Talking Shakespeare Neljä (Four)

Dense, Juicy, Layered

David Oyelowo, speaking from Los Angeles, remembered a dusty (and intimidating) copy of Shakespeare’s plays in his family’s Islington council flat. He was later surprised to discover Kenneth Branagh’s film of Henry V was also written by Shakespeare, having watched it as a movie, not caring about the language. The real breakthrough for David, though, was seeing a live production at the National Theatre – the visceral production of Robert Lapage’s mudbath Midsummer Night’s Dream with Timothy Spall as Bottom. David started acting accidentally when he tried to impress a girl by joining a youth theatre and then standing in when another young actor couldn’t attend because of a tube strike. His Theatre Studies teacher, Jill Foster, encouraged him to consider acting as a profession and helped David audition (successfully) for LAMDA. His father fully expected him to “get it out of his system” when he was given small roles (seven lines in Antony and Cleopatra) at the Royal Shakespeare Company. But the bug had bitten and seeing someone like Mark Rylance in his fourth incarnation of Hamlet at The Globe deliver the language with “dexterity, musculariy and elasticity” further reinforced David’s conviction that Shakespeare is the “Everest of Acting… so dense, so juicy, so layered.” 

Greg Doran of the Royal Shakespeare Talking Shakespeare with David Oyelowo, Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen

Vulnerability and Frailty

He gave a very funny account of getting the role of Henry VI and loved “the journey” of his time on Michael Boyd’s production but became weary of the “pioneer” emphasis placed on him by the media wanting to interview him about being the first black actor at the RSC to play an English king. He detected a similarity between Dr Martin Luther King in the movie Selma and Henry VI where the abiding motivation for both characters, as he played them, was religious faith, leading to vulnerability and frailty. David felt that both MLK and Henry VI fully expected everyone around them to be imbued with the same values and were both destabilised when the. His other major Shakespeare role was playing Othello with Daniel Craig and Rachel Brosnahan (as Iago and Desdemona) in an intimate production in New York in 2015. Like Greg Doran, I hope he can be tempted away from Hollywood for more UK stage work in the future.

Selection of David Oyelowo roles: as Henry VI, Othello, Orlando in As You Like It and the movie Selma

Queen Helen

Helen Mirren is a multiple award winner: she has carried home an Oscar, a Tony and an Emmy and has famously played a line of queens: Queen Margaret in the Henry VI trilogy; and on TV and film: Catherine the Great, Elizabeth I and Elizabeth II. She also has the distinction of playing Cleopatra three times, first at the National Youth Theatre in 1963 and then later playing opposite Michael Gambon (1982) and Alan Rickman (1998) as her Antonys. I was lucky to see the 1982 Adrian Noble production (in The Other Place in Stratford-upon-Avon) and for me it became a benchmark production of how epic plays can be staged in small spaces. Helen’s early memories of working at the RSC include watching the generous Ian Richardson from the wings in Coriolanus.  She reminisced about working (warily) with the mercurial Nicol Williamson (on both stage and in the film Excalibur) and played Lady Anne, Julia in Two Gentlemen of Verona and Ophelia to Alan Howard’s Hamlet. She also vividly recounted the touring production of Troilus and Cressida which many argued brought the play back into favour in modern times and she described working with Peter Brook in the legendary project Conference of the Birds which toured the Saharan regions of Africa in 1979.

Helen Mirren as Cleopatra (three times), Cressida, Prospera in The Tempest and Rosalind in As You Like It

Sir Ian ("You shall not pass....")

Ian McKellen has had recent experience of remembering his distinguished acting career as part of his touring one-man show which raised considerable funds for small venues throughout the UK. (Tolkien, Shakespeare, Others and You.) With Greg Doran he shared early memories of seeing and loving theatre and getting involved in amateur and school productions. He always thought Shakespeare seemed fun and enjoyed travelling down from Bolton for school Shakespeare camps in Stratford-upon-Avon. He saw Laurence Olivier, Peggy Ashcroft and Charles Laughton in their prime (but also confessed to sleeping through Olivier’s Corialanus – it was a school trip, after all.) At Cambridge he joined the Marlowe Society and came under the influence of George Rylands who has mentored many of today’s great theatre directors as well as John Barton who persuaded young McKellen he could play the ancient Justice Shallow in Henry IV Part Two. He gave a moving account of working at Nottingham Playhouse with Tyrone Guthrie who gave McKellen confidence about becoming an actor and credits Maggie Smith with recommending him to Olivier to join the Old Vic. He was waspish about Franco Zefirelli and had insights into the impact of Olivier and of touring Shakespeare in the provinces and abroad with Prospect Theatre. I’ve seen many of his stage performances and been lucky to meet him both backstage after Waiting for Godot and at a UK showing of the film Gods and Monsters at Bradford’s Pictureville Cinema. Always gracious and always energetic, with a significant place in popular film history with his portrayals of Magneto and Gandalf, Sir Ian continues to be an astonishing creative force for good in the UK.

Ian McKellen as Romeo, Macbeth, Toby Belch in Twelfth Night (which I saw in Doncaster!), Coriolanus, Richard III, King Lear (twice) and Prospero in The Tempest at Leeds Playhouse

Tolkien, Shakespeare, Others and You

Private audience with a theatrical knight

Legendary icon
It was hard to stop smiling in astonishment and wonder at the sight and sound of an almost-octogenarian’s tour de force one-man-show at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry tonight. I attended with my long-time Shakespeare buddy, Michael Thompson, who’d badgered the box office for returns and who’d not only got the triumphant call – “yes, we have two seats for you” – but, it turns out in a miraculous alignment of the stars, that one of the seats was sponsored by Sir Ian McKellen so we were invited backstage afterwards to hear the legendary knight throw out some extra choice anecdotes and bestow his iconic glory in a private audience. I’d seen him in a backstage environment before with a group of students during the second run of Waiting for Godot in London (see picture below.) I saw him in that play with two casts, playing opposite both Yorkshireman, Patrick Stewart and the late, great, Roger Rees, as well as superb supporting actors – as witnessed below with Ronald Pickup and Matthew Kelly.

Saw this production twice with two casts but one McKellen....

Over 80 venues across GB
Sir Ian McKellen’s stamina, memory, bravura acting techniques and vocal command are, live in the theatre, marvellous to behold. This particular show started as a one-off review and then expanded into an 80th birthday celebration of a tour of upwards of 80 venues across Great Britain. The profits from each performance are donated to local charities that are either drama or education or community based. The audience become the second character as he drags people onstage, invites shout-outs of answers and the names of Shakespeare plays. But more importantly he controls the audience mood as adeptly as any mind-altering wizard. The gossipy anecdotes are hilarious, the moving tales of his childhood and political activism draw us into a circle of quiet intimacy and his geographical range of acting experiences take us around the globe from Bolton to Yorkshire to the North-East to Nottingham to London to Stratford-upon-Avon, up mountains in New Zealand and to the throne room of Buckingham Palace. Wondrous!

Explanation for this pic in paragraph below...

Tolkien, Shakespeare, T S Eliot, G M Hopkins and more
At the flick of an eyebrow he moved from a doddering, ancient Agatha Christie character to a gauche and youthful Romeo. He mugged mercilessly in pantomime mode as Widow Twankey and recalled the ignition of his passion for live acting when seeing a performance of Peter Pan. He gave us a preview of his forthcoming film performance as Gus, the Theatre Cat in T S Eliot’s and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats (directed by Tom Hooper and adapted by Lee Hall) and dextrously delivered Gerard Manley Hopkins poetry in the finale to the first half. Just when it seemed impossible to admire him more, out poured forth from the depth of his soul one of his party pieces, the famous speech from Sir Thomas More (probably the only example of Shakespeare’s own handwriting which I’ve mentioned in an earlier blog – click here) – the speech which appeals to our shared humanity in how we should treat refugees. A memorable moment at each performance was his reading from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and the invitation onto stage of an audience member to wield Gandalf’s mighty sword, Glamdring. Above you can see my dear friend, Amy Lancelot (Creative Education Manager at Leeds Playhouse), receiving the polaroid outcome of just such an encounter at a later performance.

Some of Sir Ian McKellen's Film and TV roles

McKellen TV and Film performances that made an impact on me over the years
1970: Edward II in Edward II by Christopher Marlowe
1976: Macbeth in Macbeth by William Shakespeare
1981: DH Lawrence in Priest of Love by Harry T Moore adapted by Alan Plater
1982: Walter in Channel 4’s Walter by David Cook
1985: Sir Andrew Charleson in Plenty by David Hare
1989: John Profumo in Scandal by Michael Thomas
1995: Amos Starkadder in Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons adapted by     Malcolm Bradbury
1995: Richard III in Richard III by William Shakespeare
1998: James Whale in Gods and Monsters by Christopher Bram adapted by Bill   Condon
1998: Kurt Dussander in Apt Pupil by Stephen King adapted by Brandon Boyce
2000: Magneto (Eric Lensherr) in X-Men by Tom DeSanto & Bryan Singer (a role he   went on to play in X-Men 2, The Last Stand and Days of Future Past)
2001: Gandalf in Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (a role he went on to   play in a further five films and numerous audio projects)
2006 “Sir Ian McKellen” in Extras, created by Ricky Gervais
2015: Sherlock Holmes in Mr Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, book by Mitch Cullin   adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher
2015: Norman in The Dresser (with Anthony Hopkins)

A fraction of Sir Ian McKellen's stage appearances

McKellen Stage performances I have seen
1979: Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night and Andrei in Chekhov’s Three Sisters on   tour at Dewsbury Town Hall (September)
1988: Acting Shakespeare at Wakefield Theatre Royal (22nd May)
1989: Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello at The Other Place in Stratford-upon-Avon
1997: Captain Hook in Peter Pan at the National Theatre in London
1998: Dr Dorn in Chekhov’s The Seagull at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
1998: Garry Essendine in Coward’s Present Laughter at West Yorkshire Playhouse,   Leeds
1998: Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
2007: King Lear in Trevor Nunn’s production of Shakespeare’s King Lear and Sorin   in Chekhov’s The Seagull at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon
2009: Estragon in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot at Theatre Royal, Haymarket in   London
2017: King Lear in Jonathan Munby’s production of Shakespeare’s King Lear (in a   CinemaLive broadcast)

Easter 2019: the Ian McKellen bonus....

Back "from" the Future

Happy Birthday, the Unforgettable Rosie....

Selby’s Escapologist
One of my teaching chums had a birthday recently at the Steampunk-themed bar in Selby. Was there drink? Oh, yes there was. Were there spectacular chocolatey cakes? Why, certainly, my lord. And did you get out of the Back from the Future Escape Room? Maybe not…. but that’s not my fault. I’d already had a little fizz at that point. And my other excuse is that my previous two experiences of Locked-In games were accompanied by whippersnappers in their twenties and here I was stuck with geriatrics wearing Doc Brown wigs and bow ties…. Also, to be fair, I don’t think my brain cells are what they once were…. but many thanks to Rosie for a memorable Easter Monday. I think the other members of the party (Anarchy of the Seas and World of Wizardry) got more clues right but still weren’t fully freed….

World of Wizardry, Back from the Future, Anarchy of the Seas

Film costumes on Easter Sunday
A day out in north Lincolnshire had an awesome surprise in an unexpected place. I thought we were visiting a medieval hall but didn’t expect to see a display of costumes as worn by the stars in famed productions. See if you can identify in the collage below the costumes worn by Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth, Kristen Scott Thomas in The Darkest Hour, Emily Blunt in Young Victoria, Helena Bonham Carter in Suffragette, Daniel Craig in Moll Flanders, Sean Bean in the Sharpe series, Aiden Turner in Poldark, Robert Downey Junior in Restoration, and from Shakespeare in Love: Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes and Judi Dench. Most thrilling for me was Kenneth Branagh’s battle costume from Henry V. The “Historical Hall of Fame” exhibition is on until September 2nd so if you’re anywhere near Gainsborough, have a gander.

Historical Hall of Fame film costumes at Gainsborough Old Hall

Gainsborough Old Hall
Built by the Burgh family in the 1400s, Gainsborough Old Hall turns out to be spectacular in itself, whether or not it happens to be housing an enticing costume exhibition. After the Burghs, only the Hickman and Bacon families inhabited it, so it retains a great number of original features despite at various times being a theatre, a meeting hall, a Masonic temple and a pub. The restoration work is sympathetic and the wooden-beamed Hall is a wonder to behold.

Audio-Guide
Audio-guides can be hit or miss but on the whole I think English Heritage are doing a great job with all the ones I’ve heard recently. The one here includes dramatised monologues bringing different rooms to life, for example the ghostly corridor in the East Range and some different important visitors: Richard III (gotta love him), Henry VIII (gotta hate him) and Katherine Howard (gotta take my hat off to her.)

Living History
Most memorable after the Great Hall is, in my view, the original medieval kitchen complete with immense chimneys and lively interpreters actively doing kitchen stuff in front of your eyes. And busy antechambers with resident pompous Clerk, giving a sense of how the house must have been teeming with social (argumentative and smelly) interactions. I much prefer, as I’ve blogged before, this rough-and-tumble imaginative and social view of history, rather than any dry rendition of documents.

When most I wink

Actual anniversary
Today is my Pearl Anniversary of being married to Sally on July 5th 1986. Thirty years, four houses, two daughters, and two careers later, we are celebrating by going out for a meal tonight. Over the weekend family and friends surrounded us but tonight we’ll be going it alone. Will we have enough to talk about after thirty years? I expect so.

Dud in the pit at Birmingham Hippodrome and afterwards in a Chinese restaurant

There are certain people….
People come and go in your life. Some are “little while” friends and some take root in unexpected ways. I met one such friend in 1979, before I’d met Sally, whose 1998 wedding in Italy I was honoured to attend (along with Sally, Emily and Harriet.) Dudley Phillips, for it is he, loves family, loves music, loves castles, loves reading, loves absurd humour, loves talking, loves listening, loves being quiet, loves eating, loves drinking, loves life – all loves I happily share. Our most recent meeting was prompted by his performance in the Colin Towns’ Mask Orchestra playing Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn music for David Bintley’s Shakespeare Suite for Birmingham Royal Ballet. Dud plays bass guitar thrummingly, dynamically and intricately, always supporting, always driving, always surprising.

Wink
The first piece, choreographed by Jessica Lang, was based on five Shakespeare’s sonnets read tenderly by Alfie Jones, taking as the starting point Sonnet 43 “When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see….” The sonnet can be paraphrased something like the following, and it is as good an expression of friendship as I know:

When I’m asleep, then I see clearly
For during the day I look at things I don’t care about
When I sleep I dream of you.
Your image brightens the darkness of sleep
You brighten the dark
You even brighten the day
Things seem clearer when I think of you.
Day seems like night until I see you
During the night it seems like day when I dream about you.

Dudley Phillips on bass and Wink

A group of ten dancers twisted, turned and lifted through pairs, trios and groups expressing heartbreak, joy, loss, love and anger. A raw violin dominated the music by Jacob Ciupinski, aching with longing, longing with ache.
The Moor’s Pavane
José Limón’s riff on Othello was less abstract and set to stately music by Purcell. The four dancers representing Othello, Desdemona, Iago and Emilia presented a palpable sense of abusive love, smothering emotions and violent outbursts. The contrast between the regular pulse of the music and the discordant actions and reactions between the four performers was deeply disturbing.

The Moor's Pavane

The Shakespeare Suite
The final piece, the highlight, David Bintley’s The Shakespeare Suite, with Dudley’s bass playing, surprised and delighted with sassy variations on Shakespeare plays: a virtuoso Hamlet, a punky Taming of the Shrew, a quirky Richard III, a gothic Macbeth, a comically lusty Midsummer Night’s Dream, a troubling Othello and a lyrical Romeo and Juliet. Each pairing (Kate/Petruchio, Richard III/Lady Anne, Macbeth/Lady Macbeth, Titania/Bottom, Othello/Desdemona and Romeo/Juliet) was scored with a different mood and strangely captured the essence of the whole play without any words at all. Hamlet leapt alone but was surrounded by the other dancers in more abstract outfits symbolising different aspects of his personality (or so I thought….) The designs were startlingly bold (Costumes: Jasper Conran; Lighting: Peter Teigan and Steven Scott.) The Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn music was sexy, strutting, prowling and funny – switching and purring, changing and swinging as the pairings paraded. One of the best things I’ve seen (and heard) this year!

Loyal, Dependable, Non-judgemental, Honest, Open-hearted
A couple of lines that neatly capture my thoughts about Shakespeare (and Dudley….):

But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restor’d and sorrows end. (from Sonnet 30)

Stiffed at the Speakeasy

So there was an invitation….
To Scapone Mansion, home of Al Scapone, the Godfather of the infamous Scapone family and master criminal. Ma Scapone was making her succulent pasta dishes. Rick Otta welcomed the accountant Nicky De’Lott and Al’s ditzy niece, Margarita Pizza.

And the guests were welcomed….
Toni Calzone, the muscles of the family, Francesca Pancetta, stunning opera singer and Connie Chiglie, Al Scapone’s girlfriend.

The places were set….
The three young gals always dressed to impress.

Stiffed at the Speakeasy
The trouble was that Al Scapone, the master criminal had been killed, gunned down in his own club!

But see, his face is black and full of blood,
His eye-balls further out than when he lived,
Staring full ghastly like a strangled man;
His hair uprear'd, his nostrils stretched with struggling;
His hands abroad display'd, as one that grasp'd
And tugg'd for life and was by strength subdued:
Look, on the sheets his hair you see, is sticking;
His well-proportion'd beard made rough and rugged,
Like to the summer's corn by tempest lodged.
It cannot be but he was murder'd here;
The least of all these signs were probable.

Despite the frothing bubbly....
Word of the “hit” got out and the whole balance of power in the city was thrown into chaos. Al’s murder needed to be resolved – and fast – to restore the credibility of the family. Luckily, before the end of the night Detective Elliott Mess managed to unmask the murderer but discretion – and a forthcoming trial – means the suspect cannot be named in the media.

Who Murdered Al Scapone?
A Murder Mystery to rival Who Murdered Rick Toad. Lots of fun on New Year’s Eve with the Thompson clan from Badby. Luckily New Year’s Day was spent without murderous incident – or too much by way of hangover.

Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile
So, one month into Slimming World (as announced in the blog here) and I can report losing 1 stone in a month – whilst still eating heartily and enjoying (moderate amounts of) wine and chocolate. I’ll update every now and again when I reach my own personal milestones.

Constant as the northern star....

Saltaire Festival

Saltaire Festival

A few times a year Saltaire, where I live, holds a street and park festival with beer tents, food stalls, craft and vintage stalls, live music and street performers. Some years there are arts trails, open garden trails and in recent years in the build-up to Christmas there has been a Window Advent Calendar hunt. All these events bring out the creative best in local people and the atmosphere is generally fantastic although the Festival now is a huge and crowded event and seems to get bigger every year. I am as proud of my adopted home, Saltaire, as I am of my birth city of Wakefield.

Proud of Wakefield

Wakefield Cathedral

Growing up, I loved Wakefield. I loved the open fields near Eastmoor Estate, the sense of history with Sandal Castle and the chantry chapel, the cathedral, the parks, the opportunities for both sports and the arts; as a teenager I played rugby and acted in a local amateur dramatic society – an odd combo looking back. One of the constants about Yorkshire through my life has been how quickly you can get to places of interest and beauty.

Harewood House

Harewood House near Leeds

A place like Harewood House, for example, has so many quirky aspects: the beauty of the house and grounds; the Bird Garden (complete with penguins); the terrace art gallery and café; the display about Britain’s history of slavery; and the painting of the “Scandalous” Lady Worsley, recently portrayed in a BBC TV drama by Natalie Dormer.

East Riddlesden Hall

East Riddlesden Hall between Bingley and Keighley

Along the road from my house is the National Trust-run East Riddlesden Hall complete with a huge ancient barn, legends of hauntings, at least three stages of building and a riverside walk.

Jervaulx Abbey

Jervaulx Abbey, North Yorkshire

Further afield is the tranquility of one of the great ruined abbeys of the north. You can take your pick in Yorkshire from Bolton, Byfield, Coverham, Easby, Fountains, Jervaulx, Kirkham, Monk Bretton, Mount Grace, Rievaulx, Roche, Whitby and York St Mary’s. The pictures above are from Jervaulx but they all are atmospheric and peaceful  places to visit.

Middleham Castle

Middleham Castle, North Yorkshire

And not far from Jervaulx is my favourite Yorkshire castle, childhood home of Richard III, Middleham, maintained by English Heritage. I visited Leicester cathedral recently to see the new burial site of Richard but it is Middleham where his heart seems to have been and where his positive reputation remains intact.

Linda Thompson's statue of Richard III at Middleham Castle

I have posted the poem below in a previous blog, but I think it’s a superbly crafted piece of writing:

Richard by Carol Ann Duffy

My bones, scripted in light, upon cold soil,
a human braille. My skull, scarred by a crown,
emptied of history. Describe my soul
as incense, votive, vanishing; you own
the same. Grant me the carving of my name.
These relics, bless. Imagine you re-tie
a broken string and on it thread a cross,
the symbol severed from me when I died.
The end of time – an unknown, unfelt loss –
unless the Resurrection of the Dead …
or I once dreamed of this, your future breath
in prayer for me, lost long, forever found;
or sensed you from the backstage of my death,
as kings glimpse shadows on a battleground.

The original box set

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown....

Snappy titles
I am frequently astonished when I contemplate the scale of the sequence of Shakespeare’s history plays. If Shakespeare had been writing today, the credits would have probably had to include “based on Holinshed’s Chronicles with ideas from Edward Halle and Samuel Daniel” with Henry VI Part One (the third written) probably having to admit – “adapted from a play by Thomas Nashe.” The scholarly best-guess is that the first to be written was Henry IV Part Two AKA “The First part of the Contention betwixt the two famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster, with the death of the good Duke Humphrey: And the banishment and death of the Duke of Suffolke, and the Tragicall end of the proud Cardinal of Winchester, with the notable Rebellion of Jack Cade: and the Duke of Yorke's first claim unto the crowne” – a snappy title if ever there was one.

Sequels and prequels
This roaring success was followed by the sequel with another memorable title: “The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke, and the death of good King Henrie the Sixt, with the Whole Contention betweene the two Houses, Lancaster and Yorke.” (PS Shakespeare couldn’t spell for toffee, as I’ve pointed out elsewhere.) A collaboration with (or adaptation of) Thomas Nashe's earlier material then rushed in the PREQUEL to this pair of plays in order to cash in on the popularity of the first two. The First Part Of Henry The Sixth appeared and the earlier-written plays were then re-titled Henry VI Part Two and Henry VI Part Three. This sequence of three plays became the first entertainment franchise since Ancient Greek times, topped off with a quadrilogy when Richard III roared onto the stage. Richard III was Shakespeare’s breakthrough work, popular immediately and increasingly popular all the way through to the present time.

“that bottled spider… that poisonous bunchback’d toad”

Four famous Richard IIIs: Ian McKellen, Antony Sher, Simon Russell Beale and Jonjo O'Neill

Mind-boggling!
Four plays, twelve hours of stage entertainment recreating the Wars of the Roses in a series of blistering set-pieces, comic interludes, heartbreaking anti-war speeches alongside patriotic calls to arms. It shows a whole nation. Some scenes are set in France. It presents Joan of Arc, Jack Cade, Margaret of Anjou, Richard Duke of York, Richard Duke of Gloucester, Warwick the Kingmaker, Suffolk, the saintly Henry VI, the charismatic Edward IV, the pitiful Edward V…. characters that come to vivid life whenever the plays are staged even metaphorical characters like A Son that has Killed his Father and A Father that has Killed his Son echoing each other in their grief and anguish at the horrors of civil war.

Memorable moments: Katy Stephens as Joan of Arc and, later, as Margaret of Anjou

Four successes; why not four prequels?
Not content with a quadrilogy, Shakespeare then went on to write four even more successful plays. In historical terms, these prequels led up to the events of the Wars of the Roses, starting with the lyrical Richard II, continuing with the sweep and grandeur of Henry IV Parts One and Two and the play that WInston Churchill and Laurence Olivier purloined for the British efforts in the Second World War, Henry V and the point at which Henry VI Part One takes off and the two quadrilogies become an octology. Characters have teemed from this second quadilogy into the national subconscious: Northumberland, Bolingbroke, John of Gaunt, Hal, Falstaff, Mistress Quickly, Poins, Bardolph, Hotspur, Glendower, Lady Percy, Pistol, Silence, Shallow, Fluellen, the Dauphin and Princess/Queen Katherine – not to mention the three very different titular kings.

A state of the nation series of plays
At the end of Richard III, Queen Elizabeth I’s grandfather is crowned saviour of the realm (a propagandist portrayal to flatter the queen and slander the Yorkist line.) Through the eight plays we see the rise and fall of great figures in history, both men and women; we see the disorder and chaos of a country in the throes of a civil war; we see the lurch from medieval to modern times; we see what it means to be a strong leader and a weak leader; we see murders, plots, secrets, betrayals, invasions, sieges, riots, miracles, political scheming, religious hypocrisy, family loyalty and family tragedy, the burden of power, the abuse of power; we see virtues and vices, reasons to be patriotic and reasons to attack your government.

Not-so-long-ago
The Wars of the Roses, the underlying political tension in eight of Shakespeare’s English history plays, was as far removed from the English citizens during Shakespeare’s time as the Boer War is from us.  Richard III died in 1485 and the plays were written between 1590 and 1601.  The way we perceive the late Victorian and Edwardian period is how the original audiences would have thought and felt about the events that were being portrayed at the jam-packed outdoor playhouses. At the premieres of these plays there would have been people whose grandparents had lived through (or indeed been killed) in the convulsive events depicted on stage. The nearest equivalent to their cultural spirit in modern times, to my knowledge, is Rona Munro’s glorious James Plays first shown at the Edinburgh Festival in 2014.

If I should tell my history....

Mythical Histories
In honour of Shakespeare's April 23rd birthday, this post is about his sensational History plays. They feel more relevant than ever because of the popularity of Game of Thrones and George RR Martin’s acknowledgement of the influence of Shakespeare's Wars of the Roses sequence.

Power of Eleven
Shakespeare wrote eleven plays dealing with English History (King John, much of Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, Henry V, Henry VI Part 1, Henry VI Part 2, Henry VI Part 3, Richard III and most of Henry VIII.) Shakespeare also wrote four historical tragedies set in Ancient Rome (Titus Andronicus, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra.)

Pseudo-history
Some of the other tragedies contain historical aspects: Titus Andronicus, for example, with the wars between the Romans and Goths or Othello with the Venetian/Turkish tensions. King Lear, Macbeth and Cymbeline (a comedy?!) might fall under the banner of Shakespearean history because they are based on legendary, pseudo-historical figures; and they were included in one of Shakespeare’s key source books, Holinshed’s Chronicles, a history of Britain, although even contemporary commentators thought Holinshed was inventing much of his “history.”

There weren't no mechanical clocks in Ancient Rome, not never
But how far did Shakespeare’s exploration of history colour subsequent interpretation? Richard III and Cleopatra in popular culture certainly derive from Shakespearian characterisation. There are wild inaccuracies and anachronisms in the history plays. These howlers occur either for dramatic effect or as a result of Shakespeare’s patronage and the need to stay in favour with the aristocratic sponsors of the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre. But no theatre fan has ever claimed the History plays are documentaries. Modern TV and film dramas play equally fast and loose with police work, legal proceedings and medical treatments.

Box office hits
With the printing press still a relatively new invention, and newspapers still an invention of the unimagined future, world events in the late sixteenth century might well vanish from memory – unless they had been turned into legends, handed down mainly through oral tradition, or presented in drama. For the majority of the illiterate English populace, plays provided a vivid introduction to the history of their grandparents, piecing together the oral anecdotes that had been passed down. The original audiences flocked to the early performances of these plays; Henslowe’s diary includes fantastic box office receipts for Shakespeare’s histories.  

Elizabethan and Jacobean propaganda
But the plays also served another purpose. Even an invigorated England could not quell the growing fear and uncertainty surrounding the last years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The question on people’s minds was what would happen to England when their queen died? A series of plots to assassinate Elizabeth, combined with the knowledge that there was no obvious heir to the throne, sent nervous tremors throughout the country. Would the power struggle reignite a civil strife between a new set of contenders like Henry VI, Edward IV and Richard III or would the country unite as it did behind Henry V and Henry VII? 

Universal truth interwoven into the fictional history
Using history as a foundation, Shakespeare built characters and events that explored the rich complexity of human nature. His ability to craft stories of human emotion, motivation, bravery and vulnerability is a legacy that is astonishing in its richness and variety. Thanks, fellah! And happy birthday for April 23rd.