Shakespeare - Love Him/Leave Him?
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Posted by Cathy Smith Apr 8, 2007 |
School days and Shakespeare - not many happy memories there. Miss Jackson read from a battered red book called Shakespeare for Children. We giggled and shuffled and got told off. We were not thrilled. Recently I attended a performance of Macbeth, performed by a group of five young amateur actors on a makeshift stage in the grounds of Winchester cathedral.
There are eighteen characters in Macbeth and the would-be thespians had to share them out between them. I know Macbeth is a tragedy and its not supposed to be fun but the energetic dashings back and forth behind the stage to grab a prop for whatever role they were taking on lent a note of unintended brevity to the performance. There’s a fine line between tragedy and comedy, but the unplanned comedy in this performance did nothing to detract from the drama. The enthusiasm of the actors made up for any lack of a sophisticated staging. It was as enjoyable as any performance at Stratford-upon-Avon. Shortly after Macbeth
I saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which really is a comedy. It was great to see professional actors perform. The wit and subtlety of Shakespeare’s writing came through loud and clear. I enjoyed the amateur Macbeth just as much and I thought if only Miss Jackson had shown a smidgen of imagination and provided a few cardboard props and let us act out the plays maybe we would have had just a tiny glimpse of what Shakespeare is about and why his plays are performed all over the world in scores of languages.
As for me...it took about twenty years for me to acquaint myself with the Shakespeare outside of that tatty red book. I blame Miss Jackson. Related articles:
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