Shakesplosion

What an education it was at The Angles Theatre, I must admit I didn’t know there were 39 Shakespeare plays, it was all the history plays that caught me out. I recognised all the other titles even if I didn’t know all the stories, at least I now know the endings!

This black box of a theatre is remarkably adaptable, the two side walls were decorated with colourful silhouettes of Shakespeare’s head and odd features such as a quill and an ink pot amongst others, the back wall was a simple grid affair of timber struts incorporating two large video display screens either side of an opening, which variously projected images of Castles, landscapes, period interiors and all the play titles in cartoon style as they were enacted. There was a ‘U’ shaped platform which provided change of height, all this proved a more than suitable performance space.

The performance started with a quick-fire recitation of all Shakespear’s plays which had a well-earned applause for Jennifer and Imogen from the audience, this introduced us to the quick-fire presentation of The Histories with eleven young actors performing forty-two characters. They were well drilled, knew their places, there were no pauses in dialogue, well spoken and acted, they appeared to enjoy all the fight scenes, who wouldn’t, they were very realistic and all the deaths by running through of Swords were executed very well. Very tight direction and acting ensured that although the stage was busy with up to twenty-four actors at any time all these fight sequences were without problem, the time spent on teaching stage combat was well spent. Much humour was displayed alongside the well-played seriousness of the intrigues of Royal Families, courts, and courtiers as we travelled from the 13th century to the birth of Queen Elizabeth I

Following The Histories we came to two much abbreviated versions of Macbeth and Hamlet. Macbeth with a cast of nine had all the essential elements, the witches (in modern dress), the dagger, the bloodied hand, Banquo, the murders, everything apart from the mention of the word ‘Macbeth’. Hamlet, as well known, is a four-hour play, this was truncated to 12 minutes, with a digital display popping up with a countdown of minutes left. A cast of twenty gave us an entertaining rendition, again with murders, a sword fight, Ophelia being sent to a Nunnery, the play within a play giving us some great Shakesperean quotes. A ghost, gravediggers and of course Yorrick whom we all know! What we didn’t know was that there were a bunch of pirates who had a dance routine choreographed by Emily. This was a well-acted twelve minutes and brought us, with Hamlet’s death to the interval.

We resumed with the Interludes, more murders and then came to the Lovers’ Tragedies where we had fine portrayals of Romeo & Juliet, Anthony & Cleopatra, Troilus & Cressida as they poisoned themselves, a great snake for Cleopatra (a bit large for an Asp, artistic licence!).

The final section was devoted to Shakespeare’s Comedies, yes all of them, even the ones you haven’t heard of. As these progressed we were entertained by the only two male cast members portraying Lysander and Demetrius pursuing or being pursued by Helena and Hermia from A Midsummer Night’s Dream in between representations of other comedies.

No, they hadn’t really missed out King Lear, but needed an ‘old’ man to represent Lear and Liam Nixon who had been the fall guy for several murders called out that he wasn’t going to play an old man.

I have made a point of not listing names apart from the two who opened the show as this was a company show and everyone was a star. They all knew their lines, there was a lot of beautifully portrayed characters, there were one or two hiccoughs with projection but pronunciation was good, no gabbling of lines, movement throughout was very fluid. Black Costume was enlivened with splashes of colour and the fight scenes made it easy to identify as the French (mainly) wore camouflage trousers.

You should all be proud as this was a very entertaining evening (and educational), a lot of hard work, you deserved full houses, I much enjoyed the show and I know NODA President Graham Liverton and his wife also enjoyed it. Well done and keep enjoying your acting.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.