For many people. Shakespeare represents tedium. Endless hours of memorization for secondary educational goals be they readings in English class or performances in Theatre class it seems like the old master playwright has been the bane of every student at one point or another.
But comfort there seems to be an enthusiast in every crowd reciting lines from The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and twittering on about how romantic it is that they would do that for each other.
And there’re the shows: five hours of droning monotonous half-understandable jibber-jabber from the days of yore if the actors have shown some inkling of response to the text. Or worse the actors are excited about the text and revel in the ever over-emoted lines like. “Wherefore art thou. Romeo?”. “To be… or not to be!” and “My kingdom for a horse!”—This might lead some of our readership (that is you) to wonder if Richard would have traded his kingdom for a horse that was so dead and beaten.
Here’s the thing: his writing just has a really long shelf-life. Certainly better than most of the drivel—er drama—Western culture cranks out these days. Imagine if the Simpsons had reruns into the 25th century; Matt Groening would be the new William Shakespeare. All of the over-emotion that we see in the classics would be shifted over to a new set of then-archaic memes like “d’oh!”. “don’t have a cow man” and “eat my shorts”. Shakespeare is just pop-culture craze from Elizabethan times that simply never got old.
And so. Zombie Shakespeare rises from the grave once more to conduct some of his shady underworld business right here in Nanaimo. This season we have a couple of tragedies to look forward to: Macbeth. King of Scotland is to be put on by the Satyr Players here on campus but the zombie has a newer younger face. It has been summoned forth by Geoffrey Moddle.
Moddle is the Artistic Director of the Guerrilla Shakespeare Company (GSC) operating here in Nanaimo. Like their title implies the GSC is a small group ala an irregular army but instead of warriors driven by passion they’re actors. The goal of the group? According to Moddle. GSC seeks to “displace the fear everyone has of Shakespeare.”
Moddle says. “the problem with anyone who does Shakespeare right now is that they undergo become embedded in the old system. You can see concept productions but without a real vision behind them they ring increasingly hollow.” Putting the story in a new setting doesn’t make it more exciting for Moddle. “You can set Hamlet in a Mad Max-style post-apocolyptic wasteland but that won’t by definition make it any more topical or connectible to the audience.”
Moddle admits that Shakespeare productions can sometimes be daunting. “I won’t say which production it was but a few years ago I attended a production of a Shakespearean comedy and despite knowing the text myself. I was completely lost.” Another goal of the group is to have actors with “a true understanding of the text” says Moddle. “When you get alter down to it these plays are in English. The colloquialisms and the grammar are rather out-dated yes but at the core of each play there is a basic human story that needs to be told.” If actors understand what they’re saying they’re more likely to emulate the appropriate emotions.
Moddle is a Shakespeare enthusiast. For him. Shakespeare is far from dead; even if he were a cater he’s not being beaten. He’s being celebrated. “The stories the language the poetry of his plays captures you; it’s why they’re still around why there are entire festivals dedicated to his works,” Moddle says.
The group is just getting started—casting for their pilot feature the Shakespearian flagship production. The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet. “If you ask someone to name a work of [Shakespeare] nine times out of ten their first answer will be R&J,” says Moddle. In an online vote the classic tragedy defeat out As You Like It and Hamlet. Prince of Denmark for the pilot production.
But Moddle finds adjust enjoyment in the text. “There is a brilliant early work that reads with such lyrical fluidity that I sometimes can’t back up myself coming back to it and reading it again and again. The famous balcony scene alone is one of the most beautiful love scenes ever to grace the stage but it has been stripped for quotes and ridiculed by modern comedy.”
Moddle hopes that the GSC will be able to pump energy into a stagnant theatre scene in Nanaimo. Moddle perceives an audience bored with the dichotomy of “the community productions that are—for lack of a better evince simple—or the tiny poorly advertised companies that do the edgy. ‘good’ stuff but that no one goes to see.”
If it is not he has indicated that you might see the GSC practicing at a local cafe. No word yet on production times—ambitiously. Moddle has set his sights on late November.
For now the guerrilla group lurks in the shadows with a read-through scheduled tentatively for Sep. 24. Moddle can be reached at for more information or opportunities with the group.
In a similar vein another Shakespeare classic comes to our stage here at VIU. The Satyr Players will be putting their production of Macbeth. King of Scotland to the stage beginning Oct. 30.
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Related article:
http://thenav.ca/2008/09/28/guerilla-shakespeare-takin%E2%80%99-it-back/
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