What a year!
I can’t believe ten months have rushed by; unprecedented even in this obscure corner of the infinite library! At the beginning of this year I was going back to go forward: back to medical roleplay, back to historical costume work (a fun show all about scrubbing medieval toilets at Kent Castle, King John and the Great Garderobbery) and a return to Wilton’s for the mighty Improvathon, which was a fabulous honour and pleasure after five years away. Then, as I hit the summer wondering how on earth I could keep scrabbling around at this crazy game of make believe, a successful meeting for the National took me back to one of my favourite plays, Coriolanus, and a very happy time with a lovely company which is just coming to an end. It’s an...
Read MoreThe garden is freezing
After a quiet summer, The School of Night had a busy time celebrating the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare’s Plays (The ‘First Folio’). We took over Birmingham Central Library with a dazzling array of original materials we could actually pick up! (though Birmigham’s Folio itself stayed firmly in its glass box in the corner); in Leeds we celebrated with the British Library, and I got to improvise a ‘fitt’ (or section) of verse in the style of the Gawain poet in front of the Poet Laureate, as well as a cracking outdoor gig for Slung Low; and in Aldeburgh we entertained the great and the good to conclude Jenny Hall’s Shakefest. Then, to end the year, I was back in Leeds for The Gifting, an epic...
Read MoreThe first half of 2023
What a strange interlude. Two days after my last post (6 months ago) I injured myself and had to finish the run in Stratford on crutches, albeit in some very natty new, orthopaedic boot-covering slacks! I’m better now, though the spring of the year was definitely a time to focus on healing. But I managed a really fun reading in Rochester, scenes from John Lyly’s Mother Bombie in Eastgate House; and then picked up a really nice telly job in the second series of Trigger Point for ITV/Hat Trick. In May I worked on a new project called Philosophy of the World with the amazing women of In Bed With My Brother, exploring the strange relationship between Austin Wiggin and his three daughters who he moulded (ie: forced) into being the cult group The...
Read MoreDickens & Winter
I’ve tried to keep these up every six months, but somehow nine of them have dashed past since I last managed it. In May, The School of Night returned to the very wonderful Willow Globe in mid-Wales (see https://www.shakespearelink.org.uk/home-willow-globe for more details), and we’ve already been invited back for a third trip next year, date TBC. In July I was back in the bosom of my Slung Low family, opening the magnificent Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot, near Liverpool – the community’s first purpose-built theatre in over 400 years. An honour to be part of it; there’s a sort-of-review here https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/all-the-joy-that-you-can-wish-shakespeare-north-playhouse-prescot-slung-low-review – but it was...
Read MoreBeauty and the Future
Well, I managed a full Christmas run of Beauty & The Beast at the lovely Rose Theatre in Kingston (with the obligatory Omicron hiatus, of course), so eight shows or more a week is still possible in this mad climate! A wonderful cast, including two groups of 23 amazing young people who made all the effort worthwhile and fabulous songs from Eamonn O’Dwyer. Since then, translation work and teaching improvisation has been the bread and butter; but a reading of Coriolanus in Stratford for the wonderful ‘Shakespeare’s Coming Home’ project has kicked off the spring, and gigs for The School of Night and with Austentatious! (a first for me) are lined up in the coming months, as well as an in-house VR film for Sky. With a...
Read MoreSweet Willow in the valley
A ray of light this last weekend, in a dark world. Fresh from the stimulation and excitement of The Holbeck Moor Conference for Slung Low, an outdoor programme of talks and meetings for all kinds of artists and theatremakers, I made my way across to Wales to the environs of Llandrindod and the amazing Willow Globe. Built (for which read planted) in 2006, it is a living Elizabethan space of modest proportion but great beauty. There, with my friends The Nameshifter, The Troubadour and The Word Serpent (Joseph Chance, Dylan Emery and Sean McCann) we performed two excellent School of Night shows, my first live improvisation in 2 years and first live performance of any kind in 18 months. We were welcomed, accommodated, listened to, and we entertained 70 or so keen,...
Read More
Recent Comments