31 The Comedy of Errors: A Lockdown Chapter
- 2020: The two Shakespeare plays in rehearsal when we closed our theatres were The Winter's Tale and The Comedy of Errors.
It's March 2020 !!! Greg tells us what happened to the company through lockdown. The theatres in Stratford had not closed since 1879. Stayed open all through the Great War and only for a month during the Second World War. Even when the main theatre closed for it's major refurbishment, The Other Place came into it's own. Or when it burned down in 1926 and plays were performed in an old cinema.
Greg describes what other forms of communication took place including three series of twenty online interviews called "Talking Shakespeare". (See YouTube). He includes an extract from his diary as he tours the empty spaces of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. The on 12th July 2021, (luckily "a balmy sunny evening") the company re-opened in the Swan Gardens next to the river with a live audience. They performed The Comedy of Errors that had been put on hold.
Unfortunately, nothing about the cast or performance. Except Mark Lawson's five star review.
32 Henry V1, Part One
- 2021: Open rehearsal project.
- Filmed and broadcast live, and available on DVD.
"On Wednesday 23rd June 2021, in a first for the RSC, we live streamed an open rehearsal ..... of Henry V1, Part One". This is to be held in the Ashcroft Room that sits above the Swan Theatre. (See extracts on YouTube). We hear all about this space "the most beautiful rehearsal room in the world". Named after Dame Peggy Ashcroft.
What follows are Greg's meticulous entries in his diary such as:
Monday 31st May 2021: The company gather for the first time, including the video unit. First
Tuesday 1st June 2021: First live streaming with the actors in a circle reading their lines.
Wednesday 2nd June 2021: The first main rehearsal starts at the beginning. The floor is marked out for social distancing. There is an amazing piece about how two actors having to shake hands and having to sanitise before and after.
And so on. A reception for the new costume workshop reminded me of a Behind the Scenes Tour that I described in my post of 29th July 2016.
It was Tony's birthday on Monday 12th June and on the previous Saturday before they celebrate with soft boiled eggs. A long description about the best way to make them. But it's on the Monday Greg tests positive for Covid. Only to be followed by Tony's diagnosis of liver cancer on the Wednesday.
Back to the production that has been exceptional and a big success. Greg goes to see Catherine Mallyon who has long been Executive Director of the RSC to tell her about Tony.
33 Henry V1, Part Two (Henry V1: Rebellion)
-2022: The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.
- Broadcast live to cinemas and released on DVD.
It's significant that there is nothing in the book between June 2021 and April 2022. We can guess why. Too hard for Greg to write. Even this chapter is the shortest in the book of just five pages. Greg has to decide how to deal with the largest cast in the cannon, sixty plus characters. He sees the play as a series of pageants. The first is to be undertaken by the RSC's Next Generation group. These are young people from low income families. Oscar is sixteen and in awe of Greg's hair and wonders who does it. The reply is Sandra Smith who is head of wigs and make up and has cut it for the last thirty five years.
Next we are told about Shakespeare Nation that is a community project with seventy four adults in six teams. Finally there are nine drama graduates and who they are. For the first time in it's history, the RSC has one hundred and twenty one actors: professional, amateur and young. At last we get a run down of the play itself. Again, there are bits on YouTube.
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