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To Build a Wooden O
Malvern Theatres Forum
**** WILLIAM Shakespeare is such a revered
literary figure the world over that it is good to see a play that
presents him in his everyday setting as an actor and member of a group
of players, as a brother and a father, in short as a normal human being
and member of society. Nick Wilkes’s original play explores the earthy
and often coarse world of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men in a period of time
when they experienced pressures to evacuate their playhouse at the
‘Curtain’ in north London in 1598. The plot of land, though not the building in
which they had been performing, was now owned by another. They needed to
find a new home and a plan was hatched to dismantle the old theatre and
transport it to a new location south of the river and to give the new
theatre the name ‘The Globe’. As Susannah says at one point in this play, ‘If
all the world’s a stage, then call your new theatre ‘The Globe’. This new play is a lively and characterful piece
with many virtues. Nick Wilkes has a great gift for producing good
dialogue, he mingles wit and humour into the script. There are scenes
such as the one where the Burbage brothers are proposing the new plan
and location to Will which are very effective story-telling. The interweaving of excerpts from Shakespeare’s
plays adds another enjoyable and powerful element to the story, but in
the second Act there
This production had a lot of energy and life: it
a good sized cast, the characterisations are clear and full of interest,
there is an exciting dynamic derived from the ensemble playing. Most of the characters have a significant amount
to contribute to the dialogue and life of the scenes. Will Shakespeare’s
presence in the company of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men is influential but
not in any way dominant; familiar names like Ben Jonson, and Richard and
Cuthbert Burbage become very real and earthy characters, especially with
their accents and propensity to overindulge in their drinking; this was
‘necessary’, they claimed, because of the unhealthy state of the water! At times the narration by the older and
reflective Susannah risks slowing the play down, but for the most part
her contributions are interesting and helpful, as well eloquently worded
and spiced with humour. The design for the show was simple: the scenes
were established by the stage furniture and a few props which provided
an effective and adequate context for the show. The sounds were provided
by the cast themselves, the costumes appropriately Elizabethan. The
performers functioned very well as a team ensemble: Emma Butcher as the
older Susanna delivered her lines with great clarity and some humour,
Alicia Bennett, the younger Susannah, had great charm, the men provided
a varied and colourful mix of expressive characters with fine
performances. Nick Wilkes is a
talented young writer: his plays have a great deal of life, colour,
variety and verbal richness. He is an excellent master of dialogue,
sometimes he errs on the side of verbosity and over-elaboration. He
raises some contemporary themes, such as tax evasion, interest rates and
the challenges to the arts. This is an enjoyable and enlightening
evening providing a fascinating insight into a significant period of
history. Tim Crow
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was
a risk of Shakespeare’s Henry Vth taking over and the further
development of the main storyline about the building and success of the
new Globe gets somewhat lost in the dramatic enactment of parts of
Shakespeare’s play.