My love affair with Shakespeare began on a balmy summer’s evening in 1990. Sitting somewhere towards the back of the audience in the courtyard of The George – we had booked on a whim with a friend from work – I was transported. First, I admit, by the setting; but then, as I settled into the play, by the poetry of the words. Not by the verse itself, nor by the language; but by the cadences, the textures, the rhythms and the patterns and the way the whole was woven together to tell the story.
It’s that essential difference: Shakespeare on the page (which, alas, was my experience at school in the ‘60s: providing a mire of archaic words in a tangle of impenetrable phraseology) versus Shakespeare on the stage, where the text as a whole can sing and dance and create its own magic.
That first experience – the first time I had seen Hamlet – sowed a seed which has grown and blossomed. From my first Shakespearean role (at The George as the Bosun in The Tempest: the whole of the first scene shouting against the storm, two speeches in the last scene and nothing in between), through a couple of small, local tours; more roles at The George; summer productions at the Arts Theatre in Cambridge; watching a countless number of productions of Shakespeare’s plays; studying at The Shakespeare Institute in Stratford; devising and directing Bits of the Bard, an evening of Shakespearean excerpts, right up to directing at The George, my fascination with his work has burgeoned. Every production I have been in, studied or seen has cast some new light on the text, or has offered a new, exciting and contemporary interpretation of the play as a whole.
I’m hooked…
As for The Winter’s Tale: this is one of Shakespeare’s late plays, one of a group which sits comfortably in neither the ‘tragedy’ nor the ‘comedy’ category as it has elements of both. Shakespeare was very exploratory in his work, moving at the leading edge of the theatre of his time, and this blurring of the genres towards a new type of play, the ‘romance’, was one way in which he did so. The play would have stretched the imaginations of his contemporary audiences, incorporating as it does the real and the fantastic, changes of geographical location, and a leap forward in time of 16 years. All of these are things which may not excite comment in productions today, but without scenery, programmes and technical wizardry, they would have required considerable skill and imagination to portray.
The play is one of my favourites, having both depth and lightness; contrasts and similarities; beautiful verse and earthy prose, and having one of those ambiguously written endings which a director can choose to shape in any one of many possible ways…
On a closing note, I would like to extend my thanks to the late Mo Pearce who encouraged and stretched me when she was directing. It was she who was kind enough to suggest that I might be interested in taking on the director’s role in this unique and delightful venue – and so led me to this wonderful opportunity to bring The Winter’s Tale to life, for you.
John Shippey
Director
Click here to download The Winter's Tale Programme