Shakespeare Festival

2012 is the year of the Brits: as the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee take centre stage, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) follows suit and will stage the World Shakespeare Festival from April until September this year in a bid to put “art at the heart of the Olympics.”

The World Shakespeare Festival forms part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, the largest cultural celebration in the history of the modern Olympic and Paralympic movements. Since 2008, more than 16 million people participated in or attended performances nationwide, over 160,000 people attended more than 8,300 workshops and an excess of 3.7 million have taken part in almost 3,700 ‘Open Weekend’ events; all inspired by London 2012. The London 2012 Festival, in accordance with the London 2012 Olympics, will reach its peak by providing over 10 million opportunities to see free world-class events throughout the UK at various venues.

Ruth Mackenzie , Director of the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival, describes the breadth of The World Shakespeare Festival as “a celebration of Shakespeare as the world’s playwright, produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company in an unprecedented collaboration with leading UK and international arts organisations and with Globe to Globe, a major international programme produced by Shakespeare’s globe, it’s the biggest celebration of Shakespeare ever staged.”

Almost 60 partners will come together to bring the World Shakespeare Festival alive and thousands of artists from around the world will take part in almost 70 productions. There will also be supporting events, exhibitions and educational events right across the UK, including in London, Stratford-upon-Avon, Newcastle, Birmingham, as well as online. The festival will run from April 23rd to November 2012, forming part of the London 2012 Festival, the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad, and the idea is to bring leading artists from all over the world together in a UK-wide festival this summer. Over one million tickets are on sale, so the emphasis is for all to get involved.

Michael Boyd, Artistic Director of the RSC, equally puts emphasis on Shakespeare as a vehicle for multiculturalism: “The World Shakespeare Festival celebrates this most international of artists at a time when the eyes of the world will be on London, that most international of cities, for the Olympic Games.”

Although “William Shakespeare is our greatest cultural export” as Boris Johnson has put it, the festival’s productions are not limited to Shakespeare’s plays. Other so-called themes include: ‘Arab Theatre Season’, ‘Globe to Globe’, ‘Open Stages’, ‘Shakespeare Re-imagined’, ‘Nations at War’ and ‘What Country Friends is this?’ In spite of this, the themes adopted by the RSC are definitely influenced by the Bard. ‘What Country Friends is this?’ encompasses Shakespeare’s shipwreck trilogy:The Tempest, The Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night, and these are cast from one acting company, looking at migration, exile, and the discovery of brave new worlds. King John, Richard III and A Soldier in Every Son – The Rise of the Aztecs are the three plays under the umbrella title ‘Nations at War’, exploring the struggle for absolute power and the right to lead a nation. Further productions include A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Julius Caesar, but also adaptations like Romeo and Juliet in Baghdad or Two Roses for Richard III.

In addition, the Globe in London has announced its Globe to Globe Festival as part of the Shakespeare celebrations for the London 2012 Festival and will endeavour to present all of Shakespeare’s plays over 6 short weeks. Whilst it will stage one production itself, the remaining 36 plays will each be performed in different languages by different countries from around the globe, the epitome of global arts coming to London in celebration of this momentous year and as part of the events, which will be the finale to the Cultural Olympiad

All content © 2006 - 2012 Impact Magazine

‘Shakespeare’s Villains’ @ Nottingham Playhouse

Stephen Berkoff is amongst the crème de la crème of Britains traditionally trained thespians, therefore it should come as no surprise that he can command the entire Nottingham Playhouse stage. On his own. Without any props or staging, whatsoever. Within the space of two hours he casually embodied Iago, Richard III, both Macbeths’, Hamlet and Oberon, to name but a few, to a highly convincing level. It’s fair to say, that the LA Weekly Theatre Award the one-man show received in 2000, is more than deserved.

Shakespeare’s Villains deals with Berkoff’s field of expertise: the villain. From Hitler to the ultimateBond baddies, he’s played them all. In this play Berkoff kindly takes us by the hand and explains some of Shakespeare’s finest characters; those who are inherently evil, whose situation leads them to evil deeds or who are at the mercy of an evil society. Rather than just a string of monologues, Berkoff wittily placed his villains in easily classifiable categories; the mediocre villain, the genius villain…and although all of these roles (highlighted by a spotlight tinged with blood) are clearly second nature to him, the spiel in between is improvised, bouncing off the audience in a truly amazing manner. Each villain is clearly a vulgar, intense feast of exaggeration and yet their very humane foibles are so keenly observed and applied. All of this is rolled up with a street-urchin like sense of humour.

The best moments for me were Hamlet trudging through his royal home shouting ‘Mother!’…’Mother!’ repeatedly, whilst climbing endless staircases and encountering numerous doors, all along the stage sides! Or Oberon, that last villain, as the first but most primitive Junk dealer, was sadly, as too much of a coward to administer this love drug himself and his noble servant (Puck) rises to the occasion. Puck – a name which Berkoff implies is best not shouted at the Globe in strong winds…

My only complaint is that dear Berkoff cruelly stereotypes us students. We after all have so dedicatedly forked out our cash for him, he suggests that the only reason poor Hamlet managed to drag his deed of revenge out across four hours was down to the fact that he is simply a student unable to firstly analyse and secondly plan his act of retribution.

Apart from this minor blunder, it truly was a brilliant performance. And yet the highly talented Berkoff himself seemed most genuinely proud about the fact that Sir Ian McKellen lives on his road. And no, he’s not bitter that he is not yet knighted. Not one little bit.

All content © 2006 - 2012 Impact Magazine

Pyjamas, but never nighties...

For Impact, out university magazine, I recently did an interview with U.S. comedy duo The Pyjama Men which I thought I'd share...

*The highest selling act to ever play at The Soho Theatre in London, a 2010 sell-out run in London and a TV project in development…it’s no secret that comedy duo The Pyjama Men, a.k.a Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez from Albuquerque, New Mexico, are in hot demand. So I was extremely lucky to bag an interview with them…

Did you find it easy  breaking onto the comedy circuit?

The main thing is to just keep showing up and doing your comedy wherever you can. I wouldn’t say it’s easy, but if you do the effin’ work, something will come of it. Some people make glass eyes and get super into the glass eye business. We didn’t go that route, but we work just as hard as those glass eye barons and it’s going well.

What was the motivating push that convinced you to do it?

We gave up everything else to do this and when doing something ridiculous is all you got, you really
 want it to work out.

Where do you get show ideas and influences from?

There were plenty of comedy films we liked growing up, like Airplane, Top Secret, Naked Gun… But in a way we were lucky because we grew up in the small desert city of Albuquerque in New Mexico. There was no scene, no one to set an example and so we just did what we thought was funny or interesting and because of that we were able to make our own style…for better or worse!

You’ve toured America, Canada, the Edinburgh Fringe…how do you choose your destinations?

We go where the work is I guess. In the same way zombies go where the brains are. Doing Edinburgh afforded us a lot of opportunities to do things internationally (and to get drunk). It can all be traced back there, really.

Do you adapt your shows a lot to suit the different audiences in different countries and do you find that reactions and reception differ greatly from country to country?

No, because we’re not topical. Our stuff is more about characters and how weird humans are – picking up on idiosyncrasies or exploring relationships. We look for ways to tie our bits together through strange narratives, but it’s not specific to any one place or country.

Who is the best audience and who is your ideal audience?

Jee…I guess the best audiences are the un-jaded ones; being too cool to laugh is the saddest thing that can happen to a person.

How long does it typically take you to write a show?

We work for about six weeks before we open a show that is just a sort of skeleton and then we improvise within the structure in front of an audience. So it’s hard to say because a lot of the writing happens on stage and we keep that process going until we close the show.

Do you have someone to edit or help write your material?

No, it’s just us. We’re a small operation.

Which one of you is funnier…and why?

I’m funnier because I have a secret weapon – Mark writes my jokes.

Any tips for aspiring comedians?

Do your own thing. Trying to fit into a mould gets you nowhere. Take it from us. Ever heard of us? No? Okay well, do what ever you think will work.

Oh and have you ever performed in nighties?

No, you idiot, we’re the Pajama Men.

On that note…thanks guys!

All content © 2006 - 2012 Impact Magazine