DURING THE past 400 years the plays of William Shakespeare have been performed all over the world, in productions ranging from those close to what the playwright had intended, to versions in which the only aspect that remains true to Shakespeare’s original is his words. The lines, regardless of how many times they are spoken and by whom, endure through sheer artistry and psychological sophistication. Shakespeare was a great poet who knew and understood the failings and ambitions, the hopes and dreams and sorrows of men, all men.
Visitors to London often make a point of queuing at Westminster Abbey with the intention of seeing his grave. Geoffrey Chaucer was the first poet to be buried there in 1400, not because he was a poet but because he was, at the time of his death, a member of the royal household. The most famous monument in Poet’s Corner is dedicated to Shakespeare and was erected in 1740, 124 years after his death. The statue depicts the dramatist in a thoughtful pose, looking away from a long scroll inscribed with words spoken by Prospero when he muses upon mortality. But although his memorial is flanked by major Shakespearean actors – the grave of David Garrick and the ashes of Sir Henry Irving and Laurence Olivier – the world’s most famous playwright lies in his birthplace, Stratford-Upon- Avon, in Holy Trinity Church, where he had been baptised. His works travelled the globe and it is fitting that The Globe was the name of his theatre, but he wanted to be buried in the West Midlands market town in which he had been born, the third of eight children.
There had been some discussion about moving his remains to Westminster Abbey but his epitaph appears to have anticipated such plans: “Good friend, for Jesus’ sake, forbear/To dig the dust enclosed here!/Blest be the man that spares these stones/And curst be he that moves my bones.”
Not only did he not want to be buried elsewhere, he is issuing a strong warning as to the folly of anyone disregarding his wishes.
In four years’ time, another Olympic year, the 400th anniversary of his death will be marked. Yet each year his birthday, believed to be April 23rd, three days before the known date of his baptism, April 26th, is celebrated in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Last month more than 30,000 revellers converged on this town on the river and Shakespeare’s birthday became a street party, overlooked by the Royal Shakespeare Theatre building which houses two of the three main theatres owned by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). The presence of the RSC is subtle rather than overpowering.
Stratford-Upon-Avon is a pretty town, even in the rain, and yes there is a statue of William Shakespeare placed strategically in the centre of the town. Some of the shop fronts reflect him and his work, as do some of the inns and cafes. But it is far from a theme park. Anne Hathaway’s cottage, about a kilometre from the town centre, is down a lane and open to the public, but in Stratford, it is the recently modernised theatre that compels. Interestingly, the RSC does not appear overly concerned with the man, its focus is on the work – most specifically, the productions, each shaped by directors, by performances, by new approaches. The company has an agenda, keeping Shakespeare’s plays alive while encouraging new writing and that is exactly what is being done. Of the multitude of ironies, particularly for us living in an age of celebrity in which the details of an artist’s personal life and biographical anecdotes, are presented as scholarship – Shakespeare defies this: very little is known about him.
The work has been able to break well free of its creator and lives an independent life.
Before we see him on the stage though, we first encounter Shakespeare at school. For 60 per cent of the world’s school pupils, the learning of Shakespeare is compulsory.
But the RSC wants that earliest meeting not to be associated with torturous learning by rote and instead actively promotes an educational policy which encourages teachers to allow students to act out scenes and hear the language. Each director wants to bring something new to a production. Every line has the potential to be reinvented by interpretation – a change of mood, or tone of nuance. The further one challenges the words of William Shakespeare,
the more one sees the fluidity and versatility, as well as the beauty.
England’s national poet is universal. The current World Shakespeare Festival is part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad (the largest cultural celebration in the history of the modern Olympic and Paralympic movements). Theatre makers and actors from throughout the world have created new productions and responses to Shakespeare, some 37 plays are being staged and the festival will continue until late autumn. Globe to Globe brings together national theatres from all over the world to perform Shakespeare’s plays translated into their respective languages. Baghdad’s Iraqi Theatre Company has just completed in the Swan (one of the three RSC Statford theatres) a version of Romeo and Juliet adapted by Monadhi Daood in Arabic. Jonathan Pyrce will play King Lear in an Almedia Theatre production opening on August 31st and running until November 3rd.
Meanwhile, the shipwreck trilogy, The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night and The Tempest – representing the early, middle and late periods of Shakespeare’s career, is running under the blanket title “What Country Friends is This?” in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. The RSC is devoting its entire summer season in Stratford-Upon-Avon to its participation in the World Shakespeare Festival.
All roads lead to Shakespeare. Driving through the English midlands, on a motorway that appears to bypass life itself, it is reassuring to see signs announcing “Warwickshire, Shakespeare’s County”. Throughout his work he explored human experience and themes of kingship, romance, loyalty, betrayal, revenge, remorse and understanding.
The RSC, founded in 1961, is acknowledged as a world force in theatre, it is also one of the major custodians of a remarkable legacy left by a poet inspired by a singular intuition and a sublime feel for language.
See details of the festival at worldshakespearefestival.org.uk