>>PREVIEW
MOUNT ROYAL COLLEGE’S SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK
Runs until August 25
Mount Royal College and Prince’s Island Park
As if the reputation of English theatre’s most revered playwright weren’t already colossal enough, there’s another dimension to consider when talking about Shakespeare. Already infamous for star-crossed lovers, rage-fuelled revenge and bursting the veins of bloody historical conflict, Shakespeare’s plays are also renowned for their contemporary performances – modern dress incarnations set in post-Elizabethan, post-Medieval, post-past worlds.
Of course, the very first director to stage Shakespeare in contemporaneous clothing was none other than Shakespeare himself. In The Globe, players often wore what might otherwise pass as street clothes while they performed. But with much ado about costuming and new concepts for the familiar worlds of works like Macbeth and As You Like It, what is a collection of hillside groundlings to think?
"The worst thing you can do is impose, like, ‘I’ve got this great idea,’ and then shoehorn it in to make it work. I think you’re asking for disaster," says Martin Fishman, the artistic director for Calgary’s annual summer Shakespeare showcase, Mount Royal College’s Shakespeare in the Park.
As the company’s artistic director and director of its productions for the last six seasons, Fishman is responsible for creating the motifs that summertime audiences have been viewing. Recent years have seen Romeo and Juliet imagined as a battle between rappers and rockers, A Midsummer’s Night Dream wrapped in the trappings of an ’80s music video and Two Gentlemen of Verona set in a ’50s world replete with lettermen jackets and West Side Story toughs.
This year, Macbeth’s Machiavellian betrayals will take place in the shadow of the First World War, while the lighthearted comedy of As You Like It will leap a few decades ahead to join the polyester decadence of the ’70s. This year, however, Fishman is reluctant to discuss the particular trappings of the production. Instead, he notes that, just as the festival’s two outdoor venues – Mount Royal College’s amphitheatre and the grassy incline of Prince’s Island Park – keep Shakespeare’s plays literally accessible, the company’s first focus is always the plays’ language.
"I come up with concepts for the plays, but I don’t think (the audience is) coming to see my concept," he says. "I think they’re coming to see Shakespeare, they’re trying to illuminate his words and I want them to be surprised about them. It’s not important what I think, it’s important what they see when they come."
At the same time, anyone who has endured toneless high school recitations knows that the artifice of the play itself goes a long way to liberating Elizabethan verse from textbook pages. Even if Shakespeare’s original actors often wore plain clothes, SITP isn’t likely to drop its costumes or sets in lieu of pure dialogue.
"It’s not a radio drama, it’s very much a live onstage spectacle," says Fishman. "So I think it needs that kind of colour because it’s theatre. Shakespeare is like any other play, except better than most. It adds that essential theatrical element. I’d be curious to know how he did Banquo’s ghost and the weird sisters with no technology, no electricity."
Even wrapping a post-First World War concept around a piece of historical fiction already set in medieval Scotland is a nod to increasing the clarity of the work, rather than simply adding extra layers. There is method to the madness of adding a layer of historical fiction to historical fiction.
"Most of us have studied 20th century history, so there’s the sense of seeing something familiar visually. I think that eases the fear of the language, which people do have.
"(Shakespeare’s) writing about a story that took place in the 11th century, so it’s 500 years away from when they saw it," he adds. "I think it’s taking the essential story and putting it in the context, just as he did it in his period. So it’s parallel that way. I don’t think it’s adding another 500 years, I think it’s taking 500 years away."
Now in his seventh season as artistic director, helming the 20th season for the popular summer mainstay, Fishman has begun to set designs on more than just the look of his productions. Currently, the company is designed largely as a mentorship program for conservatory students, with professional actors like Martin Evans and Valerie Ann Pearson joined by emerging actors. For the program’s future, Fishman envisions expanding SITP into a full-fledged professional company modelled after Canada’s most famous Shakespearean festival.
While it may not be as visually striking as swapping doublets for double-breasted suits, it’s a transformation that could well change the face of a regular summer feature. "An ideal situation in the future would be to have a full equity company, and a conservatory attached to that, in the same sense as Stratford," he explains. "So the people enrolled in the conservatory will be paid, but have the chance to play an Orlando or a Rosalind (leading characters in As You Like It). Whether it happens or not, we’ll see."
For more information, show dates, times and venues, visit http://www.mtroyal.ca/conservatory/sitp/index.shtml. |
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