh, that boy’s
going to be a Shakespearean actor.’ I guess
because I was yakking. I forgot about it until
I came to study and thought ‘That’s an odd
thing for someone to say about a black kid
in Stevenage in the early ’80s!’”
Dan: “I then came back to it when I was
14, 15. It was Macbeth, I think, and it was
sitting around in a circle reading two
lines each. How can you possibly get an
understanding reading two lines?”
Do you remember when that
relationship with, or even a love
for, Shakespeare?
Dan and Giles: “Yeah!”
Giles: “I’d decided to become an actor and
did a two year BTEC course. You’d never
“It’s a film for people who feel, like us, that they were
slightly cut off from or intimidated by Shakespeare”
Giles Terera
8 SHAKESPEARE magazine

Muse of Fire
“Young people are more than
capable of receiving Henry VI in
period costume, spoken word for
word as Shakespeare wrote it”
Giles Terera
know there was anyone called Shakespeare
from my BTEC in performing arts, the name
never came up. Then I went to drama
school, where I met Dan, and that same
year Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet
came out, and also Looking for Richard, Al
Pacino’s documentary. At the same time
we had a voice teacher who showed us
Olivier’s films and then the penny dropped
big time for me, and I just fell in love, as lots
of actors do. I just drank up everything I
could, read it, carried books around, I knew
I wanted to do more and see more in that
world.”
Dan: “I remember Henry V was the thing
I got caught up in. I had three friends who
went to the first Gulf War in ’91. I was a
penpal to all my friends who were in Iraq
or Desert Storm, and the letters that came
back were so odd I genuinely felt echoes
of the world of that play. There were
extremes throughout. One of them would
be calm for five paragraphs, then there’d
be a paragraph in the middle that would
look like it’d been written by someone else,
like a clown or a grotesque… It just didn’t
fit with anything else. It was obviously the
extremes of what they were dealing with
coming out in a totally different way, so for
me Henry V always had a real connection
with people that I knew. Since then we’ve
got other friends who’ve been in that kind
of environment, and when you talk to them
you realise that Shakespeare got those
themes really right.”
film – was that intentional? Were
you influenced by
Richard, for example?
Giles: “Yeah, because all of the other
programmes we’d seen about Shakespeare
were [In boring history teacher voice] ‘In
1642, blah blah blah, Shakespeare was
here in a small market town’ and I’m like,
‘I dunno, I dunno what you’re saying.’
Even if I literally know what you’re saying,
the presentation puts me off. So if we
were going to be different we knew that
there’d have to be no artifice to it, it’d have
to be as honest as possible.” [NB In 1642
Shakespeare had been dead for 26 years –
Boring History Ed]
Dan: “We wanted it to be more accessible
than a talking heads documentary. There’s
nothing wrong with those, but they exist
already.”
Giles: “Look at the subject matter. The
subject matter is: Shakespeare wrote in
such a way that he could speak to very
highly literate people, but he could also
speak to the people who’d just paid a
penny to be a groundling, or to royalty. He
could speak to everyone. Therefore that’s
what we must do. This can’t be a film for the
intelligentsia, it’s not a film for the academic
elite. It’s a film for people who feel, like
us, that they were slightly cut off from or
intimidated by Shakespeare.”
People have been seriously
impressed by the sheer wealth of
interviews in Muse of Fire.
Giles: “All the actors that we spoke to
were really generous with their time, and
we knew we’d only be able to use maybe
a minute and a half of each interview in
the film. Some of these people have been
talking about Shakespeare, or performing
and living Shakespeare for 50, 60 years,
they’ve got incredible things to say. We
were fortunate enough to see and hear
that, and we knew that we wanted other
people to be able to see it. In a way it’s
almost… I don’t know if I can say that.”
Dan: “Yeah, you can, you can say it.”
Giles: “It’s almost more exciting than the
film. We’d often go to find a nugget, a clip,
for the film, and end up watching all of the
SHAKESPEARE magazine 9

Muse of Fire
interview because what they’re saying is
so honest, rich and inspiring that you get
drawn in. So we’re working with a theatre
[Shakespeare’s Globe in London] to make
these interviews available online, for free,
for people to watch and enjoy for years to
come. There’s some really moving moments
in there.”
Dan: “The greatest thing, and it gives me
goosebumps just thinking about it, is the
lack of vanity from everyone. There was no
ego, nothing, and that’s testament to them
and how human they are.”
Shakespeare and what it means to
you made for a relaxed and open
atmosphere.
Dan: “We hope so.”
Giles: “It’s good that people responded to
that.”
Dan: “That would have been the worst-case
scenario, if people hadn’t understood that
we were a conduit to open up a potentially
difficult subject. If they’d thought that we
were a couple of dicks – you’d have never
seen us again!”
Dan: “There’s lots. We’d have loved to
have spoken to Denzel Washington, John
Malkovich, Laurence Olivier…”
Giles: “He dead.”
Dan: “What! (laughter) Helen Mirren.”
Giles: “There were a lot of near misses.”
Dan: “Leonardo DiCaprio. We were in the
ballpark for that happening, but these
people are all so busy.”
Giles: “Richard Attenborough, who sadly
passed away. He was happy to speak to us,
but he was very ill at that point.”
Dan: “And Pete Postlethwaite. It was going
to happen, but sadly he passed away. Which
again is a tragedy, but he left a great mark
on what we have today.”
Dan: “I hope you print this, because no-one
ever does. I just want to acknowledge the
The Muse of Fire
boys face the
media…
(Image: Piper
Williams)
people that made this possible, from the
graphics, the animations, the music – Giles
composed, but we had a team – all these
people who gave up their time for free.
Venues, theatres, members’ clubs all round
London who let us shoot…”
Giles: “The actors themselves.”
Dan: “The actors themselves, camera
companies…”
All for the love of Shakespeare.
Giles: “That’s a good title.”
Dan: “For the Love of Shakespeare?”
Dan: “Yeah.”
Giles: “Noooooooo!”
role?
Dan: “Iago.”
Giles: “You’d be a good Iago.”
Dan: “Or Henry V, actually.”
Giles: “You’d be a good Iago because
everyone trusts you and also you could
absolutely slay everyone.”
Dan: [Laughs] “It would be an absolute
joy!”
10 SHAKESPEARE magazine

Muse of Fire
Stars of Fire: (clockwise from top left)
Sir Ben Kingsley, Brian Cox, Geraldine
James, John Hurt, James Earl Jones, Ewan
McGregor.
SHAKESPEARE magazine 11

Muse of Fire
…And
more Stars of Fire: (clockwise from
top left) Baz Luhrmann, Tom Hiddleston,
Jude Law, Dame Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes.
12 SHAKESPEARE magazine

Muse of Fire
“It’s more than 400 years old, it’s not going to just come
to you. It can do, but not necessarily, so you have to do
a bit of work and meet it halfway” Dan Poole
Giles: “There’s lots of parts I’d like to play.
I really like Aaron the Moor in Titus. I saw
it this year and was reminded what an
extraordinary path that is for all of them.”
Dan: “That’s actually one of my favourite
plays, I’d love to be anyone in Titus.”
little Giles and little Dan, how
would you teach Shakespeare to
yourselves?
Giles: “We often ask that question!”
Dan: “Get up and start speaking it, don’t
sit in a circle and read it. If you don’t
understand what you’re saying, keep
saying it. Ewan McGregor says in the film
‘[Shakespeare] has a different taste in the
mouth.’ You find that out by speaking it, and
then it starts to find a world in you, I think.”
Giles: “I think you’re right, but maybe
it’s a bit weird to expect teachers to be
able to do that. Maybe if you put actors in
each classroom they’d say ‘Right, push the
tables back, let’s get on our feet.’ Whereas a
teacher, especially if they haven’t got that
connection with a play themselves, will
probably teach it how they were taught it
20 years ago – sitting around in a circle. A
lot of the actors we interviewed actually
said that the teachers should be better
equipped, even if it’s just that one play on
the syllabus each year. What we’re battling
is people being told that it’s ‘not for you’
somehow. They say ‘You’re not going to
understand this, Kids, so we’re going to set
it in outer space and put a pop song in it.’
That’s doing the audience a disservice as
well. Young people are more than capable
of receiving Henry VI in period costume,
spoken word for word as Shakespeare
wrote it. If you tell them that ‘You’re not
going to get this so we’re going to dumb it
down and put rap in it…’”
Dan: “...You’re taking something away from
them. It’s more than 400 years old, it’s not
going to just come to you. It can do, but not
necessarily, so you have to do a bit of work
and meet it halfway.”
Can you sum up the whole Muse of
Fire experience in one sentence?
Dan: “I know this sounds like I’m a total
wanker, but it’s become the richest palette
of colour in my life. That’s it. And it tastes
good as well.”
Giles: “You’re eating paint.”
Dan: “I’m basically eating paint.”
Giles: “You mixed your metaphors. This
is the kind of kids we were at school... One
sentence? It’s been the most challenging
experience of my life, but also the most
rewarding.”
Dan: “Really tiring. Really hard work,
brilliantly hard work. It doesn’t really go
away, you assume that once it’s out there
it’s done, but we still have an ongoing
responsibility. Again, this sounds like I’m a
wanker, but we have a responsibility to be
an architect to the resource.”
Giles: “No, we would be the night
watchmen. The architect is the one who
builds it, we’re the ones going around with
the torch at 5am, hearing a mouse at the
end of the corridor.”
Dan: “Like the big lock-up at the end of
Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
Giles: “With cobwebs and all kinds of
nasties...”
Muse of Fire is available now on iTunes.
You can also see full-length Muse of Fire
interviews via Globe Player.
http://www.globeplayer.tv/museoffire
SHAKESPEARE magazine 13

American Shakespeare Center
This
must be
the place
Several thousand miles away from Stratford-upon-Avon
and London, a reconstructed Blackfriars playhouse is
serving world class Shakespeare. Welcome to Staunton,
Virginia – home of the American Shakespeare Center.
Words: Mary Finch
14 SHAKESPEARE magazine

American Shakespeare Center
American Tragedy: James
Keegan and Sarah Fallon
as the murderous King
and Queen in Macbeth
at the ASC. (Image by
Michael Bailey)
SHAKESPEARE magazine 15

American Shakespeare Center
Above: Shakespeare Magazine’s Mary Finch outside the
Blackfriars Playhouse. Below: Mary interviews ASC
luminary Dr Ralph Cohen. (Images: Lauren D. Rogers)
16 SHAKESPEARE magazine

American Shakespeare Center
Drive far enough through the
cornfields of Virginia and you’ll
end up in the quaint town of
Staunton. And if you resist
the allure of the bookstores,
bars and coffee shops, you’ll
come to one of the wonders
of the Shakespearean world –
the Blackfriars Theatre at the
American Shakespeare Center.
Such was the pilgrimage I made
last summer, as have many
Shakespeareans before me.
Driving into town, I must confess I
wondered if this was not the beginning of
another Shakespearean misadventure (see
previous issue for examples of my many
mishaps). Could we have taken a wrong
turn? This picturesque town seemed
more like the setting for a cliché comingof-age
movie than a cultural hub for
Shakespeareans.
“We didn’t want an urban place,” says
company co-founder Dr Ralph Cohen,
explaining the seemingly odd choice of
location. They chose Staunton because, in
his words, “It’s a place to come, park your
car, see a lot of shows and not have to
worry about anything.”
Dr Cohen’s passion for Shakespeare bursts
at the seams. He began talking as soon as I
arrived, hardly waiting for the recorder to
start. When he discovered that I had never
seen the interior of the Blackfriars, he insisted
on accompanying me inside, eager to see my
The balcony and
interior of the
Blackfriars Playhouse.
(Image by Lauren D.
Rogers)
“James Keegan swept between
extremes, portraying Macbeth’s
mixture of hesitancy and
consuming ambition”
reactions. And he was not disappointed. The
view from the upstairs seating took my breath
away and slapped a goofy grin on my face.
In the scene before me, patrons
milled around the precise replication of
Shakespeare’s indoor theatre, waiting for
the Wednesday evening performance to
begin. Some (like myself) gaped at the
detail in the woodwork of the performance
space, while others went to the onstage bar
for refreshments. Some even swayed to the
music played by the actors in the loft above
the stage. Don’t be mistaken, though – they
were not playing period ballads, but covers
of pop songs, such as ‘Rolling in the Deep’
by Adele and ‘Locked Out of Heaven’ by
Bruno Mars.
And the the audience itself caught my
SHAKESPEARE magazine 17

American Shakespeare Center
18 SHAKESPEARE magazine

American Shakespeare Center
Left: A suitably bloody
Banquo. (Image by Michael
Bailey)
This page: Macbeth gets
well and truly Macduffed.
(Image by Lindsey Walters)
SHAKESPEARE magazine 19

American Shakespeare Center
stage.
attention. There were people with grey
hair and people with neon blue hair. There
were audience members who were likely
in primary school and others who were
likely at university, and beyond. The power
of the Bard’s words unified this otherwise
disjointed crowd.
While the diversity in the small audience
surprised me, it seems like the most natural
thing to director and co-founder Jim
Warren. “[Shakespeare] wrote for diverse
audiences,” explains Warren, “so if we do
some of the stuff that he did, we can create
that diversity because that diverse appeal
was written into the play.”
One Elizabethan motto the ASC holds
proudly is – as T-shirts for sale in the lobby
boast – “We do it with the lights on”.
Throughout the entire performance, electric
candelabras illuminate the actors as well as the
audience. This illumination creates a unique
sense of community, as the reaction of fellow
audience members is easily seen, especially
with the audience placed on three sides of the
“One Elizabethan motto
the ASC holds proudly
is: We do it with the
lights on”
A performance in full
swing at the Blackfriars
Playhouse. (Image by
Lauren D. Rogers)
Such lighting allowed me to watch my
fellow audience members as much as the actors
on stage.
The two young theatre goers sitting on
the stage caught my attention as they pulled
pink sweaters over their faces at the entrance
of the Weird Sisters. And any feelings of
embarrassment over my tears for MacDuff’s
grief disappeared as soon as I cautioned a
glance around and saw I was not the only one
so moved.
Before the start of rehearsal, Warren sent
the actors a set of typically forthright notes.
“We won’t be making Lady Macbeth one of
20 SHAKESPEARE magazine

American Shakespeare CenterA
The Weird Sisters of
Macbeth at the ASC.
(Image by Michael Bailey)
SHAKESPEARE magazine 21

American Shakespeare Center
the witches,” he wrote. “We won’t be
making Macbeth the Third Murderer.
We won’t have the witches costumed as
cheerleaders/priests/nuns… We won’t
be doing a lot of things that a lot of
productions do.”
Refreshingly, Warren’s production
remains powerfully committed simply to
telling the story with a straightforward
aim of entertaining and challenging the
audience. “Watching Macbeth’s descent
into hell can help us to strive to never be
in that situation,” says Warren. “To never be
controlled by somebody in that situation.”
James Keegan’s portrayal of the Scottish
King swept between the extremes, lending
authenticity to Macbeth’s mixture of
hesitancy and consuming ambition. As
“Throughout the entire
performance, electric
candelabras illuminate the
actors and the audience”
The ‘Shakespeare on
the Road’ team visited
Staunton on their US
tour: (l-r) Paul Prescott
(Warwick University),
Paul Edmondson
(Shakespeare
Birthplace Trust),
Inc). Image by Lauren
D. Rogers.
his counterpart, Sarah Fallon creates a
Lady Macbeth to match, a Lady Macbeth
motivated not only by ambition, but also
love. Together, Fallon and Keegan present
two of Shakespeare’s greatest villains
as two of his greatest lovers. Of course,
their love proves horrifically destructive –
ultimately they lose each other in exchange
for a brief claim to a bloody crown.
Even while descending into hell, there
were moments of genuine humour. In
the midst of the Porter’s monologue,
immediately after the murder of Duncan,
the actor strayed from his 400-year-old
lines to have some fun with the audience
members onstage, soliciting kisses on the
cheek and ridiculing outfit choices.
Through the jokes, the flashes of
violence and the moments of tragedy,
the production felt cohesive and fully
Shakespeare. For Warren, the comedy in
the tragedy is only natural. “Shakespeare’s
fun!” he says, “Even if it is the dark tragedy
of Macbeth, there is a lot of fun in it.”
22 SHAKESPEARE magazine

History: The Tower of London
Tower
of Power
During his lifetime it was a place of living history,
a symbol of Royal authority and a much-feared
prison. But what would the Tower of London
have meant to William Shakespeare?
Words: Zoe Bramley Images courtesy Historic Royal Palaces
24 SHAKESPEARE magazine

History: The Tower of London
“The Tower was
also a prison –
a place where
the unlucky, the
brave and the
foolish went to
suffer and die”
SHAKESPEARE magazine 25

History: The Tower of London
s a City of London Tour Guide
I can talk for hours about
Shakespeare and his links to
obscure ruins hidden in secret
corners of the Square Mile. The
smaller and quirkier, the better.
“See this wall? Let me tell you
about it!”
Shakespeare had a full, rich life in
the City. We find him in fairly ordinary
places – Carter Lane, Bread Street and
the alleyways of Blackfriars. So when the
Editor asked me to write about the Tower
of London I demurred. Surely the Tower
yields tales of kings, queens and traitors. If
Will from Stratford ever went there it’s not
recorded. What on earth would I say?
Shakespare himself is almost silent
on the subject. But there are some
interesting scenes in Richard III which
could reveal something of his feelings
toward the fortress. In Act III, Scene I,
Prince Edward speaks plainly: “I do not
like the Tower...” He is a doomed little boy
who, along with his brother, will shortly be
swallowed up within its stone walls and
disappear from history. He’s inquisitive
and he asks Buckingham about the old
building, wondering if it was built by Julius
Caesar.
Buckingham replies that is was indeed
built by Caesar, and the reader wonders
if this is another amusing example of
Shakespeare’s dodgy grasp of history. Just
think of all those anachronistic clocks in
plays like Macbeth and Julius Caesar, not
forgetting the game of billiards in Antony
and Cleopatra. For Elizabethans, however,
the origins of the Tower were hazy.
Squatting just outside London, at the
south eastern boundary, it seemed to have
sprung up at the time the Romans built
their great wall around the City. Londoners
did indeed know the White Tower as ‘Julius
Caesar’s Tower’.
Of course, we know different. Begun
in 1078, the great stone fortress was built
to consolidate William the Conqueror’s
victory over the English and keep the
population in awe of his might. By Will’s
day it was a contradictory place. On one
hand it functioned as a tourist attraction,
with visitors flocking to see fearsome
beasts such as leopards and bears at the
royal menagerie. On the other hand, it was
still very much a royal palace. It was also a
prison. The Tower was a place where the
unlucky, the brave and the foolish went to
suffer and die.
Most infamously, the Tower was
where a Queen of England, Anne Boleyn,
was imprisoned and executed in 1536
– an incident which is most definitely
not mentioned in Shakespeare’s late
collaborative play Henry VIII.
In 1601, Robert Devereux, the renowned
26 SHAKESPEARE magazine
“Most infamously, the Tower was where
a Queen of England, Anne Boleyn, was
imprisoned and executed in 1536”

History: The Tower of London
A symbol of royal power,
the Tower was a natural
target for popular uprisings
like the Jack Cade Rebellion,
as depicted in Shakespeare’s
Henry VI, Part 2.
Dramatised by
Shakespeare
in Richard III,
the tale of the
Princes in the
Tower is one
of England’s
most poignant
legends.
After the 1605
Gunpowder Plot (which
some believe is a subtext
in Shakespeare’s Macbeth),
Guy Fawkes was tortured
in the Tower.
SHAKESPEARE magazine 27

History: The Tower of London
“Tower diaries record the torture and
execution of Edward Arden of Warwickshire
– kinsman of William Shakespeare”
Earl of Essex, was beheaded on Tower Green
for his failed uprising against Anne Boleyn’s
daughter, the mighty Queen Elizabeth
I. Perhaps unwittingly, Shakespeare’s
company had played a role in the rebellion
by agreeing to perform Richard II at the
Globe. The rebels had asked them to dust
off the old classic once more and to include
the ‘deposition scene’ in which Richard II
is shown giving up his crown. In the fervid
atmosphere of late Elizabethan England,
with a paranoid, ageing queen on the
throne, this was controversial stuff. Essex
hoped that the people would be inspired
to follow the play’s example and help him
depose Elizabeth.
That episode must have been frightening
enough, but Shakespeare already had a more
personal connection with the horrors that
awaited within the Tower.
In November 1583, Tower diaries state,
one Edward Arden of Warwickshire was
tortured upon the rack. He was accused of
treason, of plotting against the Queen’s life.
After a show trial at the Guildhall he was
hung, drawn and quartered.
This was William Shakespeare’s kinsman,
a second cousin of his mother, Mary Arden.
The shock felt by the Shakespeare family
must have been immense. The shame! What
would the neighbours say? Warwickshire was
a small world. William was only 19. Two
years later, he disappears from sight and the
seven ‘Lost Years’ begin.
How had this family tragedy come
about? Edward Arden was a wealthy
gentleman with an unfortunate son-in-law,
John Somerville. Like Arden, Somerville was
Catholic in a time when penal laws made
life difficult and dangerous for their kind. It
seems that one day the unstable Somerville
snapped. He set off for London, telling
everyone he met that he was going to kill
the Queen. Now, in the days of hanging,
drawing and quartering, this was indiscreet
at best. It makes me think there was never
any actual plot, just the delusional ravings of
a man who was widely regarded as mentally
unbalanced.
Sadly for Edward Arden, Somerville
named him as one who was involved in the
‘treason’ and he too was arrested, suffering
his grisly fate at Smithfield. Somerville was
found strangled inside his cell at the Tower.
Visitors to the Tower today can see
pitiful graffiti etched into the walls,
testament to the lost souls who had short
stays there prior to execution or who pined
away for years, forgotten behind bars.
Escape was not unheard of, but very rare and
difficult. In Act I, Scene IV of Richard III
the imprisoned Clarence tells Brackenbury
of a dream in which he’d broken from the
Tower and set sail for Burgundy. And in Act
IV, Scene I Queen Elizabeth calls the Tower
a “rough cradle for such little pretty ones”.
She’s talking about the Princes in the Tower.
When Shakespeare thought of the Tower
it must have been with sadness and dread,
knowing what had happened to Edward
Arden in there. Perhaps his near-silence
on that most infamous building actually
speaks volumes. Considering he was one
of the few playwrights of his age to avoid
imprisonment, silence may have been the
wisest course.
Zoe Bramley leads the Shakespeare Trail
and can arrange private walks. Go to www.
shakespearetrail.blogspot.com or Twitter
@shakespearewalk to connect with her.
For information on visiting the Tower of
London, go to www.hrp.org.uk
28 SHAKESPEARE magazine

armour on display at
the Tower.
One of the
iconic buildings
of English history,
the Tower has
seen plenty of
upheaval.
The Duke of
Clarence was
supposedly
drowned in a
butt of Malmsey
wine at the Tower
– another legend
perpetuated by
Shakespeare’s
Richard III.
SHAKESPEARE magazine 29

Filter Macbeth
Following critical acclaim for their rock-and-roll comedies
Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Filter
Macbeth
Tobacco Factory in Bristol. We met them to investigate
Words: Lucy Corley
Images: Farrows Creative
30 SHAKESPEARE magazine

Filter Macbeth
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SHAKESPEARE magazine 31

Filter Macbeth
Filter’s maverick take on
Shakespeare’s Macbeth involves
cooking up a cauldron of sound.
32 SHAKESPEARE magazine

Filter Macbeth
As Shakespeare’s Scottish
play approaches its
bloody end, Macbeth
broods that “Life’s but
a walking shadow.”
The metaphor neatly
epitomises Filter Theatre’s
restless new production.
At less than two hours long, Filter’s
Macbeth powers through the play’s most
famous lines at an intense pace, taking
the audience through a kaleidoscopic
montage of sounds and images that seems
to be over before it’s really begun. Yet
Artistic Director Oliver Dimsdale, who also
plays the title role, asserts that this is a fairly
conservative edit by Filter’s standards.
“With other Shakespeares,” he says,
“we might find ourselves being a little bit
bolder with the cutting and the pasting.
But this particular story is just the most
tautly, brilliantly written psychological
thriller and we didn’t want to tamper with
it too much.”
This is Filter’s third Shakespeare
production. They have toured Europe with
Twelfth Night (2007) and the UK with A
Midsummer Night’s Dream (2012), but
Macbeth marks the company’s first venture
into tragedy. Their take on the classic had
the audience alternating between chuckles
and grimaces as Lady Macbeth drew a
target on Duncan’s chest in lipstick, and
Macbeth tucked into a dead crow as if it
were a hot dog.
The darkly playful tone is typical of the
company’s style. “We try to approach a
“Lady Macbeth is not a
psychopath, because she
has some remorse”
Poppy Miller
Lady Macbeth (Poppy
Miller) meets the
audience eye-to-eye.
Shakespearean text with the right amount
of respect but also the right amount of,
shall we say, irreverence,” Dimsdale says. “I
think a piece of art should keep on creating
and moving. If it all has to be done exactly
the way it was, then isn’t that a museum
piece rather than a piece of art?”
Developed at Bristol’s Tobacco Factory,
the production exploits the theatre’s
closeness between audience and
performers to create an intimate piece that
never quite leaves the rehearsal room. The
actors drift casually onto the stage with
the houselights still up, in drab-coloured,
modern-day dress no different from the
audience’s.
“It’s a conscious choice with Filter’s
Shakespeare productions to have the
house lights 30 percent up on the audience,
to be able to see people’s faces,” explains
Poppy Miller, who plays Lady Macbeth. “The
SHAKESPEARE magazine 33

Filter Macbeth
idea is that it’s available, that there’s no such
thing as ‘us and them’. We are in some way,
at times, all part of Macbeth, part of the
action.”
The action takes place on blocks
surrounding a pit in the centre of the stage.
Here the three witches become sound
technicians, the ingredients of their brew
the array of instruments and devices that
make up the sound board at the heart of all
Filter’s work.
“Our shows always have music,
composition and sound design at the
epicentre of the process,” says Dimsdale,
“and in this case, actually at the epicentre of
the stage. We find it absolutely freeing and
thrilling that we can concentrate on sound
design rather than necessarily a character.”
And it is definitely sound that calls
the shots in this production. The witches’
concoction of tangled wires, sliders and
strings squeak, rumble and pulsate to create
a cauldron of sound that represents the
“Macbeth is just the most
tautly, brilliantly written
psychological thriller”
Oliver Dimsdale
Lost in music: Oliver
Dimsdale as Macbeth.
characters’ motives and fears. Radios and baby
monitors hint at unknown spaces beyond the
theatre, adding a wistful, intangible tone to the
production.
Into this heady blend wanders
Dimsdale’s philosophically ambitious
Macbeth, to be haunted by the witches’
music. The spring reverberation unit played
by Banquo (Victoria Moseley) even has two
long wires, suggestive of puppet strings.
A second force behind Macbeth is, of
course, his wife. “When she reads the letter
she goes straight into the head of the beast
and is incredibly clear Duncan’s murder has
34 SHAKESPEARE magazine

Filter Macbeth
to happen,” says Dimsdale. Miller’s Lady
Macbeth alternates this flinty determination
with an unsettlingly cheerful hostess’s smile.
“She’s not a psychopath,” says Miller,
“because she has some remorse. Macbeth
pre-analyses and analyses and therefore,
perhaps, doesn’t go mad. She loses her
mind because it’s a very practical task for
her, in some ways.”
Miller certainly has a brisk, secretarial
efficiency. Her sharp, straight-backed form
even stands in for the knife in the ‘Is this a
dagger...?’ speech as Macbeth follows her,
spellbound, around the stage.
The production’s few splashes of colour
come from occasional cool indigo lighting
and the red grin Lady Macbeth paints on
her husband’s face after Duncan’s murder.
Yet this minimalist style allows the lines to
“There’s no such thing as ‘us
and them’. We are all part of
Macbeth, part of the action”
Poppy Miller
The production’s
minimalist style allows
Shakespeare’s words to
have their full impact.
have their full impact and, Dimsdale hopes,
encourages the audience to really listen
and engage with the play.
“For me, a pre-planned performance
can only ever go so far,” says the actor.
“Just being on the line and relating to the
audience keeps the text as alive as possible.”
I can’t speak for the rest of the audience,
but the intensity of Macbeth looking
straight at us and commanding we “resolve
ourselves” to kill Banquo isn’t something
I’ll forget in a hurry. It’s this feeling of
uncertainty about where the play ends
and life begins that is unique to Filter’s
productions and integral to the company’s
relationship with Shakespeare.
“It’s sometimes very thrilling in the creating
of a Shakespearean role to not think about
what you’re going to say before you say it,”
Dimsdale reflects. “Too much ‘I’ll say the line
this way’ and you’re getting into the territory
of something that’s artificial, when actually a
lot of the time it’s there in the line. You say the
line and you feel the story propelling you.”
SHAKESPEARE magazine 35

Historic places
The
Letter
of the
Law
36 SHAKESPEARE magazine

Historic places
“The relationship between
the law and the theatre in
London is almost as old as the
Inns of Court themselves”
For many fans, nothing beats
the thrill of experiencing
Shakespeare in a suitably
historic venue. And now
Read Not Dead on the Road
is exploring the Bard’s links
to the legal profession at
London’s Inns of Court.
Words and images courtesy of
Shakespeare’s Globe.
Photography by Anne-Marie Bickerton
and Alex Harvey-Brown.
Actors and lawyers
perform George
Gascoigne’s 1573 play
Supposes at Gray’s Inn.
SHAKESPEARE magazine 37

Historic places
Actors
“Storytelling is a core aspect of both the
advocate and actor. The objective is to
connect emotionally with the person
one is trying to persuade”
hakespeare’s Globe is on a quest
to stage every play known to
have been performed on the
stages of London before 1642.
Launched in 1995 by Globe
Education, Read Not Dead
brings actors, audiences and
scholars together to explore
and celebrate those plays by
Shakespeare’s contemporaries
via script-in-hand, play-ina-day
performances. They
are not meant to be polished
productions, but there is a
shared spirit of adventure and
excitement for the actors and
audiences uncovering these
hidden gems.
Part of the project is to take these rare plays
back to their historical context. Last summer,
Love’s Victory by Lady Mary Wroth was
staged at Penshurst Place in Kent. It is the
rehearse Lady
Mary Wroth’s Love’s
Victory (c. 1620) at
Penshurst Place, Kent.
first pastoral comedy known to be written
by a woman, and Penshurst Place is the very
location it is most likely to have been written
and first performed 400 years ago.
At the beginning of its new ‘Shakespeare
and Friendship’ season of public events,
Globe Education is taking Read Not Dead
across the river Thames to London’s Inns
of Court for a special series celebrating the
‘amity of the inns’.
The series launched in November with a
performance of The Most Excellent Comedy
of Two The Most Faithfullest Friends
Damon and Pithias. Written around 1564 by
Richard Edwards, a little-known precursor to
Shakespeare, this tragi-comedy celebrates true
38 SHAKESPEARE magazine

Historic places
and virtuous friendship. Today, friendship
between the Inns and among members
remains a cornerstone of Inns of Court
culture, as lawyers from around the world
live, study and practise together in shared
amity.
The Inns of Court in London are the
professional associations for barristers in
England and Wales. The relationship between
the law and the theatre in London is almost as
old as the Inns of Court themselves. All four
– Inner Temple, Middle Temple, Lincoln’s
and Gray’s – are known as famous, and
sometime infamous, venues for professional
as well as amateur drama. The first recorded
performance of Twelfth Night took place in
Read Not Dead
allows historic plays
to come alive for
modern audiences.
Middle Temple Hall in 1602, an event which
was celebrated on its 400th anniversary with
a production of the play in the same venue
by actors from Shakespeare’s Globe including
Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry. The Comedy
of Errors is recorded to have been performed
in 1594 at Gray’s Inn. Shakespeare was
interested enough in the Inns of Court to
make them the setting for Act II, Scene IV of
Henry VI, Part 1.
Iain Christie is a barrister and trained actor
who combines both practices. As a Bencher of
the Inner Temple and a member of the Inner
Temple drama society, he was involved in
the Globe’s previous performance of George
Gascoigne’s Supposes there last January,
SHAKESPEARE magazine 39

Historic places
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“Modern
training
courses for
lawyers engage
professional
actors to teach
breathing,
posture,
presence,
and vocal
projection”
performing alongside Globe actors and his
fellow Benchers. “The relationship between
the two professions extends beyond the use of
legal venues to stage historic plays,” he says,
“and the pleasure of lawyers entertaining their
colleagues in after-dinner revels. It applies also
to the comparative skills employed by both
professions.”
Indeed, modern training courses for young
lawyers increasingly engage professional
actors to teach presentation skills which focus
on breathing, posture, presence, and vocal
projection.
“I am interested in how law students can
use the drama-school techniques of narrative
and improvisation in their work,” says Iain.
This reading of
Richard Edwards’
1565 play Damon
and Pithias took place
last month at Middle
Temple Hall.
“Storytelling is a core aspect of the craft of
both the advocate and actor. The advocate
must always remember that his objective is
to connect emotionally with the person he is
trying to persuade.”
But, as Iain explains, this transference of
skills does not only travel in one direction.
“When I was at drama school,” he says, “I was
struck by the similarity between the process of
textual analysis in rehearsals and preparation
for trial.
“The actor must create a consistent backstory
for their character so their performance
is grounded in a continuing reality. A barrister
must build a case theory for a version of
events he wishes the judge or jury to believe.
40 SHAKESPEARE magazine

Historic places
And the processes are strikingly similar.
“However, whenever someone comments
that in becoming an actor I am really just
doing the same job I remind them that,
whilst advocacy may at times be entertaining,
a lawyer is engaged in a serious business. He
is not there to put on a performance. Any
advocate who plays to the gallery will be given
a hard time in court.”
Read Not Dead at the Inns of Court will
continue into 2015 as part of ‘Shakespeare
and Friendship’. Love’s Sacrifice by John Ford
will be performed in the Great Hall at Gray’s
Inn on Sunday 15 February. The play was
dedicated to Ford’s cousin and namesake,
John Ford who was a member of Gray’s and
High Court Judge
Sir Michael Burton
also took part in the
staged reading of
Supposes at Gray’s Inn.
who the author called “my truest friend, my
worthiest kinsman.” The performance will
star current Gray’s members Master Roger
Eastman, High Court Judge Sir Michael John
Burton and Masters Charles Douthwaite and
Colin Manning.
On Sunday 1 March, Inner Temple
Hall will host The Troublesome Reign of
King John of England by George Peele, in
celebration of the 800th anniversary of the
signing of the Magna Carta. And the final
reading will return to the Globe, with the
anonymous The Faithful Friends on 19 April.
SHAKESPEARE magazine 41

Interview: Lois Leveen
42 SHAKESPEARE magazine

Interview: Lois Leveen
Between
Shakespeare’s Lines
In her novel Juliet’s Nurse, Lois Leveen takes a minor
character from Romeo and Juliet
centre stage. The Oregon-based author told us what it
was like to rewrite one of Shakespeare’s greatest hits.
Interview by Mary Finch
Left: Penny Layden
as the Nurse and
Ellie Kendrick as
Juliet in this 2009
production. Image:
Shakespeare’s
Globe.
Above: Lois
Leveen by John
Melville Bishop.
Why did you decide to take on
Romeo and Juliet?
“It really started, specifically with the
title, Juliet’s Nurse. When the title
popped into my head I was really
excited and I went back and re-read
the play. Though I have taught other
Shakespeare plays, I hadn’t actually read
Romeo and Juliet since high school.”
What was it about the Nurse that
made you want to tell her story?
“The first scene when the Nurse appears
is also Juliet’s first scene. Juliet has eight
lines of text and the Nurse has over 60,
SHAKESPEARE magazine 43

Interview: Lois Leveen
and I could see here was a woman who
wanted to tell her story. In that very first
speech we get some glimpses into Juliet’s
childhood – the day that she is weaned,
a peek at the Nurse’s husband. But most
significantly the information that the
Nurse had her own daughter who was
born at the same time as Juliet but didn’t
live.
“I was captivated by the idea of
exploring that relationship. What would it
be like to lose a child – the most profound
and devastating loss that someone can
experience? And then have another child
to love and to comfort, but also be a
servant in her household…
“So it seemed like the Nurse had a
rich story of her own. We think of her as
minor and comic, but she has the third
largest number of lines in the play and she
embodies the tragic as well as the comic in
Lois models a glamrock
Shakespeare
T-shirt in a Veronese
tower. That’s Lake
Garda in the
background. (Image:
Chuck G. Barnes)
her own story.
“And then there were other things I
wanted to explore in the story. The Nurse
refers to Tybalt as her best friend, which
was striking to me because they are not
in a single scene together. So I wanted to
know what the nature of their relationship
was like, what their friendship was like,
across class and gender and age lines.
“I also wanted to know more about
some of the other characters. You know,
when Juliet was born Lady Capulet was
not much older than Juliet is at the time of
the play. We know that Lord Capulet says
‘The Lord has swallowed all my hopes but
she’, implying his other children.”
This seems to be a polarising play.
People either deeply love it or
really dislike it. Why do you think
that is?
“We think of her as minor, but she has the third
largest number of lines in the play. She embodies the
tragic as well as the comic in her own story”
44 SHAKESPEARE magazine

Interview: Lois Leveen
“The part of me that is a historian wants to make
sure people learn about the past in accurate ways.
The novelist in me understands character and
story needs to drive that”
Left: Another
exhausting
research trip to
Shakespeare’s Italy.
Below: Lois has the
Bard under her
thumb.
(Images: Chuck G.
Barnes)
more and more in the process of writing
the novel, but I think there is often more
depth to the characters than we think.
And sometimes more simplicity. Romeo
and Juliet were not, for many decades,
considered the prime roles. It was really
the Nurse and Mercutio. We get this
emphasis on star-crossed lovers, which I
think in some ways is a misunderstanding
of how much else is going on in the play.”
“I think part of it is that it is usually the play
that people read first, assigned in school,
usually in grade nine or ten in the US. First of
all, we were never meant to read Shakespeare.
He never would have thought of it as
something we would read – he would have
thought of it as something performed. And I
think it is chosen because it is supposed to be
relevant to teens. Although I think it is, it is
hard to see at the age.
“So people come to it because they
have to, not because they want to. Some
people fall for it dearly, more through
film – for one generation that was Zeffirelli
and for another Baz Luhrmann, and even
before that West Side Story.
“But to go back to the play, especially
with the perspective of an adult, is really a
very different thing. One of the things that
I’ve enjoyed most is that reviewers have
read the novel and then gone back to read
the play and they see in the play things
they hadn’t seen before. I hope that will be
true for most readers.”
“I’ve come to like Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare is very big and very
well-beloved. What does it feel
like to adapt his work?
“I didn’t think about what it meant to
take on the best-known playwright, and
perhaps best-known author in the English
language, and the best-known play in
the English language, when I began the
SHAKESPEARE magazine 45

Interview: Lois Leveen
project. Which maybe is an indication of
my naiveté.
“One of the things that I’ve realised
is that anytime anybody performs
Shakespeare, they are always doing an
active interpretation and adaptation.
No actor delivers the lines the same
way every day in every performance.
And there’s not much stage direction
in Shakespeare so directors are always
making staging decisions, but also often
making decisions about casting, changing
lines, cutting lines. And so this idea of
revising Shakespeare is really inherent to
Shakespeare.
“I realised the enormity of taking on
Shakespeare when I spoke at the Shakespeare
450 conference in Paris, this past April.
There were so many scholars from all over
the world who had spent a lifetime studying
Shakespeare, and not just his work but his
reception across the centuries. But I think in
some ways the people who love the play, or
know the play well, particularly appreciate the
novel. So my paper at Shakespeare 450 was
very warmly received.”
Did your past experience of
writing historical fiction affect
your approach to Juliet’s Nurse?
“Well, the novel – like the play – is set in
the 14th century. It’s really that moment
when Italy is beginning to move from the
Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Scholars
appreciate the kind of work the novel
can do to bring scholarly research to a
broader audience – and I have tried very
hard to get that right. The part of me that
is trained as a historian wants to make sure
that people are learning about the past
in accurate ways from my work, although
the novelist in me also understands that
character and story needs to drive that.
So it’s about the sensory experience of
whatever place the characters are in –
Lois channels Juliet
at the famous
balcony in Verona.
And yes, we know
there’s no balcony
in the play…
(Image: Chuck G.
Barnes)
everything from cookbooks to fashion.
Reading up on clothing, reading up
on food, reading up on the religious
practices.”
With so much going on in the play
– so many characters, conflicts,
and themes – how did you decide
what to focus on and expand upon
in your novel?
“In some ways, I had to stop looking
at what the core theme might be for
Shakespeare, because I had to discover
what it was for Juliet’s Nurse. There are
plot points, and certainly characters, and
even lines or riffs on lines, that I pull over
from Shakespeare. But it really is ultimately
Angelica’s, the Nurse’s, story.”
To read the opening chapter and order a copy of
Juliet’s Room, go to www.loisleveen.com
“Romeo and Juliet were not, for many decades, considered
the prime roles. It was really the Nurse and Mercutio”
46 SHAKESPEARE magazine

Contributors
Brooke Thomas
Our UK Staff Writer is a freelance
writer based in London. She learned to
love the bard during her BA at Royal
Holloway, University of London, and
she recently graduated from their MA
Shakespeare Studies programme. You
can find Brooke on Twitter
@literallygeeked where she hosts
a short story competition called
#SmallTales every week.
Mary Finch Our US Staff Writer 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.
Meet thy makers...
Just some of the contributors to this issue of Shakespeare Magazine
Zoe Bramley is a City of
London Tour Guide specialising
in Shakespeare’s London and the
Tudor City. She qualified in 2010
and then launched the Shakespeare
Trail, a guided walk which explores
the hidden sites associated with our
greatest playwright. Zoe’s fascination
with Shakespeare began after reading
A Midsummer Night’s Dream aged
17 and wishing she could meet
Bottom! Zoe can be contacted via
www.shakespearetrail.com or find her
@shakespearewalk on Twitter.
Lucy Corley has loved Shakespeare
in performance since watching Emma
Thompson as Beatrice in Much
Ado About Nothing, and through
studying English at Exeter University
she found she loved writing about it
too. She graduated last summer and
currently lives and works in Exeter,
where aside from theatre, she enjoys
singing, photography and occasional
Appalachian dancing. Go to
www.lucycorley.wordpress.com for
her blogs on theatre.
SHAKESPEARE magazine 47

Next issue
We hope you’ve enjoyed Issue Five of Shakespeare Magazine.
Here’s a taste of what we have coming up next time…
Sara Pascoe
Comedy’s golden girl stands up for the Bard.
As You Like It
Anthony Del Col
Meet Rosalind, the smartest girl in the wood.
Andrea Chapin
The Kill Shakespeare co-creator gets graphic.
Young Will reimagined by the author of The Tutor.