Shakespeare

I had taught the plays, sonnets and narrative poems of Shakespeare at various British universities over past years, but my interest in Shakespeare on film did not really begin until the mid-1990s. This was after Kenneth Branagh had made his sunny Much Ado About Nothing (1993), and, perhaps crucially for stirring my interest in this genre of the medium most, the film of Richard III (1995) made by Richard Loncraine. Ian McKellen starred in this, as he had in the National Theatre stage version, which was periodized to a 1930s Britain where a dictatorship like Richard’s might plausibly have assumed power.  But he also created a screenplay retaining only 30% of Shakespeare’s original play text, which nevertheless managed to tell in Shakespeare’s language the story that Loncraine showed in moving images. That’s the way to do it!

I have also researched  the history of London’s Shakespearean theatres great deal. In 2008, I talked to leading theatre historian of early theatre Professor Andrew Gurr  about my idea to create an exhibition on early London theatre, his positive response being, ‘How can I help?’ My idea soon became a full-blown multi-media project, and I aimed to get funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Soon to be forced into ‘retirement’ from my Open University post I asked theatre historian Gabriel Egan to head up the project application, and it finally received £400k of funding, and by September 2013 I had brought the work of Shakespearean London Theatres (ShaLT) to completion, with the indispensable help of Andrew. The project outputs can be seen at shalt.org.uk  It was hard work!

Many will find the 20 short films we made very engaging, especially perhaps the 10 minute illustrated documentary on John Lyly, a best-selling 1580s playwright whose influence on Shakespeare’s 1590s comedies is now very apparent. These films can be seen via the ShaLT website or on ‘YouTube, especially the beautifully and humorously acted extract from Lyly’s play Sapho and Phao, with David Oakes and Claire Price (5000 views). However, the experience of listening to Andy’s research interview video on the rise of early theatre from 1567-1642 alone somehow makes the four years of hard work it took to bring ShaLT to fruition feel worthwhile!